Liaise word-to-action software beta launches

Collaboration software and DEMO winner seeks to "turn words into actions"

Liaise, which was the DEMO winner for the enterprise category in 2009, has been in private beta for the past few months, announced Tuesday the public beta availability of its collaboration software.

The fundamental idea of Liaise's software is to capture what it calls KeyPoints, "action items and issues," in emails the user writes in Microsoft Outlook. Additional KeyPoints are identified and saved from emails the user receives, regardless of the email's source. All KeyPoints are aggregated into reports made available to all Liaise users on the network via Outlook's calendar.

Along with the announcement of a public beta comes a whole set of new features in Liaise. Liaise Team Services, which sounds kind of similar to Google Wave, allows networks of Liaise users to collaborate through automatically synchronized desktop status updates. Also, Liaise now integrates into Outlook's calendar and any mobile devices capable of syncing with Outlook.

"Fast moving companies have moved beyond personal productivity to collaborative productivity,” said Ray Villeneuve, who was named Liaise’s CEO less than a week ago.  “The innovative new product features we are announcing today help networks of people within and between organizations manage interactions with customers, colleagues, partners and suppliers."

Sidney Minassian, Liaise co-founder and previous CEO, continues to serve on Liaise's executive team.

Liaise's software won the People’s Choice for Best Enterprise Product at DEMOfall 09, which was held in the third week of September. More recently, at the annual Emerging Technology Awards presented by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, Liaise was recognized as the most innovative and accomplished company in the area of collaboration technology.

For those with interest in cloud computing and collaboration software, Liaise is a company worth watching.