Concursive Corporation - Products

How to disable users or remove them completely

Matt R. — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:15:00 GMT

For any number of reasons, a user may need to be disabled or removed from the system. There are several options here.

Administrators can set an expiration date for a user's account. This is important if the user has been granted temporary access to the system. Perhaps a consultant, vendor, or temporary employee. This is done in the Admin module on a per-user basis. The administrator can also disable a user when they no longer need access. This method maintains all of the user-generated content.

Sometimes users create accounts, they have passed the verification steps, and then they want to be removed from the site, or in the case of unwanted sign-ups, the user needs to be removed for business reasons. Business reasons can be as simple as spam accounts, those user accounts setup to link to other sites or generate content for the purpose of promoting products and services. In those cases, the user account was not setup for the purpose of collaborating and enjoying the s

Multiple options for handling user registrations

Matt R. — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

ConcourseConnect has several features when it comes to user registrations.

On an open system, users are free to register and become users. There are two default safeguards: the first is that the user must correctly fill out a captcha, and the second is that the user must validate the account by following a confirmation link sent by email.

An additional option is for the administrators to approve all sign-ups. With this option enabled, the user signs-up as normal, and then the administrators receive the confirmation link in which they can approve or deny. This feature has proven useful for semi-open communities in which there public content and you want specific users to register.

Linking your site to Facebook's Login is another option. When you configure both the ConcourseConnect system and the Facebook API with your site's information, users are presented with an option to "Login with Facebook." This option allows users instant access to your site,

Documentation for ConcourseConnect

Matt R. — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:20:00 GMT

As part of Concursive's initiative to provide a simple, cost-effective solution for social business software available at ConcourseCloud.com, we took some time to create some really useful documentation too (thanks Gareth!).

Here are the direct links:

ConcourseCloud CRM: The easiest way to get started with ConcourseSuite

Matt R. — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:30:00 GMT

Today we're announcing that ConcourseSuite is available as a cloud service. What makes this unique, is that you can now get started with a CRM for only $99/month, no matter how many users you have. Organizations use CRM in many different ways, so Concursive has created a new deployment option that is based on actual usage – the more bandwidth and storage you require, the more resources you pay for.

To put this in perspective, a traditional Enterprise-Class CRM license is based on many factors including number of users, access to source, integration, customization options, support, maintenance and more.

Organizations that choose ConcourseSuite in the Cloud receive:

A complete customer relationship management site: containing Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Marketing and Help Desk, plus API access

ConcourseSuite 6.1 Now Available

Matt R. — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:45:00 GMT

ConcourseSuite reaches version 6.1. CRM users will notice improvements to the Leads and Marketing modules, while a number of improvements correct issues that have been reported since the previous release. The development team has squeezed in updates to a number of libraries which extends support to newer versions of PostgreSQL and Asterisk. Please take the normal precautions for upgrading (like backing up the previous version, database and storage files).

The changelog follows...

Ideas, the module, just got better!

Matt R. — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:00:00 GMT

When I think of social business software, I think of all the ways that collaborating can improve a business and give it a leg over the competition. Perhaps the simplest is the age-old suggestion box, brought into the next generation.

Ideas in ConcourseConnect is a glorified suggestion box, with a twist. When a suggestion is made, other employees have the opportunity to express an opinion. It's the cumulative rating and review process that helps an idea get fleshed out and adopted. The community effect can quickly squash a mediocre suggestion, but also draw attention to the most important ones.

To improve the Ideas module, we learned from our recent development of Challenges. Read on for a screen shot and a link to see Ideas in action.

Introducing Challenges - the delightful way to engage your community

Matt R. — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Challenges is a new module from Concursive that helps drive users to your community in an interesting and unique way. The premise is that users suggest various challenges, with the most popular suggestions being activated. The Challenge of the Day may take several days to accomplish, and users indicate when they've met the goals of the challenge.

Some example challenges might be:

Walk 3 miles today
Take a picture with your boss
Meet a sales objective

You can try out Challenges here:

http://social.preview.concursive.com/challenges.shtml

New Features: Project Assignments and Tasks

Matt R. — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:30:00 GMT

In this week's update to ConcourseConnect (available for ConcourseCloud.com and Enterprise customers), we have rolled out a personalized Assignments page and have made the Task module a standard configuration for newly created Projects.

Read on for screenshots and more information.

What is ConcourseSuite 6.1?

