Collanos Blog

Collanos Software received a Red Herring 100 Europe 2008 Award in Malta. The award places the Swiss start-up among the 100 most innovative private technology companies in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Collanos was one of nine Swiss companies to bag one of the highly coveted awards.
Every year, writers from the globally active media company Red Herring pick their most exciting new technology companies, 100 of which are given a prestigious Red Herring 100 Europe Award.

Swiss start-ups are gaining ever greater recognition from Red Herring every year. In 2008, Switzerland produced nine of the 100 top companies netting an award. A year ago, seven Swiss companies won an award, and in 2006 the total was six. In addition to Collanos, the following Swiss companies won a Red Herring 100 Europe 2008 Award: Language Direct, LiberoVision, Museeka, ReVolt Technology, SECU4, sonic emotion, Starhome and Symfact. Compared with the number of German winners, this year and last year there were 12 winners, compared with six in 2006.

Collanos Software ist in Malta mit dem Red Herring 100 Europa 2008 Award ausgezeichnet worden. Wir gehören damit zu den innovativsten 100 privaten Technologie-Firmen in der EMEA-Region (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Neben uns holten sich acht weitere Schweizer Unternehmen die begehrte Auszeichnung.
Autoren des weltweit tätigen Medien-Unternehmens Red Herring qualifizieren jährlich die spannendsten neuen Technologie-Firmen, 100 davon werden mit dem prestigeträchtigen Red Herring 100 Europe Award ausgezeichnet.

Schweizer Start-ups werden von Red Herring von Jahr zu Jahr besser bewertet: 2008 wurden insgesamt 9 Unternehmen aus den 200 Besten als Sieger gekürt. Vor einem Jahr gewannen sieben Unternehmen aus der Schweiz den Award, 2006 waren es deren sechs. Neben Collanos haben die folgenden Schweizer Unternehmen den Red Herring 100 Europa 2008 gewonnen: Language Direct, LiberoVision, Museeka, ReVolt Technology, SECU4, sonic emotion, Starhome und Symfact.

Collanos Software has qualified for final selection in the 2008 Red Herring 100 Europe! This award is presented each year to the 100 best private technology firms in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa).

“This year’s impressive list of submissions from companies demonstrates Europe’s growing role as a major centre of innovation in the global technology sector,” said Red Herring Editor-in-Chief Joel Dreyfuss. “The exceptional accomplishments of European technology start-ups and entrepreneurs are a testament to the rapid advancements being made in building the European innovation ecosystem.”

Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos Software, is pleased. “The number of Swiss companies selected as finalists for the Red Herring European 100, among them Collanos, shows that thanks to Swiss quality engineering, the willingness for collaboration across borders and the excellent institutional support for internationalization, Swiss start-ups are in a great position to prosper in the global market.”

Red Herring’s editorial staff rigorously evaluated several hundred private companies through a careful analysis of financial data and subjective criteria, including quality of management, execution of strategy, and dedication to research and development.

In 2007, Collanos was selected as a candidate for the Emerging Tech Award by Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Also in 2007 Collanos at CeBIT was awarded with the Innovation Prize ITK for Collanos Workplace and in 2008 for the new Collanos Phone.

Today, the new version of Collanos Workplace, 1.3, will be made available. The foundation of Collanos Workplace has been thoroughly optimized and the teamwork functions have been largely extended. Collanos now includes a Team Instant Messenger environment. In addition, Collanos Workplace 1.3 sets standards as to a comprehensive user task management. Team members can work with their own Windows, Mac or Linux systems, and the results will be available to the other team members on the internet –as simply and fast as using a server-based solution.

Collanos has boosted the technology behind its p2p (peer to peer) platform. Any online team member can ensure that all other team members, even if online only for a short period, have access to the most up-to-date workspace content.

The most noticeable improvement from a user´s perspective is the new task management function which is now accessible from all across Workplace. In an overview window, the user can view, track and maintain all the tasks across all his workspaces. In addition, a new Collanos Instant Messenger has been integrated into the teamwork environment. It allows team members to conduct dialogs, discuss issues and work out creative solutions by using the chatting function.

