Demo: Hookflash aims to make phone calls at work more productive

Hookflash, a peer-to-peer communications and file sharing service, wants to improve conversations in the workplace. Today at DEMO Fall 2011, the company is launching its first product, Hookflash for iPad.

The product, available as an iPad app at launch, combines the functionality of a corporate telephone system with real-time communications. The startup aims to foster discussions that mirror the way people interact in real life. To do this, it incorporates social elements into the conversation. With Hookflash, workers can coordinate with others online before a call, view real-time profiles from coworkers’ activity streams during a call and share recorded discussions after a call.

In addition to providing more context around a meeting through social features, Hookflash for iPad offers multi-modal, intelligent routing. Users can easily transfer a call between devices, and it’s possible to configure a whole team’s Hookflash to ring at once when certain customers call.

Though the product shares some features with both high-end business phones, like those offered by Cisco, and popular peer-to-peer services, like Skype, Hookflash is trying to fill a void between the two. The company intends to combine the strengths of each into a single, cost-effective product for businesses of all sizes.

The startup, which has offices in Calgary, Alberta and Palo Alto, Calif., is focusing on the iPad at launch, because “the iPad has invaded the workplace,” according to Hookflash co-founder and CEO Trent Johnsen. The company expects 200 million tablets to be sold in the next 36 months. Down the road, however, Hookflash has plans to expand the product to mobile and desktop devices.

Founded in 2010 by entrepreneurs with experience in telecommunications, the company currently has 17 employees and has raised a $1.2M funding round led by Sora Group.

Hookflash is one of 80 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2011 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.