Introducing Folder Following

Well, we have now enhanced file following feature and introduced ‘Folder Following’. This works in a similar way to ‘File Following’ – however, in this case you click to select a folder to ‘Follow”. Consequently, when any changes are made to any of the files within that folder you will receive an email notification. This means you can keep close to all the work being carried on any the files within a folder. What if someone uploads a new file into this folder? Even better, Clinked automatically adds this file to those you are following within the folder and notifies you by email of this new file within the folder.This enhanced feature of ‘Folder Following’ is another unique feature from Clinked

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With Clinked, we therefore try to limit your dependence on email as a collaboration tool for sharing content or communication with colleagues or external partners. That said, we also recognize that email can make team collaboration more efficient, for example by allowing file uploading via email to your Clinked group, or sending you email notifications when team members are editing content which you have engaged with, or comments are added to content you have created, if you are mentioned in a microblog or comment etc. Simply put, email notifications matter to make online team collaboration efficient.

Better use of email notifications on Clinked
Up until now, a reply to an email notification would end up in a no-reply inbox of Clinked. And it happened quite frequently; especially when a new member is invited to join a Clinked group, he/she often replies to the personalised message by hitting “reply to” in the email. Despite the lack of the proper recipient name, users simply assume that an email reply should reach the team member who triggered the email notification. So, that is why we introduce this ability, and here it how it works:

1. An action of a team member, e.g. adding a comment to a file you have upladed, prompts an email notification to you.

2. If replying to the email directly, the two of you have engaged in a pure email conversation, no other team member will see your email reply on Clinked.

3. To make your reply visible to other team members, you log in and reply to the comment in the specific Clinked group.

Let us know if you have any questions below.

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The new Clinked mobile app features:

- Ongoing & completed Tasks, including Task status, level of Task completion, start date and expected completion date, who is responsible and related discussions.
- Upcoming calendar Events, including schedule, location, attendees, pending invites, and related comments.
- Discussions within the group / project.
- Reply to & add Comments to the shared group content and conversations, including ability to mention message specific team members (see how mentioning works).

This complements the already existing mobile app functionality of viewing uploaded files and online Clinked pages, as well as seeing activity streams, which shows the latest group activities and discussions.

More mobile collaborative capabilities

Our aim is to make all your collaborative needs available from a mobile device, so that your team collaboration activities can continue while you are on the go.

At the moment, you are able to see all files, conversations & updates within your Clinked groups. You can also leave comments on content and reply to existing comments. During first half of 2013 the following mobile features will be rolled out:
- Mobile search function
- Create & edit Clinked wiki pages
- Create tasks & events
- View streamed videos on the Clinked wiki pages

Get the Clinked mobile app for collaboration here

Both the Clinked iPhone app and the Android Clinked app are available for free from iTunes & Google Play now.

Feel free to share what mobile collaboration features you think are most needed for efficent team collaboration in the comments section.

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Issues with current file sync tools for teams
Syncing work files on desktops, mobile devices and home computers is a dilemma for many organisations. Most sync tools are built for private file storage purposes, where file security standards are limited and mixing of private and business files are not ideal.

Dedicated business sync tools, on the other hand, are more secure but fail to make syncing of shared files simple or flexible. For example, should it not be possible to automatically synchronise my most relevant files, ie documents I have actively engaged with (such as documents I have uploaded or commented upon)? Or should removing a large synced file from my mobile device also delete it from my team-shared cloud in the sync process too?

These are questions which have led to the ambition of making Clinked the best file sync tools for teams, who share content and collaborate in projects and day-to-day operations.

What makes Clinked a great file sharing sync tool for teams?
Firstly, you synchronise the files and folders you want, nothing more. Either via the Clinked smart sync functionality, which suggests the files you should have offline access to based your content engagement, or alternatively, you manually choose which files to synchronise.

Your team members sync the files they want offline access to. In other words, each of you decide what centrally stored files are synchronised for offline access.

When offline files are deleted from a local machine, they will still reside in your shared Clinked cloud storage. This way, it is safe for everyone to remove files in order to keep local file storage to a minimum without risking to delete files other team members want access to.

Also, your file sync preferences can vary from each device. As such, you can store a few files on your mobile device, while having all files syncronised to your PC.

The fastest way to upload offline files to your Clinked cloud storage
If you don’t like the idea of synchronising Clinked files from the cloud to your computer, it can still make your file uploading to Clinked much easier. Just save or move documents to the Clinked sync folder, and they will automatically be uploaded to your Clinked group.

On a side note, do you know that you can upload files via email to your Clinked cloud storage too?

