pimentaCHAT

New Desktop App Release Available for Windows, Linux and MacOS

2019-02-11T05:21:15-06:00

Today we are happy to announce the new release of the pimentaCHAT Desktop App, version 2.0.1 for Windows, Linux and MacOs; bringing our users new features and much anticipated fixes. All the new Desktop Apps are available for download immediately.

This new version brings a large number of improvements, from easier deployment for companies to better notifications. We aimed to improve the apps incrementally by fixing bugs and implementing some widely-requested usability features.

Mac users will notice the missing Services menu has been added to the app and that they are now able to answer messages directly from the notification alert. Also on notifications, Windows users will not be bothered by duplicate notifications anymore and won’t have to wonder why the app window didn’t open when you opened the app.

For those who deploy the apps to multiple users, we have added server default configuration file, where administrators can pre-define the list of servers for all users in the system. In addition, we have added a pimentachat:// protocol handler, so now you can share server urls with users and it will get added to their app server list once opened, this will work for messages inside the pimentaCHAT+ app and for your website as well, as long as they have the app installed.

We have to admit that we have been neglecting our Desktop Apps development in the recent past, and would like to apologize to our loyal community. But with the recent team growth, we will be able to bring it back on track. From this point forward we’ll focus on keeping a steady development cycle which translates into more frequent updates and releases. If you are interested in helping us or want to report bugs, make sure to check our repository at pimentaCHAT.Electron.

Please see our Release Notes for all the improvements and bug fixes in this release.

Ubuntu users, we will have our desktop client snap updated shortly. For Fedora users, we are getting the .deb and .rpm into the official repository.

Kyle Hinkson

See what kind of Bot you need and implement on your pimentaCHAT?

2019-02-07T02:18:10-06:00

Bots proliferate more and more in different areas and help in processes.

Bots are programs that let you carry out “conversations” (ie. type a question or command) and get an answer or accomplish your goal from within the app.

Generally speaking, bots that are currently being developed are nowhere near the Westworld-level of AI that we may have hoped we’d have by now, but many platforms are creating bot integrations that are useful and help streamline processes in one way or another.

Most bots are not going to pass the Turing test but they do provide an alternative to, for example, spending time looking something up, which provides some interesting opportunities for automating tasks within your organization (and ours).

Even though there are limits to what can be achieved, using bots to automate repetitive or daily tasks for our users (team chat users and developers) is something we’re very interested in doing. There are a number of bots that already exist that we could integrate, or build, or that our users might like to build.

Some bot functions we think could be beneficial to RC users, to use in-chat are:

Set reminders Bots are handy for quickly setting a reminder, for example if you’re discussing something and want to return to the topic in a few weeks’ time. You could potentially set up reminders for yourself, or for your whole team with a typed command within the chat.

Keep notes. All of your chats are logged, but if you know that a specific part of a conversation is going to be useful later and don’t want to have to hunt for what you need, a bot could allow you to post specific notes to a stored file, either for your own use or for shared functions (like creating meeting minutes).

Send part of a chat to your phone. You could create a quick snippet and text it to yourself, or someone else, or everyone on your team. I find myself doing this with bits of info now and again, to ensure I don’t forget to address them later in the day, but it could also be a way to achieve very quick, direct comms with your team.

Search for an existing dev solution. For developers, you’re not sure whether a solution to your issue exists, a bot command could seek it out for you, or find solutions to similar problems.

Tech support. Just a quick way to answer FAQs: either FAQs about how to use pimentaCHAT or FAQs that your organization receives internally.

Faster screen-sharing/voice calling. Just a quick typed command and you’d be in.

Doc search. Again, just a quicker way to find the info you need, either in the pimentaCHAT documentation or in your own shared company files.

Train staff. Simplify onboarding and integrate it more seamlessly with ongoing comms.

Security bot. Keep tabs on what’s being shared, and notify admins if anything fishy is going on.

Conversation search. Users could potentially search by phrase for a conversation in your team’s log if you’re not sure where it is or can’t remember who said it or in what context. The benefit over regular log search is being able to do it from within an ongoing chat.

Natural Language Processing (NLP). This kind of comes with the territory, but NLP helps bots figure out what you mean whether or not you recall the exact syntax of the command you need. Projects like IBM Watson and Google API are improving this tech all the time (and pimentaCHAT has already begun to make use of it via integrating with the APIs).

But your opinions and thoughts matter more than ours. Do you think your team would benefit from being able to carry out these tasks more quickly? Which tasks are most needed?

Joseph Chan

Data Privacy Day at pimentaCHAT

2019-01-28T02:00:00-06:00

Happy Data Privacy Day from pimentaCHAT!

Happy Data Privacy Day!

Today we highlight how important users’ data privacy is to us, and how we ensure that it remains protected at all times, day in, day out.

First and foremost, pimentaCHAT allows users to stay in control of their data by offering a self hosted option as standard.

