FEATURE EDITORIAL

Revolution in the Office

There is a revolution happening in the world of office productivity tools, and Microsoft isn't leading it. Microsoft Office is looking long in the tooth and could be toppled. The revolution is this: the design basis of office productivity tools has shifted.

All versions of what we traditionally called Office--the desktop suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access--were built with the individual user in mind. Although the software is often purchased for everyone in the firm, it is the individual end-user who is enabled to work better. They can type up their thoughts and revise them easier than using a typewriter. They can build financial models or other numerical calculations, and try out different scenarios with minimal cost. They can easily build decks of slides to use in a meeting. They can create databases to track things. But with the design basis being the individual, collaboration is a secondary thought, a bolt-on to the core. You had to use email for that: Create email. Attach document or spreadsheet. Send. User first, sharing second.

The revolutionaries are starting from the opposite direction: collaboration is core to the design concept, not a secondary bolt-on. Google Docs and Zoho Writer allow you to draft thoughts in a word processing document, and to then invite other people to view and edit the document, with no emailing around of the document. There is just one edition that everyone shares. Same for spreadsheets with EditGrid or Google Spreadsheets: rather than being a digital artifact designed for one, it is collaborative from the start. Others are invited to partake of a numerical feast without having to endure spreadsheet indigestion afterward as multiple versions have to be kept in synchronization. The database functions in CentralDesktop, Zoho DB, DabbleDB, among others, to make the database collaborative, with full multi-user capabilities from day one.

One of the big differences between the two design bases has been the offline capabilities in desktop offerings. You did not need an Internet connection to work with your documents, spreadsheets, presentations or databases. They were installed locally, and as long as you had your computer with you, you had full recourse to your work and files. The revolutionaries, given their leveraging of the Internet as a services platform and the browser as the universal client, were not able to match this. But that difference is being eroded slowly, with offline capabilities being added by the revolutionaries.

So the choice of tools for office productivity going forward has become more complex. Do you continue with what you know (Microsoft Office) and buy a set of servers and add-ons to make collaboration more natural, or do you attack a different way and embrace one of the new generation of tools that includes collaboration capabilities as an integral part of the value proposition? The latter is becoming more attractive each month.

Michael Sampson

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Zoho Writer Offline

Zoho released full offline support for Writer, its online word processor. Read-only offline access was released in August 2007, and full bi-directional synchronization was released in November 2007. "For Zoho Writer to work offline, you'll need to have Google Gears plug-in installed on your browser (works on Firefox 1.5+, IE 6+). Click on Go Offline to access your documents offline. By default, we download 15 documents each from 'My Docs' and 'Shared Docs' section. You can change the default setting by clicking on the down arrow beside Go Offline link. The documents are downloaded based on the 'Sort Order' in your My Docs section". Available immediately.

WebEx MeetMeNow

WebEx released MeetMeNow, a version of its Web conferencing service for individuals. "Priced at US$49 per month, MeetMeNow is a cost-effective, easy-to-use solution for holding meetings on the Web. MeetMeNow integrates data, voice and video, allowing users to instantly launch highly interactive online meetings from the desktop, Microsoft Outlook and Office, and multiple instant messaging services. Delivered on the WebEx MediaTone Network, a global network specifically designed for the highly secure delivery of on-demand applications, MeetMeNow provides seamless video and desktop sharing without the net congestion or reliability problems frequently found in other Web meeting offerings." Available immediately. 14-day free trial.

SharePoint Conference 2008

SharePoint Solutions are hosting a three-day non-technical conference on SharePoint in February 2008. "The three-day SharePoint Information Worker Conference 2008 is designed specifically for business, Web and application professionals who need to stay on the leading edge of MOSS 2007 and WSS business applications ....If you're not part of your company's IT department, but you use SharePoint and the Microsoft Office System to solve business problems, this conference will provide you with the knowledge you need to work at maximum efficiency. And, if you are in IT, but need a functional and business usage understanding about SharePoint, this conference is an excellent choice as well." February 4-6, 2008 in Nashville, TN.

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