Jive Software set to add VoIP to its collaboration server

IM users can initiate voice calls with the click of a mouse

By Heather Havenstein

March 7, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Comments

Jive Software Inc. on Monday plans to announce the next generation of its collaboration server that will let corporate users initiate voice calls from its instant messaging tool.

The new OpenFire 3.2 server will let voice calls be initiated from a user's computer by clicking on a contact name and then selecting the call option, the company said. The calls are connected over voice-over-IP technology, and users can communicate using VoIP headsets, phones or similar devices plugged into USB ports, said David Hersh, Jive's CEO.

The new version of the server can also work with phone systems that use Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), he added. OpenFire 3.2 uses the Jingle protocol created by Google Inc. that allows for peer-to-peer signaling for multimedia communications like video and voice, Hersh said.

"This [OpenFire 3.2] becomes the open-source Skype for the enterprise," Hersh said. "Security, the ability to handle certificates … it is all managed at the server level because this has been built for the enterprise."

Jive has worked to position IM as its beachhead for enterprise clients and is building off that with additional real-time collaboration features like voice, said Hersh. The new version of the server, which uses one client for IM and voice, also adds single sign-on and the ability to handle 30,000 user connections, according to Jive

In an unrelated announcement, Jive last month launched Clearspace, a unified collaboration workspace to support the use of wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, tagging and other Web 2.0 forms of collaboration.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

IM

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

Do You Know the 7 Steps to Successful Data Migration?

Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.

WHITE PAPER

Total Cost of Ownership of Server Computing Vs. PCs

Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.

WHITE PAPER

IDC White Paper: Linux in a Global Recession

Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.