Email has proven to be the first killer app for cloud computing, and today businesses can choose to rent email as a service from IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Cisco, or numerous smaller vendors. It is the first step in a larger shift in which, over the next decade, much of the computing and data storage that takes place in corporate data centers will migrate to the cloud. Now that our emails are “up there”, our documents are next, and vendors are battling to provide the leading cloud-based solution for documents because, let’s face it, if you manage a company’s email and their documents, you have them locked in.

However, online storage is only part of the value that business users want from the cloud when it comes to their documents. They also want to be able to collaborate with other users, and they don’t want to be forced to use a different office productivity suite. Oh – they also expect their files and those files belonging to their collaborators to render perfectly regardless of the format the file was created in. At eXpresso, we know this because we’ve been engaged with customers that have told us these things for the past 4 years.

With budgets constantly scrutinized, the software giants and not-so-giants who are contending for the title of Collaboration King will need to accommodate a world where their users need to collaborate with something other thanMicrosoft Office. That’s just a fact. They will need to support the complex fabric that is today’s computing landscape. Every collaborative interaction that involves documents will potentially involve a different blend of operating systems, office productivity suites, file formats, and browsers.

eXpresso has been working tirelessly to prove that such a world is possible, and today we have a working prototype ready to show to the world. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1

Notice that these two users have completely different computer environments. I should also add that this prototype makes use of IBM LotusLive as the collaboration backbone and that eXpresso will be available to all LotusLive users in the near future. What’s more, it shows the hybrid model that we believe in at eXpresso, where the desktop productivity resources of MS Office or Lotus Symphony are leveraged by our web-based document collaboration framework. The benefit of this is that each user gets to view or edit the file with their suite of choice, and the file’s original format is preserved with full fidelity.

eXpresso’s methodology and framework allows us to plug into almost any collaboration backbone and leverage almost any desktop productivity suite. This allows our users to keep using the software that they choose, while being able to collaborate with others in real-time without the drawbacks of Google Docs or the manual check-in/check-out model that is prevalent throughout the collaboration backbones available today.

eXpresso is very excited about adding support for IBM Lotus® Symphony™ as an additional option for editing documents online. Our initial support for Symphony will be to LotusLive users. LotusLive is a business collaboration platform where people can do many different things, including share files. Our mutual goal with IBM is to enable LotusLive users to easily open and edit their stored files with whichever editor she or he prefers.

Here’s a little more information about IBM Lotus® Symphony™:

The following content is from the IBM Software News blog dated WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009

1. Symphony office productivity software contains a word processor, spreadsheet and presentations program

2. Symphony is free on the Internet here

3. More than 10 million copies of Symphony have been downloaded since September 2007.

4. IBM provides free support for users through an IBM-moderated Web forum.

5. Symphony is built by IBM on open source software – OpenOffice.org and Eclipse

6. Symphony is available on the Mac OS, Linux and Windows.

7. Symphony lets users open, read and import Microsoft Office 2007 files as well as a whole host of other formats

8. Symphony gets rave reviews
CRN named Symphony 2008 Product of the Year for Desktop Applications.
ReadWriteWeb posted this review in June 2009

9. Symphony has advanced functions

1. Drag -and-drop installation of widgets
2. Exportation of files to PDF or JPEG
3. Animations in PowerPoint presentations
4. Data Pilot (or Pivot) Table improvements

10. The savings over Microsoft Office is considerable. Symphony could save a company with 20,000 employees $8 million in software license fees or potentially more than $4 million in software renewal fees.

To be considered for an early invitation to try this out, please sign up here.

eXpresso is proud to be announcing it’s participation in the IBM Lotus Software Offerings Partner program.

For the past few months, the eXpresso team has been working on a special project to provide document collaboration inside IBM LotusLive™. For the first time publicly, eXpresso will be demoing the initial concept at Lotusphere 2010 in Orlando, Florida on January 17-21st.

With eXpresso, LotusLive users can open files in one click without ever leaving their browser or LotusLive. Plus, users will be able to edit the files with Lotus Symphony or Microsoft Office, depending upon which document editor they prefer.

