Collanos Blog

Boston — June 20, 2007 – Collanos Software was selected to participate in Enterprise 2.0’s Launch Pad. Collanos’ mission is connecting people and enabling professional teamwork on a global basis and beyond enterprise boundaries.

Launch Pad features companies that are demonstrating the release of a new product or service. Collanos is one out of four companies selected to present on the main stage during Enterprise 2.0.

Collanos Workplace provides an easy to use, p2p platform for team members to collaborate on projects using Windows, Mac, and Linux Systems, without the need of a server. At the Enterprise 2.0 Launch Pad, Collanos will preview its new integrated communications services allowing team members to collaborate via voice and video in addition to conversation threads, instant messaging, and notes.

Collanos Workplace offers small business teams, students, non-profit organizations, and other knowledge-sharing professionals, an easy-to-use set of comprehensive collaboration tools. Collanos’ global collaborative network allows internet users to easily form teams and effectively collaborate together on a shared passion, goal, or project.

Enterprise 2.0 unites IT and business professionals striving for a more creative, alert, and productive company atmosphere. This conference drives the exploration and adoption of collaborative tools and technologies, focusing not only on the technology, but how the technology works with people.

SAN FRANCISCO — May 24, 2007 — Collanos Software today released Collanos Workplace 1.1, a free p2p platform that enables team collaboration on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems without the need for a server. Version 1.1 lays the foundation for global team collaboration. In addition, several new features have been added, including a Central User Directory, User Sign In/Out, and Vista OS support. Collanos delivers increased reliability, speed, and overall performance.

Collanos Workplace offers small business teams, students, non-profit organizations, and other knowledge-sharing professionals, an easy-to-use set of comprehensive collaboration tools. Collanos’ global collaborative network allows internet users to easily form teams and effectively collaborate together on a shared passion, goal, or project.

With the introduction of the Collanos Central User Directory, users will be able to see and invite any other Collanos community member, even if they are offline. Collanos Workplace allows users to restore any previous version of team member contributions. The Auto start kicks off the replication process immediately after the computer goes online. With the new Sign In/Out step, on top of the existing data encryption and secure storage, Collanos adds an additional security measure to protect project and team data.

Existing Workplace users will see an immediate improvement with the overall performance of the application, and in the speed of content replication across each team member’s workspaces.

With this new release, Collanos Software continues to execute on its vision of bringing free, easy-to-use, yet powerful team collaboration solutions to millions of internet users. Collanos’ mission is connecting collaborating people and enabling professional teamwork on a global basis and beyond enterprise boundaries.

“Over the last few months Collanos has been collecting input from the thousands of Windows, Mac and Linux users to better manage their team projects,” said Franco Dal Molin, CTO and President of Collanos. “Quarter over quarter Collanos triples its users. From the new release we expect important acceleration for this growth.

Following very active engagements and a dramatic increase in Collanos’ user-base in Europe over the last few months, Collanos and Musala Soft, our Bulgarian software development partner, were awarded “Innovation Award ITK 2007 Office Organization ” by Initiative Mittelstand, a German initiative to develop small and medium size businesses.

The award was given following Germany’s reknown CeBIT conference. Other category winners to receive similar awards include Open-Xchange, Collax, www.salesforce.com and Joomla!.

Jenni Kommunikation commits to climate project by donating a percentage of their travel costs to myclimate.org’s climate protection projects. In addition Jenni Kommunikation is leveraging collaboration tools to cut down on travel costs and increase productivity.

Zurich, April 2, 2007. As of April 1, 2007, Zurich based PR agency Jenni Kommunikation started investing in myclimate’s climate protection project. Each time an employee of Jenni Kommunikation travels on business purposes by car or airplane, Jenni Kommunikation donates a sum of the travel costs to myclimate.org. In addition to the donation, Jenni Kommunikation is also using collaboration tools like Collanos Workplace or Netviewer to reduce travel frequency, while still holding productive meetings.

Since its launch on April 1, 1996, Jenni Kommunikation has consulted companies in various industries: IT and telecommunications, travel and tourism, and start-ups. In order to provide a high degree of customer support, and agility in reacting to market influences, Jenni Kommunikation has to constantly be in contact with their clients.

“Thanks to the adoption of collaboration solutions like Collanos Workplace and Netviewer, we can work in real-time with our clients without needing to travel to work with them. We can be just as efficient virtually using Collanos Workplace to share documents and Netviewer to work on documents in real-time. We have also been able to cut down on car and airplane travel, which helps reduce CO2 emissions,” said Urs Jenni, owner of the agency. In addition we actively contribute to conserve an intact environment by compensating for our remaining car or airplane business travel by buying certificates from myclimate. I am of the firm opinion that companies in our communication’s industry have the responsibility not only to communicate about role models but to live them actively.”

René Estermann, CEO of myclimate, is pleased by this decision of Jenni Kommunikation: “It is key for our cause that small enterprises also set an example and demonstrate their sense of responsibility.”

