So many great applications, so little time

The pace of change in our industry keeps my head spinning. While more complete reviews will come in the future I wanted to point out how a couple of our early innovators are working to impact how you execute your social business efforts. Their efforts could impact the course of business for the next decade and you should keep your eyes and ears open.

Nimble

Jon Ferrara created a company called Goldmine a couple of decades ago. Goldmine was one of the first, if not the first, truly networkable business solution. Yes, these were dark days when machines were isolated from one another and collaboration took place through large floppy disks. Jon has come back to once again impact how we think about business solutions with his new Social CRM solution, Nimble. It is still in early access mode but here are a couple of things to get you thinking:

• Nimble is building the core Social CRM capabilities as well as a marketplace around which value-added resellers (VARs) can extend and solve their customer’s unique problems.
• Similar to Gist, Nimble will pull in communications from all of your channels for all people in your system. Your emails, your Twitter, and Facebook updates, Foursquare and Gowalla check-ins, right in front of you for that person.
• Unlike Gist, you can respond back to the person from within the system, via email, Twitter, Facebook, and others. The beauty, of course, is that you never have to leave this one system to get your job done.

I’ll let you know how well this vision is executed as I have a chance to dig in.

Mike Muhney’s Secret Venture

Mike Muhney is the co-creator of Act!, one of the earliest contact management systems, one that is still popular today. His venture, which is running in top-secret mode will amaze you. I can’t share more, not yet, but did want you to know that something very cool (yes, I have seen it) is going to be available soon. It will absolutely change the way you think about…. Well, can’t say more… Not yet anyway.

Too general? Maybe… Nimble is in an early stage, as is Project X (my code name for Mike’s secret project). However, both solutions seek to change the way we think about managing relationships to meet our organization’s goals. Both are radical departures from the past. Both will impact your organization in the years to come…. Stay tuned.

John