Collaboration and organisation are two of the most important advantages the internet can offer any business. It doesn’t matter where employees are as they can always stay in touch.
Weboffice offers a means to do this effectively without an excessive initial cost for organisations from five to 1,000 people.
Weboffice does not offer productivity tools, so is not in competition with products such as the Thinkfree online office suite.
With Thinkfree, files can be hosted and shared, but the software for editing must be installed locally. Instead, Weboffice runs totally online.
Being web based, Weboffice can be used with both Windows and Mac. We also had it up and running on a Linux system.
In terms of functionality, it takes over the mantle of Outlook with calendar, tasks and contacts along with some more advanced tools.
The home page gives an instant overview of group-wide announcements, calendars, tasks and polls. Elements can be rearranged and added to suit.
A small Windows program shows meeting reminders without being logged into the site - these notifications can also be sent by email.
The contacts section includes an activity log as well as the usual contact details - an essential aspect for a salesforce keeping up to date with client activity.
Contacts can be shared with everybody in the group or kept private.
Files kept in the document storage are given keywords for later searching; full text searching is available, but at an additional cost.
You get 1GB of storage space, although you can buy more if required.
Weboffice makes use of Web Folders, which allow documents to be copied simply by dragging and dropping, just as you would when moving files around your hard drive.
The ability to create databases with Weboffice makes it far more powerful than competing products.
With templates for options such as Customer Relationship Manager, Knowledge Base and Sales Forecasting it is again easy to get up and running quickly.
One further important tool is the ability to generate expense reports.
By default, these are entered in dollars but this can be changed to one of over 30 currencies. Expense categories can be added if required.
The only feature that is lacking at the moment is full email support, although Webex tells us this should be added by July. At present, it is possible to send emails, but not to receive them.
Several upgrades to the service are available at extra cost.
These range from adding more storage space for email and files to enabling the full text search for the Document Manager and SSL encryption for all communications.
The latter is a rather expensive at $300 (£160 approx) per year.
Many of the features offered by Weboffice are available free on the internet, but none offer the same level of integration.
Weboffice can be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook and Palm devices with a 7MB client download.
This makes Weboffice far more suitable for business users as Outlook synchronisation gives access for Pocket PC devices.
Weboffice can also be used with Webex Meetings for communication and shared presentations.
Webex offers a variety of training options to make best use of the system and they will also import members into a database.
Not-for-profit organisations can get special deals, which is particularly useful given that these are often staffed by widely dispersed people.
We were also impressed that we received a telephone call from a Webex representative offering help and assistance with the trial during the initial setup procedure.
Webex Weboffice is an affordable and easy-to-use online collaboration tool, but things can get expensive if you require a secure connection.
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System requirements:
Internet connection
Windows, Mac, Linux
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Owning over 60 percent of the market, WebEx is the Web conferencing service to beat. The new version of WebEx Meeting Center is fully loaded and earns our Editors’ Choice hands down. For more targeted needs, WebEx also offers Training Center for education, Support Center for customer support, and Event Center for large Webcasts. Of all the services we evaluated, it offers the best integration with Microsoft Office. A special download adds a drop-down menu to all your Office applications, so you can crank up an instant conference that shares whatever document and application you’re working in. You can also start a conference to share any file in any application by right-clicking on the filename and choosing Share in WebEx Meeting, or start a One Click Meeting using a desktop icon. WebEx allows multipoint videoconferencing with up to four cameras concurrently (you can change who is shown during the meeting). And it’s the only one, aside from Genesys, that could play the video and audio integrated into our test PowerPoint presentation. To play audio and video this way, you have to download and install a special toolkit that plugs into PowerPoint and adds menus for inserting videos and other items into presentations. If you insert video and audio in the normal PowerPoint 
way, they won’t show up in WebEx, since WebEx translates everything into its own Universal Communications Format. In the late prerelease version of WebEx Meeting Center we reviewed, integrated video was a bit erratic, but WebEx reps claim it will work consistently in the final release. Like Genesys, WebEx was able to show our slide transitions. WebEx has pulled ahead of Genesys in teleconferencing integration. WebEx effortlessly linked our Web conferees with their phone numbers and allowed us to mute, unmute, or dismiss participants over the Web simply by right-clicking on their names in the participant box. WebEx had the best Outlook integration of any service we tested, allowing us to add a short registration from within Outlook and to distribute a full meeting transcript—including the agenda, a participant list, meeting notes, the presentation, and all chatting and polling information—after the meeting. You can also record meetings and download the recordings, though it’s not easy to post recordings to a Web site. The company’s Training Center and Event Center services let you do this more readily. We had quick success at creating recordings in WebEx that included everything from presentations to chat, application sharing, and Web tours. The WebEx interface isn’t as effortless as Live Meeting’s, but it’s more powerful. Assigning rights to participants and making them presenters or hosts is a simple matter of right-clicking on their names in the Participant window and selecting the desired attributes. During a meeting, you can easily open and run presentations, conduct polls and Web tours, and share applications, though there’s little capability for premeeting preparation. WebEx has two options for sharing Web content. One lets you share a single Web page, and another lets you take participants on a tour. The service makes great use of its advanced switched network, but the quality of streaming video was erratic at best. Sometimes it worked exceptionally well; other times it took a long time to load and then froze. But we had the identical experience with the other services offering video. This performance kink could be ironed out in the final release. We did miss a formal