The extensions of version 1.3 will allow Collanos to develop and offer new features in the upcoming months. “The extensions of the peer-to-peer technology allow Collanos partners and service providers to offer value-added services”, explains Franco Dal Molin, president and CTO of Collanos Software. “These offerings include persistent, secure and reliable data storage, permanent team synchronization and the possibility to access workspace content from the browser. Messaging is planned to be augmented with team messaging and voice/video functionality. As in task management, other relevant team work tasks will be supported Workplace-wide, for example, in the form of team calendars and other tools for planning and change management.”

Workplace 1.3 is seen as the turning point for Collanos to establish itself clearly as the leading cross-company teamwork environment on the internet. Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos Software, is convinced: “The solid foundation to support ad-hoc teamwork has been established. Teamwork has always been of great importance. In our globally networked world, effective teamwork has become the crucial factor of success. With Collanos Workplace 1.3, the required platform and tools are now available to everybody.”

Collanos macht heute die neue Version seines Collanos Workplace 1.3 verfügbar. Das Fundament von Collanos Workplace wurde massiv verbessert und die eigentlichen Teamworkfunktionen wurden wesentlich erweitert. Collanos ist nun auch eine Team-Instant-Messenger-Umgebung. Zudem setzt Collanos Workplace 1.3 neue Standards für umfassendes Task-Management der Benutzer. Teamworker können mit ihrem eigenen Windows-, Mac- oder Linux-Rechner arbeiten, die Ergebnisse stehen den anderen Teammitgliedern im Internet trotzdem genauso einfach und schnell zur Verfügung wie beim Einsatz einer Server-basierten Lösung.

Collanos hat die Technologie seiner p2p (Peer-to-Peer)-Plattform mit der neuen Version weiter ausgebaut und verfeinert. Bereits ein einzelnes online Teammitglied stellt sicher, dass alle anderen Teammitglieder, wenn auch nur kurzzeitig online, die Ergebnisse der Arbeiten der Teammitglieder auf dem allerneuesten Stand zur Verfügung haben.

Den wohl grössten funktionalen Schritt für den Benutzer bietet Collanos mit dem neu eingeführten Workplace-übergreifenden Task-Management. Der Benutzer kann alle definierten Tasks über seine sämtlichen Teams hinweg in einer Übersicht einsehen, tracken, pflegen und ergänzen. In die Teamwork-Umgebung wurde zudem ein neuer Collanos Instant Messenger integriert. Teammitglieder können so in gewohnter Weise mittels Chatting Dialoge führen, Probleme diskutieren und kreativ Lösungen erarbeiten.

Mit den Erweiterungen der Version 1.3 legt Collanos die Basis, um seinen Benutzern in den nächsten Monaten weitere neue Funktionen zur Verfügung zu stellen. „Die Erweiterungen der Peer-to-Peer-Technologie erlauben, dass in Zukunft Collanos-Partner oder Service Provider Mehrwertdienste anbieten“, erläutert Franco Dal Molin, President und CTO von Collanos Software. „Diese Angebote reichen von der permanenten, sicheren und zuverlässigen Datenhaltung, hundert Prozent verfügbarer Teamsynchronisation bis hin zum Zugriff auf die Ergebnisse der Teamarbeit nur über Browser. Messaging soll bald um Team-Messaging und Voice-/Videofunktionen ergänzt werden. Analog dem Task Management werden weitere relevante Teamworkaufgaben in Zukunft Workplace-übergreifend unterstützt, so beispielsweise in Form von Teamkalendern sowie weiteren Planungs- und Change Management-Werkzeugen.“

Der neue Release 1.3. ist für Collanos Ausgangspunkt, um sich definitiv als die führende firmenübergreifende Teamwork-Umgebung am Internet zu etablieren. „Das solide Fundament, um das ad-hoc Teamwork professionell zu unterstützen, ist nun gelegt“, ist Peter Helfenstein, CEO von Collanos Software, überzeugt. „Teamwork war schon immer wichtig. In der global vernetzten Welt ist gutes Teamwork der Erfolgsfaktor schlechthin. Die dafür benötigte Plattform und die Werkzeuge stehen mit Collanos Workplace 1.3 ab sofort jedem zur Verfügung.“

The third largest Swiss Bank, Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), comes on board as an additional institutional investor in Collanos Software, a Swiss-American start-up.