Matt R. — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:40:00 GMT

ConcourseSuite 6.1 is all about product consistency and stability. The 6.1 release is in active development and might include a few unannounced features that we are working on.

ConcourseSuite is available in early access form to customers and partners, and once 6.1 is released the binary will be available for download. We continue to work on making the source available but we don't yet know when that will be.

If you are interested in the latest commercial version of ConcourseSuite, please contact us so we can get in touch with you. Customers can choose to use ConcourseSuite On-Demand, ConcourseSuite Hosted or ConcourseSuite Enterprise.

ConcourseSuite also works well with ConcourseConnect. ConcourseConnect allows you to create groups or departments of users, then enable them with Social CRM tools for true multi-tenancy.

What is ConcourseConnect 3.0?

Matt R. — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:25:00 GMT

ConcourseConnect 3.0 is taking shape and includes features like Importing Users, a Photo Gallery, Streamlined Invitations, 3rd party client API for mobile clients, UI improvements and a video module for the final release. Concursive has done some integrations that users can try in the early access version, like OpenMeetings support.

ConcourseConnect 3.0 is in active development. Concursive customers receive early access to ConcourseConnect 3.0. Once the release has been finalized, the binary and source will be available for download. The commercial versions of our products include the ConcourseConnect Management plug-in which allows ConcourseConnect user data to be visualized in ConcourseSuite and for ConcourseSuite to be able to market to ConcourseConnect users. Another option we have is a tools plug-in for enabling groups in ConcourseConnect to have their own CRM tools.

If you are interested in the latest commercial versions of ConcourseConnect and ConcourseSuite,

ConcourseConnect 2.0 Is Here!

Matt R. — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Today is an important milestone for ConcourseConnect. ConcourseConnect 2.0 has been in development for over a year and has had early-access releases to customers, partners, and enthusiasts – now that code is available to everyone! ConcourseConnect 2.0 uses the AGPL3 Open Source license.

ConcourseConnect 2.0 has over 40 major improvements, and hundreds of smaller improvements.

(Direct Download Link – 36.3 MB)

Concursive is also announcing that an early release of ConcourseConnect 3.0 is now available to customers – contact us to get the latest version.