Security levels of Clinked sync
Here is how we make file sync as secure as possible:

How to get started
The Clinked sync tool is available for free for any members once released from private beta, which is scheduled for June 2013. All in all, we think our enhanced file sync tool will make your team collaboration efforts more efficient than any other sync tool out there. We look forward to hear what you think.

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Paying clients, however, have access to lots more Private groups, which ensures you can store content and invite members which are specifically relevant for this group only. This means that you can easily be member of 10-20+ groups, and then it can be handy to have ability to sort the groups per your preference.

Well, that is now possible.

Sort your Clinked team groups

The list of groups you are member of are listed in alphabetical order on your Clinked dash board page. You can switch the order by a simple drop-and-drag the groups to your liking.

A more discrete but possibly more important enhancement of Clinked was also included in our last product release. Do you want a more snappy web address for your Clinked groups? Well, you can do that too now.

Customisable URL for your Clinked groups

When you create a group on Clinked, you have traditionally been given a URL based on the name you set for the group, without any option to have it altered. From now on, this forced connection is no longer unchangeable.

So, if you want to call your group “The Website redesign & migration Project”, it is easy to rename the URL to “Clinked.com/go” if you want a short URL instead of the defaulted suggestion “Clinked.com/the_website_redesign__migration_project”. See example below.

As a sideline, this release has also dealt with the problem of “Group Name already exists”, which would be an unwelcome message when you create a new group.

If a Group name is already used, the suggested URL will add your username, making sure only you alone can cause an exact URL duplication (and if that happens, a number will be added after your group name, eg. Clinked.com/smith_test_2).

Hopefully this makes your team collaboration on Clinked even more easy than before! Share your feedback in the comments section.

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The new mobile collaboration features

Here are the main updates to the new Clinked mobile app:
- Make comments to uploaded files & Clinked wiki pages.
- Give feedback to existing comments on files & pages.
- Direct your mobile comments to a specific team member with the @mention functionality, which, apart from being visible in the Activity Stream, also creates an email notification to the targeted recipient(s).

You can access the latest Clinked mobile app version for Apple devices on iTunes and for Android devices on Google Play now.

Here is an example of a mobile discussion on a Clinked wiki page:

So the journey of aligning capabilities of the Clinked mobile app with the “standard” web application is speeding up! In September 2012 we launched the first Clinked mobile app, with the motto “See what is going on in your Clinked groups while on the go”. Now, this is extended to enable interactions with your team members. And more mobile interaction capabilities are coming.

Coming enhancements to the Clinked.com mobile app

During 2013 you will see these mobile collaboration capabilities on the Clinked app:
- Tasks & Events: view, create, edit, comment
- Microblogging
- Clinked wiki pages: create, edit (you can already view and comment upon pages)
- Files: Upload, Connect with Google Drive

If you have ideas about what would make your mobile collaboration on Clinked and in general even better, please share them in the comments section.

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Can anyone upload very large files?

Firstly, you will need to have sufficient file storage remaining. Log in to Clinked and check your “Account Settings” and you will see how much space your account has available.

You must also have adequate user permissions to upload files. If you are an Administrator or a Content creator, which most users are, you are ready to go. As you probably know, file uploading can take place within Clinked or via email (learn more).

File uploads with unlimited file size

Free Account users will now be able to upload individual files up to 100MB each. Paying clients, however, will have no restrictions when uploading to Clinked! Usually our smallest package starts at £24 per month, but we have a special offer for limited time…

Upgrade your Free package before Dec 20 – save up to 50%

To enjoy unlimited file uploading, upgrade to a paid account before December 20, 2012 and you will get 3 months for half price on our Professional & Business packages! Or to get a further discount, sign up for 12 months and you will get 50% off for the first 6 months!!
Apart from unlimited file upload, paying clients also have access to:

• Larger file storage and more Private Groups (compare packages here)
• 24/7 phone support (business packages) and priority email support
• Ability to influence the Clinked product development roadmap
• Design customisation according to your brand requirements
• Hands on file migration assistance

In order to claim your discount, you need to go your “Account Settings” page on Clinked and upgrade your account. We will reimburse you the discount you are entitled to immediately after each payment.

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According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics’ data on small business survival, only 44% of small businesses are still going after 4 years – and it’s continually those with the most effective management teams (almost irrespective of how good the product is) that last the distance.

So what’s the big secret? Truth is, none of this stuff is rocket science… Having said that, a young, headstrong ‘entrepreneur’ manager with a vision from which he refuses to budge might relegate these ideas to the bottom of the priority list in favour of becoming a big name on the block, and fast.

The fact of the matter is that there is a clear-cut difference between entrepreneurship and small business management. As this eHow article on the subject explains, managing a small business is an inherently more administrative role (everything from growing the business to ensuring legal compliance), while entrepreneurship has much more to do with the conceptualisation stages of a product or service, with the much more glamorous end goal of innovating and turning a profit through the development of an idea.

