Please sell PODIO - it's dying a slow and painful death
Dear Citrix
I’ve been a user for nearly 10 years now and really love the concept. We have our whole company running on it (we have about 80 employees) and have more than 700 flows and 1667 hours of work saved in the last 30 days. It’ a big deal.
But as many others have also felt, Podio is dying the slow death of being part of a giant who have stopped believing in it long ago.
Development seems to have stalled completely since you acquired it in 2012. Basically, nothing has happened since then, I know, because I was there before it happened. Sure you bought Globiflow which was a must, but instead of trying to improve the service with regular features and updates or acquisitions that are actually implemented in the core solution, you leave it up to small external developers to create plugins for basic features. For users it’s a GDPR nightmare and makes the setup both fragile and complex.
It’s really sad. Such a cool platform, such a brilliant concept, so much potential. Wasted.
Here is a couple of options that you could consider.
- Sell it! You’re obviously only using it as a cash cow and not spending any resources whatsoever other than trying to keep the servers spinning. Let somebody else take over.
- Make it open source. You can still sell a hosted version as you do now and just let brilliant developers do what you have failed to do.
- … I don’t know – but don’t just let it die.
All the best
Tue
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Official comment
Update to Podio ownership: Podio is no longer related to Citrix Products or brand - Podio is a part of the ShareFile Business, an independent business unit in the Cloud Software Group.
The ShareFile Business owns 3 products, ShareFile, Podio and RightSignature - so ShareFile is our new "mother" brand - while the Podio product name and brand will continue supporting the standalone product. We are a part of the ShareFile business and will continue to be.
You can read more details in this news article by our General Manager, Kurt Heusner, leading the ShareFile Business Unit within the Cloud Software Group:
ShareFile Independence
The ShareFile brand is focusing on integrations like the RightSignature solution for digital e-signatures and Podio, a low/no-code solution for workflow and team collaboration. They’re also working on establishing solutions for specific industry verticals. The company announced ShareFile for Accounting in June and followed up with ShareFile for Legal this past August.
“The transformation has allowed us to singularly focus on how do we do business the most effectively with our customers with the absolute best experience we can for them,” said Heusner. “A lot of it’s been around simplification and concentrating on what helps them to be effective and how they want to interact with us.”
This has other benefits as well.
“It’s exciting because, for the employee base, we get to really concentrate on our products.”
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I feel exactly the same way. I don't want to leave - globiflow is amazing and we use it extensively - but I've been a user since 2013 and at the time it was cutting edge... and now it's just limping along. I don't want to move everything over (and the headache of having to try to rebuild all these workflows etc... I'm dreading it...) but other platforms are obviously continuing to evolve and grow. Podio is just stagnant. It's so frustrating. I wish they would make it open source and I could hire someone to redo the UX.
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Hi Tue, Antony and Lisa,
We're still here and no plans to EOL Podio, we will continue to develop and improve the platform.
Today we updated with a long overdue feature for two-step verification - read more details here: https://help.podio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360009916900-Two-Step-Verification-to-prevent-unauthorised-access-
Please also see this video with a vision for how Citrix is evolving the future of work with well-being in mind, Podio is very much a part of this vision as we showcased to the recent Citrix Workspace Summit. A more detailed demo video is available here.
Appreciate your feedback and hope you will continue to provide feedback to us.
Thanks,
Sara - Citrix
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Hi Sara, thanks for your reply.
Well, looking at your product news it speaks for itself.
Lets see:Brand updates
Co location of servers
Custom margins in the PDF generator
Celebrating growtn…. updates…
A new PDF engine that i guess only make more work for me having to manually update everything.
Notification update
Etc.These are pretty much all non-finctional updates and minor fixes.
Where are the dynamic webforms, where are the controls to set op more advanced and sectioned webforms and color schemes, where are the app-level user management, where is the app integration that doesn't require partners and customers to sign up for podio and get bugged by autogenerated emails to start building apps (I know WAU is there, but it is also not maintained and so is not working), where at the dashboards and where are the userlogs to prevent misuse...?
Perhaps you could share just a couple of upcoming features that you thing are beneficial to the community?
Also Sara - did you ask the top management regarding the open source suggestion or selling it? What was the response?
All the best,Tue
Could you comment on your roadmap for features and how many developers you have.
And also which functional features you have implemented in the last 5 years. -
Sara, the disquiet around Podio is pretty clear. Plus it's ironic that the most activity this forum has seen in some time is due to people complaining about the stagnation of the product.
I think the only thing that'll wash with the likes of myself, Tue and Lisa would be some sort of actual roadmap. No more vague "bear with us", "in a few months" blah blah that's been repeated literally for years.
