DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zimbra, a global leader in unified collaboration and community software, today introduced the latest version of its community software solution, Zimbra Community 8.0, which extends the power of online communities for customer support and private social networking to remote and mobile workers.
New to Zimbra Community 8.0 is a free edition designed for small businesses and individual users who want to leverage the power of their social communities to increase engagement and their companies' bottom lines. This first-of-its-kind free edition will provide businesses and individuals with a complete solution to drive customer engagement, improve customer satisfaction and build employee loyalty.
“With the release of Zimbra Community Free Edition, organizations of all sizes can now benefit from our team’s experience of powering more than 3,000 communities globally to improve real-time employee and customer collaboration, support and engagement,” said Rob Howard, chief technology officer at Zimbra.
Additional enhancements of Zimbra’s latest release include advanced analytics that drive enhanced contextual search capabilities, a new mobile interface and pre-built templates for fast and easy deployment. This powerful suite of features lies behind a newly designed modern user interface that includes automated learning tools for community managers to speed adoption.
“As a result of the mobile-first era, organizations demand tools to support users on the go. Plus, businesses are looking to deliver the power of social business networking in a quick and simple manner,” said Howard. “Our new release addresses both of these needs. Zimbra Community 8.0 provides a fast track to community engagement through pre-built templates that decrease costs and deployment time, and extends the community experience to mobile users, giving employees and consumers access to their social communities at any time, on any device.”
Key features of Zimbra Community 8.0 include:
- New editions designed to suit any user’s desired experience. Three editions of Zimbra Community 8.0 are offered. Zimbra offers a standard edition and professional edition. Plus, this year a free edition of Zimbra Community 8.0 was introduced. The free edition of Zimbra Community 8.0 allows small businesses, departments and individual users to experience a Zimbra Community deployment. This edition provides organizations with a risk-free way of using a social community. Additionally, for a full-featured test drive, organizations can try a 60-day trial with pre-populated content that demonstrates a complete production community while showcasing the new user interface and features of the latest release. Compare editions here: http://www.zimbra.com/products/zimbra-community/compare-editions.html.
- New mobile interface enables users to be social everywhere. Zimbra’s new responsive design automatically adjusts its screen size to reflect the device size, allowing businesses to expand self-service support and employee collaboration to all modern devices and major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. From rich desktop applications to tablets and smartphones, Zimbra Community 8.0 supports customers and employees whenever, wherever. Zimbra also extends this user experience into a full-featured mobile application for Android and iOS devices.
- Starter kits lower development costs and deployment time. Zimbra Community 8.0 provides pre-built templates that put users on the fast track to community engagement, accelerating the creation and deployment of online communities. Businesses benefit from a community design that enhances customer experience and employee engagement, and is based on Zimbra’s experience powering more than 3,000 communities.
- Automated learning tools speed adoption. Usability enhancements make it easy for new members to participate. Zimbra’s guided tour automates the process of teaching customers and employees how to use the online community. Prompts explain how and when to use social applications, and tips simplify member profile creation and the building of personal and professional networks.
- Context-based search connects people to information quickly. Enhanced search creates a more engaging experience for customers and employees, and quickly connects people to the content that is most critical to decision-making. Ingrained data from community analytics means context-based search builds on Zimbra’s legacy of delivering community insights that are personalized for the individual.
The free, standard and professional editions of Zimbra Community 8.0 are available now. To upgrade, purchase or try a 60-day trial, go to Zimbra.com today.
About Zimbra
Zimbra powers collaboration for the way you work. Zimbra connects people and information with unified collaboration software that includes email, calendaring, file sharing, activity streams, social communities and more. With technology designed for social, mobile and the cloud, Zimbra gives individuals the flexibility to work from virtually anywhere, through nearly every computer, tablet and mobile device.
Zimbra’s software is trusted by more than 5,000 companies and government customers, as well as by service providers who manage Zimbra in the cloud for more than 200,000 businesses. With customers including NTT Communications, Comcast, Dell, Investec, Rackspace, Red Hat, Mozilla, H&R Block and Vodafone, a vibrant open source community and worldwide partner network, Zimbra is the third-largest collaboration provider in the world. Zimbra is privately held with corporate headquarters in Frisco, Texas and offices in San Mateo, California; London; Tokyo; Singapore and Pune, India. For more information, visit Zimbra.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
