Hitch was on TV the other night. I didn’t watch it because I’ve already seen it, but the part I flipped past showed the “first kiss” technique. The technique being, you lean in 90% of the way, and if she is ready for the kiss, she’ll lean in the remaining 10% to seal the deal. (If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here.)

This is analogous with what Microsoft will be doing next year with Office 2010. I think Microsoft will come to market with Office 2010, aka lean in to kiss the business market, but most businesses won’t kiss back. Here’s why.

Microsoft isn’t leaning in far enough.
1. The business market is going to need to put significant effort into it if they want some lip. From what I’ve gathered, Microsoft Online Services or SharePoint will be required in order to collaborate online with Office 2010. If you have ever tried to setup any of those services, you’ll know it’s not simple and there are many moving parts. The market needs a simple document collaboration solution that anyone can start using right away and change on the fly without having to engage IT.

2. Office Web Apps will also compromise features for browser compatibility. In their own words, Microsoft claims the new Web version of Office will have “high” fidelity. From where I sit, that’s another way of saying that in order to make Office work in all browsers, they had to make it a Javascript application and drop some functionality. From a development standpoint, it is an awesome accomplishment. From the user perspective, it just won’t be the same as using Office in the desktop environment.

3. We have learned that users want 120% of Office. In other words, people want more than what they are getting today. It’s not just about putting Office online. Businesses want the added collaborative benefits that only a cloud-based service can provide. Google Docs has proven there is more to document editing, but Google has failed to provide an adequate solution for the business world, who primarily uses Office and has billions of legacy Office files that lose almost all fidelity when imported into Google Docs.

In summary, what businesses have asked for is pretty simple. They want the ability to share editing responsibility of Office files quickly and easily. They want to use what they already have, know, trust. They want to keep their files intact and how they expect them to look. They want to open one file, any time, to view the most recent version and edit it for the benefit of others… but they don’t want to worry about coordinating real-time edits of the same file.

Given Microsoft’s massive marketing resources, I’m sure they’ll be able to seduce enough users to keep their “B.M.O.C.” reputation, but Microsoft will need more than a breath mint to knock the market off its feet. That’s why I encourage you to try eXpresso. You’ll see we deliver the familiar desktop experience through the browser and modify that experience just enough to support real-time collaboration without affecting the fidelity of your files.

 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)

In March I wrote about the integration of identity services with eXpresso. This has proven to be one of the most compelling adjunct services we’ve added to our product – allowing us to offer secure Single Sign-On to our large corporate clients as well as enabling standards based identity federation of user credentials from industry portals such as Covisint’s new AppCloud.

On the evening of July 29, we will be demonstrating the extent to which we’ve been able to verify and test the identity federation standard (SAML) and the identity federation service (myOneLogin) we have implemented. The demonstration is part of an impressive event hosted in San Diego by the Burton Group during which identity providers and service providers will showcase how standards like SAML, WS-Federation and OpenID can be used to achieve standards-based single sign-on to off-premise or cloud hosted applications.

When eXpresso was first invited to participate in this interoperability demonstration, I was admittedly somewhat skeptical on two fronts: 1.) The maturity of the standards, and 2.) The ability of competing vendors (most notably the identity providers) to work together. Well today I admit that I have gladly set my skepticism aside, and I take my hat off to the Burton Group for pulling this event together. What started off as a series of weekly conference calls with all participants about 10 weeks ago, led to a few days of configuration and testing and has brought us to this culminating event.

We are very pleased with what we’ve been able to achieve with minimal resources for this demo. And, we’ve been able to leverage the results of the testing with a number of corporate prospects that we are engaged with currently. At the time of going to press, eXpresso had proven secure single sign-on from CA Federation Manager, Novell Access Manager, Sun OpenSSO Enterprise, TriCipher myOneLogin, Ping Identity PingFederate, Cloud-Identity, FuGen Solutions and Siemens.

Please drop by to see it all in action at the Interoperability Event: SSO for Cloud-Based Applications in the Aqua room at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront on Wednesday, 29-July from 6:00-9:30 pm.

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.

Among many things in the business world, Excel is used to manage product data and product lifecycles. One blogger in particular, Oleg Shilovitsky, thinks, “The biggest market share in PDM/PLM belongs to Microsoft Excel.” We tend to agree. That means Excel, a simple yet flexible desktop application, is being stretched to meet needs typically reserved for expensive enterprise systems. However, Excel alone was never meant to be a PLM system.

We recently came across Mr. Shilovitsky’s blog dedicated to PLM information and discovered a couple blog entries about Excel: Why Do I Like My PLM Excel Spreadsheet? and PLM Excel Spreadsheets: From Odes to Woes. (Check them out, but they are not required reading for the following post.)

