5 Enterprise Startups to Watch in 2011 # 1: DokDok

As 2010 draws to a close we’re taking a look at a few enterprise startups that show promise and that we haven’t covered on ReadWriteEnterprise.

DokDok wants to bring document management into your email. Unlike Mainsoft‘s harmon.ie (which we covered here), DokDok doesn’t seek to eliminate email attachments. The DokDok team accepts that attachments aren’t going away, so instead they’re trying to make attachments work. DokDok currently offers a Google Apps gadget and a Chrome extension that displays attachment version history in Gmail. The Chrome extension also offers API-based integration between Gmail and Highrise.

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The gadget displays the following information within emails that have attachments:

• Version history of email attachments
• Summary of changes between versions
• Related attachments in other conversations
• Other files exchanged with sender and recipients

It can also compare versions side-by-side and automatically archive attachments. It’s essentially trying to turn email into a document management system based on existing user behaviors. We appreciate DokDok’s approach of trying to augment, rather than change, existing behavior.

The Chrome extension brings the gadget’s functionality to regular Gmail users, along with the Highrise integration features. The extension not only displays contact information from Highrise in Gmail, it also archives attachments from Gmail in Highrise.

“With all the shouts about the demise of email, it is not only relevant but important and not going away soon,” says Mitch Lieberman of Comity Technology Advisors. “It is close to being the ‘primary key’ for users around the web.”

For the past couple years we’ve been talking about email as a platform, and going into 2011 it’s a topic that’s picking up steam. Salesforce.com just bought Etacts and RIM is reportedly sniffing around Gist. We’ve long loved the email plugin Rapportive and have covered many other plugin vendors as well.

DokDok already provides useful products for Google Apps and Highrise users. If it can extend its functionality to other platforms, it could be a real winner in the enterprise. Customers can already build additional integrations through the API, but DokDok will need to provide more out-of-the-box integrations before it will really catch on.

Discuss