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Colligo Reader provides offline read access to SharePoint sites and is free for individual users. Contributor is designed for businesses, and adds Microsoft® Outlook integration, 2-way synchronization, and advanced security and deployment options.

“Response to Colligo for SharePoint has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Barry Jinks, President & CEO of Colligo Networks. “Over 7,000 end users are benefiting from Colligo Reader and thousands more from nearly 200 large and small companies have purchased Colligo Contributor. Version 2.0 incorporates feedback from these users and we believe it delivers a significant productivity advantage for mobile professionals such as sales people, consultants, managers, and project teams in a variety of industries.”

“Colligo is seeing significant traction for its offline capability,” said Tony Rizzo, Sector Head, Mobile Software, with The 451 Group, a technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation, in his recent report. “As SharePoint 2007 builds on its customer base, Colligo is going along for the ride – its services are a true addition to the SharePoint platform.” This comment appeared in an independent report, titled “Colligo's v2 Reader and Contributor provide offline SharePoint services,” published on February 20, 2007 (see Editor’s Note below).

In addition to compatibility with the 2007 (and 2003) Microsoft Office System, Colligo Contributor Version 2.0 has a number of new features and upgrades. The most significant of these is the new integration with Microsoft Office Outlook®. With Colligo Contributor 2.0 on their laptops or desktops, users can now drag-and-drop emails, attachments, events, and contacts directly into SharePoint document libraries whether they are working online or offline. Email message fields, such as “To”, “From” and “Subject”, are automatically mapped into metadata columns for easy categorization and organization. This provides a powerful solution for companies looking to migrate email content management to SharePoint for collaboration or compliance purposes.

Other upgrades in Version 2.0 include a new user interface that looks and feels like the online version of SharePoint 2007 (including breadcrumbs navigation), which reduces the learning curve for new users. Documents that have been sync’d to user PCs can now be located instantly through the new integration with Windows Desktop Search (if installed). SharePoint site selection has been streamlined through a tool bar button in Internet Explorer. Background synchronization and conflict resolution, complete with document compare and merge functions, have been significantly improved. Finally, several new configuration options enable IT managers to remotely deploy and configure Colligo Contributor onto user laptops.

“Contributor is a natural extension to our WSS v3-based Intranet, and because I travel so much, it ends up being my primary interface to most of our Intranet sites,” said Dustin Miller, President of SharePoint Experts and Microsoft MVP for Windows SharePoint Services. “While I’m on a plane, I can fill out InfoPath forms, update custom lists, and even drag emails with metadata and attachments from Outlook to Contributor. The next time I’m online, everything gets synced back: filled-out forms, new records, and even emails. It’s a killer productivity boost for me. The fact that Version 2.0 works with Windows Vista also means a lot.”

Colligo’s offline products for Microsoft SharePoint are used by corporations in many industry sectors to improve the productivity of their mobile workforces. For example, Colligo Contributor has been deployed by three major pharmaceutical companies to give their sales professionals access to forms and sales information when they are out of the office visiting clinics and hospitals. Consultants at professional services firms are using Colligo Contributor to manage engagements when they are traveling or working at client sites. Energy companies, particularly in the oil & gas sectors, are using Colligo to keep project teams, supervisors and managers working in the field updated with the latest safety bulletins and other information contained in SharePoint.

AAXICO, a global leader in commercial aviation parts distribution, recently deployed Colligo Contributor to help their global sales team stay productive both online and offline. “The faster user experience has been a huge benefit of using Colligo Contributor when online. Mobility is another. Now our international sales teams can use Contributor offline from anywhere in the world to update our SharePoint site,” said Terry Vieira, Senior Vice President, AAXICO in a recent customer case study. “Contributor has saved our international sales executives considerable time. ROI on Colligo Contributor was achieved in one plane ride, from London to Madrid.”