March 09, 2010 : Cloud Solution To Give Professional Services Teams a Better, More Efficient Way to Work Using Their Email Inbox
March 9, 2010?MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.?Today Appirio today announced Professional Services Connect (PS Connect), a new cloud-based offering that enables service professionals using Appirio's PS Enterprise product to run their business directly from their email inbox. PS Connect automatically surfaces contextually relevant information about people, projects, customers and transactions from PS Enterprise into related Gmail™ messages, so individuals can make more informed, real-time decisions and take action on those decisions without leaving their email inbox. PS Connect is an extension of Appirio's existing PS Enterprise solution, which was launched less than six months ago and already supports almost 9,000 users.
"We spend our days working in email," said Tom Link, CTO of Universal Mind, a rich Internet application developer for the web, desktop and mobile devices. "PS Connect's ability to bring business information from our PS Enterprise solution into the Gmail inbox will help our people work faster and smarter. This type of innovation is exactly why we chose to run our consulting business on PS Enterprise."
An increasing number of professional services firms are turning to SaaS solutions so they can manage their business more efficiently and cost effectively without focusing on the IT infrastructure needed for on-premise solutions. Products, like PS Enterprise, that are built using public cloud platforms, offer another tangible benefit – the ability to easily extend a solution so it delivers new functionality more quickly to existing customers.
"The value of cloud-based solutions increases exponentially as companies outsource more and more of their IT to the cloud – an increasing trend that we call cloudsourcing," said Narinder Singh, Appirio's CMO and head of products. "Imagine the possibilities of bringing a wide range of business data?actionable information that is currently trapped in expensive siloed systems that are infrequently or never used?into tools like Gmail that we use all the time. It could dramatically increase productivity, and even change the way we work. This is just the beginning."
PS Connect is coming soon to the Google Apps Marketplace as part of Appirio's PS Enterprise solution. The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easy for more than two million Google Apps customers to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience, increase business efficiency and reduce administrative overhead. To learn more, visit www.google.com/appsmarketplace.
"We are excited to see Appirio's long held vision for connecting clouds take a big step forward with PS Connect," adds Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead for Google Enterprise. "Using technologies like Gmail contextual gadgets and cloud platforms like App Engine, software vendors like Appirio are helping us build a rich ecosystem around Google Apps."
PS Connect is currently available as a preview release for PS Enterprise customers. Visit www.appirio.com/psconnect to learn more or sign up for the preview release.
Useful Links:
PS Connect screenshot
PS Connect video
Google Apps Marketplace
About Appirio
Appirio (www.appirio.com), a cloud solution provider, offers both products and professional services that help enterprises accelerate their adoption of the cloud. With over 2500 customers, Appirio has a proven track record of implementing mission-critical solutions and developing innovative products on cloud platforms such as salesforce.com, Google Apps, and Amazon Web Services. From offices in the U.S. and Japan, Appirio serves a wide range of companies including Avago, Hamilton Beach, Japan Post Network, Ltd, Pfizer and Qualcomm. Appirio was founded in 2006, is the fastest growing partner of salesforce.com and Google, and is backed by Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital.
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