David Lee CEO of Teams and Concepts contacted me late last night with some interesting news. His HK based company is partnering with ThinkFree. Usually, i'd ignore this kind of announcement but what makes this different is that ThinkFree is replacing its spreadsheet service with TnCs EditGrid.
My immediate reaction was uh? But once the situation was explained, it makes perfect sense. ThinkFree offers a Microsoft compatible on-demand replacement for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It's main selling point is Microsoft compatibility.
EditGrid has proven itself useful as a collaboration and external data integration tool. I know for example that it has been integrated into an information service designed to reach around 70,000 users. I've mooted getting EditGrid integrated into internal information services that have a blog/wiki flavour because this would provide the backbone for a knowledge and content management system of use to practitioners. Whether that happens remains to be seen. EditGrid also has a search feature, something you can't do with Excel.
The ThinkFree deal allows EditGrid to reach ThinkFree's 300,000 users. A piffling number when you think that Microsoft has some 500 million licenses of Office scattered around the world. But evidence that you can offer an alternative to incumbent products and still make a go of it.
In recent months, EditGrid has secured Series A funding and according to David, is getting serious attention in the highly cost conscious Far East markets. Given the amount of counterfeiting that goes in, its model of giving away the basic version for personal use but making a small $5 per month charge for SSL encryption and other collaborative features makes great business sense.
EditGrid sponsors AccMan.
Well done David and thanks for your business.
Technorati Tags: editgrid, thinkfree
Innovation
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