Groove Launches Virtual Sales Office

On Wednesday, Groove Networks, the Beverly, Mass., collaboration software company founded by Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie, announced a Web-based collaborative sales system called Virtual Sales Office (VSO).

VSO, which is built on Groove's platform, is said to speed up the sales cycle by enabling geographically distributed sales teams to work more collaboratively, Groove said.

The online selling system, developed by training ISV SalesConference.net and delivered through Groove's VSO Web site, features six customized Groove workspaces including an opportunity management system, training content and a team calendar, Groove executives said. Groove is a major ISV partner of Microsoft.

The Strategy Mapping Opportunity Management system, for instance, is a synchronized tracking system that immediately posts new and updated opportunities so that sales teams and executives can get up-to-the-minute views of individual and sales team forecasts.

The Team Calendar workspace is a shared calendar for tracking and scheduling team meetings, Groove said. It is integrated with Microsoft Outlook.

Collaborative Coach, another workspace, is a discussion board that allows sales managers to coach sales representatives on strategies for winning opportunities.

Another workspace, Resource Center, exploits the Groove platform's file-sharing capabilities for distributing sales and marketing materials.

A sixth workspace, Training Content, delivers a free subscription to SalesConference.Net's "Value Proposition Online" to groove's VSO.

Groove requires use of Groove Workspace Standard Edition or Professional Edition to access the six VSO workspaces. The VSO can be download Groove's VSO from http://www.groove.net/downloads/tools.