Innovations Software Technology on Ulitzer

DocVerse, a start-up set up by a couple of old Microsoft hands two years ago, has begun commercializing its downloadable plug-in said to turn Microsoft's Word, PowerPoint and Excel into full-fledged web-based collaboration tools.

The widgetry, some of it still in development when the first piece went to beta in February, is supposed to make any .doc, .ppt, or .xls file into a secure web document that can be shared and edited by multiple users anytime, anywhere, online or off.

The company describes it as "combining the benefits of web-based collaboration tools like Google Docs and Zoho with the power and familiarity of the world's most popular productivity application, Microsoft Office."

Of course, Microsoft is webifying its apps too so DocVerse's window could turn into a narrow arrow slit in the castle walls but then Microsoft is one of its advisors along with Google and Adobe.

A strange set of bedfellows that.

As a kickoff DocVerse has got a private-label OEM relationship with the Jive social business software to distribute the high-end DocuVerse Enterprise as Jive Connects.

The start-up says anytime a DocVerse user saves a document on his desktop, its widgetry automatically creates a web-based version of the thing in the cloud, which is instantly shared with whomever the author has specified.

All web-based versions of a document reportedly get a unique, secure, shareable URL that never changes and can be accessed by anyone the author invites to view it - whether they've installed the plug-in or not - using any browser, or via the plug-in.

DocVerse is supposed to track, manage and sync all changes and merge them correctly into one updated version of the document - even if users save changes to the same document at the exact same time.

Microsoft's legion of users should be able to put away their virtual pinking sheers and paste pots.

The plug-in is free until January and the company means to keep it free for the occasional individual user. Otherwise it will run $6 a month for one user and 50 documents, $49 a month for 10 users and 500 documents, and $99 a month for 25 users and 1,500 docs. Unlimited documents, storage and users will take a special quote. New versions of existing documents don't count in the doc tallies.

The company says it will save 60 days worth of user revisions but plans to offer an upgrade option.

It works with the apps in Office 2003 and 2007 on XP, Vista and Windows 7 and any browser with Flash Player 8 or above. The company expects to add Mac support next year.

The start-up's raised $1.3 million last summer from Baseline Ventures, ex-eBay exec-turned-VC-and-Stanford prof Michael Dearing and undisclosed angel investors. They're described on DocVerse's web page as "the very same investors who initially backed Google, PayPal and Twitter."

The founders, CEO Shan Sinha and CTO Alex DeNeui, did SharePoint and SQL Server product strategy when they were at Microsoft.

The collaboration market is supposed to be worth $10 billion.