The world has been talking about paperless offices; I've moved to an office without walls," an acquaintance quipped talking about the way he worked entirely out of cybercafés. The year was 2003 and Internet outlets offering broadband connectivity were just coming up.
Looking back from 2007, we may chuckle at his idea of carrying software to an office on the Web. There are programs available on the Web for small offices and enterprises that can give you the keys to your own ready-made office. Networked and loaded with all the necessary digital office supplies and software, these are essentially aimed at organisations that can't or are reluctant to invest in large IT systems and solutions. It's an office domain that's 24/7, that can house up to a couple of hundred people from different geographical locations, that follows you and your colleagues wherever you go, that doesn't require you to spend money on system maintenance or software that we are talking about. The best part is, it comes free of cost, if you want it that way.
Monikered office 2.0, there are many companies that offer this concept of office-anytime-anywhere and new ones are coming up every day. A lot of them charge a small fee for the service but almost all of them offer trial versions so you can know what you're getting.
The two big and most visible players, Microsoft Office Live and Google Apps offer basic versions that are free of cost. At the time of writing, Microsoft Office Live hasn't gone, well, live, in India. Let's take a look at Google apps and what they have on offer on the free version.
Here are a few more of the players in the Office 2.0 arena. Though all of them offer Web-based office productivity and collaboration packages, they vary in finer details. Most of them have Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation and File Sharing as standard offerings. Check them out:
Joyent: Basic plan at $15 per month. http://www.joyent.com/
Zoho: Free for open-source projects. http://www.zoho.com/
Basecamp: Basic plan at $12 per month, free trial. http://www.basecamphq.com/
Central Desktop: Basic plan at $25 per month, free plan available but limited to 25mb among 5 members. http://www.centraldesktop.com/
Web office: Basic plan at 59.95per month, free trial. http://www.weboffice.com/
Thinkfree Online:Free. http://www.thinkfree.com/
Peepel: Free. www.peepel.com
source: Hindu
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