Web-based Q&A capability and an easy way to post recordings to our WebEx Web site. Despite these quibbles, WebEx Meeting Center offers the best combination of features and ease of use among all the four services we tested. Webex.com is the leading on-line meeting and other on-demand collaborative applications service provider in the world today. Founded in 1996, it claims a 64% market share in on-line meeting solutions, servicing an average of 3.5 million people from its base of 28,000 clients every month. It is a member of the Cisco Systems group, which also made its mark as a telecommunication hardware systems provider. Its success is attributed to its policy of continuous discovery of innovative solutions, outstanding customer service support, utilization of world-class technologies, and implementation of state-of-the-art security and confidentiality. Ease of Use : Webex.com’s on-line meeting solutions are very user-friendly and easy to use. With a few clicks of the keyboard, one can immediately join in an on going meeting either as a passive or active participant. Its very useful interfaces allow high interactivity levels that emulate the experience of face-to-face real time sessions even though you could be thousands of kilometers away. From a simple one-on-one session to discuss a simple business concern, to an on-line lecture conducted from a school laboratory to several distance-learning students, all the way to a full-blown meeting with hundreds of representatives from all over the globe, Webex.com looks like the provider of choice. Features : Webex.com does not require downloading of large files of software. It follows a service bureau approach, wherein they host the service in their own servers and provide secure on-line meeting sessions for the public. As such, it will not be necessary to be in specific locations to participate in on-line meetings. It will only require a bit of patience in downloading small interface software on-line, making sure that you have an account to enter the virtual meeting area. Major features of the service include the ability to revise, write on, and highlight certain parts of the document being discussed. Another major feature is that you could actually save any and all changes to the original form of the document you were discussing. The most important feature of the service, however, is that you will only need a good Internet connection and a valid user ID. Regardless of where you are, you can join. Speed and Reliability : Like any on-line session, the speed and reliability of the session is really dependent on the speed of Internet access and the number of participants. It is especially true when you need to discuss and review documents on-line. Reliability is a relative concept although speed and reliability are normal attributes of the Webex.com on-line collaboration service. Pricing : There are several price packages that you can choose from, thanks to the continued availability of competition, which naturally regulates the prices. You can choose between packages ranging from 33-cents per minute, to a fixed monthly maintenance fee per user at about US$ 75 per person per month for chat all you want sessions. Support : Support is provided both on-line as well as via 1800 phone calls. If the query can wait an email can be sent. Summary : Webex.com provides a service that is needed by hundreds or thousands of people who 
need to keep in touch or make a final decision on. If you are looking for good quality, secure on-line meeting solutions. Collaboration and organisation are two of the most important advantages the internet can offer any business. It doesn’t matter where employees are as they can always stay in touch. Weboffice offers a means to do this effectively without an excessive initial cost for organisations from five to 1,000 people. Weboffice does not offer productivity tools, so is not in competition with products such as the Thinkfree online office suite. With Thinkfree, files can be hosted and shared, but the software for editing must be installed locally. Instead, Weboffice runs totally online. Being web based, Weboffice can be used with both Windows and Mac. We also had it up and running on a Linux system. In terms of functionality, it takes over the mantle of Outlook with calendar, tasks and contacts along with some more advanced tools. The home page gives an instant overview of group-wide announcements, calendars, tasks and polls. Elements can be rearranged and added to suit. A small Windows program shows meeting reminders without being logged into the site - these notifications can also be sent by email. The contacts section includes an activity log as well as the usual contact details - an essential aspect for a salesforce keeping up to date with client activity. Contacts can be shared with everybody in the group or kept private. Files kept in the document storage are given keywords for later searching; full text searching is available, but at an additional cost. You get 1GB of storage space, although you can buy more if required. Weboffice makes use of Web Folders, which allow documents to be copied simply by dragging and dropping, just as you would when moving files around your hard drive. The ability to create databases with Weboffice makes it far more powerful than competing products. With templates for options such as Customer Relationship Manager, Knowledge Base and Sales Forecasting it is again easy to get up and running quickly. One further important tool is the ability to generate expense reports. By default, these are entered in dollars but this can be changed to one of over 30 currencies. Expense categories can be added if required. The only feature that is lacking at the moment is full email support, although Webex tells us this should be added by July. At present, it is possible to send emails, but not to receive them. Several upgrades to the service are available at extra cost. These range from adding more storage space for email and files to enabling the full text search for the Document Manager and SSL encryption for all communications. The latter is a rather expensive at $300 (£160 approx) per year. Many of the features offered by Weboffice are available free on the internet, but none offer the same level of integration. Weboffice can be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook and Palm devices with a 7MB client download. This makes Weboffice far more suitable for business users as Outlook synchronisation gives access for Pocket PC devices. Weboffice can also be used with Webex Meetings for communication and shared presentations. Webex offers a variety of training options to make best use of the system and they will also import members into a database. Not-for-profit organisations can get special deals, which is particularly useful given that these are often staffed by widely dispersed people. We were also impressed that we received a telephone call from a Webex representative offering help and assistance with the trial during the initial setup procedure. Webex Weboffice is an affordable and easy-to-use online collaboration tool, but things can get expensive if you require a secure connection. Related reviews: System requirements: Internet connection Windows, Mac, Linux
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