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Other Articles Art Wittmann

Is Video Broadcasting Coming to Your Network?, April 19, 1999 Is Microsoft Edging Into Open Source?, May 3, 1999 What's Become of Compaq?, May 17, 1999 Editors' Top PicksThe 50 Best Products of the Year, Features, May 17, 1999 Lies, Damn Lies and Benchmarks, May 31, 1999

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Officials of a startup called X-Collaboration Software Corp. (what's in a name?) brought this notion to my attention during a recent visit. Of course, they aim to solve the problem using--you guessed it--the Web. Admittedly, I didn't take the two representatives from this company very seriously at first; the CEO's logo-emblazoned shirt was unbuttoned surprisingly low (to me) and the COO, an ex-Microsoft guy, wore an open-collar company shirt with dress pants and a suit jacket. I actually snickered to myself as I greeted them. Gentlemen, please, I thought. Either business attire or casual, but not both.

Of course, you can't judge anyone in our industry based on fashion, and as these men described their company's service, I was impressed by the concept. They said the service is intended to serve small- and medium-sized businesses that need to collaborate on complex documents both between remote offices and with outside contributors--lawyers and bankers come to mind.

To manage document versions and trusts between the collaborators, X-Collaboration's software employs a 1.5-MB (thin?) Java/XML client that runs on each collaborator's machine. The company uses SSL and passwords to guard against prying eyes. And the price for the service is reasonable: $500 for five people and $95 for each additional collaborator annually gets you accounts on their system and disk space for storing the managed documents.

My first clever question for these guys was, Why wouldn't one just use VPN technology and document-management software to do this? Their initial response--price--wasn't particularly insightful, though I suppose it's true; $500 is low for a VPN solution. But no one ever launched a successful venture on price alone.

As we talked further, the real value of the company's offering came to light: Its ad hoc nature significantly lowers the barrier to collaboration. So even if IPSec someday delivers on the possibility of easily setting up cross-vendor VPNs, agreeing on document-management software will still be an issue. Perhaps Microsoft will deliver that in Office 2000 and put these guys out of business, but I think it's more likely that they're on to something here.

X-Collaboration's service essentially seeks to manage the interactions of many people involved in the creation of multipart documents. Participants in the document-creation process are granted access to pieces that will eventually make the final document. The pieces of the document need to be broken up into multiple files as the software tracks access control and revisions at the file level. That's an obvious limitation, but it comes with the advantage that any program can be used to generate files that will go into the collaboration system.

What's nice about X-Collaboration's solution is that it keeps collaborators at arm's length if need be. Although it may not be necessary to keep your remote offices at arm's length, it's helpful to maintain control of the access your lawyer and banker have, and vice versa. It's a really useful application of Web technology, and I give X-Collaboration's founders a lot of credit for their vision. Who knows? Maybe we'll start editing articles from our freelancers this way.

Send your comments on this column to Art Wittmann at awittman@nwc.com.