DEMO Europe: Papirus.Net aims to replace email for team collaboration
Mobile Industry Review is reporting live from DEMO Europe being held in Moscow – the start-up pitching event that launched names as big as TiVO, Skype for mobile, Salesforce and Shazam.
Papirus.net is a collaboration tool for teams (free for up to 25 users, $5 per user/month beyond that including an extended feature set) that aims to move ‘high intensity’ communications, documents and approval workflow out of your email. The service’s mobile apps (iOS, Android and Windows Phone) focus on managing the communication around a task, condensing conversations so they appear similar to instant message chat and moving the entire stream between users as tasks are delegated. The display is, perhaps, not the prettiest you’ll see on an iPhone, but it clearly gets more of the important information on-display.
Although the improved conversation UI is convenient (especially so on mobile) it’s the custom workflow that will appeal. Users can request basic approvals or build more complex multi-step review processes that can be incorporated into a task – including from the mobile apps. Alongside this custom forms support the capture of data.
For larger organisations Active Directory integration is available (for contact management) and tasks can be transferred between firms if both organisations use Papirus.net. For GTD fans tasks can be processed and filed consistent with this way of working.
Although there are many enterprise collaboration tools available, the integration of workflows (including into the mobile apps) provides a more realistic way for businesses to get their task-management (and, crucially, task reporting) out of their email.
