NextPage today released NextPage 1.5, the first software to eliminate ad hoc document chaos for millions of business professionals who use Microsoft Office every day.
NextPage 1.5 is a new subscription service that provides users with real-time status and notifications about all documents on which they collaborate, providing control over the ad hoc processes that create the estimated 7.5 billion documents produced each year.
With NextPage 1.5, workers no longer waste time, effort and unnecessary cycles tracking down the latest versions of important documents, making sure others are working on the correct versions and double checking to make sure people are receiving the right documents.
“Our users estimate they spend 10 percent of their time managing documents with ad hoc processes, and until now, they had no solution to resolve the chaos of document versions in e-mail attachments and on hard drives,” said Darren Lee, president and CEO of NextPage. “Today, with NextPage 1.5, customers know real-time document status and can guarantee they spend their time working on the right document version.”
Unlike typical centralized solutions, NextPage 1.5 doesn’t require IT infrastructure, takes only a few minutes to install and works with the applications people rely on every day – e-mail and Microsoft Office. In addition, users can still work with non-subscribers, and the service automatically knows when a new document arrives that it is a version of the original.
“In our research on content collaboration technologies, we’ve found that organizations want solutions that take into account the ad hoc nature of business,” said Michael Maziarka, director at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. “NextPage’s software is designed to work like people work – typically in e-mail and in Microsoft Office applications – so the probability of adoption is high and teams receive value immediately when they start using the software.”
The patent-pending technologies of NextPage 1.5 provide the only solution to the ad hoc chaos of creating documents. The service adds a Digital Thread of accuracy and control to document versions. The Digital Thread guarantees awareness of the following:
Who has been working on a document – even after it has been sent out for edits and approvals.
What types of changes have been made, with detailed status information about different document versions.
When new versions become available – or when someone inadvertently begins working on the wrong version of a document.
Where different versions are stored and whether team members have access to the latest version.
How different versions fit together and contribute to a final, finished document.
“Our consultants spend the majority of their time writing and editing documents – a single document can result in 20 or more versions within hours,” said Tim Kapp, principal at BayHill Group.”Streamlining this document process creates higher quality output, accelerates our delivery time and eliminates risk of rework that costs us days of non-billable work.”
The service also includes the NextPage Version History, which provides a graphical reporting tool, telling users what has happened to every tracked document. NextPage 1.5 also attaches a Document Signature to any e-mail with an attached NextPage-tracked document, providing detailed information about the document version.
With that signature, recipients can click on a link to perform a NextPage Version Check to see if the document they received is still the latest version. The Version Check takes users to a Web page that displays whether or not the document is the latest version.
NextPage 1.5 was developed during the last 18 months with input from more than 50 customers and hundreds of users. NextPage 1.5 is available for purchase starting today at www.nextpage.com/trial. A free trial version is available.
NextPage 1.5 tracks Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files and runs on the Microsoft Windows Operating System.
murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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