Having rebranded in July 2015 (see New look Newforma), US-based project information management (PIM) software vendor Newforma has announced the launch of its Newforma Customer Community: “an online location for Newforma customers to ask questions, find answers, join conversations, and contribute ideas.”
According to the Newforma news release, the community, built on Salesforce Community Templates, offers “numerous ways to engage with peers and Newforma representatives” – they can:
- Post questions.
- Find and share answers.
- Suggest new products, features, and improvements.
- Monitor and track open support cases.
- Find release notes and updates.
- Discuss best practices.
- Discover new ways to enrich their professional lives.
Reaction
It’s nothing new. Seven years ago, when social media was still relatively new (at least in the construction sector, even in IT), Bentley launched its BE communities (May 2008), followed soon after by Adobe (June 2008). A year later, UK-based AEC SaaS collaboration vendor Asite was launching its own interactive community in June 2009 (Asite upgrades and updates; I revisited it three months later, and again in December that year). The interfaces may be a little slicker, but the basic idea of self-servicing online communities is little different.
