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An introduction to Kerika
Kerika is a visual collaboration tool designed to keep teams in sync across multiple locations, facilitating real-time communication on strategy, workflow, and content management. It allows users to share ideas, plans, and various forms of content seamlessly within an interactive whiteboard format, enhancing agility and responsiveness to change. Additionally, it supports team management and collaboration with real-time updates, encryption for security, and integration with tools like Google Docs.
An introduction to Kerika
- 1. Kerika Visual Collaboration It’s howyou get everyone on the same page!™ © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 1 Kerika
- 2. Get on thesame page! ● If your team is spread over multiple locations, Kerika is the essential collaboration tool that ensures everyone on your team is always in synch: ► On strategy, process, workflow and tactics. ► On content created by the team, and content sourced from the Web. ● If you want to be nimble and agile, Kerika is the essential collaboration tool that helps your team respond to change, and then ensures that changes in strategy, process and content are shared in real-time, and meaningfully, with everyone on your team. ● If you need to build closer relationships with your stakeholders, Kerika is the essential collaboration tool for building virtual teams across organizational and company boundaries. ● If you need to minimize the effect of team turnover, Kerika is the essential collaboration tool that ensures that knowledge is captured and transmitted from the person leaving, to the person joining. © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 2 Kerika
- 3. Kerika A Simple Case Study… © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 3 Kerika
- 4. My team hasjust 6 weeks to build and launch a new mobile App! © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 4 Kerika
- 5. Jon Me Seattle Seattle Dennis New York Susan Chen (Always on a plane) Portland My team is spread out all over the place… © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 5 Kerika
- 6. Me Jon Dennis Chen Susan Which makes effective collaboration even harder! © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 6 Kerika
- 7. We have ideasto share, content to create, and plans to execute © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 7 Kerika
- 8. We like touse whiteboards for our planning… We could try capturing our plans with Visio or PowerPoint, or online drawing tools, but these provide only a static view of the project’s strategy. The picture becomes one more document to maintain and share with the team. © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 8 Kerika
- 9. And we wantto be nimble… As our project progresses, our team needs to be agile in dealing with change. When plans must evolve rapidly, capturing the plan as a simple drawing only increases my burden: it becomes one more file to update and share… © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 9 Kerika
- 10. We need awhiteboard that helps us share ideas, plans, and content – and manage change! © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 10 Kerika
- 11. Kerika turns mymagical and it handles whiteboard! Kerika handles ideas,whiteboard… change… is the browser into a rich, interactive Easy-to-use drawing tools © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 11 Kerika
- 12. Kerika turns mymagical and it handles whiteboard! Kerika handles ideas,whiteboard… change… is the browser into a rich, interactive Initial sketch of the project plan, drawn inside a browser © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 12 Kerika
- 13. Kerika turns mymagical and it handles whiteboard! Kerika handles ideas,whiteboard… change… is the browser into a rich, interactive My Account © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 13 Kerika
- 14. Kerika turns mymagical and it handles whiteboard! Kerika handles ideas,whiteboard… change… is the browser into a rich, interactive My logo © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 14 Kerika
- 15. Kerika handles ideas,and in handles change… embraces change: it interactive whiteboard! Kerika turns my browser into a rich,strategy & structure © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 15 Kerika
- 16. Kerika handles ideas,and in handles change… embraces change: it interactive whiteboard! Kerika turns my browser into a rich,strategy & structure © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 16 Kerika
- 17. Kerika handles ideas,and in handles change… embraces change: it interactive whiteboard! Kerika turns my browser into a rich,strategy & structure © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 17 Kerika
- 18. Kerika handles ideas,and in handles change… embraces change: it interactive whiteboard! Kerika turns my browser into a rich,strategy & structure © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 18 Kerika
- 19. Kerika handles ideas,and in handles change… embraces change: it interactive whiteboard! Kerika turns my browser into a rich,strategy & structure © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 19 Kerika
- 20. OK, so planning is easy… but what about the content? © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 20 Kerika
- 21. Slideshare, Web snippets Flash Content Google Docs Scribd… Pictures Video We need to manage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 21 Kerika
- 22. Slideshare, Web snippets Flash Content Google Docs Scribd… Video Pictures We need to manage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 22 Kerika
