I've talked about teamslide from German company telepark here and here (The first time, I explained that the lowercase spelling is their branding choice, not my mistake. So you can put those red pencils away!). Today's email from Munich notified me that teamslide is now available as a hosted service. You pay a subscription fee (pretty low... $35 for 3 months up to $99 bucks for a year) and you can upload your PowerPoint slides to a URL on their server for display to 1-10 viewers.
Prior to this, teamslide required you to purchase the software and use your own server storage space for uploaded presentations. That is still an option and the two product versions coexist. Features on the hosted version look to be the same as reported earlier on the installed version.
I have been hearing from a lot of folks about this low-end segment of the market. The idea is to provide quick, easy, and inexpensive functionality for the most basic kind of interaction... Just the ability to show your PowerPoint slides to a small audience on the other end of a phone call. No learning curve and no installation/download process for your audience. Completely cross-platform. I used to do a lot of these kinds of presentations as a product marketing manager when talking to press and industry analysts. Salespeople also use this kind of presentation ability in certain situations.
My gut tells me that eventually this kind of functionality is going to be expected as a freebie, just like computer-to-computer calling through Skype (which teamslide has an integration with, by the way). Vendors are going to have to figure out a way to make money through associated services or upgrades (or however Skype says they make money... It's always confused me!). But until then, teamslide is a cost effective way to get into the collaborative presentation game. The addition of hosted upload space is an important step in breaking down barriers to adoption for small companies, individuals, and places where capacity is a headache.
Technorati Tags: PowerPoint, presentations, teamslide, telepark
