He added Microsoft Access requires a lot of training while the Excel spreadsheet is not good at managing certain types of databases. "(What) Excel gets abused for are things like product management tracking, HR tracking, event planning, membership lists," he said. "That's the kind of thing that Dabble DB does really well."

Another tool in this space is Intuit's QuickBase product, which Bryant said is aimed at a slightly more technical user than Dabble DB and comes with a slightly higher price tag as well. "QuickBase pricing starts at $250 a month, whereas our pricing starts at $10 a month," he said.

Octopz

Octopz's online collaboration platform allows users to synchronously view and mark up a variety of digital media documents such as video, images, animations and 3-D models. The Web-based software - which runs in a Flash-enabled browser - also supports all of the standard Microsoft Office docs that an organization might use. While collaborating with each other, users can communicate via built-in text, voice and video chat - even commenting on a single video frame if they'd like.

"IT managers are under pressure these days to implement ongoing evolutions of their internal systems and keep up with the demands of their internal employees," said Ron McKenzie, CEO at Octopz. "Our application can be implemented without loading any software, there's no plug-ins, and it's all delivered in a secure and encrypted environment."

While mainly geared toward creative professionals and product designers, McKenzie said that some major enterprises in the US, such as GlaxoSmithKline and BestBuy, have begun using the tool for online focus groups.

Igloo Software

With RIM boss Jim Balsillie sitting on its board of directors; Igloo Software's corporate social networking platform should garner significant attention. The startup has developed a Facebook-like platform that combines content management, collaboration and social networking into its hosted application.

"The number one corporate social networking tool in any organization is e-mail," said Igloo CEO Dan Latendre. "But instead of just sending the messages to an inbox, we want to send it back out to a corporate social network so the information can be reused." The software works as a cross between Facebook and Wikipedia. It allows users to do things like post comments, make blog entries, upload documents, and contribute to forums. Latendre said this tool will be useful for massive companies that have an increasing number of mobile workers - especially when compared to SharePoint.

"Our pricing starts at about $5,000 or $10,000 and your up and running in seconds," said Latendre. On enterprise platforms like SharePoint, you're going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and 12 to 18 months of time to get something live. Not to mention the whole slew of professional services that you've got to overlay on top of it."

"I tell companies that they should have a separate social network for sales, for marketing, for R&D, and so on. Let those individual departments run it, own it, and control it themselves."