From the global software development company The Plant, comes a new social productivity app called Qortex.  Pronounced “cortex,” like the contextualization layer of the human brain, there’s two points of interest with this particular launch: the team’s growth strategy in a rapidly crowding market of cloud-based social services, and their Tokyo base, giving Qortex a fascinating perspective on productivity approaches in Japan compared to other countries like the U.S.

The social enterprise is a market growing comfortably into its own, bringing with it the promise of efficient workflow across an organization.  Yet many social productivity apps designed for the workplace end up bombarding workers with too much information, as important notices and documents easily get lost in the sea of never ending data.

The goal of Qortex is to allow team members to focus on the essentials of their communication threads, so they can stay on top of tasks and projects.  Qortex uses artificial intelligence to distinguish between high and low-priority information, so users can easily identify what needs their immediate attention.

“Most teams are buried in a pile of apps they’re expected to use to communicate, and we keep adding on more apps that are just stand-alone features,” says Anatole Varin, Director of Qortex and Founder of The Plant.  “The collaboration and productivity market is desperate for an integrated tool that is intelligent enough to keep people from getting drowned in irrelevant information and conversations.  That’s why we built Qortex – it’s the one place where teams do real work without being overwhelmed by extraneous corporate noise.”

Global lessons in productivity culture

Qortex has been in private beta since 2012 and the team used this time to improve on the app.  The app has been used by over 1,000 private beta users and through their input and support, Qortex has been developed with real-world business situations as the driving force for its design.

Of course, beta testing is important for any pre-launched product, but Qortex was able to learn from its team’s earlier work with clients, as well as the local office culture in Japan. The result is obvious, putting data democratization at the heart of the app, empowering every end user with information that’s first and foremost relevant.  It’s just one way intelligent design is helping cloud-based technologies to improve business communication within an organization, a country and the globe.

Qortex’s approach could have a huge impact in Japan alone.  “The companies here are much more hierarchical,” notes Varin.  “If you have an idea, you’re really only supposed to talk to the person above you, who speaks to the person above them.  These technologies are quite disruptive actually, because they put everyone on the same level.  You must have a different approach.  We look forward to it – a revolution in a way.”

The Plant, which has offices in Japan, Australia and China, interfaces with dozens of companies around the world.  So in building Qortex with a powerful AI system constantly contextualizing content and tasks, things like natural language search mechanisms can become a challenge in supporting a global economy.  And while Qortex is starting revolutions in Tokyo, the team sees just as much potential for its social productivity app in Europe and the US, where organizations are already open to using these types of services.

Standing out in a crowded, clouded market

But potential doesn’t pay the bills, and Qortex will need specialized tactics to conquer its local markets and others.  In Western countries, we’ve seen cloud-based social productivity apps make their way into the enterprise through “back door” methods, piggybacking on smartphones and tablets, as well as public cloud capabilities that require little-to-no help (or approval) from IT.  But in Japan, Qortex may need to put in a bit more work towards educating clients.

To that end, Qortex has an on-premise version that addresses IT’s security concerns, and also ensures compatibility with an organization’s backend structure.  “We can help them, rather than just saying, ‘download it and do it yourself,'” says Varin.

In Japan’s hierarchical work culture, even this remains a challenge.  You often find companies have an internal champion to get other workers on board, only then presenting the case to the boss.  Focusing on these internal networks will be key for Qortex’s success particularly in Japan.

That being said, one huge perk for Qortex is the experience of its team.  The Plant is not a bootstrapped startup seeking multiple rounds of funding, but an established software development team that’s seen firsthand the many pain points of enterprise clients looking to improve internal communications through cloud-based services.    “We’re a little bit different from some of these startup companies.  It’s not a big gamble on us,” says Varin.

Qortex Key Features

Clutter-free timeline – messages already read are tucked away and only new or relevant content are displayed;

Share groups with other companies – any group on Qortex can be shared with an external contact or organization to facilitate secure information exchange;

Everything is a wiki – every entry has a version history and can be linked to and from each other easily;

Use own Chat Client – open protocols like Jabber/XMPP save conversations on browser chat or any desktop client seamlessly into Qortex;

To-Dos – set deadlines for task and assign them to any user on Qortex;

Acknowledgements – ask one, several or all people of a group to confirm that they have read your message;

Instant Presentations – you can use Qortex to turn any entry into a slide presentation or collaborate with teammates to create presentation using Qortex;

Smart mail notifications – email messages only when users aren’t logged into Qortex and for messages that haven’t been read;

Secure and easy drag-and-drop file exchange;

Support for on-site installations for security and privacy; and

Multi-language support, localized versions in English, Chinese, and Japanese which will be released in early August of this year.

Qortex will be available free of charge during public beta, but a full version of Qortex will be launched later this year.  The full version will include both a free and paid version, offered at $5 per user per month.  Additional features will also be available for subscribers at an incremental cost, allowing companies to customize their Qortex experience to meet specific needs.  As noted above, Qortex will also have an on-premise version for businesses that want to run the application on their own machines.

Contributors: Mellisa Tolentino