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 Instacoll recently launched Live Documents in India, the fifth from its product stable. Sumanth Raghavendra, Chief Executive Officer, InstaColl elaborates on features and functionalities of the new product in a conversation with NWC’s Sonal Desai
Q. Google, Microsoft and IBM for example are offering similar solutions. What is your differentiator?
A. Live Documents is an offline office suite that gives capabilities of desktop applications on the browser. Unlike most of our competitors, we use the rich RIA technology for browsing and our interface is not HTML. We are essentially working towards improving user experience on the desktop by adding more functionalities in the form of Macros and Conditional Formatting and wrapping the entire experience around the browser.
Q. What are the benefits of this technology?
A. Our technology is especially beneficial in environments where Internet connectivity is not ubiquitous. We are offering desktop client wraps around MS Office. The same documents can be accessed using a browser, or using MS Office on Desktop by converting desktop application into smart clients. The best part is it can also enable offline access and automatically synchronize online documents to servers.
Q. In an era where major vendors are bundling software and services, is Instacoll also planning a SaaS offering?
A. We see the momentum for SaaS and therefore, browsers are an integral part of our offerings. We offer software as an add on and our benchmark for the same is Office 2007. We have been developing Live Documents for the last two years and listening a lot to what our customers have to say. People are first looking for service that allows them to break free from Microsoft. We have developed these solutions around Flex and Flash. HTML is being used only for Word. This will allow sharing of applications as well. Our earlier products and solutions were focused on real time collaboration and Live Documents is chiefly focused on document sharing.
Q. What are the deployment models?
A. There would be a couple of models. One is that we would host the entire service ourselves, where the customer has to login and use technology. Two will be on-site services and three is exclusive management of servers. We are also looking at OEM models wherein other products can be embedded on our solutions.
Q. What are your OEM plans?
A. We also looking at OEM partners in India. Infact, we are finalizing details and will be able to disclose names in the near future. Meanwhile, we are focusing on signing customers and technology previews besides other promotional activities.
Q. Any customers you have already signed?
A. At present, I can name only Aricent.
Q. What is the pricing strategy for this product?
A. It is a license based model for 100 users and an entire enterprise model. Aricent has opted for the latter.
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