X-Collaboration Software Corp.’s Web-based service, X-Collaboration.com, an ASP (application service provider), has upgraded its X-Community.com.
The X-Community.com 2.0 combines Web-hosting services, including virtual drive space, with document management and basic project tracking functions. X-Community.com is to help reduce extra efforts by storing shared files on a community whiteboard to allow team members to immediately see which files are active. The new upgrade introduces a new user interface, a skills directory for project leaders, and 10MB of personal storage for each user.
X-Community combines basic project management functions with document version tracking and control features, allowing workgroups to plan and organize collaborative projects and track their progress. The result is a solution for dispersed workgroups collaborating on business proposals, contracts, and other document-centric projects.
Users logon to X-Community’s whiteboards. By dragging and rearranging electronic notecards on the canvas users define their project’s workflow. Notecards function like tasks in a project management program and can hold any type of document draged on to them: word processing files, spreadsheets, presentations, and live Web pages.
Notecard content is immediately available to other project participants. Project managers are allowed to assign custom tags to notecards to facilitate searches and to search across multiple workspaces using advanced Boolean search criteria. When a document is in use, X-Community.com allows other users to view it, but prevents them from making changes. X-Community.com allows managers to assign jobs to individuals and impose deadlines.
Team members can view their task lists when logging on and could update how much of their work was complete. Each team member has a personal page that lists skills and similar data. This should help managers who need to assemble ad hoc teams quickly find workers with the appropriate experience.
Besides the whiteboards, X-Community.com gives each user a virtual hard disk for storing personal files. These drives can also be shared.
X-Community works with Microsoft Office 2000 and other XML-enabled desktop products, provides 128-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security and costs approximately US$10 per month per user; yearly and quantity discounts available (for example, $5,400/year for 50 users).
X-Collaboration Software Corp. in Boston can be reached at http://www.x-community.com.
Prices listed are in US currency.