Experienced management, promising products, an innovative business model, and a compelling market with a demonstrable growing global user community were the key criteria for the decision. ZKB joins existing notable private and institutional investors American Ecosystem Ventures, and serial Swiss entrepreneurs Andreas Danuser (Swiss VoIP Pioneer) and Reto Hartinger.

The ZKB investment allows Collanos to continue the development of free teamwork and phone solutions and get ready for the launch of the much anticipated Premium services developed along with partner Translumina Networks. ZKB intends to take on a role as an active investor, as Oliver Schärli, Head of ZKB Start-up Finance, was quoted: “Collanos will for sure profit as well from our great networking with other institutional investors“ .

“We are excited that the thorough financial, technical and economical due diligence, conducted by Switzerland’s third largest bank’s Start-up Finance specialists, resulted in this outcome,” said Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos Software. “Since we have been a certified CTI start-up company for a while now, ZKB’s decision further substantiates the quality and outlook of our venture. We are well prepared and confident that we will close our Series A financing round very soon”.

Mit der Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) holt sich das schweizerisch-amerikanische Software Startup Collanos einen weiteren institutionellen Investor an Bord.

Die professionelle Unternehmensführung, ein vielversprechendes Produkt, ein innovatives Businessmodell und ein interessanter Markt mit einer bereits sehenswerten globalen Benutzergemeinde gaben den Ausschlag für den Investitionsentscheid. Die ZKB reiht sich so zu namhaften privaten wie institutionellen Investoren. Bereits in Collanos investiert sind die amerikanische Ecosystem Ventures, der schweizerische Voice over IP-Pionier und Unternehmer Dr. Andreas Danuser oder der Internet-Experte Reto Hartinger.

Die Investition der ZKB erlaubt es Collanos, die Entwicklung der frei verfügbaren Teamwork- und Telefonielösungen fortzuführen und zusätzlich die kostenpflichtigen Collanos Premium Services mit dem Partner Translumina Networks auf den Markt zu bringen. ZKB Start-up Finance versteht sich nicht nur als Investor. „Collanos wird bestimmt auch von unserer guten Vernetzung mit anderen institutionellen Investoren profitieren können“, sagt Oliver Schärli, Head Start-up Finance der ZKB.

„Wir sind sehr stolz darauf, dass die sehr exakte, umfassende finanzielle und fachliche Prüfung durch den Start-up-Bereich der drittgrössten Schweizer Bank zu diesem positiven Resultat geführt hat“, erklärt Peter Helfenstein, CEO von Collanos Software, „Bereits seit einiger Zeit mit dem KTI-Startup Label ausgezeichnet, belegt diese Entscheidung der ZKB die Qualität und Vertrauenswürdigkeit unseres Ventures. Wir sind für die bald anstehende Series A Finanzierungsrunde gut vorbereitet und sehr zuversichtlich.“

Collanos Software wishes you a happy and prosperous New Year.

2008 will be important for Collanos and hopefully quite exciting for you, one of our thousands “pioneering users”!

Collanos Phone Beta:

We’re starting the year with the introduction of valuable new (and free) functionality!

In cooperation with our voice services partner, Translumina Networks, we just launched the first Beta version of Collanos Phone, a service with voice, video and instant messaging features. The Beta program will demonstrate the robustness of the new offering. We hope you will enjoy these great new features. Your experiences and feedback are highly regarded and valuable to us and the entire Collanos user community. Please check it out and share your opinion on our Community site.

After the Beta phase (should last a couple of weeks) we will launch Collanos Phone 1.0, including premium voice features, allowing you to be called from the public telephone network as well as to call team members’ phones.

Integrated in the Phone is a multi-protocol instant messaging capability, allowing you to use Collanos Phone as your instant messaging front end to AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ and Jabber.

Note: Collanos Phone uses the same “Collanos Name” and user profile that you have already created with Collanos Workplace.

