Colligo for SharePoint Version 2.0 Allows Organizations to Extend
the Rich Functionality of SharePoint 2007 Online and Offline
Vancouver, BC, February 21, 2007 – Colligo Networks Inc., a leader in offline collaboration solutions for mobile professionals, today announces the release of Version 2.0 of the Colligo for SharePoint® product family that supports the 2007 Microsoft® Office System and Windows Vista™. Now organizations can extend the reach of Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) and Windows SharePoint® Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) to users who need access both online and offline – enabling these businesses to effectively increase the adoption and utility of SharePoint with their workforce. The Colligo for SharePoint product family consists of Colligo ReaderTM for SharePoint® and Colligo ContributorTM for SharePoint®. Colligo Reader provides offline read access to SharePoint sites and is free for individual users. Contributor is designed for businesses, and adds Microsoft® Outlook integration, 2-way synchronization, and advanced security and deployment options.
“Response to Colligo for SharePoint has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Barry Jinks, President & CEO of Colligo Networks. “Over 7,000 end users are benefiting from Colligo Reader and thousands more from nearly 200 large and small companies have purchased Colligo Contributor. Version 2.0 incorporates feedback from these users and we believe it delivers a significant productivity advantage for mobile professionals such as sales people, consultants, managers, and project teams in a variety of industries.”
“Colligo is seeing significant traction for its offline capability,” said Tony Rizzo, Sector Head, Mobile Software, with The 451 Group, a technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation, in his recent report. “As SharePoint 2007 builds on its customer base, Colligo is going along for the ride – its services are a true addition to the SharePoint platform.” This comment appeared in an independent report, titled “Colligo’s v2 Reader and Contributor provide offline SharePoint services,” published on February 20, 2007 (see Editor’s Note below).
In addition to compatibility with the 2007 (and 2003) Microsoft Office System, Colligo Contributor Version 2.0 has a number of new features and upgrades. The most significant of these is the new integration with Microsoft Office Outlook®. With Colligo Contributor 2.0 on their laptops or desktops, users can now drag-and-drop emails, attachments, events, and contacts directly into SharePoint document libraries whether they are working online or offline. Email message fields, such as “To”, “From” and “Subject”, are automatically mapped into metadata columns for easy categorization and organization. This provides a powerful solution for companies looking to migrate email content management to SharePoint for collaboration or compliance purposes.
Other upgrades in Version 2.0 include a new user interface that looks and feels like the online version of SharePoint 2007 (including breadcrumbs navigation), which reduces the learning curve for new users. Documents that have been sync’d to user PCs can now be located instantly through the new integration with Windows Desktop Search (if installed). SharePoint site selection has been streamlined through a tool bar button in Internet Explorer. Background synchronization and conflict resolution, complete with document compare and merge functions, have been significantly improved. Finally, several new configuration options enable IT managers to remotely deploy and configure Colligo Contributor onto user laptops.
“Contributor is a natural extension to our WSS v3-based Intranet, and because I travel so much, it ends up being my primary interface to most of our Intranet sites,” said Dustin Miller, President of SharePoint Experts and Microsoft MVP for Windows SharePoint Services. “While I’m on a plane, I can fill out InfoPath forms, update custom lists, and even drag emails with metadata and attachments from Outlook to Contributor. The next time I’m online, everything gets synced back: filled-out forms, new records, and even emails. It’s a killer productivity boost for me. The fact that Version 2.0 works with Windows Vista also means a lot.”
Colligo’s offline products for Microsoft SharePoint are used by corporations in many industry sectors to improve the productivity of their mobile workforces. For example, Colligo Contributor has been deployed by three major pharmaceutical companies to give their sales professionals access to forms and sales information when they are out of the office visiting clinics and hospitals. Consultants at professional services firms are using Colligo Contributor to manage engagements when they are traveling or working at client sites. Energy companies, particularly in the oil & gas sectors, are using Colligo to keep project teams, supervisors and managers working in the field updated with the latest safety bulletins and other information contained in SharePoint.
AAXICO, a global leader in commercial aviation parts distribution, recently deployed Colligo Contributor to help their global sales team stay productive both online and offline. “The faster user experience has been a huge benefit of using Colligo Contributor when online. Mobility is another. Now our international sales teams can use Contributor offline from anywhere in the world to update our SharePoint site,” said Terry Vieira, Senior Vice President, AAXICO in a recent customer case study. “Contributor has saved our international sales executives considerable time. ROI on Colligo Contributor was achieved in one plane ride, from London to Madrid.”
Designed to deliver a complete offline solution, Colligo for SharePoint is the easiest product family to deploy, learn, and use. Colligo Reader and Colligo Contributor are lightweight client-only applications (under 5MB) and require no server modifications. Designed for individual users, the free Colligo Reader allows users to synchronize SharePoint sites to their laptops, providing read-only access to document libraries, InfoPath forms, custom metadata and views, and both standard and custom lists. Colligo Contributor supports 2-way synchronization with content from SharePoint 2007 or 2003 sites. With Contributor, business professionals can create and edit documents, forms, list items, emails, and their associated properties when working offline, and then synchronize their changes to the server when back online.
Colligo Contributor is available now in single lot quantities for $125 from the Colligo online store at www.colligo.com/store. The free Colligo Reader and a 30-day trial of Colligo Contributor are available at www.colligo.com. Volume pricing and other enquiries can be directed to [email protected]
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About Colligo Networks
Colligo is a leading provider of offline collaboration solutions for mobile professionals. Its software extends the use of applications such as Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Notes into offline settings where users often have no access to the Internet or corporate servers. Colligo is a Microsoft Gold Certified ISV partner and IBM Business Partner. Its solutions are deployed in many large enterprises, such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Motors, Qualcomm, KPMG, and Grant Thornton in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information visit www.colligo.com.
Colligo is a trademark of Colligo Networks, Inc. All other corporate names and / or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Editor’s Note: The 451 Group’s report, “Colligo’s v2 Reader and Contributor provide offline SharePoint services” referenced above, is an independently-produced report that was neither sponsored by nor otherwise funded directly by Colligo Networks. The report and its entire contents are the sole property of The 451 Group, copyright 2007, and are reproduced here by permission. The entire contents of this report are available at www.the451group.com.
For further information, please contact:
Asa Zanatta
Tel: 604 408 1389 / (cell) 604 724 7755
E-mail: [email protected]
