Collaborative Effort

This week, eRoom Technology is slated to unveil a new version of its collaborative software that will bundle realtime communications features along with XML, SOAP and WSDL support.

With eRoom Version 6, users who are members of several eRooms will get an aggregated list of tasks. The new version also includes a one-to-many presentation mode in addition to the existing one-to-one and many-to-many modes. The software, slated to ship at the end of the quarter, sells for $16,995 per server plus $149 per user license.

XML support will help with integration tasks. In addition, integrators can make use of failover clustering, said Jake Sorofman, senior product marketing manager at eRoom Technology, based here.

Corporations "absolutely" see the need for more secure, private and productive online workplaces, said Laurel McElreath, global service line director for messaging and collaboration at EDS, Plano, Texas. ERoom's additions are important as other companies enter the collaboration space,Microsoft with SharePoint Server and Lotus with QuickPlace, she said.

If e-mail spam continues to proliferate, "people will increasingly seek to carry on meaningful work outside of e-mail in trusted, secure communications and collaboration environments," said Ray Ozzie, founder and chairman of Groove Networks, Beverly, Mass.

To that end, Groove last week inked a deal with Needham, Mass.-based PTC to embed Groove technology into the next release of PTC's engineering software. The technology will let designers collaborate on design details with suppliers and colleagues, even across firewalls. And this week, Groove and Autonomy, San Francisco, are expected to unveil a deal to link Groove's application to Autonomy's knowledge management system.