Huddle, the leader in enterprise cloud collaboration and content management, today unveiled new email collaboration features that are set to transform the way knowledge is stored and shared in the enterprise. Recognizing that the majority of information continues to be distributed in the workplace via email, Huddle’s email integration enables all email discussions surrounding content to be stored centrally and securely in the cloud. Feedback on documents is instantly recorded, searchable and audited in Huddle. Strengthening workers’ ability to collaborate intelligently from their inboxes and providing an alternative to Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange, Huddle has also announced its integration with VMware Zimbra, a leading open-source, next generation email and collaboration platform. The integration will enable seamless interaction between an employee’s VMware Zimbra inbox and Huddle workspaces.

With business users receiving around 100 emails per day, and with almost a quarter (24 per cent) containing attachments, keeping track of the data stored on corporate email systems can prove a challenge for enterprises and end users alike. Knowledge is often locked in individuals’ inboxes and data is frequently shared with parties outside of a company’s email exchange. With numerous document repositories and gate keepers, enterprise content is fragmented and poses a significant challenge when it comes to gathering records for compliance or auditing purposes.

With the Huddle email integration, users can respond to a content notification via any email client and their comments will be directly added to the relevant whiteboard, discussion, file or task. Without disrupting their workflow, all relevant parties are notified of the update via email and organizations can now track and access all conversations and metadata surrounding a piece of content. There is full visibility around who has read, updated, downloaded and discussed a document.

“With such a vast amount of data now being stored and shared in the enterprise, businesses need to ensure that they have one version of the truth. With our email integrations, Huddle is providing a central hub for all enterprise cloud content and email,” explains Andy McLoughlin, EVP Strategy and co-founder, Huddle. “Over the last four decades, email has become engrained in businesses worldwide. Although we recognize that the workforce isn’t about to stop using email, it is vital that organizations have access to all enterprise information, including content residing in inboxes. Now, everyone can have a record of all activity surrounding a file regardless of whether the conversations happened within or across the firewall, what email client or device they are using.”

Huddle / VMware Zimbra connector

By seamlessly connecting VMware Zimbra email with Huddle, people are further empowered to collaborate intelligently from their inbox and enterprises have an alternative to Microsoft for communication and collaboration.

With the connector, email attachments can be easily saved into relevant Huddle workspaces, recipients can be added to workspace teams and address book contacts can be invited into Huddle without leaving VMware Zimbra. Everyone that needs to access and comment on content can access it as soon as they log into their Huddle workspace.

McLoughlin continues: “When traditional email clients – such as Microsoft Outlook – and legacy collaboration systems launched, the latest web technologies that are now available to integrate applications and streamline the way in which people work had yet to come of age. Through our joint integration, Huddle and VMware Zimbra are offering enterprises the ability to link their next generation email and collaboration suite with their Huddle environment, providing a great user experience and better value for money.”

“We are excited to provide an easy way to integrate Huddle for the more than 66 million users of the VMware Zimbra® email collaboration platform,” said Andy Pflaum, senior director, End-User Computing, VMware. “The seamless sharing of data such as files and address book contacts between the Zimbra and Huddle applications exemplifies how Zimbra partners and customers can easily integrate with the Zimbra Collaboration Server via our open APIs and Zimlet framework."

The Huddle / VMware Zimbra connector can be downloaded and installed on the VMware Zimbra Collaboration Suite by an administrator and will be available in the sidebar after install.