- 23. Slideshare, Web snippets Flash Content Scribd… Google Docs Video We need to manage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 23 Kerika
- 24. Web snippets Flash Content Video Slideshare, Scribd… We need to manage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 24 Kerika
- 25. Flash Content Web snippets Video We need to manage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 25 Kerika
- 26. Flash Content Video We need to manage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 26 Kerika
- 27. Video We need tomanage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 27 Kerika
- 28. We need tomanage a variety of content, from a variety of sources © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 28 Kerika
- 29. Kerika lets meshare content, right on my whiteboard… © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 29 Kerika
- 30. Kerika lets meshare content, right on my whiteboard… I can search for my Google Docs, and then just drag them onto my Idea Page © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 30 Kerika
- 31. Kerika lets meshare content, right on my whiteboard… © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 31 Kerika
- 32. Kerika lets meshare content, right on my whiteboard… My content shows up in the context of my project © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 32 Kerika
- 33. I can createsub-projects, and add content from anywhere… I want to make this into a sub-project © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 33 Kerika
- 34. I can createsub-projects, and add content from anywhere… I made my idea into a sub-project I can embed Flash content I can add Web snippets, like this extract from Wikipedia I want to make this into a sub-project © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 34 Kerika
- 35. I can createsub-projects, and add content from anywhere… I can embed videos © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 35 Kerika
- 36. I can createsub-projects, and add content from anywhere… I can embed Flash content © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 36 Kerika
- 37. I can createsub-projects, and add content from anywhere… I can add Web snippets, like this extract from Wikipedia © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 37 Kerika
- 38. OK, so planningis easy, content management is easy… but what about sharing? © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 38 Kerika
- 39. It’s easy forme to build & manage my team… A single button to manage my team and share my project © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 39 Kerika
- 40. It’s easy forme to build & manage my team… My project team: specific people, with specific roles © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 40 Kerika
- 41. It’s easy forme to build & manage my team… I can share with social media © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 41 Kerika
- 42. What else canI expect from Kerika? ● I can get started in seconds using any Google ID, such as a Gmail address! ● I can nest Idea Pages™ inside each other, and create live links between them, so that even the most complex projects can be managed with the simplest user interface! ● Everyone on my team gets project updates in real-time: whether they are in the same room, or halfway across the world! ● I can create and share visual templates that represent best practices for my company! ► I can include process flows, methodologies and sample content. ● I can use Kerika anywhere, with any modern browser on any laptop! ● All my communications are encrypted, so I know I am safe! ● I can use Kerika in any language, so my global team is always comfortable and productive! © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 42 Kerika
- 43. What are myalternatives to Kerika? ● Google Docs are great for sharing documents, but they don’t give me a project-view of my documents, and they can’t handle the content I grab from the Web. (Luckily, Kerika works seamlessly with Google Docs!) ● SharePoint can handle Microsoft Office documents, but it won’t make my team agile, and it doesn’t manage content sourced from Web. ● Creately, Gliffy, Lucid Chart, Visio are great for drawing ideas and processes, but these don’t support any content management. ● Mindjet, Mindmeister are great for brainstorming and ideas, but they don’t support content management ● Pivotal Tracker, Rally are great for task management in Agile projects; but not for content management. ● Google Sites, Portals (e.g. Central Desktop) are not very agile, and they don’t support free-form ideas or processes – only custom gadgets. ● Smartboards are very expensive, very immobile hardware that don’t support content management. © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 43 Kerika
- 44. Kerika The Company The Team The Story © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 44 Kerika
- 45. The Company ● Kerika,Inc. is organized as a Washington Corporation, and is privately funded. ● The project to build Kerika as a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application began in August 2010; research on the subject started several years earlier. ► Private beta with selected local users started in March 2011. ► Expanded beta continued in August-November. ► Extensive usability testing and rapid iterations were used to improve the product’s quality and usability, with new releases every 3-4 weeks since March 2011. ● Kerika has been issued US Patent 7,958,080 and has another patent pending. Kerika has been granted registered trademarks and registered service marks for its name and logo. ► “Idea Pages”, “It’s time to get everyone on the same page”, and “cut- and-paste the Internet” are Trademarks of Kerika. © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 45 Kerika