In his two posts, Mr. Shilovitsky communicates his love/hate relationship with Excel.  In some ways, he loves Excel and how it supports his work.  But to balance his rosy picture of Excel, he followed up the post with a second one about the things he hates.  I’d like to draw attention to a few points from these two posts.

First, Excel files, probably more than any other file type, are meant to be shared, but as Mr. Shilovitsky and a couple of his commenters pointed out, there is a lot of pain that comes after files have been shared. Since data is captured in a portable item called a file, it is easy to share that physical file with other people, but if the data ever changes or you only wish to share a portion of the file with someone, Excel, email, and even SharePoint are not an effective solution.

Secondly, the data he typically keeps in Excel is constantly changing, and if other people share the responsibility for keeping the file updated, it soon becomes a complicated mess.  Multiple people end up managing multiple files, even though the ultimate goal is a single consolidated spreadsheet containing everyone’s contribution. As one commenter mentioned, there is no way of “showing historical evolution.” Everyone’s edits and contributions are not recorded for review or audit trails.

Lastly, Mr. Shilovitsky often finds himself asking, “Where are my latest Excel files?” He says, “I’m sure you have asked this question many times. Is it the one connected to your mail? Is it the one on your laptop, or is it the one in SharePoint? When you have multiple Excels, and especially if you have multiple versions of these Excels, you will really be lost.” I would add, if you require contributions from other people, multiple people will be asking the same question about the same file. That is why it’s a good idea to move Excel online, as Mr. Shilovitsky mentions here.

Now, I’ve got great news. Many MAJOR manufacturing companies are using eXpresso to turn Excel into the type of enterprise-class application they need for spreadsheet collaboration. They are able to control an individual’s access to part or all of the file, review changes and file history, and simultaneously open or edit the same file at the same time. There is no more version chaos, no more hard-to-find email attachments, and no more wondering about the relevancy of the spreadsheets being shared.

To read about how other kinds of companies are using eXpresso, check out some of our customer use cases.

Thanks Mr. Shilovitsky for starting the dialog!

When we launched eXpresso about a year and a half ago, we were very excited about the idea of paring our exciting Web 2.0 collaboration technology with Microsoft^® Excel. We knew that many businesses were dependant on Excel for day to day operations and that Excel files were meant to be shared. So we discovered a way to bring most of Excel’s features online and joined it with our unique collaboration technology. Slam dunk, right?

Well, almost. It turns out that our customers don’t want most of Excel’s features online. They need all of Excel’s features plus our document collaboration capabilities. While it may be true that most people use 80% or less of Excel’s resources, it turns out that everyone requires a different 80%. For some, conditional formatting and VBA are critical. Others wouldn’t know a macro if it bit them, but they can’t get by without a pivot table. When it comes to Excel, it’s all or nothing.

We heard you loud and clear. The next release of eXpresso will support Excel online. Not an “Excel-like” spreadsheet application. Not a simplified, “lightweight” version of Excel. Not a component of Excel. Excel … but with the added benefits of eXpresso’s collaboration. This sets eXpresso miles apart from other online spreadsheet applications.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, so let me show you what I mean. I’ve uploaded the same file into eXpresso’s upcoming Spring ’09 release and into other spreadsheet applications.

There is no comparison. Google Docs was least like the original Excel file, and Zoho was not much better. Symphony made a valiant effort, but the chart it included somehow displayed additional data and threw the whole thing off. Here are some other things that we noticed these spreadsheet apps lost:

• Conditional formatting
• Pivot tables
• Macros
• Charts
• Inserted images
• Styles and colors
• Linked data across sheets

So now that you can have Excel directly in your browser, why settle for anything else? On top of that, eXpresso gives you complete control over how you can share the same file differently with different people. Oh, and did I mention multiple people can be editing the same file at the same time?

Whether that’s 120%, 200%, or 105% of Excel’s features, that is for you to determine. The point is, now you can do more with your Excel files using eXpresso than you can do with Excel alone. We think that’s pretty cool.

Want to see it in person? Got a file you want to try? Just drop us a note, and we can set up a live demonstration. I’d love to hear about which Excel features you can’t live without.

Tags: expresso, excel, microsoft, online, collaboration, file, sharing, office, google, zoho, ibm, lotus, symphony

Last week our very own John Howard was interviewed for a New York Times article about the importance of strong partnerships.  Our partners have been an important part of our success, and we look forward to new opportunities as we grow our relationships. The article opens with this:

“All of these major corporations, at some point, have a need for new, innovative products and services because they can’t develop them all in-house,” said John Howard, vice president for business development at eXpresso, which offers an online service that allows people to store, edit and share Microsoft Office documents.

“They look to start-ups for the next great things they want to add to their product offerings.”

In turn, the smaller company can tap into the expansive reach of its bigger partner, which is critical in a downturn, Mr. Howard added. “We can piggyback to some extent on their marketing power.”

Check it out:  Partnerships Based on Service, Not Size

Tags: new, york, times, expresso, partnerships