1. Start editing shared files inside IBM LotusLive™ with one click
2. Use IBM Lotus® Symphony™ or Microsoft® Office interchangeably
3. Gain greater control over who can do what to your shared files, down the the cell level

Our plans and ability to support IBM Lotus Symphony as a document editor are just beginning. To see where we are in the process, please stop by #831 at Lotusphere or sign up for an invitation.

Here’s a composite screenshot of what we’re demonstrating at Lotusphere 2010 this week:

Yes, it has been a while since our last post, but that’s because we have been working hard on a few things that we think will make 2010 a landmark year, as far as company milestones. We are expanding the scope of our award-winning collaboration to include new file types and applications. We are adding new features to our roadmap, and developing some exciting projects with our partners. Therefore, here’s what you can expect in 2010:

• New Products – We know we have been talking about it for a while, but it’s finally here – the Office trifecta: Excel, Word, and PowerPoint collaboration. We will be demoing it and more this week at Lotusphere 2010 in Orlando. If you would like to be included in our beta release, send an email to Support (support@…) or send us a DM via Twitter (@expressocorp). We would love to get your pre-GA release feedback.
• New Features – We’ve got some great product enhancements lined up for this year. 2010 is the year for document collaboration!
• New Partnerships – Our team continues to establish partnerships with leading companies. By combining strengths, we can bring you better solutions.

Thanks you for using eXpresso and for sending us your feedback. We trust you will like what we have in store for 2010, and we hope your year is already off to a great start.

 In light of the recent EditGrid announcement to discontinue sales and refocus its development efforts on new products, we would like to extend a special offer to EditGrid customers so they may continue editing spreadsheets online with confidence.

• Monthly Subscription Option: $5/month (normally $15/month)
• Annual Subscription Option: $50/year (normally $79/year)

When you’re ready to subscribe to our service, simply enter promo code “EditGrid09” during the payment process. This offer is only available to the first 250 users and will expire after October 09, 2009, so please sign up today for your free trial!

In business, competition is always welcome. It makes companies, services, and solutions better than they would be on their own. For this, we can truly appreciate what EditGrid has accomplished in the past few years and all the hard work that went into building their brand. We look forward to what their development team will spin off in the future.

How is eXpresso different than EditGrid?

Our approaches, technologies, and services offer distinct differences, and we’ll mention a few here. But the best way to learn about it is to give it a try. Sign up is free, there’s no obligation, and you are not required to provide any billing information upfront.

#1. We both make it easier for people to create, edit, and share spreadsheets online in real-time, but eXpresso has chosen to support Microsoft® Excel®, the world-wide leader in spreadsheets. This enables you to share spreadsheets in full fidelity with virtually anyone because Excel is the most commonly used spreadsheet format for on the planet. Best of all, the people you share spreadsheets with will not need to learn an entirely new spreadsheet application. They can keep using Excel without missing a beat.

#2. Privacy and security are our top priorities! Since we focus on serving the business community, our clients have expressed their appreciation for how we manage to keep spreadsheets private and secure. Spreadsheets are never made public, and they can never be exposed through Web searches. For example, an EditGrid customer came to us specifically because their spreadsheet had unknowingly been made public and their private data published in public Web search results. That may have been an accident, but it would not have happened with eXpresso.

#3. We’ve got a fancy bit of technology called “Asymmetric Collaboration™” which is a geeky way of saying multiple people can edit the same spreadsheet at the same time, but they can experience the spreadsheet in totally unique ways. For example, Supplier A can edit columns D-H, and Supplier B can edit columns I-M – all without seeing each other’s respective columns. That means you can share one file with multiple people and customize where you want to allow each person to edit data and which parts of the file they are allowed to see. So instead of creating multiple files to consolidate later, you can create one file and all the data and access relationships are contained within one spreadsheet file. It may sound really techy, but it very easily elevates Excel collaboration to a whole new level for enterprises.

Sign Up for Free Trial

(Plus, special offer for EditGrid customers)

BTW – What about your presentations and documents?

We are taking names for our upcoming private beta of PowerPoint and Word collaboration.  If that sounds interesting to you, please express your desire to participate. Learn more.

We talked about it, we’ve tested it, and now we’re ready to let you get your hands on it!