ConcourseConnect 2.0 Latest Release	ConcourseConnect 3.0 Early Access
Activity Streams Email Updat An Enterprise 2.0 Comparison, Part 2 Matt R. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT In a previous blog, I proclaimed my excitement for Enterprise 2.0 and introduced the story behind Concursive's approach. As I mentioned, I'll now compare ConcourseConnect to Jive SBS. Concursive's ConcourseConnect enables organizations to create dynamic communities and involve various stakeholders in a collaborative environment. ConcourseConnect is developed by the Concursive Corporation, and Concursive's products are used by large enterprises and thousands of small businesses alike. As Chief Architect of ConcourseConnect, I have intimate knowledge of how it works. I spend a lot of time researching collaboration and over the years I have played a role in designing, deploying and on-boarding various community building tools. So let me tell you about ConcourseConnect and how it compares to the competition. The first product I want to compare it to is Jive SBS Enterprise 2.0 by Concursive, Part 1 Matt R. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:45:00 GMT I just read Enterprise 2.0 by Andrew McAfee and when a smart guy tells you, "healthy and valuable online environments are likely to result when using emergent social software platforms," your organization should heed his advice because he's seen it work over and over again. In fact, he coined the term Enterprise 2.0. If there's any doubt, just read his book. There's much to digest, so let me get to the point, as Andrew McAfee says, "Enterprise 2.0 is ultimately the result of a large number of individual choices about which technologies to use for communication, collaboration, and interaction." So what Concursive did is put their heads together many years ago with some of the minds in the industry who care about collaboration and social ne Use Activity Streams to Improve Productivity and Communication: The Modern Business Matt R. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:50:00 GMT What makes Facebook and Twitter so useful? I believe it's the capability to easily jot down tidbits of information and for curious others to see, interpret and act on what was written. So, if you extend that idea to business, and you organize people by groups, divisions, departments, projects, and friendship, then a company has the means to quickly disseminate and share information, across many bounds, without the 'slowness' of email and in-person communication. Meaningful communication can be achieved in just a few words and without taking up much time, and the results are immediate and context sensitive. This streamlined form of communication, called *Activity Streams, is the latest improvement to ConcourseConnect. Activity streams allow for users to enter information into a profile, and for followers to comment on and share New Feature - Receive Email Updates Matt R. — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:10:00 GMT ConcourseConnect's latest feature: Email Updates*. Email updates allow users to opt-in to receive emails about activity that is going on in the community. For example, let's say you become a member of a project. If you are an active participant, you might want to be notified several times a day about activity that is occurring in the project. The email update is a list of who did what, including posts in the forums, blog posts, new files, announcements and more. When joining a profile, the user sees the notification options... Users can decide per profile (whether a project, group, department and more) as to whether that profile's activit The road to ConcourseConnect 2.0 Matt R. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:25:00 GMT Enterprise social computing, take notice -- there's a lot packed into this product and 2.0 delivers on being secure, flexible, inspiring and easy to get started with! ConcourseConnect is a solid platform for launching your next community. It's in use by global corporations and small businesses alike. While some products jive more on marketing then actual substance, ConcourseConnect couldn't be more different and more flexible. We've actually taken notice that our competitors are trying to catch up to our core features and we're flattered! We're not done though, as we have lots of new features in the pipeline and some catching up to do ourselves. Some history… ConcourseConnect 1.0 establishes several key components of collaboration -- every user has a space to build upon and enhance, users can jointly collaborate in shared spaces, and public spaces allow for c Why Wiki's Matter Phil K. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:40:00 GMT In the Concourse Connect social networking suite, every individual profile, whether a registered user, a company, a group or a project has a wiki tab that allows users with the proper permissions to add content. Wiki's are useful in a number of ways, but there are two use cases that stand out. Let's call them the Smooth and the Knowledge. The Smooth Wiki is used in a business to keep a process moving along. Suppose your loading dock is tracking shipments into your plant. All along the route, people are adding infprmation about the shipmemts location, size, distribution, etc. Anyone reading the wiki has an up to the minute view of the status of that specific order. Now imagine a company receiving hundreds of shipments a day and the Smooth Wiki becomes a useful tool. The Knowledge Wiki may be even more important to an organization. Every person has knowledge about their own area that would be useful to share so that others could benefit from. Giving ac ConcourseConnect 1.0.3 Released Matt R. — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:05:00 GMT This update is a maintenance release that fixes a bug with Google Maps not displaying on the profile listing pages. All sites are encouraged to update. If Google Maps is disabled, then the maps will no longer be displayed with a javascript message appearing. What's A Directory? Phil K. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:15:00 GMT A business decides to set up a social marketing presence where they can do a few things - communicate directly with customers and prospects through blogs, wikis and forums, provide a venue for customer support through company posts and customer comments, or introduce new products or services to a targeted audience. The site is membership based so users can participate and communicate, and they get a profile page themselves. Now suppose the business has suppliers who would like to reach that same audience - how would they do that? Concourse Connect has built in a middle layer of access, think of them as storefronts, called business profiles. Any supplier, vendor or interested organization can create a business profile in our application. Each profile has a full suite of Web 2.0 tools so each business can set up their own community within the main one. Here's an example of a business profile insid Virtual Meeting Phil K. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:10:00 GMT You are a company with 9 locations, many workers on the road or working from home, you read an article about a competitor rolling out a new process and you think your company can improve upon it and use it in your business. In this scenario, the emails fly, the conference calls start and everyone involved in the process has their own spreadsheets and notes. ConcourseConnect, when configured as a collaboration tool for a company Intranet, as shown here, let's you set up a dedicated Group with features that include project management, document library, discussion forums, blogging and more. When a new idea evolves for a different process, employees will set up an Idea project with the same collaborative functionality to work collectively to flesh it out. A company's intellectual resources can be spread out across the country, around the world or on the same floor of an office building. Those compan Public Communities With Privacy Phil K. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:45:00 GMT A community by definition is a "unified body of individuals". When it comes to building communities of people on the Internet, the more tools that a person has to display the public side of themselves or their company, the better. Blogs, wikis, forums, and review tools for the members of a community to use to promote themselves are as important as they are for the businesses and organizations in the community. But companies may want their employees to work togehter in groups or projects that they don't want the public to view. This would be the private side of a public community. A user starts a project, invites others to join it and they collaborate to resolve an issue or complete a customer requirement. Only those users that have been invited can see the project and participate. To everyone else, it doesn't exist. Concurse Connect has a robust project management capabitlity that allows a team to work together privately in an otherwise publ ConcourseConnect 1.0.1 Released Matt R. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:10:00 GMT This update is a maintenance release that improves a few items discovered in release 1.0. Social Business Software Getting Started Matt R. — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT It's time to take your business 'social' with ConcourseConnect, a new do-it-yourself social networking software platform. Taking your business 'social' is a paradigm shift in which users openly share knowledge -- it's a one-to-many community relationship in which users participate with familiar social networking features. To get started I suggest you take a look at what ConcourseConnect does...

