Sitrion (formerly NewsGator Technologies) is a multinational software company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Sitrion develops and markets mobility and collaboration software. It was founded in 2004 under the name NewsGator. It was initially a consumer company focused on RSS aggregation, before shifting its focus to the enterprise market. The company raised $12 million in funding in 2007 and acquired Tomoye in 2010. In 2013, NewsGator acquired Sitrion, and in 2014, chose to keep the same name.

Sitrion
Company typePrivate
Founded2004[1]
HeadquartersDenver, Colorado, United States
Key people
Greg Reinacker, Founder
Daniel Kraft, CEO
Henry Albrecht
ProductsSocial Sites
Tomoye
Sitrion ONE
Limeade ONE
Number of employees
85
ParentLimeade
WebsiteLimeade

Corporate history

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Sitrion was founded as NewsGator in 2004 by Greg Reinacker and was initially self-funded. Mobius provided an undisclosed amount of Series A and Series B funding in the early 2000s.[2] A third $6 million round of funding was raised in 2005.[3]

In 2005, the company acquired Bradbury Software, which developed a desktop application called FeedDemon and a CSS/xHTML editor called TopStyle.[4]

Another $12 million in funding was raised in December 2007, followed by $10 million in 2009.[5] From 2004 to 2010, the company's CEO was JB Holston.[6]

In 2010, the company acquired Canada-based Tomoye, an enterprise community and collaboration computing vendor, primarily used by government organizations.[7]

Daniel Kraft became CEO & President in 2012.[8]

In 2013, NewsGator acquired Sitrion, who was previously a business partner.[9][10] In January of the following year, the company changed its name to Sitrion.[11] While initially, the purchase of Sitrion was intended to expand the product portfolio of NewsGator,[12] it then began focusing on selling social networking software to client companies (a business it had been in since 2007)—specifically Sitrion Social Workplace.[13] Kraft has stated that introducing social collaboration concepts can create a more invested staff, saying, "If you terminate nonproductive conversations, then you’re eliminating the ability to make the network a community people would like to belong to."[14]

In 2018, Sitrion was acquired by employee engagement company, Limeade.[15]

Software

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A user interface image of the Sitrion ONE collaboration software

Sitrion Social

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Sitrion Social is an add-on for SharePoint, which also integrates with SAP.[13][16] Version 3.0 of Social Sites (now Sitrion Social) was released in late 2009. Among other improvements, it introduced a microblogging component to the software.[17] In 2012, the company started developing software for vertical markets[18] and products for regulatory compliance in partnership with HiSoftware.[19] A simplified user interface for NewsGator Tomoye was introduced in 2011.[20] Sitrion Social is comparable to Facebook, but designed for use with SharePoint and used for employee collaboration.[5] It is typically used to add functionality to Microsoft SharePoint and SAP processes.[9][21]

Computers and Applied Sciences reviewed version 2.7 of Social Sites, Sitrion's Facebook-like employee collaboration tool. It praised the software's user interface and synchronization across devices.[21]

Past software

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In 2002, Sitrion (then called NewsGator) originally developed consumer RSS software that allowed users to receive notifications when a blog, news site or other page was updated.[2][22] It was one of few readers that integrated directly with Microsoft Outlook.[22] In 2003, a version 1.3 was introduced that added support for subscribing to newsgroups through Outlook, automated some of the organization features and made other improvements.[23] Version 2.0 was released in March 2004, which allowed users to get notifications from mobile devices, to access exclusive content and made other improvements.[24] By 2004, it was one of the better known RSS tools.[25] It also made a partnership that year with PR firm Edelman to develop a reader tool called Hosted Conversations used by Edelman clients and available to others.[26] Integration with Factiva was also introduced that year.[27] NewsGator started pursuing the enterprise market in late 2005 with a new NewsGator Enterprise Server (NGES) product.[28]

