Online Office

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Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008)

“Online office” suites are offered by websites in the form of software as a service. They offer the ability to use the common software-based office tools online. They can be accessed online from any Internet-enabled device running any operating system. This allows people to work together worldwide and at any time, thereby leading to international web-based collaboration and virtual teamwork. Usually, the basic versions are offered for free and for more advanced versions one is required to pay a nominal subscription fee.

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[edit] Advantages

  • The cost is low ( in some cases : free )
  • No software is required to be downloaded and installed.
  • No upgrading hassles when new features are added or bugs eliminated.
  • They can run out of thin clients with minimal hardware requirements.
  • They also provide the ability to share a document with several users without your own server.
  • No need to purchase or upgrade a software license. Instead these are available as software as a service.
  • They are portable. You can access your documents from almost any computer with a broadband connection.
  • If your computer crashes, your documents are still safe on the server.

[edit] Disadvantages

  • Data security — All your data resides on a remote server: however, a back up can be taken regularly.
  • Speed — Most of the currently available online office suites require a high broadband Internet connection.
  • Lack some features available on the offline office suites: but this is progressively becoming available (MS LIVE, Google online-Suite, Thinkfree, Zoho Office, InternetOffice.Biz and eDeskOnline)
  • A network connection (usually Internet access) is required to send and receive changes. That is, internet dependence makes it more difficult to work offline.

[edit] Components

An online office suite normally includes a broad set of the following applications:

[edit] Document creation and editing applications

[edit] Publishing Applications

[edit] Collaborative Applications

[edit] Management Applications

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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