CubeTree is a robust enterprise collaboration platform that I have covered before on this blog (see CubeTree Releases Innovative Enterprise Collaboration Platform).  Recently, I spoke again with Carlin Wiegner, their CEO.  We began with a conversation about the greatly expanding market for enterprise 2.0 software. Carlin is very pleased to be part of a growth market just as I am pleased to be covering it.

Carlin suggested that one of the main drivers is the increased awareness of the value of alternatives to email for collaboration through the very rapid growth of such consumer Web tools as Twitter and Facebook.  We have gone past the tipping point and people can see the value of the more social forms of communication and collaboration. Carlin said that some of the firms they are speaking with have shifted the tone of the conversation from “why do this?” to “why not do this?”  One client moved from a department implementation to an enterprise adoption, considering CubeTree as another “dial tone” necessity.

Carlin said there are other reasons but this may be the main one. I certainly agree on its importance. He added the increasing entry into the workforce of young people who are expecting these types of tools is helping drive adoption. I added the economic benefit of SaaS offerings in a down economy with smaller start up costs and easier ability to turn down and up the investment. There is also a focus on making the downsized work forces better able to do more with less by becoming more productive and tools like CubeTree can realize this goal in a cost effective manner.  There is also the reduced cost of virtual collaboration.

We moved on to discussing CubeTree. They have been successfully using a “freemium” pricing model – a free version, coupled with paid upgrades to premium versions that have additional storage and features.    The free version is not a free trial – although it has a complete set of features, it simply has fewer features than paid versions.  Carlin said that many small businesses begin with the free version and switch to the paid version as they get to 30 – 40 users.  Then they often move to providing Cubetree to the whole company. The same threshold tends to apply to their larger customers but then the first move is to cover a department with heavy use. Carlin believes that the concept of a free offering is both embedded in the market and a great way to allow for the viral spread of support in an organization. I would agree on both counts.

Next, we covered some of their new capabilities. There are two types. First, CubeTree does a weekly release and they are on release 93. There have been many incremental upgrades recently such as adding faces instead of icons on profiles. CubeTree allows for cross-company instances and this use of faces on profiles has encouraged increased usage in these cross-company instances. They have also added ease of use and better administration for groups. Another small upgrade was the display of recent activities on the bottom of page, making it easy to go back.

There are four major additions to functionality. First, there are social documents. You can view a document without downloading it as every file has a Web viewer. There is also the ability to add visual commentary to these documents.  Second, CubeTree has added issue tracking, which provides better support for workflow. The third addition is the improved functionality for administration. It is easier for IT to handle large groups. For example, you can archive all messages to a third party archive. This is useful for such regulated industries as financial services.  The fourth addition is CubeTree Deal Rooms. Now you can quickly set a workspace related to an opportunity logged in Saleforce.com. This can be used for the potential customer and the firm or just within the firm to discuss the sales process.

CubeTree’s customers and licensed seats have more than doubled over the past 60 days. They recently secured $8 Million in Series B Financing led by InterWest Partners. Existing investor Trinity Ventures also participated in this round and they have raised $12 million in funding in total.  CubeTree certainly seems to be on the right track with these additions and their market progress.