VMware ups collaboration game with Socialcast

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VMware has bought out social collaboration firm Socialcast as it looks to up its game against close rival Citrix.

The Socialcast app brings together different enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and supply chain management tools for employees to share information.

The free version of the Socialcast app offers enterprise microblogging, a connector for Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010, as well as the ability to bring in Sharepoint capabilities.

As for the premium version, Socialcast comes with improved administration tools and analytics features.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

VMware said the acquisition was part of its mission to let users access apps from anywhere and at anytime - something Citrix has repeatedly said it wants as well.

“The post-PC era will be defined by a new way to work that is increasingly social, real-time and collaborative," said Brian Byun, vice president and general manager for cloud applications at VMware.

"For enterprise collaboration to improve business outcomes it can't just be a feature in a single application. Organisations need a new social collaboration fabric across the applications people already work with."

"Socialcast combines real-time activity streams that are contextually integrated within existing enterprise systems. This is the new way to work," he added.

At its recent Synergy 2011 event in San Francisco, Citrix spoke about the need for a cloudy fabric to bring together applications, something it does with its Receiver software.

Socialcast can be delivered either on-premise or across the cloud.

"The future of work will be focused on people-centric collaboration, bringing diverse groups of employees together to accelerate business performance," added Timothy Young, founder and chief executive (CEO) of Socialcast.

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