Koral rides 'enterprise 2.0' theme in collaboration

Start-up Koral is scheduled show off its hosted content-management service aimed at businesses at the Demo conference on Tuesday.

End users can submit documents into the system, which recommends ways to classify content. Once stored, co-workers can view documents and make changes.

When someone tries to download a document, the service is designed to notify that person if there's a more recent version than what's stored on the desktop.

Koral is one of several trying to apply techniques associated with Web 2.0 to business customers--in this case, tagging and advanced search.

Most business information is placed in emails and documents, rather than structured databases. And yet, very few companies use content management systems, said Mark Suster, CEO of Koral, about an hour before going onstage at Demo.

"The enterprise content management market is $3 billion a year yet only five percent of businesses use them," he said.

By using tagging and search, the company claims that its hosted application is more intuitive than traditional content management systems which use hierarchical file folders.

And the company hopes to be inexpensive enough for people to sign up for without many barriers.

The basic service, which allows people to set up shared workspaces, is free. Koral intends to charge between nine and 60 dollars a month for private domains which allow people to put roles and access rights around collaboration, Suster said.

"Basic use of the product is totally free--we want to drive viral marketing," he said. "Where it shifts to a paid model is when a corporation or mid-size business wants to bring in house and put lock-downs on it."

In tandem with its launch, the one-and-a-half-year-old company has posted screen shots and a screen cast of its service.

Suster said Koral intends to announce soon that one customer intends to roll out Koral to about 700 sales people.