ConcourseConnect 2.0
Latest Release

ConcourseConnect 3.0
Early Access

Activity Streams
Email Updat

An Enterprise 2.0 Comparison, Part 2

Matt R. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT

In a previous blog, I proclaimed my excitement for Enterprise 2.0 and introduced the story behind Concursive's approach. As I mentioned, I'll now compare ConcourseConnect to Jive SBS.

Concursive's ConcourseConnect enables organizations to create dynamic communities and involve various stakeholders in a collaborative environment. ConcourseConnect is developed by the Concursive Corporation, and Concursive's products are used by large enterprises and thousands of small businesses alike. As Chief Architect of ConcourseConnect, I have intimate knowledge of how it works. I spend a lot of time researching collaboration and over the years I have played a role in designing, deploying and on-boarding various community building tools. So let me tell you about ConcourseConnect and how it compares to the competition.

The first product I want to compare it to is Jive SBS

Enterprise 2.0 by Concursive, Part 1

Matt R. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:45:00 GMT

I just read Enterprise 2.0 by Andrew McAfee and when a smart guy tells you, "healthy and valuable online environments are likely to result when using emergent social software platforms," your organization should heed his advice because he's seen it work over and over again. In fact, he coined the term Enterprise 2.0. If there's any doubt, just read his book. There's much to digest, so let me get to the point, as Andrew McAfee says, "Enterprise 2.0 is ultimately the result of a large number of individual choices about which technologies to use for communication, collaboration, and interaction."

So what Concursive did is put their heads together many years ago with some of the minds in the industry who care about collaboration and social ne

Use Activity Streams to Improve Productivity and Communication: The Modern Business

Matt R. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:50:00 GMT

What makes Facebook and Twitter so useful? I believe it's the capability to easily jot down tidbits of information and for curious others to see, interpret and act on what was written. So, if you extend that idea to business, and you organize people by groups, divisions, departments, projects, and friendship, then a company has the means to quickly disseminate and share information, across many bounds, without the 'slowness' of email and in-person communication. Meaningful communication can be achieved in just a few words and without taking up much time, and the results are immediate and context sensitive.

This streamlined form of communication, called Activity Streams, is the latest improvement to ConcourseConnect. Activity streams allow for users to enter information into a profile, and for followers to comment on and share

New Feature - Receive Email Updates

Matt R. — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:10:00 GMT

ConcourseConnect's latest feature: Email Updates.

Email updates allow users to opt-in to receive emails about activity that is going on in the community. For example, let's say you become a member of a project. If you are an active participant, you might want to be notified several times a day about activity that is occurring in the project. The email update is a list of who did what, including posts in the forums, blog posts, new files, announcements and more. When joining a profile, the user sees the notification options...

Users can decide per profile (whether a project, group, department and more) as to whether that profile's activit

The road to ConcourseConnect 2.0

Matt R. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:25:00 GMT

Enterprise social computing, take notice -- there's a lot packed into this product and 2.0 delivers on being secure, flexible, inspiring and easy to get started with! ConcourseConnect is a solid platform for launching your next community. It's in use by global corporations and small businesses alike.

While some products jive more on marketing then actual substance, ConcourseConnect couldn't be more different and more flexible. We've actually taken notice that our competitors are trying to catch up to our core features and we're flattered! We're not done though, as we have lots of new features in the pipeline and some catching up to do ourselves.

Some history… ConcourseConnect 1.0 establishes several key components of collaboration -- every user has a space to build upon and enhance, users can jointly collaborate in shared spaces, and public spaces allow for c

Why Wiki's Matter

Phil K. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:40:00 GMT

In the Concourse Connect social networking suite, every individual profile, whether a registered user, a company, a group or a project has a wiki tab that allows users with the proper permissions to add content. Wiki's are useful in a number of ways, but there are two use cases that stand out. Let's call them the Smooth and the Knowledge.