In addition to Microsoft^® Excel^®, we will soon be extending our collaboration features to support PowerPoint^® and Word. So if you follow new technology and have participated in forums or similar feedback communities, we would like to offer you a chance to give us feedback about our new eXpresso Office Controller.

Your participation is needed. We would like to get this private beta period started as soon as possible so we can finish up the last bit of work necessary to get a completed product out the door. Please sign up for an invitation to our private Beta. Only the first one hundred applicants will be considered. (You may sign up for the invitation now through September or until we have reached 100 applicants.)

There are only three requirements for submitting your application:

1. You acknowledge this is for testing and you will not put important documents into the beta. When the Beta period concludes, all documents will be deleted. Anyone you collaborate with must also understand the testing purpose and finite nature of your files.
2. You will give our staff feedback about your user experience, so we can use that information to improve our service.
3. You must already have an eXpresso user account. (Free or Paid)

Request Invitation to Private Beta

Media Contacts
If you are a member of the media, please email us to arrange a private demo of online collaboration for all three Microsoft Office products: Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. (Send to beta[at]expressocorp.com)

There is a lot of buzz about Microsoft’s release next year of Office 2010. In fact, I think I read at least ten new articles yesterday about the pending upgrade. Interestingly though, much of the hype is not about new features or capabilities in Office. The discussion is primarily about the upcoming ability to offer Office functionality online and provide a counter-punch to Google and Google Docs.

So what does this mean for eXpresso?

It’s all good. eXpresso will continue to complement the capabilities of Microsoft Office, and we are not threatened by the upcoming advancements in it. Like most people, we use Office every day and look forward to what the next release of Office has in store. And as far as bringing Office functionality to the Web, eXpresso will still provide its award-winning collaboration layer to Office documents for businesses who are serious about sharing Office documents in the cloud.

Sure, Microsoft Office 2010 will be moving some of its functionality online, but it’s important to note the advantages eXpresso will continue to have after Microsoft takes its first major step into Web-based collaboration.

eXpresso Advantages:

• Full file fidelity – Office 2010 (Online Version) is a Javascript application that is a lightweight version of the real thing, so not all elements will translate well to the Web (e.g. slide animations, macros, etc.).
• Asymmetric Collaboration – eXpresso’s patent pending method for sharing files and assigning data rights inside the file. (e.g. Can edit specific cells or cell ranges.)
• All you need is Office – It looks like business users will be forced to go through Sharepoint to gain cloud collaboration features. That means extra cost, time, and development to set it up properly. Whereas today, you can create, edit, or view Office documents online with eXpresso without requiring Sharepoint servers, IT involvement, or drawn out deployments.
• Identical GUI to the desktop – Only one interface to learn instead of two. eXpresso renders your Office files in Internet Explorer exactly as they would look via your desktop, and you edit the files with Excel, not some lightweight alternative. Plus, instead of editing files locally on your own machine, multiple people can edit the files online at the same time.
• No pressure to upgrade to 2010 license – eXpresso is compatible with Office 2003 and 2007. So if you are looking to edit your files online, you can do that today without upgrading your software tomorrow. (You’ve got to love that IT departments!)

Office 2010 will have welcomed additions for all Office users, and it will be fun to connect eXpresso users to these new features when they come out. Until then, enjoy full Excel functionality online today with Word and PowerPoint coming very soon. (Hint: we are rapidly testing our private alpha as we speak to prepare it for public beta. Stay tuned…)

Update July 20, 2009: Here are some additional resources/reviews:

• MS Office on the Web: What it Is and What it Isn’t by WebMonkey
• Hands On: Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview by PC Magazine
• Review: Office 2010 Technical Preview by ComputerWorld
• Office 2010: The Technologizer First Look by Technologizer
• Microsoft’s new Office 2010 brings Office back from the dead (tons of videos)
  by Scobleizer
• Interview with Chris Bryant, PM of Office 2010 Group

Tags: microsoft, office, 2010, online, web, expresso, create, edit, share, documents

Release Date: June 8, 2009

eXpresso is pleased to announce that we have released a new version of eXpresso to provide complete support for Excel collaboration in the browser.

