Frequently Asked Questions

• ABOUT THE PRODUCT
  • + What is PebbleTalk all about?
    PebbleTalk is an enterprise class software that enables collaboration among teams in organizations and extended enterprises (channel partners). PebbleTalk brings about:

    • 1. Deeper engagement among employees - employees get to know more about common professional aspects of colleagues they might not even have met
    • 2. A culture that fosters innovative thinking as solutions to key customer and research problems are often arrived at informally - PebbleTalk brings out structure from these discussions to the benefit of the enterprise and teams
    • 3. Better sales, marketing and channel management - better engagement among customer facing teams and channel partners creates a sales and marketing organization that is more responsive to market requirements
    • 4. Enterprise integration - PebbleTalk is able to integrate with Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint and other enterprise-wide applications while providing an easy-to-use interface that can live in and deliver value from within the familiar Outlook interface
    • 5. Ease of rolling out of multiple HR initiatives including post merger cultural blending, employee on-boarding, know you colleagues, town halls, employee surveys and more
  • + Who can use PebbleTalk?
    PebbleTalk can be used by:

    • 1. Senior managers across various functions such as sales, marketing, product management, project management, operations, channel management, research and development, human resources, finance and comptroller ship and accounting
    • 2. The entire HR function
    • 3. Employees across various levels and across teams and geographies
    • 4. Channel partners(of sales and marketing teams)
    • 5. Technology collaborators(product development or support ecosystems)
  • + Do I need to learn and know a lot before I start using PebbleTalk? How simple is it to use?
    PebbleTalk is extremely easy to use. It has a very intuitive user interface.
  • + How do I use PebbleTalk?
    If you are a corporate user, your company has probably gone in for an enterprise or team-wise installation. You can also go to the website http://www.pebbletalk.com/your-company-nameand use the user ID and password that have been mailed to you and get started.
  • + I am from the HR department. What can PebbleTalk do for me?
    PebbleTalk can take care of:

    • 1. Complete employee engagement across teams, across geographies and across job profiles / seniority levels - creation of employee profiles (reading from existing databases as well as self-profiling), enabling discussions, formal forums and groups, informal chat groups and a lot more. Learn more on employee engagement through PebbleTalk...
    • 2. Creation of task forces / user groups / teams for tasks that HR business partners, HR team members of various business units are responsible for - this is a very easy way of reaching out to employees as compared to the traditional e-mailing to distribution lists
    • 3. Employee on-boarding - helps provide histories of teams, jobs / roles and organizations much better and in an organized manner as compared to the traditional word of mouth programs.
    • 4. Cultural issues that surface during mergers and acquisitions
    • 5. Organization wide communication that delivers greater impact
    • 6. Learning and development practices - Learn how PebbleTalk orchestrated great knowledge management and innovation process for a large IT services Company...
  • + I am the CIO. How is PebbleTalk beneficial for my company?
    As the key officer in-charge of how information is created, subscribed to, referred, stored to and how it flows, you are aware that a very large chunk of this information gets created and propagated through informal channels such as water cooler discussions, IM (instant messenger) chats, e-mails, over the phone etc.
    
    PebbleTalk provides structure to all these informal channels of information creation and propagation and makes it available for further innovating thinking, problem solving, marketing communication and more.
    
    PebbleTalk is safe, secure and conforms to all organizational data security and data integrity policies.
  • + I am from the sales and marketing team. What can PebbleTalk do for my team?
    PebbleTalk is an easy way of collaborating with people from other teams who are responsible for turning in proposals and solutions that go into bids. Thus PebbleTalk is an effective bid management tool.
    
    Sales persons can find quick answers from multiple sources and each such source can get to know what others are thinking. This is something that is difficult in an all e-mail environment. All these conversations are recorded for posterity. Filed away under the relevant topics and context, these can be referred to at any time in the future and the process of stitching together a bid can be reduced drastically.
    
