Email: Is there any more criticized yet pervasive productivity tool out there? The fact is that despite many, many pronouncements to the contrary, email isn't going anywhere and in fact, its ecosystem seems stronger than ever, as Constellation Research analyst Alan Lepofsky noted recently on Twitter:
Think email is dying, these 3 dozen + startups would disagree. #socbiz pic.twitter.com/dsnfMenoCw
— Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo) June 7, 2015"It's another example of validating that email is still a mission-critical business tool, despite all this talk of social and email going away," Lepofsky says.
Boxer, which uses containers for user management and security, will be moved under VMWare's Airwatch mobile device management product family. It's integrated with many popular content and productivty tools, including Box, Evernote, Facebook, Outlook, Gmail, iCloud and Twitter.
VMware's Noah Wasmer explained the rationale for scooping up the company in a blog post, excerpted below:
The Boxer team, which will join the AirWatch team, has developed a mature personal information management (PIM) solution for enterprises that offers a container approach to mobile application management and security.
What if this suite could be well integrated into an ecosystem of apps through a standard like ACE? Imagine, your apps and your data – seamlessly working together with one unified identity and NO logins or configurations – consumer simple, enterprise secure.
The team at Boxer understands that enterprise IT has to earn the right to be on the user’s device by creating a “consumer grade” user experience that is precise and blazing fast. Their success in this area has been led by their consumer solution which has earned rave reviews for its simplicity and usability. Boxer has carried those attributes over to their enterprise solution.
On the other hand, this is not VMWare's first foray into the collaboration space, Lepofsky notes. During the past several years, it acquired Socialcast for enterprise social networking, the Zimbra collaboration and communities suite, and SlideRocket presentation software. VMWare has since sold off both Zimbra and SlideRocket.
The Bottom Line
So what's different this time? One key point is the placement of Boxer under AirWatch, Lepofsky says: "For companies that were always interested in Blackberry because it was so secure, is this now a compelling offering because of the security features AirWatch provides."
And again, the deal as well as others—such as Microsoft's 2014 acquisition of Accompli—provides validation of how embedded email remains in both consumer and business culture. It also underscores the fact that email, more than 40 years after its introduction to the world, is still a work in progress.
"Email is a fantastic communication tool, but it's not a great collaboration tool," Lepofsky says.