Weirdly Citrix have product a lifecycle matrix which does not show Podio, and all the while pretty much all your competitors in this space publish roadmaps so what is there to hide?
https://www.citrix.com/support/product-lifecycle/product-matrix.html
Our continued use of the product is pretty much hanging by a thread now.
Look forward you your response.
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Happy to meet for a private roadmap review if you contact me directly using sara.hoeg@citrix.com with a few timeslots for next week and willing to sign our mutual NDA: https://www.citrix.com/about/legal/nda.html
The lifecycle product matrix is for products with on-prem releases or client applications (desktop clients etc) that will stop maintenance for security reasons as new builds are being released. Podio is cloud only with no on-prem or legacy client applications and therefore not relevant on this list.
We could include old versions of mobile apps but have not been relevant for us as most users automatically update to new versions as OS will be retired on mobile devices.
//Sara - Podio
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So... do globiflow / procfu work with citrix workspaces? If not, you're really hamstringing those of us that have built businesses that rely on podio.
Just today an employee accidentally posted confidential financial information on the wrong chat and there is *ZERO* way to delete the message they posted.
If anyone else has other suggestions for programs with similar functionality to podio, I'm all ears.
Honestly Sara, your messages are all about Citrix (which obviously we're not using) - does it have the same functionality?! Can we transition over? Is that even possible or will we lose everything we've spent $$$ building when we try to move to another platform that not only has customer service, but actually allows you to edit or delete chat messages :/
It's disingenuous for you to dangle a carrot in front of users saying "there's updates coming!" when you know that there's probably only 5 ppl at Citrix that just "maintain" podio. Meanwhile we continue to waste resources on a platform that is slated for going offline, or to simply operate as-is indefinitely.
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Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the questions. Citrix Workspace is not a replacement of Podio, this is a place to unify apps in a secure container like your Podio apps alongside other applications (for example if you are also using QuickBooks, Slack or Microsoft etc). It might not be relevant for your organization but some business will be using Podio next to other SaaS applications or virtual apps & desktops to work remotely, for these companies it is a benefit to be able to view and take action to data from Podio next to other applications.
Yes, Podio workflow automation or Procfu flows can still be created, which can trigger Podio workflows or Forms in Citrix Workspace as well.
We have a large team taking care of Podio and ensuring the platform will continue to scale and grow. Again, happy to meet for a private roadmap review to share more details. We have been focused on backend stability enhancements, and is now in a better place to take the product to the future as automation and usage continue to grow.
Feel free contact me directly using sara.hoeg@citrix.com with a few timeslots for next week and willing to sign our mutual NDA: https://www.citrix.com/about/legal/nda.html
// Sara - Happy Thanksgiving!
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Hi all,
For any further questions on product vision and updates, please join us for the upcoming Product Update webinar on Tuesday, July 19, 2021 at 10:30am ET / 4:30pm CET / 8pm IST. More details and registration link here.
//Sumedha - Product Manager, Podio
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Why is Podio not on this page?
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It is just one page down ... ;-)
Podio - Project Management Software - Citrix -
Hey Mark,
Also want to highlight a new solutions page for Citrix Work Solution including Podio - new messaging just went live today: https://www.citrix.com/solutions/small-business.html
Cheers,
Sara
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I woke up today, logged in and immediately noticed the top banner of Podio which used to read 'Citrix Podio'... today it only says 'Podio'. ????
Why the sudden change Sara Høeg Højlund-Rasmussen?
There are a lot of us that have invested A LOT into Podio and are very nervous about its stagnation for years now. This sudden change is yet another thing making my brain run wild with, "What's the heck is going on with Citrix and Podio???"
Please let us know. Thank you.
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Hi Scott,
Good question - mostly just us showcasing that we are now separating as a business away from Citrix and operating as standalone product in the Cloud Software Group. We had a change in ownership of Citrix and Podio, which was announced to the public in 2022 - Citrix was acquired and went private - now operating within the Cloud Software Group (CSG) as a privately held company. Citrix is now a separate business within CSG and Podio operating within the ShareFile business unit as a part of the ShareFile portfolio.
We have today removed the Citrix brand as our business is being separated from those products, and now only align with ShareFile and RightSignature.
Cheers,
Sara
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Admittedly, I missed the news about Citrix being acquired. Not sure how I missed that but... Thanks for the explanation Sara.
When I went on the CSG website and drilled into it and into the Sharefile website as well.. there is absolutely no mention of Podio that I could find on either. Citrix, and now the new owners, must certainly know what the optics must look like to their clients regarding Podio. What can you share about Podio's future? Thank you.
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