The last couple of months have been crazy, and its about time you folks heard from us!

We’ve made a LOT of changes to Remindo based on user feedback. We hit the design board and realized that apart from some frequently requested features (like file deletion – which is available now, btw) there were certain usability chokes that were hiding some very useful features from people (did you know that you can reply to email notifications to post comments – even attach files?)

We made a series of releases over the last two months that addressed feature requests, UI enhancements and backend optimizations. Here’s what we added:

1. You can now (finally )delete files, discussion threads, tweets and comments – before the paid plans come in April,  as promised! Deletion of tasks and milestones is coming next with a BIG feature addition that left us thinking, why didn’t we think of that before!? More on this in another post.

2. Things will be simpler with a whole bunch of UI enhancements.

• The mailers now read better, with clear call-to-actions
• Progress bars on file uploads.
• Removal of “moderator” privileges. Now you are either a project manager or a user.
• Simpler and streamlined invitation processes.
• Creation of sub-projects straight from the dashboard.
• The ‘more projects’ tab will also give you a list of all projects that you manage.

3. The chat will now behave! We kept getting complaints about the chat. After much heartburn with Jabber we found out that it doesn’t function well when a system resumes from idle or standby modes. It’s now been fixed and we are continuously monitoring its performance. If you still face problems, please let us know.

4. Optimizations. We noticed that certain parts of Remindo, like the week-view in the calendar were acting sluggish under stress conditions. While it was heartening to see that people were putting so much data on it – sure sign of it being useful – we immediately started work on super-optimizing the code and database. We did this before we started work on the new features and now that its out of the way, we are going full steam ahead.

Some people ask us why we were giving away so much for free? Here’s what one of our users Karishma Dorai from MAA Communications had to say:

“ … Love Remindo by the way, it’s simplified our processes to a great extent. Great job! … we’d be more than happy to pay a nominal fee when you officially release it. “

Now how often do you hear that? We are convinced and are being repeatedly told by users that Remindo is adding a lot of value to their organizations by saving them time,  creating painless workflows and keeping things together.  Remindo -as a  SaaS Intranet – was a compelling idea that we are turning into a real product. We are not worried

One of our driving ideas while designing Remindo was to give users a completely “own-able” Intranet.

For this we had introduced  personalized URL + company logo branding. I think that going by the sheer number of users that have grabbed this, we are on the right track. (Don’t agree? Tell us)

We also noticed that a whole bunch of people were interacting with clients and partners (as expected) so we felt that to truly make the experience seamless for clients it would be great if users could actually link to this personalized URL from their own company website. 

This means that you can create an easy-to-remember URL like: www.yourcompany.com/intranet or http://intranet.yourcompany.com and share it with your team and clients. When they put this URL in their browser they will be automatically taken to your intranet login page on Remindo. Not only will this carry your company logo prominently, it will also be secured by VeriSign SSL – same as 94% of Fortune 500 companies.

Here’ a general guideline on how to do this, but before you do it, ensure that you have already claimed a URL for your intranet on Remindo, something like https://yourcompany.remindo.com from the Intranet Manager tab from within Remindo

From this  point onwards, its just a two step process. The catch here is that the details of this process vary for every hosting provider and server combination. Your webmaster will know the exact details so its best to rope him in if you haven’t done this kind of thing before.

Step 1: Create a subdomain on your company website

Every domain registrar has its own way to do this. (see examples below) So if you create a subdomain called ‘intranet’ and a URL like intranet.yourcompany.com or a URL like www.yourcompany.com/intranet, a folder called ‘intranet’ will be created in your directory structure.

Step 2: Use a 301 redirect to tell your server to redirect all traffic from this subdomain to your company branded intranet login page on Remindo

The details will again vary depending on what server you are using. For Apache servers, this requires a change to be made to the .htaccess file.

1. Inside the folder that you created for your subdomain in step 1, create a simple text file called .htaccess

2. Add this line to the file: “Redirect 301 http://yourcompany.remindo.com”

Here’s an excellent detailed guide on this subject and here’s a shorter guide.

And that’s all there is to it, really.

Some examples of creating subdomains on specific providers:

GoDaddy (you can do both create and forward the subdomain by this process – no meddling with .htaccess)

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Use the checkbox to select the domain for which you want to create a subdomain.
4. Click Forward, and then select Forward Subdomain.
5. In the Add subdomain field, enter the subdomain – for example, intranet.yourcompany.com
6. Select  http://
7. In the Forward this subdomain to field, enter yourcompany.remindo.com
8. Click OK.

