My blog today discusses the phenomenon of going mainstream. Can a B2B cloud-based platform for collaboration, such as IntraLinks, “go mainstream”? I would argue that it can. People, games and even business solutions can go mainstream in various ways — virally, as a result of a single, significant event and via a series of successes achieved over many years. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Few folks other than US-based swimming fans knew of Michael Phelps prior to the hyping around the 2008 Summer Olympics. Afterwards, with eight gold medals in tow, Phelps went mainstream and is now one of the most recognized athletes in the world. The 2008 Summer Games was Phelps’ single, significant event.

As we move through the early days of 2011, I can’t help but reflect on what happened during December, which is typically a big month for awards. It’s the time of year when I blow the dust off my tuxedo, shine up my shoes and wheel out my annual James Bond impersonation. So, suitably adorned, I attended two award ceremonies last month that celebrated some of the great and the good across the European M&A community.

The first was the European M&A Atlas Awards saluting the top deals, deal-makers and firms from the European mid-market M&A community. The event took place at the Le Méridien Hotel in the heart of London and was attended by the winners and interested observers. Needless to say, IntraLinks was a winner and was awarded ‘M&A Technology Products Firm of the Year’. Obviously, everyone at IntraLinks was ecstatic about winning this award which is recognition of our contribution to assisting dealmakers across the entire M&A process. As my colleague Matt Porzio noted in a previous blog, it’s even more thrilling that we won the same award in Asia and the Americas too, a clean sweep in 2010 (click here to see the related press release).

Recently, IntraLinks officially launched its wholly owned Latin America regional headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil. I had the pleasure spending a week with our team and attending our launch party. We gathered with clients, partners, associates and friends of IntraLinks at the upscale Hotel Fasano to celebrate our previous accomplishments and outline our business plans and commitment to the Latin American region now that we have expanded our presence. There were many interesting conversations but what struck me was how the regional business needs paralleled and aligned with companies in other global business centers. Whether it’s a virtual data room for mergers and acquisitions, an online workspace for fund raising or the debt capital markets or a reporting solution for CVM480 compliance — it's clear that business people face the same challenges whether they’re located in Brazil or anywhere else in the world — and all were well suited for the IntraLinks platform.

As a senior account executive at IntraLinks, I often have insight into portfolio company communications from speaking with private equity clients and prospects. It turns out that exchanging information with their portfolio companies is not managed with a firm process in place. The portfolio company usually emails important documents back and forth or sends them via snail mail.

According to one client I’ve spoken with, information that often is shared between the portfolio company and its private equity parent includes flash reports, materials related to a board meeting that quarter, and information related to add-on acquisitions that may be taking place. Another client told me their portfolio companies report in on big orders, highlights on operational and financial successes along with a metrics page that is unique to each portfolio company.

A few months ago, I wrote about the gathering storm cloud of bankruptcy and restructuring engagements we were seeing here at IntraLinks in the first half of 2009 as well as the high-value, high-profile bankruptcies that constantly appeared in the news.