YouDazzle Combines Social Collaboration, Cloud Storage

There are lots of collaboration software tools available to buy, and more and more cloud storage options for businesses besides. YouDazzle , a Silicon Valley startup, says it has created a device that combines the appropriate of both worlds .

The company uses third-party public clouds, hosted by Amazon Web Services and DropBox, not to only store files in a cloud, but allow for multiple users to access them during Web meetings.

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YouDazzle isn’t the first social collaboration or storage tool . Box and WebEx offer similar sorts of features, says Laurie McCabe, an analyst with the SMB Group who tracks social collaboration tools. “They’re the primary ones I’ve heard of to position this specific bundle of services together,” she says. But, she doubts YouDazzle would be the last. It is a natural evolution, she says, for file sharing and collaboration tools to integrate with cloud storage services.

YouDazzle features password protected online “rooms” that store files that may then be shared by a bunch with invited members to a gathering. The software also supports screen sharing and a discussion feature that enables for real-time conversations in the course of the online meeting. The company’s software is integrated with Dropbox APIs, which permits for documents which are stored in DropBox to be edited within the application and stored back into the cloud.

In addition to the social collaboration and cloud sharing, YouDazzle is introducing what McCabe calls an innovative strategy to gaining customers. YouDazzle uses a social selling network during which users receive a commission for reselling the service. If consultants, because the company calls them, recruit folks to sell the product, they get additional commissions. It is a strategy made famous by Tupperware parties, McCabe says, but it is the first she’s seen it utilized in a technology setting.

YouDazzle, which released the product this week, has a free version, allowing one user to host a single meeting. For $20 a month, a user can host a vast collection of meetings, while for $40 as much as three hosts can access the software and for $100 a month as much as 10 hosts can start online meetings.

Network World staff writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social media. He may be reached at BButler@nww.com and located on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.