The Smooth Wiki is used in a business to keep a process moving along. Suppose your loading dock is tracking shipments into your plant. All along the route, people are adding infprmation about the shipmemts location, size, distribution, etc. Anyone reading the wiki has an up to the minute view of the status of that specific order. Now imagine a company receiving hundreds of shipments a day and the Smooth Wiki becomes a useful tool.

The Knowledge Wiki may be even more important to an organization. Every person has knowledge about their own area that would be useful to share so that others could benefit from. Giving ac

ConcourseConnect 1.0.3 Released

Matt R. — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:05:00 GMT

This update is a maintenance release that fixes a bug with Google Maps not displaying on the profile listing pages. All sites are encouraged to update. If Google Maps is disabled, then the maps will no longer be displayed with a javascript message appearing.

What's A Directory?

Phil K. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:15:00 GMT

A business decides to set up a social marketing presence where they can do a few things - communicate directly with customers and prospects through blogs, wikis and forums, provide a venue for customer support through company posts and customer comments, or introduce new products or services to a targeted audience. The site is membership based so users can participate and communicate, and they get a profile page themselves.

Now suppose the business has suppliers who would like to reach that same audience - how would they do that? Concourse Connect has built in a middle layer of access, think of them as storefronts, called business profiles. Any supplier, vendor or interested organization can create a business profile in our application. Each profile has a full suite of Web 2.0 tools so each business can set up their own community within the main one. Here's an example of a business profile insid

Virtual Meeting

Phil K. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:10:00 GMT

You are a company with 9 locations, many workers on the road or working from home, you read an article about a competitor rolling out a new process and you think your company can improve upon it and use it in your business. In this scenario, the emails fly, the conference calls start and everyone involved in the process has their own spreadsheets and notes.

ConcourseConnect, when configured as a collaboration tool for a company Intranet, as shown here, let's you set up a dedicated Group with features that include project management, document library, discussion forums, blogging and more. When a new idea evolves for a different process, employees will set up an Idea project with the same collaborative functionality to work collectively to flesh it out.

A company's intellectual resources can be spread out across the country, around the world or on the same floor of an office building. Those compan

Public Communities With Privacy

Phil K. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:45:00 GMT

A community by definition is a "unified body of individuals". When it comes to building communities of people on the Internet, the more tools that a person has to display the public side of themselves or their company, the better. Blogs, wikis, forums, and review tools for the members of a community to use to promote themselves are as important as they are for the businesses and organizations in the community.

But companies may want their employees to work togehter in groups or projects that they don't want the public to view. This would be the private side of a public community. A user starts a project, invites others to join it and they collaborate to resolve an issue or complete a customer requirement. Only those users that have been invited can see the project and participate. To everyone else, it doesn't exist.

Concurse Connect has a robust project management capabitlity that allows a team to work together privately in an otherwise publ

ConcourseConnect 1.0.1 Released

Matt R. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:10:00 GMT

This update is a maintenance release that improves a few items discovered in release 1.0.

Social Business Software Getting Started

Matt R. — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:00:00 GMT

It's time to take your business 'social' with ConcourseConnect, a new do-it-yourself social networking software platform. Taking your business 'social' is a paradigm shift in which users openly share knowledge -- it's a one-to-many community relationship in which users participate with familiar social networking features.

To get started I suggest you take a look at what ConcourseConnect does...

Concursive Corporation - Products

How to disable users or remove them completely

Multiple options for handling user registrations

Documentation for ConcourseConnect

ConcourseCloud CRM: The easiest way to get started with ConcourseSuite

ConcourseSuite 6.1 Now Available

Ideas, the module, just got better!

Introducing Challenges - the delightful way to engage your community

New Features: Project Assignments and Tasks

What is ConcourseSuite 6.1?

What is ConcourseConnect 3.0?

ConcourseConnect 2.0 Is Here!

An Enterprise 2.0 Comparison, Part 2

Enterprise 2.0 by Concursive, Part 1

Use Activity Streams to Improve Productivity and Communication: The Modern Business

New Feature - Receive Email Updates

The road to ConcourseConnect 2.0

Why Wiki's Matter

ConcourseConnect 1.0.3 Released

What's A Directory?

Virtual Meeting

Public Communities With Privacy

ConcourseConnect 1.0.1 Released

Social Business Software Getting Started