- 46. The Team: inSeattle & India ● Arun Kumar, Founder/CEO Over 27 years experience in software, consulting and financial services; has executed complex projects in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia. Arun was a founder of the Jiway group of companies in London and Stockholm (now part of NASDAQ OMX), an E-Business Strategist for Morgan Stanley in New York and London, and a board director of Polopoly in Stockholm, and Director of Program Management at Onvia in Seattle. Arun was educated at IIT Delhi and WSU. ● Jonathan Cohen, Chief Technology Officer Over 30 years experience in building complex software for a variety of industries. Jon was the founder of Vsey Software, which developed advanced data mining and data visualization software. Jon's distinguished career has included software engineering at Amazon, developing machine vision systems for Cognex, developing simulation and algorithm development environments for TASC, and data management systems for the Ada compiler. Jon was educated at MIT. ● Additional developers & QA are based in India. © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 46 Kerika
- 47. The Story ofKerika… Jeff Barr, Senior Web Evangelist for Amazon Web Services produced a short documentary of the company and it’s founder: Click here to watch this video (5:51 minutes duration) © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 47 Kerika
- 48. Get in touch! info@kerika.com @Kerika YouTube.com/Kerika Facebook.com/Kerika 25736 SE 40th Street Kerika.com Issaquah, WA 98029 (United States) © Kerika, Inc. 2011 Page 48 Kerika
Editor's Notes
- #3 Why visual collaboration, when there’s email and other tools for sharing content?Well, if any of these circumstances apply to you, the answer is crystal clear:Is your team spread over multiple locations? Do some people work overseas? Are some people always on the road? If that’s the case, then Kerika is your essential collaboration tool for ensuring that everyone on your team is always in synch.And staying in synch means everyone on the team always has the same, real-time view of the project’s strategy, processes, workflows and tactics.It means that everyone on the team always has fast, easy access to all of the content associated with the project, and they don’t have to dig through some big file dump like a shared folder to find what they need.Does your team have to be nimble, and agile – be responsive to all the changes that come your way each day, whether it is from your competitor’s latest moves, developments in technology, unexpected obstacles faced or even surprising gains obtained by individual members of the team? If so, then Kerika is your essential collaboration tool to make sure that changes in strategy, tactics, process and content are shared in real-time with everyone who matters – people on the team, and all your stakeholders as well.And, speaking of stakeholders, do you need to build closer relationships with key partners, project sponsors, related departments or even your external clients? If that’s the case, then Kerika is the essential collaboration tool for quickly and effectively building virtual teams that can span organizational and company boundaries.And, finally, do you have to worry about team turnover – people unexpectedly leaving, or even joining your team? If so, then Kerika is the essential collaboration tool for ensuring that no knowledge is lost when someone walks out of the door, and no time is wasted when someone walks in the door!
- #5 My team has just 6 weeks to build and launch a new mobile app.It’s not a lot of time, which means we need to move fast. I mean, really fast.
- #6 And our team is spread out all over the place.Jon is with me here in Seattle, but Chen is down in Portland and Dennis is all the way way over in New York.And as for Susan, well, it’s anyone’s guess as to where she is at any moment since she practically lives on a plane!
- #7 So, collaboration is not going to be easy for us.It’s not just the usual problems of sharing content, it’ also the harder problem of keeping a distributed team in synch even as we race to our deadline, making and remaking plans along the way, creating and gathering content, and building our way to success.
- #8 So, here’s our challenge: we have ideas to share, content to create, and plans to execute!
- #9 Like everyone else, we love using whiteboards!It’s how we can capture and share our ideas, and build upon each other’s insights.It works great – but only if everyone is in the same room, at the same time, all the time…Now we could try capturing our thoughts in the form of a drawing, using Visio or PowerPoint or any of the online drawing tools like Google Docs and Creately and Gliffy and so forth, but that only captures a static view of the project.
- #10 As things change, and things always change!, the picture becomes just one more document that we have to remember to update and maintain and share – one more document, on top of all the other documents that we need to share!
- #11 If only we had amagical whiteboard…One that helps us share ideas and plans and content, and, most importantly, helps us manage change!
- #12 Luckily, there’s Kerika!It turns my browser into a living, rich whiteboard.Simple drawing tools help me sketch out my project plan, using my browser as a canvas.
- #14 And to personalize the whole experience, I can customize my account with my picture and my logo
- #16 And, most importantly of all, while so many other collaboration tools fight change, Kerika actually embraces change!As my project evolves, it’s easy to move items around on my magic whiteboard, using simple drawing operations and easy editing actions like cut, copy and paste.