For the wide-eyed entrepreneur to make the leap towards becoming a successful manager, a combination of the following approaches cannot be overestimated:

• Employee training - it’s a well-established fact that employee satisfaction and know-how is what drives a business forward. Employees coming into the business for the first time (especially from backgrounds in other industry spaces) will be ‘stabbing around in the dark’ for a while – how long that ‘while’ lasts is in the hands of the manager and the resources they’re willing to set aside to get their employees on track and in the right mindset.
• Effective cost management - especially in the early stages, it can’t be stressed enough just how key spending money wisely can be to the direction the business takes. A good manager with a sound financial head implements a cost reduction initiative to maximise the firm’s year-on-year profitability.
  As simple as this sounds, it includes a wide variety of factors (everything from use of company resources to bonus schemes – you’ve got to still keep your employees motivated!) and requires a keen eye for opportunities to spend less while gaining more. All this cost-cutting while keeping quality as high as possible and keeping customers satisfied… Not a skill to be taken for granted.
• Continued, meticulous planning - from the moment the idea is conceived, planning is an invaluable part of keeping the business going in its desired direction. A good manager will only commercialise a business idea once a full business plan or proposal has been finalised, and once specific goals have been set in place (in both the short and long terms).
• Being a market visionary - much like an animal’s newborn young, a small business is fragile. It can be affected by even the slightest change in market conditions and must take advantage of its greater flexibility than larger companies to make the appropriate shifts and adjustments to cater for these conditions.

  If a competitor is about to release something new, the small business must show exemplary awareness and speed of reaction in order to stay ahead – indeed, one of the advantages small businesses have over their larger counterparts is the ability to react much faster. A good small business manager will already know their market and competitive field inside-out, but will remain a keen student of this market throughout.

• Be the face of the company - at least at first, the company is only as good as you are. Developing personal relationships with clients rather than just fleeting exchanges is what keeps people interested in your offering – the customers your business gains as it grows are an invaluable source through their ability to spread the word about just how good you are. Small business managers should ensure a good balance between keeping existing relationships healthy and generating new ones.

The post 5 Great Tips for Effective Small Business Management appeared first on Secure online team collaboration software - Clinked.com.

Our winner, Piotr Wojtkiewicz, had embraced mobile collaboration at the same as looking for a tool to enhance his team’s communication with project participants. He simply said: “Wow! I wasn’t even aware that there was a contest for new subscribers joining so it’s a great surprise for me!”.

Piotr, who works as a Continuous Improvement & Automation Coordinator at Electrolux Poland, continues:

“My department is always looking for new promising tools and technologies which can be used in the future within our company. In our latest assignment, we looked for a solution that could greatly enhance the collaboration between various project stakeholders, i.e. task/event planning, file-sharing etc.. As in many cases we’re working to tight project budgets and we were looking for an intuitive, reliable SaaS-based solution offering the most useful features. That is why we chose Clinked.”

Using Clinked for mobile collaboration
One reason we launched this campaign was to celebrate the first release of our mobile-friendly Clinked version in September, starting with Android and iPhone & iPad versions. Since the Clinked collaboration platform integrates with Google Apps, it was only logical to make the Google Nexus 7 tablet our main prize for the happy winner.

Whether or not Piotr will use his toy, I mean business tool, for mobile collaboration on Clinked is yet to be confirmed, but he adds:

“The mobile market is growing really fast and remote access to the portal in many cases will save a lot of time, especially when project participants are traveling a lot. Clinked picked the two most common mobile environments (iOS and Android) so it will definitely improve overall customer satisfaction.”

We wish Piotr and his project teams happy online collaboration on Clinked, including via their mobile devices.

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So finally it has arrived; a Clinked optimised mobile collaboration iPhone & iPad app. An Android version of Clinked is available from Google Play.

Clinked iPhone/iPad features:

- View & download files from your Clinked groups
- See latest team member activities within your Clinked groups on Activity streams, for example:
- Comments & feedback on content
- Task creations and completion
- Creation & editing of wiki pages
- New files uploaded
- New microblogging updates

More mobile features coming shortly

This first mobile version of Clinked is focused on making you aware of ongoing group activities, i.e. see rather than interact. In the next version (due in a few weeks) you will firstly be able to view more content (such as your group wiki pages, tasks and events) and also provide your comments and feedback. This will be followed by the ability to upload files from your mobile devices, including an easier way to forward email attachments straight to your group than you can do today.

What do you think?

Feel free to share your thoughts on Clinked mobile here, or in our user community. Feedback in the App store and Google Play would also be highly appreciated!

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