Network Solutions – Creating a subdomain

1. Log into your account manager
2. Go to Web Hosting / Manage Web Hosting
3. Press Assign New button
4. Enter subdomain and select domain and the folder it points to
5. Press Select
6. Now make changes to .htaccess as described above

One last thing, while we are adding to this list everyday, we’ll appreciate if you help us make this post as comprehensive as possible by sharing any tips or tricks with us. Or if you face any difficulties, please drop us a line at remindo[at]remindo[dot]com and we’ll help set you up.

I’m getting these question a lot lately, so I thought I should clear the air.

1. How do I edit or delete tasks/milestones/files/projects/discussions?

Right now, you can only edit milestones. We are building the rest and you can expect to see some of them out by mid January, 2010. You can delete files, discussions threads, comments and tweets now. Soon you will also be able to delete the rest.

2. So I can’t delete anything but there is still a free 3GB storage cap – is this your evil ploy to trap us into paying for the “premium” service?

Oh c’mon! You will not be charged for any of these additions. These features are not live yet because we prioritized development of other features (like personalized web address/company logo branding) over these. We thought that since there is no limit on the number of projects/files etc, users would not mind waiting for the delete features and no one fills up 3 GB that quickly anyway.

We goofed up in not communicating this clearly to you guys before. We’ll be working through the holidays to ensure that by the time you return from yours, these features will be up and running.

3. What is the schedule for this? I want to be sure before I bring on my clients and partners.

Fair enough. We always had the editing milestones feature, but we fixed the UI so its simpler to find now. By mid-Jan, we expect to bring editing and deleting of tasks so you can change them, prioritize them and track work better. Deletion of files, projects, discussions will follow – and so will a lot more cool stuff – all sourced from user feedback.

If you run out of the 3 GB space before we provide deletion, just let us know and we’ll increase your free storage. Cool?

4. But why not sooner? Editing/deleting seems like an obvious thing. How will I work without it?

Well, can you edit or delete anything in an email after you send it? The problem we face here is that Remindo publishes a lot of information and sends notifications for changes to involved parties, so its a bit more complicated and therefore development takes longer.

Don’t agree with this? or are we still going wrong somewhere? Tell us: remindo[at]remindo[dot]com

Good news!

We were listed in ReadWriteWeb’s list of 10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2010. And not just listed, Remindo was placed next to the likes of Jive, BlueKiwi and Sharepoint. Not bad for a month old service!

Read it here.

So to both Ravit Lichtenberg of Ustrategy and Chris Heuer, thanks for picking us out. It’ll only make us work harder.

5 things you should know about Remindo’s pricing plans

1. Remindo is completely free to use for up to 3 GB of storage – unlimited users, unlimited projects, unlimited clients, unlimited files… you get the idea. Bring in your entire office and your clients. No fear!

2. Detailed pricing plans will be released in April, 2010
We hope to price Remindo on a reasonable, no-bs metric. While we have our own ideas, you can help us find the right brew. Let us know what kind of pricing will work best for your organization here. As always we’ll try our best to get back to you within an hour, 365×24x7

3. So there’s a storage cap but no delete option yet. What’s happening?
We’ve written about this here. Briefly, we’re building the edit and delete feature and if you run out of your free 3GB before we provide it, let us know and we’ll give you more free storage. Fair? You can now delete files, discussion threads, comments and tweets.

4. Are you saying that even when you release the premium version, I can still continue using my Intranet on Remindo  for free as as long as I stay under 3 GB storage cap?
Yes! But why so surprised? We sure as hell don’t pay for our Gmail, Facebook,Twitter, uTorrent (ahem) and a hundred other awesome apps. The best things on the web come for free. When the premium version is introduced, we will build on top of what you have, nothing will be taken away. We, the people at Remindo cross our collective hearts

5. Are you looking for partners, resellers, affiliates etc?
Our efforts are focused on making Remindo useful right now, but if you are interested, please get in touch with us here. Also, if you make software that you think will integrate well with Remindo, please drop us a line.

Well, till we can put up a buzz page, thought it would be a good idea to share what the media has been saying about Remindo in a single post.

As expected, no one really has been able to categorize us into a slot. We like it

The big one was the Mashable review of Remindo that drew comparisons from Facebook, Twitter and Google Wave!

