The coolest companies under the tree.

Going into the holidays, on the heels of two other columns on Microsoft's investment in startups and invention vs. innovation, I thought it appropriate to highlight a number of startups. I believe they are among the most creative, inventive (and yes, "innovative" startups) that we follow. They are doing some amazing things—creating solutions and products that would definitely make it to Santa's list (not that any of us actually make lists anymore.) But see, I'm getting into the yuletide spirit already.

In addition to a huge amount of shareholder value, they are creating products that are the future. Consider this: Software that sleuths out bugs while the app is operational. Social networks—Santa's elves could really use this one! Payment grids. Online rewards systems. News aggregators. Occasionally connected mobile products. Instant networking and more. See where I'm going? What's making this all possible? Every company on our list has taken advantage of the .Net framework to bring their products and services to market, and it has contributed wildly (OK, merrily) to their success. But enough about us. On to those incredible companies doing extraordinary things. Forget Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen; these companies may not be flying through the snowy night skies, but they are high-flying in a very good way, too...

Adesso Systems—Mobile apps for an occasionally connected world. A Red Herring 100. Think "WinFS today."

Akimbi—Automates and accelerates the setup and teardown of even the most complex multi-machine software configurations using virtualization technology. Winner at Under the Radar.

Akimbo—The first functional marriage of TV and the Internet. "Your wish is on demand."

AtHoc—Alerting specialists for warning systems, emergency operations centers, and critical communications.

AviCode—Can pinpoint the exact source of any bug in a .Net application in real-time—during production or development. Identifies the exact line of problem source code.

BeVocal—Provides hosted self-service voice application solutions for carriers and call centers.

Cicero Networks—Voice over Wireless IP that harnesses the power of wi-fi and Bluetooth networks to deliver wireless voice services.

Colligo—Instant collaboration for teams in the field: Lets any wireless capable laptop, Pocket PC, or Tablet PC instantly and securely network to one or more computers no matter where you are.

Coveo—Specialized enterprise search with superior relevance ranking, document summaries, and integrated security.

CXO Systems—Web services-based dashboards that enable a one-touch, comprehensive view of multiple business functions in real time.

Digipede—Its "many legs make light work" and turn any combination of servers and desktops into a grid for .Net apps.

EchoPass—Offers complete solutions for on-demand call and contact center needs.

eSecurity—Security event management and continuous compliance monitoring for IT controls; makes sense out of the deluge of security log data that all the different systems on the network spit out.

Exact Target—A SaaS e-mail marketing company with a very slick AJAX interface that has achieved massive scale.

Fortify—Kind of like a mega-powerful cereal for your code; it figures out security problems during code development so you don't become the next statistic.

Forum Systems—Hardware appliances provide secure transmission and acceleration of XML data.

Fractal Edge—Cool visualization technology that lets you maintain and know your place anywhere within the hierarchy as you drill down on data. A Red Herring  Top 100 Private Company in Europe, 2005.

Grouper—Provides a way for friends and family to share videos and photos online via .NET smart client applications. Friends-only file sharing.

IdeaBlade—.Net on Rails. A framework for building service-based applications and distributed clients.

IP Commerce—Transaction payment platform and toolsets that enable the IP Payments Framework, a partnership Software as a Service system for incumbent and emerging players involved in electronic payments. Chase Merchant Services, a division of Chase Manhattan Bank, is an initial partner.

IDV Solutions—A visualization and geographical mapping solution. Integrates with MapPoint, Visio, and SQL.

K2.net—Enterprise scale workflow solution that automates any business process spanning people, divisions, technology, and distance. It has a powerful drag-and-drop design environment.

LoyaltyLab—Software service that lets merchants easily manage an online rewards/points system and create custom marketing messages to customers.

Newsgator—RSS aggregation from consumer to enterprise, from phone to desktop.

Onfolio—Built into the browser, it's a convenient and familiar tool that will help make web research more efficient, thorough, and organized.

OutlookSoft—Web-based solution delivers real-time planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, analysis, reporting, score carding, and process management.

OSIsoft—Delivers performance management software to the world's leading process manufacturing, life sciences, and utility companies—anywhere real-time operational metrics fuel performance.

Oxlo Systems—Lets automotive dealers integrate their systems with auto manufacturers, service providers, and other partners.

Rackwise—Focused on automating the manual processes associated with designing, documenting, and tracking changing networks in a datacenter through an on-line subscription service.

Skelta—Superior yet affordable workflow technology has let software vendors and enterprises implement workflows rapidly and at significantly reduced costs. 100% web based, multicultural architecture for anywhere, anytime access. Red Herring  Top 100 Private Companies in Asia.

Tableau—The Visual Spreadsheet, it provides visual reporting and analysis solutions.

Workshare—Lets you exchange high-value business documents and be certain the right information—and only the right information—is in your document. Works in-line with Microsoft Office.

This innovative group of startups point to some of the exciting things taking place around the world on the .Net platform.

Why Are They choosing .Net?

The same reason that the elves at the North Pole use .Net:

• Provides speed, flexibility, and time-to-market advantages: Holiday presents come but once a year. They can't be late—and don't count on those reindeer coming through for you. Companies need speed and flexibility to get their products to market ahead of their competitors—that means they need the ability to write code faster, efficiently, and cost effectively. Get my drift?
• Delivers the best value: With .Net, the elves can focus on delivering the best toys, not the best tools. And if you're a startup, this has got to be important to you—not the elves part, but the ability to tap .Net's complete toolset. And because it includes things like security and communication and interoperability, you don't have to code that stuff yourself. It means you don't waste time building components.
• Helps accelerates your ROI: OK, so maybe the elves and Santa don't worry about this, that's Mrs. Claus's job, but you can just bet startups do. Every day in fact. And of course, so too do their investors. As an example, .Net offers unparalleled productivity advantages that often result in big ROI savings. Adesso says it cut their development time by 50 percent.
• Built for the future: Santa is clearly building toys for the future—you should have the same strategy for your products and services. A future-proof one. That's why it's so critical to have a framework that is designed for building and running the latest applications using Web Services such as SaaS and on-demand services.
• Provides powerful partnerships: We all know Santa doesn't do it all alone! No big surprise there, he has lots of help—at least that's the story I have told my kids. And like Santa and his team, Microsoft also has a vibrant network of partners. More than 35,000 Microsoft Certified Partners and growing every day. These partners help organizations of any size implement solutions based on .Net.

Happy holidays to all and to all good night! See you in January.

Dan'l Lewin is corporate vice president of .Net Business Development at Microsoft. He is located in Silicon Valley.