New ProtoSphere overview video

With all of the features and functionality we've been adding to ProtoSphere this year, it's time we created a new overview video. The video below covers all the bases, including ProtoSphere's document sharing functionality, data visualization features, Microsoft SharePoint and Lync support, and more. Feel free to share with colleagues and friends. And for more in-depth coverage of our latest ProtoSphere capabilities, hit our ProtoSphere 1.5 feature peeks and features list.

ShareFEST 2010: SharePoint momentum in life sciences is palpable

If I could sum up the ShareFEST conference in one word, it's passion. Passion for SharePoint. Passion for new ways to collaborate. Passion for driving innovation. It literally was a "share fest."

I've had a chance to gather my notes from the show and put some thought into how it went and what I learned from it. Here are my high-level takeaways.

The energy at the ShareFEST was exhilarating. As I said, the show wasn't dull by any means. SharePoint evangelists and users are a very vibrant community. They live and breathe the platform. You could see and feel the excitement around SharePoint, and how life sciences companies were committing to the technology and looking forward to the new ways they could leverage it.

SharePoint is becoming increasingly pervasive in life sciences. SharePoint is becoming the standard for document management in life sciences, if it hasn't already been established as such. It's particularly popular within the clinical research trial space, where scientists have to validate documents and ensure they're following certain approval processes and procedures through their product life cycles. All of the top life sciences companies were at ShareFEST, and it looks like most, if not all, have made a commitment to Microsoft and SharePoint. Now they're looking for ways to get it off the shelf.

The challenge now is to foster SharePoint adoption. Based on my conversations and interactions at the show, it seems most life sciences companies have at least bought SharePoint. Some are using it, whether that be in just one or two divisions or throughout the entire organization. The major adoption challenge they're facing is consolidating dispersed content from across their organization into SharePoint. They're looking for ways to unlock their information silos (like SAP, e-mail, document management systems, etc.) and centralize content in SharePoint.

We stuck out like a sore thumb, in a good way. I am a sales guy, but I don't mean to toot our own horn when I say this. ;) ShareFEST vendors largely showcased extensions to SharePoint that make the platform more social and less of just a storage area. ProtoSphere stuck out as the only virtual environment that integrated with SharePoint. No one else at ShareFEST was making SharePoint more social and collaborative in this manner.

The SharePoint market is exciting, and brimming with new innovations for helping life sciences companies get more out of their SharePoint investment. If you weren't able to make it to the show this year, I'd recommend you put it on your list for 2011. It's a hot spot for life sciences companies who are turning to SharePoint and integrated technologies to drive collaborative decision-making and productivity.

From ShareFEST: Catching up with Microsoft's Mike Gannotti

Yesterday was a great day. As you probably know, I'm at the ShareFEST Conference in Center City Philadelphia, networking with life sciences professionals and demonstrating how ProtoSphere can help them speed collaborative decision-making around all phases of their product life cycle by getting more out of their SharePoint investment.

One person I had the pleasure of chatting with was Mike Gannotti, Principle Technology Specialist at Microsoft, and the company's chief SharePoint evangelist in life sciences. He sat in on my presentation yesterday morning about Merck's use of ProtoSphere to conduct the industry's first virtual poster session. I also demonstrated ProtoSphere's SharePoint functionality and how users can bring documents into their virtual environment using the Media Carousel.

My presentation went great, and it made Mike's Twitter stream. Here's what he had to say.

Technically Philly highlights our BP case study among latest industry buzz

Technically Philly has started a new series, Startup roundup, where it highlights some of the latest news, developments, and innovations coming out of companies in our region. Its writers featured our BP case study this week, so thank you to their team! More happenings around the tech industry are included in Technically Philly's roundup.

A'BUZZ ABOUT BP: Technically Philly covers our BP case study

And in case you haven't seen it yet, we also posted our styled PDF version of our BP case study this week, which you're welcome to download and share.

Pretty PDF version of our case study showing how BP benefited from a ProtoSphere virtual world

As promised, here is a PDF of our case study with BP. It covers how BP used a ProtoSphere virtual world to create an immersive learning and collaboration environment for its annual graduate conference.

BP was able to save $3.7 million by holding the event in ProtoSphere instead of at a physical location. Those savings, plus other performance metrics and the complete story of BP's ProtoSphere deployment, are documented in our case study. Feel free to download the BP case study and share with colleagues.

How BP improved collaboration while cutting costs with a ProtoSphere virtual world

We've shared with you case studies covering two of our life sciences clients. Today, we have one of our energy clients, BP, on the record.

BP usually holds an annual three-day conference in London to mark the culmination of its Graduate Induction program. Graduates network with BP executives and get fully indoctrinated into BP's corporate culture and values.

But the company took a completely different approach for its most recent conference. BP used ProtoSphere to create an immersive learning and collaboration environment for its graduates. I think you'll find the project and results to be very compelling. BP certainly did. It calculated savings of $3.7 million compared to producing a physical event.

That's just one major benefit the company realized. You can read about the rest, as well as BP's complete virtual world deployment story, below. We also have a fancy PDF coming shortly, which we welcome you to share with colleagues.

Roundabout ProtoSphere's 3-D Media Carousel

If there's one feature of ProtoSphere that always generates excitement during presentations and demos, it's the Media Carousel. The Media Carousel makes it easy for teams to share information, without having to navigate complex folder hierarchies or decipher obtuse file/folder names. Instead, all of the documents a team is working on and which are relevant to their mission are within arm's reach in the 3-D virtual environment.

If you've ever pondered the question, "Why 3-D?" (and who hasn't?), or if you're a 3-D evangelist trying to educate a colleague on the benefits of 3-D worlds for business, hand them a copy of our Media Carousel User Guide. While there's no substitute for experiencing virtual collaboration first hand, I think the User Guide quickly communicates the stark difference between content sharing in the traditional way (files and folders, attachments, screen sharing, etc.) versus with context in a 3-D world.