    Conversing with channel partners: PebbleTalk can be extended to reach out to sales channel partners. Being in touch with your partners on a more regular basis in short, context-driven conversations would be of great value.
• INSTALLATION AND INTEGRATION RELATED
  • + How do we install PebbleTalk?
    PebbleTalk team takes care of the installation of the software. PebbleTalk is available in two models:

    • 1. Hosted, on-demand: In this model, PebbleTalk is hosted in the cloud and is offered as a service that your enterprise could use.
    • 2. On-premise (within the firewall): In this model, PebbleTalk is deployed on a server within the firewall of your enterprise. PebbleTalk team works with your IT team to install PebbleTalk on your servers and helps in configuring the servers for optimal performance.
  • + Do you have both on-premise and on-demand/ SaaS models?
    Yes, PebbleTalk is available in both on-demand (hosted) and on-premise (within the firewall) options.
  • + What do you mean when you say enterprise integration? Which software do you integrate with? What is your roadmap?
    By Enterprise Integration we mean PebbleTalk integrates with existing Enterprise IT software to make it seamlessly integrate into the IT framework of enterprises. For example, PebbleTalk integrates with Microsoft Sharepoint, Active Directory and Microsoft SQLServer.
  • + Does PebbleTalk integrate with Microsoft Sharepoint?
    Yes, PebbleTalk integrates with Microsoft Sharepoint. Many enterprises have invested significantly into their Sharepoint implementations. PebbleTalk's integration with Sharepoint enables the enterprise to reuse their existing investment in Sharepoint and enables increasing the ROI from their Sharepoint implementation.
• MANAGEMENT OF PEBBLETALK
  • + Do I need a separate IT team to manage PebbleTalk? How do I do it?
    No. PebbleTalk is an easy to manage solution.
    PebbleTalk doesn't require any full-time IT personnel from your enterprise to manage the solution. PebbleTalk requires infrequent administration and only on a need-basis. This means, your current IT team can itself easily administer PebbleTalk.
  • + How do new features get added to PebbleTalk?
    There are two ways updates are handled in PebbleTalk depending on how PebbleTalk is hosted:

    • 1. On-demand, hosted model: PebbleTalk team does periodic updates to the solution and such updates are notified to you.
    • 2. On-premise (within your firewall): PebbleTalk team works with your IT team to deliver the update.
  • + If I install a new enterprise product in my datacenter, how do I get PebbleTalk to support it?
    If you have a new product deployed In your enterprise, please contact the PebbleTalk team to understand how PebbleTalk can integrate with the new product. We will evaluate the integration aspects required and revert with the details.
  • + Do I have to get new user IDs for PebbleTalk? Does it work on a single-sign-on mode?
    No. PebbleTalk works on a single-sign-on mode. Once you have logged into your corporate network, you are automatically signed into PebbleTalk. If you are at home and are connected to your corporate network remotely, you can still use PebbleTalk just as before.
• DATA AND INFORMATION SECURITY
  • + How secure is my mail server after I install PebbleTalk?
    PebbleTalk's deployment doesn't affect your mail server. You will continue to use your mails as earlier.
  • + Do I have to compromise with my information policy after I install PebbleTalk?
    No. PebbleTalk works in step with your corporate security policy. PebbleTalk integrates with Active Directory or LDAP to support your IT's authentication requirement. PebbleTalk also uses 128-bit secure HTTP to provide additional security.
  • + Would I have to tune my security policy after I install PebbleTalk?
    No. PebbleTalk integrates with Active Directory or LDAP to support your IT's authentication requirement. PebbleTalk also uses 128-bit secure HTTP to provide additional security.
• PEBBLETALK IN THE WORKPLACE
  • + How would we benefit from employee engagement? How can PebbleTalk help?
    Please take this from the website FAQ
  • + What are some key features of PebbleTalk that make teams collaborate better?
    Please take this from the website FAQ
• PRICING
  • + How can I get PebbleTalk and for how much?
    You can get in touch with our team by calling us up or sending an email to info@pebbletalk.com. Please mention your requirements. We shall get in touch with you to understand your collaboration needs and then come up with suggestions on which modules of PebbleTalk do you need and where you can get started and how.
  • + What do I do if my usage of PebbleTalk increases to beyond what I had purchased it for?
    PebbleTalk provides a per-user pricing. Also, PebbleTalk provides volume discounts on its pricing. Please contact us with your needs' on the number of users and we would be pleased to revert with the details.