If you’re one of the thousands of people who use Excel as a database, as well as a spreadsheet, you probably realize you are trading functionality for ease of use and economy.  Only one person at a time can enter data into an Excel database and there are limits to how much data you can store.  Sharing the database with others is not easy or efficient.  For individuals this is not usually a problem but these limitations can become critical in companies.  A Vancouver-based startup called Dabble DB, which opened to the public yesterday, has come up with an extremely appealing online alternative that allows you to instantly copy data from MS Excel into its web application and massage the data in ways that are dificult to do with Excel.  Dabble DB will even turn your data into an interactive relational database and let you share it with co-workers through RSS and iCal.

Dabble DB co-founders, Andrew Catton and Avi Bryant, have squarely targeted the enterprise market with a Web 2.0 solution.  The company is well-financed having gotten a rumored US$2-million infusion this week from  Ventures West.

Dabble DB is now offering a free one-month trial.  You can watch a video of its features here.

 ConnectlBeam is a startup that aims to take tagging and bookmarking into the enterprise marketplace which is—in principle, at least–a great idea but also one that faces some formidable cultural barriers.  One big fear companies have is that workers will spend more time randomly surfing for items to bookmark and reading material marked by others than they will doing whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing at their desks.  Another fear is that they will assign tags that are so uncommon that the system gets bogged down with archives that are not really useful.  There is also the security issues involved in inviting others into the tree house—particularly from the other side of the firewall.  Corporations do not like the kind of casual, ultimately self-correcting, anarchy that prevails on the consumer side of the web where users essentially police themselves.  Companies are going to want to “control” the process to a large degree. 

ConnectBeam’s solution suggests tags which is a step toward addressing the consistency issue and co-founders Puneet Gupta and Prem Malhotra have clearly paid a lot of attention to security.    The company’s ultimate success will depend upon whether it can convince CIOs and CEOs that its solution delivers a clear and measurable payoff in increased productivity that is greater than the sum of their fears.