Sabeer Bhatia debuts next 'hot' product

Hotmail founder, Sabeer Bhatia unveiled InstaColl, an Internet collaboration tool. It converts mainstream desktop productivity tools like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint into real time collaboration platforms. Sabeer said that the product was completely made in India and is the only peer-to-peer collaborative tool in the market. 

He further informed that he made a significant investment into the Bangalore-based start-up but declined to reveal the value of investment. The product is currently in its Beta version and is slated to go commercial next month. 

IBM will be providing InstaColl in its new x-series of computers. The tool would be available as a managed hosted service on a pay-per-use basis or one-time fee, based on number of concurrent users. 

"With the single click of a button, one can share documents and information across various locations. It doesn't need the user to learn a new tool and we will make sure it is priced within the common man's reach," Sabeer said. He also added that InstaColl bridges the shortcomings of e-mail, thanks to its immediacy, simplicity and affordability.

When asked if InstaColl would pose as competition to real-time collaboration products like Microsoft
LiveMeeting, Sabeer said that it doesn't conflict with Microsoft's offering since no separate application is needed for InstaColl unlike
LiveMeeting. Currently, InstaColl is not compatible with Linux or Mozilla
Firefox. 

Sabeer said that he would shortly become the board member and Chairman of the company. Besides
InstaColl, he has also invested in two US-based companies-Naveen Communications and
Hotseasons.com. Naveen's product Telixo, enables PDA like functionalities to mobile handsets while Hotseasons is a search engine for the travel and tourism segment. The company was co-founded by Sabeer along with two other co-founders ­ company CEO, Sumanth Raghavendra and COO, Kaushal
Cavale.

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