Productivity software used to be all business, controlled by a centralized IT department that abided by certain dictums. Employees would follow workflow dictums, use certain spreadsheets, and never, ever color outside the digital lines. No longer. The cloud makes it too easy for consumers to handle work anywhere, and thereby choose their own productivity tools.
Many are choosing Evernote, archiving software that purports to act like an extension of your brain. The company recently announced $85 million in new venture funding Enough, management says, to take the business to an IPO several years from now.
Don't be surprised if we see bigger bets on productivity tools in the meantime. Jive Software (NASDAQ: JIVE) recently purchased Producteev. Microsoft (MSFT -0.30%) has an Evernote alternative called OneNote What other companies can we expect to make a bigger play in this market? I answer this question and more in the video below.