The next release of Workshare Professional is currently in beta so I thought it would be a good time to check in with Matthew Brown, V.P. of Product Marketing, to get an update. Matt’s based in our London office so as I was sleeping in San Francisco he was answering my questions via email.
Dave: I’ve been at Workshare for 6 years, but that pales in comparison to your Workshare experience. How long have you been in the product group?
Matt: About 10, when you write it down and look at the number it seems like a really long time.
Dave: So you’ve been through quite a few product releases. With the organizational changes this past year and the significant increase in resources going into product development, how is this release different than those in the past?
Matt: Over the past year, we have redefined the way we release products. We have introduced more rigorous and consistent release planning and QA that has resulted in more predictable release schedules and a zero "priority one" policy for all releases. The SR1 release in Sept 08, and the upcoming SR2 release are of the highest quality and a direct result of the changes. This is also reflected by the 500+ beta testers telling us that they are extremely happy with the progress that has been made.
Dave: So overall the beta is progressing as planned?
Matt: Yes, the process and product quality is what we expected at this phase. But we have actually lengthened the beta program and taken more time to test the product than originally planned. We’re determined to release a quality product that is beyond anything our customers have experienced in the past.
Dave: What is getting beta customers the most excited?
Matt: There are a number of new features that are getting beta testers talking; your favorite feature is not necessarily my favorite feature. But one that I will share with you is the enhancements to comparison functionality. When you think of comparing word documents you often think of accurately detecting text changes, but the ability to detect changes to an image, a scanned PDF, or an embedded excel table are some of the requirements we will have significant advances in.
Dave: What else can you reveal about the next version of Professional?
Matt: Check back next week and I’ll provide a sneak peek into the advancements around combining files into a single PDF. Sometimes this is referred to as PDF Bibleing, or “packaging up” all matter related documents into one PDF. The current version has basic PDF combine functionality, but we spent a lot of time updating the functionality as well as the usability (the feature is now user friendly) . And the feedback we’re getting is making it easier to sleep at night.
Post a comment if you’d like to me ask the product management team a specific question, or stay tuned for the next update.