MUMBAI: Thierry Breton, Chief Executive of Atos, launched the ‘zero email initiative’ in 2011. He advocated reducing internal emails by using improved communication applications and social media tools. Similarly, Ryan Holmes, chief executive of HootSuite, a social media management toolset described emails as “new pony express” and “an unproductively tool”. There is growing concern about emails reducing workplace productivity and Oogwave aims to finally address this problem in India.
Oogwave, an innovative new startup has taken up the mantle of eradicating the old world method of corporate emails. They have created a cloud based platform for businesses to share and communicate without emails. It helps you organize, create and share data with colleagues and clients. The data is universally accessible across all devices and the Oogwave app is available on iOS and android.
It has been estimated that managers spend between 5 to 20 hours a week just reading and writing emails. Some of the major productivity issues with emails are:-
· E-mails frequently lead to information overload
· Employees spend unnecessary time on routine communications like filtering incoming information and correspondence
· Email storage is a nightmare for CIOs/IT managers, who need to invest in additional storage capacity and reduplication technology
Commenting on the platform, Mr. Gaurav Jain, CEO, Oogwave said - “In the last 10 years, there's been a dramatic shift in the way companies do business. All our business information is digitalized - easy to store, share and update. We work in a knowledge economy with a social media literate workforce. The young knowledge workers want to do meaningful work. We at Oogwave understand the change and believe that enterprise social networks are a far better way of encouraging collaboration and freeing businesses from the restraints of overflowing inboxes.”
The platform has already seen huge adoption in the US, the UK, Eastern Europe and South Africa, among other countries. Over 3,400 companies are using Oogwave globally. Oogwave is expecting 3 fold growth in its customer base over 10,000 in next 15 months.
About users of the platform, 72 per cent of customers are from professional services -- knowledge-based companies where content and information is the inventory. Most of the customers use Oogwave for internal communication and to store and share content while around 22 per cent are using team task management too.
The company has attracted funding from TLab, a division of Times Internet Ltd. It is planning to go for another round of fund raising in the next eight months to fuel growth plans.