Myclimate, the Zurich based non-profit foundation, is one of the leading providers of voluntary compensation measures. The compensation of the emissions is achieved through projects protecting the climate in less developed countries. Emissions are reduced by replacing fossil energy sources with renewable energies and are implemented with more energy efficient technologies. In addition to the reduction of greenhouse gas, myclimate’s climate protection projects achieve a demonstrable positive lasting contribution to development.

More information:

Jenni Kommunikation
Urs Jenni
Sudstrasse 85/PF
CH - 8034 Zurich
http://www.jeko.com

myclimate
Kathrin Dellantonio
Technoparkstrasse 1
CH - 8005 Zurich
http://www.myclimate.org

About Jenni Kommunikation

Zurich based Jenni Kommunikation founded in 1996 by Urs Jenni is specialized on Media and Blogger Relations in consumer and corporate PR. Well known companies in technology, telecommunications and consumer Electronics trust in the expertise and the business network of the agency. Main pillars in addition are Swiss start-ups. Jenni Kommunikation covers all Swiss language areas and can build on a broad international network of partner agencies.

SAN JOSE, CALIF. – Feb. 20, 2007 – FutureWorks PR, an award-winning New Media PR agency, announced that it has joined Collanos Software’s global network of marketing and public relations teams. FutureWorks will collaborate with Collanos’ lead agency, Jenni Kommunikation, www.jeko.com and will head their media, analyst, and blogger relations in North America.

In the past, premium collaboration services have been primarily targeted at enterprise organizations. Collanos becomes the first company to offer free collaboration solutions to all internet users, anywhere in the world. Teams who were unable to deploy expensive collaborative services can now instantly embrace Collanos Workplace without any dependence on servers, IT personnel, or license fees. Collanos users can select their choice of operating system, take their data offline, and securely work together on team projects.

“FutureWorks has earned an impressive reputation for navigating the convergence between traditional, social, and new media landscapes. We look forward to working with them to reach the teams that can greatly benefit from the use of Collanos Workplace,” said Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos.

“Collanos is providing teams with free Collaboration tools that will help them become more productive on their own without requiring an investment in enterprise-class software and administrative support,” said Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks. “Collanos will truly benefit many, and we will do what it takes to help them share the benefits with the masses,”

About Collanos Software
By leveraging open-source technologies, open standards, the familiarity of existing tools, and a global development model, Collanos delivers a friendly, all inclusive team-based solution that combines the benefits of classic client/server, web, and peer-to-peer architectures. Collanos was founded in November 2003 and has offices in San Francisco and Zurich, Switzerland.

Collanos Workplace can be downloaded for free from www.collanos.com.
More information: www.collanos.com, blog.collanos.com.

About FutureWorks, Inc.
With offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, FutureWorks, www.future-works.com, partners with market leaders and emerging companies to increase visibility, spark conversations and customer-pull, cultivate markets and create new opportunities that are necessary to expand business.

The agency’s specialty lies in its ability to understand technology and in turn, present market-specific, real-world solutions for specific markets and people. FutureWorks combines PR, social tools, and grassroots marketing for intelligent, results-driven communications programs that impact the bottom line.

Contact:
Lisa Christopher
Lisa [at] future-works.com
408-428-0895 Ext. 106

Collanos Workplace releases version 1.0.2 of its innovative P2P software for virtual teams

Zurich, February 8, 2007 – Collanos Software now offers its free cross-company, cross-platform collaboration solution in German.

Collanos Workplace allows teams to work together over the internet more efficiently, flexibly, and securely. They can access shared information such as contacts, discussions, documents, team calendars, tasks, and projects. Now, users can switch between English and German as Collanos takes the first step into localizing its global software.

“Tens of thousands of users have already installed Collanos Workplace on their computers, and every month we see a 130% growth rate,” said Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos.

With offices in Switzerland and USA, Collanos expects to further accelerate this rapid growth with the German version.

“Over 25% of our users originate from Switzerland, Germany and Austria,” says Helfenstein. “With the German version, we will become even stronger in the Germanic region.”

Typical Collanos users are MBA students, small to mid-size businesses, non-profit organizations, and mobile work groups in large consulting companies seeking cross-organizational collaboration solutions. Users all commonly share the need for a flexible collaboration platform that spans several locations in order to optimize the workflow with colleagues, customers, providers, partners, and remote employees.

These users require that all team members have access to the latest version of documents and that all project-related discussions, emails, and other content are easily accessible in a shared environment. Since Collanos supports all major operating systems, users can always invite additional members to their workspaces.

“As a small company with globally dispersed employees and countless partners, we suffered from overflowing email inboxes and endless attachments,” recalls Alex Fries, CEO of PURE SWISS Inc. in San Francisco. “Thanks to Collanos, we are now able to work as a ‘virtual team’ in a secure, structured environment, and in the context of our teams. Without Collanos, we would have had to invest in an expensive and complex collaboration system limiting us to a closed network.”

