Huddle takes collaboration tools to the next level

Editor’s note: This is part of VentureBeat’s series “Startup Spotlight.” Every week, we’ll sift through the scores of companies applying to be promoted and profile the best one. Companies can sign up here at the Entrepreneur Corner, which is currently sponsored by Microsoft. (Of course, we’re still interested in covering startup news and innovation in our day-to-day coverage.) Today, we continue the series with Huddle, below.

Huddle, a site that ties together online collaboration, phone and video conferencing, document sharing and project management into one package, is marketing itself as the ideal solution for small businesses and government agencies looking to team up on projects remotely.

Earlier this month, the U.K.-based company won the TechCrunch Europas competition for its innovation and ease of use, but it has yet to gain traction on this side of the pond. While there are many startups specializing in segments of Huddle’s services — Drop.io, Webex, SlideRocket and countless others come to mind — few offer all of these capabilities together, and even fewer provide the security and task management features that make Huddle useful for government and public sector applications. And with so many companies working with far-flung contractors, vendors and suppliers in today’s knowledge economy, tools to keep everything on track and on deadline are in increasingly high demand.

Every Huddle user has a central dashboard where they can view progress across multiple projects. They can customize this space with various widgets showing what’s going on, actions that need to be taken, and scheduling information. For example, one widget shows events coming up in the next week; another is a basic to-do list that integrates with Apple iCal to monitor deadlines; another is a bucket for items the user needs to edit or approve before the project can progress. That way, users are always aware of their action items, allowing projects to proceed more quickly and efficiently along a uniform pipeline. With this system, it is also possible to assign parts of projects to specific users, track their progress, and reassign work if milestones aren’t hit on time.

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Some less common features are also available through Huddle, including online whiteboards where several team members can brainstorm at a time or asynchronously. Whiteboard history is also stored so that it’s easy to go back and view ideas generated in past meetings. There is an umbrella keyword search option that allows users to find the document, whiteboard or message exchange they are looking for across hordes of content. Huddle also partners with social networks like LinkedIn, Ning and Facebook to scrape contact information and allow sharing across a greater number of people. Beyond that, its enterprise version provides not only document sharing abilities, but also desktop sharing — handy for company-wide presentations.

Emphasizing the service’s versatility seems to be the company’s top marketing priority. On its web site, it lists the various clients it could prove helpful for — including PR agencies, software developers and university administrations. In each area, the company highlights its relevant features. For example, for IT departments, Huddle allows developers to tap into its API to connect code and testing tools, and to keep everyone aware of product updates via RSS feeds and email alerts. The product allows government and public agencies to host discussion forums for public debate and adjust security settings on specific documents for individual team members. Qualifying charities receive 10 gigabytes of space, and 128 bits SSL security with a 99.5 percent uptime guarantee for free.

Huddle is already used by nonprofit organizations Unicef and the Red Cross for information sharing and global phone conferencing. It is also used by MasterCard’s marketing department to share advertising campaign results across agencies, partners and suppliers.

There are five different versions of Huddle available, each offering different combinations of capabilities depending on the client. There is even a free version, that allows for management of one project, one gigabyte of storage for unlimited users and phone conferencing, but nothing else. To pay for itself, this platform integrates advertising. The other versions range from “Essential” at $15 a month to “Premium” at $75 a month. Huddle Enterprise helps businesses create custom portals so the price varies.

Huddle raised $4 million in a first round of funding from Eden Ventures in November 2007.