- #21 OK, so planning is obviously easy with Kerika, but what about sharing content?
- #22 Well, any project today must deal with not just the content that the team creates itself, like documents and spreadsheets and designs, it’s increasingly important for the team to be able to source and manage the most relevant content it can find on the Web.And that includes not just the documents you might have in your Google Docs account, it also includes pictures, presentations from Slideshare, Scribd and other sources, little snippets of Web content, like useful pieces of Wikipedia pages, Flash content, and video from all sources (and we don’t mean just YouTube!)
- #30 Adding Google Docs, for example, is very easy with Kerika because you can your Google Docs right from inside Kerika itself, and then simply drag and drop them onto the canvas.
- #32 In this example, the pieces of the project are starting to come together: the plan called for developing a product vision, and now we have that right on the canvas as an embedded Google Doc.The plan called for a budget and a launch plan, and as these bits get done, they get added right onto our magic whiteboard.
- #34 But what’s really great about Kerika is that you can take individual ideas and expand them into subprojects.
- #35 These subprojects are Idea Pages that can be nested inside each other.In this example, I have taken the idea for finding Best Practices about mobile apps, and with a simple double-click of my mouse I have expanded that into another Idea Page that’s sits inside my original master plan.
- #36 Now, I can start adding content from the Web: like videos
- #37 Presentations…
- #38 Web snippets, like this material from Wikipedia
- #39 OK, so we know that planning is easy with Kerika, especially when your plans are subject to change, and we know that content management is easy with Kerika, but what about sharing projects and building and managing a project team?
- #40 A single, simple Share button let’s you do everything you need:
- #41 You can add people to your project team and give them specific roles: Team Members, for example, can make changes to your project while Visitors can only view your project.You can decide whether to make the project open to everyone to visit (but not change)
- #42 And you can easily share your project on your social networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter, all with a single mouse click.
- #43 Well, all that sounds pretty good…So, what else can I expect from Kerika?Well, to start with, you can get started really quickly: all you need is any kind of Google ID, like a Gmail address, and your Kerika account is set up in just a few seconds.As we saw earlier, the ability to nest Idea Pages within each other, and to create live links between Idea Pages means that even your most complex set of projects can all be managed with the simplest user interface imaginable!Kerika is fast, which means that everyone on the team gets real-time updates: whether they are just down the hallway or all the way across the globe.We can easily create templates to capture our standard methodologies or best practices, so that new projects can get started fast, and pointed in the right direction.Any project can be use as a template for another project that you want to start: a single mouse click is all it takes.And because Kerika is a true Web App, I can get access to my projects from any modern browser, anywhere.And, of course, all my communications is always encrypted, so I know I am safe.And if I prefer to work in a language other than English, getting the user interface set up with a different language is a breeze!(And that means my global team is always comfortable and productive!)
- #44 Are there alternatives to using Kerika?Sure there are alternatives, but none that work as well!Google Docs, for example, is great for sharing documents but it has absolutely no idea about what your project is all about, and it can’t do anything to help you manage all the different kinds of Web content that’s so essential for your project’s success.(Luckily, Kerika works just great with Google Docs, so you get all the benefits of Google Doc when you Kerika!)And there’s old SharePoint of course, which is good for your Microsoft Office documents, most of the time anyway, but if you have tried using SharePoint you know already that it’s the very opposite of an agile or nimble team solution.There are a bunch of drawing tools that you can use to sketch out your ideas, but they don’t help you with content management.There are a bunch of mind-mapping tools, and they don’t help with content management either.There are project management tools that help chase down tasks, but they are pretty weak when it comes to ideas and content.You can always try setting up a portal, but that’s an inflexible, often very expensive solution that’s not going to get your team as nimble as you need it to be.And, finally, there are big, physical smartboards: very expensive, very immobile, and not for content management.
- #46 It’s been around for a while, and has some real assets behind it.Like an issued patent!
- #47 The team is strong: people with the academic and professional credentials, and the many years of experience in delivering complex products and services that you would want on your side
- #48 But, the best way of all is probably to watch this little video documentary that was produced by Jeff Barr, from Amazon, that tells the story of Kerika better than we could ourselves!
- #49 Want to learn more?Want to get touch?Here’s how…