We design pimentaCHAT with privacy in mind. We also build and release as open source which allows our code to be independently audited by 100s of contributors.

We continue to add security measures, and one of the big features we’ve added to take privacy to the next level is end-to-end encryption.

Great news: hello EU!

pimentaCHAT is proud to announce the addition of an EU region to our Hosted Cloud offering.

The EU region is a new hosting region located in the EU, in Ireland. This is important because of GDPR data regulations as well as a response to customer requirements to have all of their data remain in the region. This means that, for our EU cloud customers, that data is securely stored and never leaves the EU.

pimentaCHAT: Workflow collaboration tool

2019-01-07T11:07:21-06:00

For those who are accompanying us, I would like to say that we will be helping several companies to obtain their own communication.

We are focused on the best processes for the development of pimentaCHAT. We are creating a clear documentation and structure so that all our partners, both when our users, can take advantage of all the possibilities of this software.

We’ve launched a new documentation system that allows direct contributions. With the new system you can locally stage and test your contributions and then push them to the pimentaCHAT docs repository.

Some new features you might have already seen, or will see soon include:

Live chat helpdesk
Multi-platform applications
Group video chat integration
LDAP authentication
REST APIs
File sharing

Finally, we have been working on some really exciting projects with our developer team. In the next days we will be presenting these news.

Do you have a pimentaCHAT experience to share? Fill out our survey and we’ll aim to feature everyone who participated!

Jazmin Quaynor

Chatten für die Produktivität

2019-01-02T02:26:00-06:00

pimentaCHAT, bring die perfekte und sichere Lösung für die Kommunikation des deutschen Mittelstands.

Arbeitsabläufe lassen sich immer öfter automatisieren. Viele Unternehmen knausern mit moderner Technik. Dabei hat die Arbeitsplatzgestaltung einen großen Einfluss auf die Mitarbeiterzufriedenheit. Unter folgender Artikel kann mah die Studie sehen: Handelsblatt Artikel

Welche neuen Geschäftsmodelle ermöglicht IT?

Wie lassen sich Abläufe automatisieren? Quer durch alle Branchen ist die Digitalisierung das beherrschende Thema. Doch wenn es um die eigenen Mitarbeiter geht, knausern viele Unternehmen noch mit moderner Technik, die ein ortsunabhängiges und papierloses Arbeiten ermöglichen würde.

Zu diesem Schluss kam im vergangenen Jahr eine Studie des Internetdienstanbieters Host Europe. Nur jedem dritten der 1.000 befragten Arbeitnehmer stellt die Firma einen Laptop oder ein Smartphone zur Verfügung. Noch seltener sind Tablets und Equipment für Videotelefonie.

“Unternehmen, die Prozesse digitalisieren wollen, sollten mit der Arbeitsplatzausstattung ihrer Mitarbeiter beginnen”, sagt Claus Boyens, Geschäftsführer von Host Europe. Neben passender Hardware gehörten dazu auch Software Collaborations-Tools. Laut Studie wird von der Zeiterfassung über die Dokumentenablage bis zur Terminabstimmung bislang kaum eine Bürotätigkeit vollständig digital ausgeführt.

Immer dichter wird aber der E-Mail-Verkehr, wie andere Erhebungen zeigen. In vielen Unternehmen wird die elektronische Post für die innerbetriebliche Terminabsprache genauso genutzt wie für das gemeinsame Arbeiten an Dokumenten oder einzelnen Projekten. Die Folge: Arbeitnehmer klagen längst über stetig überquellende Postfächer.

Wie bei Google und Gazprom gearbeitet wird

Abhilfe verspricht sogenannte Kollaborations-Software. Populär sind vor allem Chat-Plattformen - sie haben mehr den Charakter eines informellen Austauschs und kommen dem Bedürfnis vieler Menschen entgegen, auch kurze Informationen elektronisch mit anderen zu teilen. So hat Yahoo Labs in einer Stichprobe herausgefunden, dass die Hälfte aller E-Mail-Antworten weniger als 43 Wörter enthalten.

Zu den führenden Anbietern gehört die deutsche cloudbasierte Plattform “pimentaCHAT”: Mitarbeiter können hier verschiedene Kanäle anlegen und sich ohne E-Mail-Pingpong mit Kollegen austauschen. Die Software funktioniert auf Mobilgerüten wie auf normalen Desktop-PCs. Microsoft hat Anfang der Woche ein Konkurrenzprodukt für Unternehmenskunden der Abo-Software Office 365 gestartet. Auch “Microsoft Teams” ist chatbasiert und soll helfen, die E-Mail-Flut einzudämmen. Der Mehrwert vom pimentaCHAT gegenüber anderen Anbieter ist die Beratung im Bereich Change Management. Das Unternehmen schult seine Kunden in einer langfristigen Zeit und betreut die Kommunikationsentwicklung Ihrer Kunden.