The Groove Application

Extending the value of Relationship Management Systems with Peer Interaction

What is Groove• Groove is a combination of software and services

that transform the Internet into a personal medium for direct communication and interaction

What Problem is being Addressed• Harnessing the power of the Web as a Business

Platform• Take Web based relationship management to the

next level: direct person-to-person interactions• Authorized customers or partners will have access

to– Content and Business Systems (Current situation)

– Internal Resources• Relationship Managers

• Internal Experts

• Virtual Project Team Members

Motivation• Business processes: how people interact with systems

• Business practices: how people interact with people

The combination of well defined Business Processes and Practices has a tremendous appeal to business leaders because it provides a mechanism to attract and retain customers

Perceived Benefits• Greater customer intimacy

Relationship managers can easily identify and act upon opportunities for cross-selling, and create stronger barriers to exit

• Enhanced operational efficiencyColleagues inside and outside the company can respond more quickly and intelligently to new problems and opportunities as they arise. Self-organizing teams can reduce time-to-decision throughout the course of a project or a relationship

Current Use: Customer Self Service• Corporate portals and extranets allow external

users to gain access to customized data, account information, analytical tools, and real business functions.

• As a medium for customer self service: portals has been successful in reducing the costs associated with common, predictable, repeatable activities that used to require expensive call centers and customer service staff.

ProblemsAdding direct person-to-person interaction to portals or extranets has proven to be challenging•Narrowly defined modes of interaction

• Tools and utilities (VoIP, instant messaging, filtered, routed email) are point solutions and lack the richness of a complete interactive environment

•Lack of platform for integration and extensibility• Most communication and collaborative solutions are

standalone solutions with few tools for integrating with CRM systems, ERP systems, DDA systems, etc

•Server-centric• Hesitation to deploy solution outside the firewall• Server solution inside the firewall incur overhead for set-up,

archival, management, and retirement

Major Dimensions of Groove• A Complete Environment for Group Interaction• A Platform for Business Solutions• A Peer-to-Peer Architecture• Enterprise Network Services

A Complete Environment for Group Interaction

• Virtual Space – users make direct connections with other users for various activities– Project, brainstorming, planning, discussion, document sharing,

coordinating schedules, etc

• Business interaction capabilities involve groups– Communication tools – VoIP, instant messaging, text-based chat,

threaded discussion– Context sharing tools – shared files, shared pictures, shared

contacts– Joint activity tools – co browsing, drawing, editing, and calendar

• Each Groove shared space is stored locally– When something new is added to the space, it is reflected on all

the machines in the shared space

A Complete Environment for Group Interaction

• Provide familiar functionality for Internet communications– Email, instant messaging, browsers, and poplar peer file-sharing

tools

• Provide additional functionality and usability for rich group interaction– Ease of connection: Eliminate complexity to end users

– Flexibility and adaptability: User added functionality is immediately available to all members of the shared space

– Offline use: Changes are stored locally. When user re-connect changes are propagated to other members

– Self-updating: Groove automatically checks its software revision, fetches and installs without any direct user intervention. In addition, Groove will check with other members to ensure compatibility

Major Dimensions of Groove• A Complete Environment for Group Interaction• A Platform for Business Solutions• A Peer-to-Peer Architecture• Enterprise Network Services

A Platform for Business Solutions1. A rich set of system level services that can be

leveraged and extended2. Centralized services for IT control over

infrastructure resources3. A development model accessible by a wide

variety of programming skills4. A framework for integration with existing

business and technology infrastructure5. A broad and diverse partner community of ISVs,

solution providers, system integrators, trainers and consultant

System Architecture

Transceiver

Shared Space Shared Space

Security

Tool Tool Tool Tool

XML objectStore

XML objectRouting

Connection Synchronization

Awareness Transparency

1: System-Level Services• Security Services: Public/private creation, distribution and

maintenance, end-user authentication, and 192-bit encryption of all content and network activity

• Storage Services: All content, gestures and activities are stored locally in Groove’s XML object store

• Synchronization Services: Each member maintains their local copy of the shared space. Groove Sync services keep all the copies of the shared space in sync

• Peer Connection Services: Transparently manages administration of network functions (IP address selection, bandwidth configuration, firewall translators)

2: Centralized Services• License Management• Component Management• Bandwidth Efficiency and Firewall Transparency• Usage Reporting

3: System Integration• Peer computing is not mutually exclusive with

traditional server-based or centralized business solutions (ERP, CRM, Knowledge Mgnt.)

• Groove’s platform integrates with server-based systems, extending the value of existing centralized information and functionality.

• Groove use integration tools to automate processes associated with data residing in centralized systems

• Extend internal systems to external customers or partners, reduce admin overhead, and minimize backend data conflicts

4: Development Environment• Secure, extensible platform built on open

standards for ease of development and integration• Based on COM

– COM provides a flexible language-independent env– Extend Groove by adding new COM component– COM component automatically inherit Groove system

level services

• Groove supports and leverages existing and emerging industry standards– HTTP, UDP, TCP/IP, XML, SOAP, XML-RPC– COM –compliant scripting, programming languages

Major Dimensions of Groove• A Complete Environment for Group Interaction• A Platform for Business Solutions• A Peer-to-Peer Architecture• Enterprise Network Services

A Peer-to-Peer Architecture• Centralized, server-based systems have proven

ideal for automating business models and business processes

• Business practices do not fit readily into the centralization model and have been more difficult to automate

• Groove simple enables more personally empowering and more flexible and adaptive person-to-person communications

Major Dimensions of Groove• A Complete Environment for Group Interaction• A Platform for Business Solutions• A Peer-to-Peer Architecture• Enterprise Network Services

Enterprise Network Services• Bandwidth Optimization

– Compressed and encrypted XML-structured commands called “deltas”: incremental change

• Offline Usage– Changes are queued in the Global Centralized Queue

and delivered to the clients whenever they reconnect

– Local changes are stored in the local work space and transmitted whenever the user reconnects

• Firewall Transparency– Relay service acts as HTTP proxy and wrapped deltas

in HTTP so that they can tunnel through a firewall

Enterprise Network Services, contd• Component Management

– Groove automatically adds new component to users and shared space

– Centralized auto-update capabilities

• License Management– Domain deployment of new licenses to users

• Usage Reporting– Centralized monitoring service tracks usage to

determine application utility

– Intelligently anticipate capacity planning requirements