Chapoo, formerly Vondle (post), has been formally launched (see news release). The cloud-based project information and collaboration platform provider is offering two Software-as-a-Services: Chapoo Premium aimed mainly at architecture, engineering and construction project teams, and a more limited free service.
- The Premium service is a project information management and collaboration platform. Like other SaaS collaboration systems, it provides project teams with a single view of the most recent project data and of all documents, with full version control and a strong audit trail. Pricing starts at €1500/year (one project, unlimited users, 5GB storage), with enterprise pricing (unlimited projects and users, 25GB storage) starting at €5000/year. As an optional feature, Chapoo Premium also offers ‘Live data‘: an easy-to-use data repository that allows users to build forms and tables with simple drag-and-drop wizards, and to connect the database to internal and external data sources
- The free service enables simple document sharing. Most text, image and office formats, but also CAD drawings, can be viewed and annotated without the requirement to download them and without the need for the authoring software tools.
Erik De Keyser, Chapoo CEO, says:
“With thousands of users in the AEC industry, Chapoo has proven itself as a rock solid cloud solution for project collaboration. With the new REST API and distinctive functionality in the area of data repository, forms, queries and reporting, the platform can now be put to service across different application domains in financial services, government agencies and manufacturing enterprises.”
The paid-for service has established a strong customer base in Belgium and the Netherlands, but is less well-known in other parts of Europe and beyond. Gent, Belgium-based Chapoo (a sister company of Bricsys) says it is looking to expand its market reach through partnerships with consultants and system integrators with specific industry expertise (law firms and government agencies appear to be two targets).
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[…] Relaunched in November 2012, the Ghent, Belgium cloud-based project information and collaboration platform Chapoo (formerly Vondle) will now be available to users of BricsCAD CAD software through an upcoming product release. Users will be able to open a .dwg file from a project on the Chapoo service, and to download and upload .dwg files from and to Chapoo (.dwg designs can be transparently stored on and accessed from the Chapoo service with or without dependent [xrefs, images, etc] files). […]