Remindo has a solid, streamlined interface and a variety of tools to make communication and project management easy and more efficient

ReadWriteWeb listed Remindo in 10 ways social media will change in 2010. In just one of month of being live, we were placed next to Jive, BlueKiwi and Sharepoint!

One of our users, Tony Sarcone from Solveris then blogged about us and said something that we hold dear:

I’ve been shocked how fast, nice and accommodating the support has been. Think that’s everywhere? Read the full text here

Killerstartups then reviewed us saying:

Remindo is cost-efficient as well as practical
Last time I checked, Remindo was one of their top 10 startups for this month. If you like Remindo, please do vote for us here!

Closer home, HindustanTimes.com noted:

(Remindo) can help small businesses and freelancers appear established and professional

While Hindustan Times is one of India’s oldest and most respected media houses, we were eagerly waiting for reviews from tech bloggers because they were better placed to compare us with the rest and criticize/praise.

Ashish from pluGGd.in had this to say about us:

(Remindo interface is) the most apt way to get started when it comes to building social software for (the) enterprise market

It was interesting how he insisted that we are more project management than intranet. Read the full review here.

IndianWebStartups.com found the 3 GB of free storage “quite an exciting offer”. You can read it here.

Alootechie.com wrote about our personalization features and SiliconIndia.com found us to be a great way to stay connected in the office.

There was also a short note from Gajeebo.com that found Remindo well rounded.

All in all, a lot of (good) attention in a short time. But the parts that we really love is what our users are saying about us. Will be posting it soon!

It’s been about 3 weeks since we publicly released Remindo and truth be told, we’re kinda overwhelmed (in a very heart-warming way) by the reviews, the news but most importantly – user FEEDBACK.

It all started when Christina Warren from Mashable reviewed Remindo and gave us a thumbs up. The best part, was that even she couldn’t put us into any category and drew comparisons with Facebook, Twitter and Google Wave. For us, it was an affirmation that we are actually creating something new and useful. In Christina’s words:

“Remindo has a solid, streamlined interface and a variety of tools to make communication and project management easy and more efficient”

And this just got validated over the last one week by the tsunami of user feedback we received from all over the world. At least on first impressions, people have seen merit in our baby and it feels awesome. After all, like every other business, we also had a lean time during the recession – insecurity, budget cuts, insane work hours and little family time. You know this story well; just glad that things are getting better!

Apart from the warm gooey feelings that the feedback induced in us it helped us get our priorities straight. We were so involved with building new features that we were overlooking some simpler things that our users wanted first- like editing and deleting stuff. We’ve redrawn our must-build list based on it so you’ll see these features out in a couple of weeks. More on this later.

By the way, at the moment of writing this post we are in the top10 startups on killerstartups.com for this month. Neat, eh?

This just in, again!

pluGGd.in, a great showcase for startups wrote about Remindo today.

While Ashish gave us a thumbs up in the interface department saying:

(Remindo interface is) the most apt way to get started when it comes to building social software for (the) enterprise market

In an interesting turn of events, he insists that we are more about project management than an intranet!

Now this is a great affirmation that the project management and collaboration features that we have built in are useful, he has also given us some valuable advice on how to take things forward as an intranet.

As expected, a fair and intelligent review from pluGGd.in. Read the full text here

This just in!

One of India’s biggest and most respected newspapers has just given us a mention. Read what they have to say here: HindustanTimes.com coverage

I’m glad they picked the best parts about how free intranets powered by Remindo can save businesses time and money.

One of the biggest features (see tour!) that has gone live with the new Remindo 1.0 release is the power of branding your free intranet with your company logo and getting a custom URL for your business. Since both of these are sensitive for any business, we thought it would be a good idea to allow only one person in an intranet to be able to do this. We call this guy the ‘domain administrator’.

A domain administrator is a super-admin user that gets to:

• Upload and edit your company’s logo
• Get a custom URL for your free intranet like https://yourcompanyname.remindo.com
• Remove users from the intranet
• Make somebody else a domain administrator

Typically, the best person to have these privileges would be a C-level exec (like a CIO/CEO) or a system admin. Nevertheless, we let this decision lie with you and your team. You just need to place a request with the domain owner and upon his approval, you can become the administrator. There can only be one domain administrator at a time.

If you want even more personalization and want a URL like http://intranet.yourcompany.com or http://www.yourcompany.com/intranet  just get in touch with us here or simply email us at remindo[at]remindo[dot]com. We’d love to help you with the process.