References

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  1. ^ Eldon, Eric (January 11, 2012). "NewsGator Has Quietly Built An Enterprise Social Networking Business On Top Of SharePoint". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  2. ^ a b Wehner, Ross (December 2, 2004). "VC firm re-infuses NewsGator Superior-based Mobius is the sole investor in the company that offers news updates from across the Web". The Denver Post. pp. C-04.
  3. ^ McGhee, Tom (April 20, 2005). "News-update firm attracts interest". The Denver Post.
  4. ^ Jaques R. NewsGator snaps up FeedDemon. Information World Review [serial online]. June 2005;(214):8. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 31, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Perez, Juan (January 12, 2009). "Enterprise 2.0 Vendor NewsGator Gets Funding Boost". CIO Magazine.
  6. ^ "Xconomy: 10 Things to Know About BEN, Blackstone, and Colorado's Gazelles". 8 May 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  7. ^ Zinck, Barb (January 20, 2010). "NewsGator Acquires Tomoye: Expands Solution Offering, Markets". CMS Wire.
  8. ^ Mosher Zinck, Barb (August 12, 2012). "NewsGator Brings in ifridge Founder Daniel Kraft as New President & CEO". CMS Wire. Simpler Media Group, Inc. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  9. ^ a b Stowe, Boyd (2013-10-23). "NewsGator acquires Sitrion, pushes ahead in innovation sector". GigaOm. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  10. ^ Turk, Melanie (2013-10-22). "In Acquiring Sitrion, NewsGator Hopes to Make the Mundane More Fun". nojitter. Enterprise Connect. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  11. ^ Koplowitz, Rob (February 3, 2014). "Your Next Portal Should Be An Engagement Workplace". Forrester Research. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  12. ^ "In Acquiring Sitrion, NewsGator Hopes to Make the Mundane More Fun". Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  13. ^ a b "Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia Embraces Social Collaboration - InformationWeek". 11 March 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  14. ^ Tarmy, James (January 22, 2015). "Facebook at Work Is Late to the Office". Bloomberg.
  15. ^ "Limeade acquires Sitrion and its award-winning employee experience solution". Limeade. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
  16. ^ "Tibco deepens Tibbr integration with SharePoint". Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  17. ^ NewsGator releases Social Sites 3.0. KM World [serial online]. November 2009;18(10):29. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 1, 2014.
  18. ^ "NewsGator launches social business solutions for key vertical markets". Marketing Weekly News. August 11, 2012. p. 426.
  19. ^ "NewsGator and HiSoftware Close the Social Business Compliance Gap". Information Technology Newsweekly. March 13, 2012. p. 228.
  20. ^ "NewsGator Simplifies Management of Online Communities With New Version of NewsGator Tomoye". Computer Weekly News. February 3, 2011. p. 119.
  21. ^ a b Reid C. NewsGator Social Sites 2.7. Econtent [serial online]. September 2009;32(7):20-22. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 1, 2014.
  22. ^ a b Lynch J. RSS News Readers Browse for You. PC Magazine [serial online]. October 2003;22(17):32. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 1, 2014.
  23. ^ Caton M. NewsGator sharpens news gathering. Eweek [serial online]. August 25, 2003;20(34):51. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 1, 2014.
  24. ^ Miller R. RSS Delivery Gets Around with NewsGator Upgrade. Econtent [serial online]. March 2004;27(3):7-8. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 31, 2014.
  25. ^ Shinkle, Kirk (April 12, 2004). "Too Much Data To Track On Web? Then Aggregate With RSS". Investor's Business Daily.
  26. ^ Garcia, Tonya (December 18, 2006). "NewsGator, Edelman ink partnership". PRWeek. Retrieved June 1, 2014.
  27. ^ Pickering B. NewsGator link-up gives Factiva edge in RSS feeds. Information World Review [serial online]. June 2005;(214):3. Available from: Computers & Applied Sciences Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 1, 2014.
  28. ^ Elgan, Mike. "NewsGator Goes Corporate With RSS Server". InformationWeek.