Citrix Previews Collaboration Tool At iForum

"We've been focused on trying to extend our access capabilities way beyond MetaFrame," said Mark Templeton, president and CEO of Citrix, in a keynote address.

The new product, code-named Project Pearl, adds a collaboration interface to Citrix's MetaFrame XP application delivery platform.

With Project Pearl, remote end users can share and edit documents in realtime through almost any application served by MetaFrame, said Bob Kruger, CTO and senior vice president of products at Citrix, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"Collaboration tools now are typically individual to individual. We're talking about one to many or many to many," Kruger said.

The new product utilizes the server-based computing paradigm championed by Citrix, requiring no software to be downloaded to the user's machine, Kruger said.

Collaboration technology is of increasing interest to some customers, said David Haley, manager of solutions sales at Vector ESP, a solution provider based in Austin, Texas.

In one instance, a client that manufactures nail guns is seeking a collaboration solution to help employees in different countries more effectively communicate with each other, Haley said.

"If our customer is able to get its tool to your local Home Depot six months sooner, it would be huge," Haley said.

Project Pearl is scheduled for general availability in the first half of 2003.

As it did earlier this year with the launch of NFuse Elite, Citrix's portal server, the company plans to introduce a Fast Track training program to a select group of channel partners so they will be ready to implement the product as soon as it's launched, Templeton said.