Collanos Workplace 1.2:
As you may be aware, we recently launched a much improved version of Collanos Workplace, 1.2. After migrating the supporting infrastructure to this new version, it is now required for all users to upgrade to Collanos Workplace 1.2. Earlier versions (V1.1 and older) are no longer supported by the network infrastructure.

The next version of Collanos Workplace, 1.3, including the long awaited team synchronization functionality as well as new messaging capabilities, will follow very soon.

Both the new Collanos Phone Beta and Collanos Workplace can be downloaded from http://www.collanos.com/downloads. We look forward to reading about your experiences. You can be assured, while 2008 has just started, it will be an exciting year for Collanos users!

Collanos Software and beteo, two global Swiss start-ups, close ranks to share resources, expertise and partnerships. Collanos Software CEO Peter Helfenstein in addition takes on the COO position of beteo. Hence both Collanos and beteo can profit from the experiences and structures of both companies. Despite the intensive cooperation and the shared resources, beteo and Collanos will remain clearly distinctive companies.

Dieter Steiger, founder and CEO of beteo as well as Advisory Board Member of Collanos, claims that “Collanos Software is an exemplary Swiss global start-up. With the help of our management team and Peter Helfenstein as our new COO, we’ll position beteo similarly well on the international market. Of course, I’m thrilled at the prospect”.

The joint forces allow both companies to acquire a certain critical size faster and more easily. Marketing and alliance functions can be created in an earlier phase for both Europe and the U.S. Together, these two firms represent a far more interesting service and software partner for large American and European IT-companies such as HP, SAP, Apple or Sun Microsystems. It also makes them more attractive as a potential client for the near and offshore development partners in Ukraine and India. beteo and Collanos shoulder to shoulder can make joint and better use of their expertise in PR, web presence, product management and investments in infrastructure and back office.

“We are fully aware that reduced working hours of Peter Helfenstein may be a risk for both companies. However, we believe that the synergies and lower costs obtained, will fully justify this partnership”, says Franco Dal Molin, founder, president and CTO of Collanos. “beteo is an ambitious, fast growing and profitable company with unique expertise and potential. Being able to benefit from this is a privilege and a great opportunity for our team. Even though the targeted customer segments are different, both companies have to tackle basically the same tasks. Now, we can do so in a joint effort”.

Even with the intensive cooperation and the sharing of resources, beteo and Collanos will remain distinctly separate companies. Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos Software and new COO of beteo, asserts that “despite a very close collaboration, the two global Swiss start-ups want to act autonomously to a large extent. Both are developing independently according to their own strategy. Yet, thanks to the new partner, they will do so more efficiently and effectively. We are open to alliances with additional Swiss start-ups that share global ambitions with us”.

About beteo

beteo is a visionary Switzerland based global software and consulting start-up. Its application lifecycle management solutions and services focus on keeping Enterprise software system environments flexibly and efficiently adaptable to the changing business needs of the future.

It was founded in February 2007 as a spin-off of a leading Swiss IT Governance service company and is based in Sarnen, Switzerland, and Berlin, Germany. Among its clients are well-known companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

We are excited to announce the availability of Collanos Workplace 1.2.
This new release includes major technical improvements along with some new features:

• P2P content replication now synchronizes workspaces much faster.
• Computer resource consumption has been significantly reduced.
• Mac OS X and Windows Vista users will enjoy improved compatibility with their OS.
• Offline users are notified immediately via email when invited to a workspace.
• Import contacts from existing address books in other applications and invite them to join Collanos.
• Provide feedback and communicate issues directly (with all log files automatically attached) to Collanos technical support.
• Many minor improvements, including user interface, traffic optimizations, and more.

When running Collanos Workplace 1.2 you may be asked to change your Collanos Name. This is due to a new formatting rule that has been introduced to lay the foundation for future features, including the Collanos Phone and other voice services that will be rolled out very soon.

Important: Download the new version and install it over your old Workplace installation. Your existing workspaces will be updated automatically. Synchronization will work only between other 1.2 Workplace versions. Make sure ALL your team members upgrade as well.

You can find more detailed release notes on the Collanos Forum. We are confident you will enjoy the new power injected into Collanos Workplace and look forward to getting your feedback on the Forum or via email.

Download and install Collanos Workplace 1.2 today!