ShowDocument

Following on from my post about design review applications, I received a news release from Israeli firm HBR Labs about a similar type of solution. ShowDocument Now is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)document-sharing application that includes dedicated ‘meeting rooms’, secure online document storage and mobile device support. It supports various document types, including Word, PowerPoint, PDF, text files, JPEG images, web pages and video clips. It is a generic tool, so this range of file types should be adequate for many users, but support for CAD formats and other types of construction files would need to be added for this to be used in an AEC context.

The application is free to use, which is great for the casual user but if you were looking to use the service for long-term online storage you might wonder how the service is going to be funded. On-screen advertising is one answer, I think (the test environment had three ads across the bottom of the browser window – see right). Otherwise, I think ShowDocument Now is really a showcase for HBR Labs’ VeriShow service (also branded as ShowDocument Insite), a SaaS conferencing or online meeting solution that enables companies to set up synchronous online collaboration sessions on their own websites to interact with their customers. This is available on a 30-day free trial basis after which, presumably, users will have to pay to continue to use the service (I could find no details of how much the service costs).