Sometimes while blogging an idea hits you, and you have to decide whether to pursue it or let it go. Well, I chose to pursue it. And I convinced some smart people to pursue it too, so it just might work!.

I've been doing a series on SharePoint and Groove differences and similarites with respect to web services. What struck me in Part II was not just how similar SharePoint and Groove web services are, but also how similar the end products are. In fact, the biggest, obvious difference between the two is the richness of tools available for the two systems. For instance, a default Document Workspace in SharePoint contains 9 tools where a default Groove Workspace contains 3. If only Groove Workspaces had a few more tools.

TeamDirection will be happy to provide a few more tools.

Today on our site we are opening the first, simple Solutions Center whose goal will be bringing parity to SharePoint and Groove. Not just with the tools, which we will be fleshing out and making available as they come, but also with integration and synchronization products. Things that will enable you to move data easily from one collaboration solution to the other.

For a developer, this will mean a library that abstracts collaboration workspaces. This means you can create a workspace and tell the library if you want it to be SharePoint or Groove. Or create tools with either a SharePoint or Groove template.

For a user, this will mean a product (like, Project Management) that allows you to pick where to collaborate (SharePoint and Groove again) and also how to collaborate-- with a smart client on everyone's desktop, or with a single, manager desktop that synchronizes data with SharePoint lists and Groove forms.

We've been with Groove since the early days-- way back in 2001. Through hard work and great products, we became the leader in Groove tools. And now here in 2006, we plan on more more hard work and more great products; and we'd like to be a leader in providing SharePoint tools too.