New Features

With this release, you will be able to take full advantage of Excel’s features online. You will be able to work with all spreadsheet elements, including: charts, images, macros, and text formatting. The toolbar for editing in eXpresso will look exactly like your Excel 2003 or 2007 toolbar. eXpresso’s Asymmetric Collaboration™ features, such as regional sharing, timed alerts, and file history, will remain accessible. This release will make eXpresso, by far, the most powerful spreadsheet collaboration service available.

Software Updates

The first time you sign in after June 7, you will be prompted to complete a one-time download of the eXpresso Office Controller. The download is very quick, and you will be walked through each step. It should not take more than a few minutes.

As we continue to improve our online service, we are also improving eXpresso’s Add-in for Excel. With this release, you will notice that it is easier than ever to upload and save files to the eXpresso server. We are also introducing the eXpresso Ribbon for Excel 2007. When you log in from Excel, you will automatically be prompted to update your Add-in.

Subscription Information

eXpresso subscribers will get these new features at no additional charge. We should note that starting with this release, free eXpresso users will have view only access to files. A paid subscription will be required for those who need to upload or edit files after their 14-day free trial. More information on subscribing to eXpresso can be found on the pricing page.

We are very excited about this enormous step forward for eXpresso and our users. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like assistance setting up an individual or group account.

eXpresso is pleased to announce that during the spring of 2009, we will be releasing a new version of eXpresso that more fully enables Asymmetric Document Collaboration™ by introducing complete support for Excel in the browser. Here, we answer a few questions about the new release.

What are the differences between the current version of eXpresso and the Spring ’09 release?

eXpresso currently utilizes Microsoft’s Office Web Components for online viewing and editing of spreadsheets online. Not all of the features of Excel are supported by the Office Web Components and are, therefore, not available when using eXpresso’s online interface. To address this, we have provided an add-in for Excel, allows users to view and edit spreadsheets that are stored in eXpresso directly from the desktop Excel application. When using the add-in, all of the features of Excel, with the exception of linked spreadsheets, are supported. When the spreadsheet is shared, contacts need to open the spreadsheet using the add-in to have access to these special features. The most commonly used features that currently require use of the add-in are:

• Text wrap and other special text formatting
• Protected Areas
• Pivot Tables
• Split and Freeze Panes
• Printing
• Charts & Graphs
• Images
• Data Validation
• Conditional Formatting
• Embedded Objects
• Hyperlinks
• Comments

With the next release, eXpresso will replace the Office Web Components with the eXpresso Office Controller. This new solution will enable users to take advantages of all of the features of Excel online. eXpresso subscribers will be able to work with all spreadsheet elements, including; charts, graphs, images, macros and text formatting and each of the other features in the list above. The toolbar for file editing in eXpresso will look exactly like the user’s Excel 2003 or Excel 2007 toolbar. All of eXpresso’s Asymmetric Collaboration™ features such as regional sharing; timed alerts and complete audit trail and history will remain accessible, making eXpresso, by far, the most powerful spreadsheet collaboration service available.

Will I need to install any new software?

Yes. You will be prompted to complete a onetime download of the eXpresso Office Controller. The download is very quick and you will be walked through with each step. It should not take more than a few minutes. You do not need to uninstall the Microsoft Office Web Components.

Are there any other software requirements?

There are no new software requirements. As always, eXpresso requires a valid Microsoft Excel license and the Internet Explorer browser or the Internet Explorer tab installed in a Firefox browser.

Is there a charge for the new release?

No. People who subscribe to eXpresso now will get the new features at no additional charge. We should note that starting with this release, everyone who needs to upload or edit a spreadsheet will need to be an eXpresso subscriber.

Will I still need the eXpresso Add-in for Excel?

Some people will find that they can complete their work easily in the browser and will find the Add-in no longer necessary; however for some it will still be of great use. The Add-in is ideal if you want to work on your files while you are not connected to the Internet. Sophisticated users may also use the Add-in as a way to connect an Excel file to another data source. In fact, as we continue to improve our online service, we are improving the Add-in as well. With the next release, you will notice that it is easier than ever to upload and save files to the eXpresso server.