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eXpresso Offering via salesforce.com’s AppExchange

If you are a salesforce.com user then you know how important it is to be able to analyze your data in a format that is easily understood and easily customized. eXpresso, provider of integrated spreadsheet functionality also understands these requirements.

Together salesforce.com and eXpresso have partnered to offer salesforce.com users a fully certified version of eXpresso.

Available through the AppExchange, eXpresso is a SaaS solution that hosts Excel business communities. Using eXpresso, users can store and edit Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and collaborate on them in real-time. It’s not a replacement for Excel (like EditGrid) - instead it takes advantage of the fact that Excel is so widely used and extends it through online collaboration.

Users are able to collaborate on salesforce.com data using the eXpresso spreadsheet capabilities. They can send alerts on the Salesforce dashboard or via email when the content in the spreadsheet has been accessed or changed. Alerts can be set right down to individual cell changes.

In addition, live meetings can be conducted to collaborate on a spreadsheet. Users can be invited to participate for free.

Also of interest is that the spreadsheet owner can select specific regions of the spreadsheet to be edited by other collaborators.

Some other benefits to using eXpresso integrated spreadsheets include:

• Having a single up-to-date spreadsheet that everyone can access and modify
• All activity is audited and stored
• No need to pass spreadsheets around via email attachments
• All the benefits of a hosted solution including storage of documents on the eXpresso website

eXpresso is available with all editions of saleforce.com and comes in two versions:

• Pro: Full eXpresso functionality USD $15/month or $79/year
• Open: Limited functionality provided free of charge

To use eXpresso, you do need to have a license for Excel. You can use Excel 2003 or 2007, but you must save your spreadsheets as xls.

eXpresso received two awards recently including The 2008 PC World 25 Most Innovative Products Award and Info World 2008 Technology of the Year.

If you want to continue to edit your spreadsheets offline, you can download the eXpresso Plugin for Excel. This will lock on the online copy and give you offline access to edit your spreadsheet.

Download eXpresso from AppExchange or head over to the eXpresso website for more information and a product tour.