Box.net has partnered with Fuze Meeting to add real-time online meetings and screen sharing. Now the SaaS file-sharing and collaboration suite, which is going after SharePoint head on, has the added component of Web conferencing.
For those unfamiliar with it, Fuze Meeting is a fairly slick alternative to popular options like GoToMeeting, Dimdim and WebEx. The company — formerly a public one listed as Callwave — was recently revitalized and now revolves around its online software service.
Both software as a service offerings are on a freemium basis, so there’s a complete spectrum of payment options. The limited personal versions are free, while real enterprise use will require an annual fee. Using Fuze as part of your Box account will allow you to conduct meetings, share your desktop (which requires a download), and upload your Box files to a Fuze collaboration space.
Box has added the Fuze Meeting support as part of its OpenBox system, which allows users to share their files with a plethora of services. Everything from Gmail to Zoho and beyond can be connected to a Box account, so this is really just another addition to the ecosystem for Box.
But Fuze is competing against some extremely entrenched services, namely WebEx and GoToMeeting. To draw in Box account holders, an enterprise user base that is naturally more open to new SaaS tools, might be a big boost in its quest to gain market share.