Reto Hartinger, a Swiss Internet expert and organizer of IT conferences, believes the free software has great promise, “Although Collanos is not yet as powerful as some of its older siblings, Lotus Notes, Sharepoint, and Groove, it will rapidly gain market share especially with innovative companies and collaboration within teams with high member turnover.” Hartinger also sees huge potential with lawyers, software developers, advertising and marketing agencies, and universities.

Peter Helfenstein added, “The German version was translated entirely by volunteers in our user community. This will happen with upcoming languages as well. Collanos will work with the community to maintain these versions.”

The software is available for free and can be downloaded at www.collanos.com.

Collanos Workplace 1.0 GA (i.e. General Availability) is ready for download. Here’s our press release…

Zurich, San Francisco, December 14, 2006 — Today Collanos Software announced the release of Collanos Workplace 1.0 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Its p2p collaboration client software addresses the collaboration and teamwork needs of small teams. Users can create workspaces, share documents, start discussions, and assign tasks to team members.

“Workplace 1.0 is our basic software offering which we will always provide to internet users for free. Collanos Software becomes the first vendor to provide a free p2p cross-platform collaboration solution that goes beyond free email and instant messaging solutions. Home users and companies can now invest their money in activities that further increase the value of their teamwork,”

commented Franco Dal Molin, President and CTO.

Collanos unveiled plans to up-sell premium services in later versions: new software features that will accelerate, secure, and enhance a customer’s collaboration experience. Ultimately, Collanos Software aims to become a global-networking hub that will assist Collanos Software’s users to connect with others and to start and manage new projects.

Collanos is able to provide this free benefit to millions of potential users because it is built on a reliable open source p2p infrastructure. Juan Carlos Soto, Sun Microsystems vice president, Software, said:

“We are thrilled to see Collanos’ product applying JXTA p2p technology to automate and synchronize team collaboration. Teams can now securely share files and other resources in a trusted, cooperative, and highly available p2p network. Using Java and JXTA technologies, Collanos has created a platform independent, and a secure p2p collaboration software that strengthens teams and the ideas they create.”

During the six-months Beta program, downloads of Collanos Workplace p2p teamwork software surged steadily, thus generating great anticipation among users and industry observers.

Collanos Workplace 1.0 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux is now available to download at Collanos.

Collanos Software releases its free solution making Internet-based teamwork available for everybody. Leading MBA programs are among the first to adopt.

San Francisco – June 19, 2006 – Collanos Software, provider of software solutions and services that enable teamwork beyond organizational boundaries, released today “Collanos Workplace 1.0 Beta”, the first commercial and publicly available version of its free flagship application. The software is available to download at http://www.collanos.com.

Geared for wide-scale adoption by Internet users worldwide, Collanos Workplace has been designed to meet the requirements of modern mobile and dispersed knowledge workers. While existing collaboration solutions rely upon web-based platforms, Collanos’ Peer-to-Peer solution addresses the growing need of users for an online and offline solution that transparently synchronizes information between all team members.

Collanos is initially being adopted by MBA programs as their teamwork environment. The company is involved in pilot programs with leading MBA universities across the United States and Europe. Consulting, research and marketing teams are following track, using Collanos to manage their unique teamwork settings.

“MBA students typically spend more than 70% of their time working on multiple team projects”, said Peter Helfenstein, CEO of Collanos Software. “Not wasting time anymore on congested email inboxes or complex server-based solutions means simply more time for the team to concentrate on quality deliverables.”

To the question: “Is Collanos a Web 2.0 company?” Franco Dal Molin, Collanos’ Founder and President said, “Yes and no. While it has all the key Web 2.0 attributes, we are not just another web-based collaboration solution. The hybrid P2P platform, a matchless solution available for Windows, Mac and Linux, offers our users the best of both worlds. That’s Peer-to-Peer 2.0.”

Collanos’ goals are to sign-up 100,000 active users worldwide within the next twelve months and harness the internet to create a solution that truly reflects how 21st century teams work.

San Francisco – March 23, 2006 – Collanos Software, a provider of software solutions that enable teamwork beyond enterprise boundaries, has appointed Peter Helfenstein as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will be responsible for Collanos worldwide activities.

Mr. Helfenstein joins Collanos with more than 20 years of experience working for international software and consulting companies in Europe, including, most recently, as Country Manager of Novell and Cambridge Technology Partners, Switzerland. Previously he served as General Manager Southern Europe for Kintana, Regional VP and Country Manager for Sterling Software and Knowledgeware in Germany, France and Switzerland and various management roles at IBM Switzerland. He has extensive experience in launching international start-up companies as well as managing global and well-established organizations.

“Peter’s first-class sales and people-management skills, combined with a successful track record in building international partner networks, perfectly complement our management team. He will be instrumental as we launch Collanos in the marketplace and release our first production application in May 2006.” said President and Founder Franco Dal Molin.

“I am excited to join Collanos at this critical phase”, said Peter Helfenstein. “It is time for professionals to finally give up email as the primary tool for team collaboration beyond the enterprise. We believe that our innovative solution will be adopted rapidly and enable teams all over the globe to work together much more efficiently and in an entirely new way. That’s what I am here to focus on.”