A modern office environment features an ever-increasing amount of communications channels, with numerous services for project collaboration, real-time messaging and other such tasks. It is also increasingly common for people to manage their communications - such as calendars - with mobile devices that may not be ideally suited for those tasks. Sometimes the mobility and sheer amount of options can be a mixed blessing when simple meeting requests bounce between a number of people with differing schedules and devices.

A Finnish software company – Steeri – has reached into the cloud for a solution to this conundrum and emerged back with their service iSteer. iSteer is a an all-round cloud-based customer management service that provides channels for business communications and also includes tools for handling tasks such as data management and reporting.

The iSteer system is based on the Service as a System (SaaS) model where the software and its data are stored and accessed on the cloud. This provides a centralized system that Steeri are leveraging by further developing iSteer, in cooperation with the University of Jyväskylä, into a more unified tool for business planning and communications.

”We currently have a feature-rich service – iSteer – that we offer to our clients, but we're aiming to develop its communications features into a more integrated product”, states Steeri CEO Terho Norja, ”Based on the results from the University of Jyväskylä, the situation looks very promising.”

A cloud environment offers the core benefit of handling the user identification centrally. This means that instead of having to rely on different client programs and user accounts for different tasks, the end user can access all company communications channels and systems from a single entry poiny reliably and conveniently. Other important features are the convenience of use provided for mobile users, and the inherent scalability of cloud systems which spares small companies the trouble of hosting their own dedicated servers for the services that iSteer provides.

Other improvements in iSteer are focused around adding more tools for other business tasks, such as project management, work planning, Content Rights Management.

Cloud Software is a four-year program run by TIVIT (2010–2013), which focuses on developing
different areas of cloud services. F-Secure is the flagship company for the Cloud Software program and the program is funded by TEKES.
 
www.cloudsoftwareprogram.org

Further information:
Terho Norja - CEO
Steeri

http://www.steeri.fi/fi