TORONTO,April 22,2008 - Octopz is pleased to announce the newest version of its award-winning online collaboration software.
The latest evolution of Octopz adds important new functionality that keeps it in the forefront of collaboration technology, ensuring that it continues to be a powerful solution for creative professionals.
Working closely with users and developers, Octopz now supports a broader range of document types, allows for real-time co-creation via the built-in text editor, provides increased integration with complementary applications and web services, and offers a flexible new pricing option.
Octopz now integrates several important new capabilities to ensure that it stays ahead in today's quickly evolving business and technology environment. Highlights include:
- industry-leading support for fully interactive 3D content
- new extensibility, with interactive access to external web services, including Flickr, Yahoo! Maps and, shortly, Floorplanner.
- real-time co-creation with the built-in text editor, giving collaborators a 'clean sheet' environment in which to create documents or the option to start from an existing Microsoft Word file
- a new Day Pass pricing option; a convenient alternative to monthly subscriptions for users whose online collaboration needs are intermittent
"We believe Octopz is an extremely useful solution and are excited about how the product is evolving," said Manolo Almagro, senior vice president and chief technology officer of MarketForward, a Publicis Groupe company. "The new features - in particular the text editor and support for 3D - are enhancements that will help us to continue to produce award winning campaigns."
The new 3D capability supports true 3-dimensional polygonal models with CG (computer generated) or photographic textures. It's now easy for anyone working in 3D applications such as Autodesk's Maya and 3ds Max, and Softimage's XSI, to upload their content into Octopz. Once imported into Octopz, these 3D models can be shared with anyone, anywhere in the world, using nothing more than a Flash-enabled web browser. The models can be synchronously viewed, manipulated and marked up just like any other document type.
The new Text Editor allows collaborators, in real-time, to create brand new documents as well as upload, or copy and paste, already existing files and text for review and modifications. The revised document is archived in Octopz and may be exported as a Microsoft Word file. For the authors' convenience, the Text Editor incorporates many of the most important word processing functions such as search-and-replace, spell checking, and a range of formatting choices.
The interface between Octopz and Yahoo! now allows users to access web services such as Yahoo! Maps and Flickr (either an individual photo collection or the entire Flickr library), upload the desired images or map information directly to an Octopz meeting room, and view and markup the images online. Flickr is one of the world's leading online photo sharing communities with more than 40 million worldwide visitors each month and more than 2 billion photos stored. Yahoo! Maps provides street maps and driving directions online, as well as a host of interactive features including address books, traffic incident markers and road condition reports.
Additionally, in the coming weeks, Octopz will also support the Floorplanner web service. Users will be able to login to Floorplanner from within Octopz and import their plans into an Octopz session for review and feedback. Floorplanner is an innovative way to create and edit interactive floor plans. Using point-and-click, drag-and-drop tools, users can make floor plans in minutes, and rearrange them as often as they want.
The new Day Pass pricing option, at just $9.95 USD per day, allows users and their guests unlimited access to a single Octopz Meeting Room for a period of 24 hours. Octopz requires nothing more than a Flash-enabled browser, so no software download is required, and all work, including markup and notes, is securely archived for one month. The new Day Pass pricing option will be available at the end of May 2008.
"In today's rapidly shifting business environment, leading creative companies are beating the competition by embracing collaboration and in particular real-time co-creation, resulting in accelerated decision making and improved productivity." said Ron McKenzie, CEO of Octopz. "Octopz has become the technology leader in online collaboration for creative professionals because we are constantly working with our users to ensure a process of continuous enhancement. This interaction ensures that Octopz remains uniquely valuable to anyone working in a creative environment."
Offered on a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) basis, Octopz was developed specifically to meet the needs of creative professionals and enables up to five people to synchronously view and markup an unprecedented range of documents including digital media, and to communicate via built-in text, voice and video chat. Octopz uses intuitive navigation and tool icons, requires nothing more than a Flash-enabled web browser, and uses integrated SSL encryption to ensure security. In addition, Octopz can be integrated (via Flash, API's and web services) with existing applications.
About Octopz Inc.
Octopz Inc. (www.octopz.com ) develops advanced online collaboration technologies built specifically for today's creative professionals. With fully integrated support for text messaging, VoIP and webcams, Octopz allows colleagues and partners anywhere in the world to work together securely in real-time, or individually at their own convenience, using multiple document types. Team members can then save and archive their work for subsequent retrieval, review and feedback. The result is accelerated decision making and speed-to-market - a significant competitive edge.
For more information, contact:
Ann Christie Vice President, Marketing
Octopz Inc.
416.673.8187
ann@octopz.com
