Online Office Suites Could Spell the End of Microsoft Office

The days of bloated office suites running on a desktop may soon be numbered. With a marked move toward a different cost model for owning an office suite, pay-per-use and online office suites have become quite popular. Whether this would affect the sales of the existing office suites, is something, yet to be seen.

A number of Web 2.0 technology companies have tried to build a customer base by building online office suite applications. As opposed to a regular office suite running on a desktop or laptop, these online office suites need no installation. They work entirely online. Add to it the freedom of working from anywhere with an Internet connection, including on WiFi connections, these productivity apps can easily give traditional desktop office suites a run for their money.

Not all is rosy in the world of online office suites, however. If you do decide that an online office suite (free or subscription-based) would do for you, you should be aware of a few quirks that probably would not apply to you. However, the time is great and now is a great time than ever to try your hand at these productivity and collaboration applications hosted entirely online.

The advantages, of course, may outweigh the disadvantages when it comes to exclusively using online office applications. One big advantage that comes to mind is the security and the portability. Since the documents you create are available in an online server that is physically removed from your own system, you always have a backup version to fall upon. No longer is it the case you would need an external hard drive or USB storage device to carry a particularly big PowerPoint presentation, for instance. You can always download it at any Internet-connected computer, even from a cybercafé. Even if you were to lose your storage device, you still have access to the documents online and can always download them again.

Another big motive to switch to online applications is the cost - Google's Documents service comes at no price at all - it is free!. The cost advantage can be unbeatable - rather than making a down payment for a one-time purchase of a desktop office suite, you can simply use the application online for free, or only pay for the actual usage, as is the case with other online office suite providers.

When it comes to portability nothing beats the utility value of these online office applications. You can safely and securely edit even confidential business documents and presentations entirely online through SSL - beware though that not all features traditionally available in a word processor or a presentation program would be available, but the odds are you still would want the experience of doing office work entirely online from anywhere.

The other area where online applications may score over traditional desktop office suites is share-ability. While you may be used to using traditional collaboration methods such as using Microsoft SharePoint, online office productivity applications have just the right features to motivate your move. You can invite colleagues and associates to work on documents and presentations. You can also use group calendar applications to schedule meetings and conferences.

A famous online office suite comes from the Big Daddy of Search Engines - Google themself. It has been almost a year since Google introduced Google Docs (http://docs.google.com) - an online suite that has a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program with the ability to work together with anyone with a Google account. Both forward and backward compatibility with existing MS Office documents are supported - so you can import your Word document, for example, edit it and then export it back to a Word document.

Comparable in form and functionality are offerings from Zoho and ThinkFree - Zoho has even sported a Wiki and a Zoho Online Organizer. While both are subscription-based, for a modest fee, you can sample the advantages of portability, safety and shareability. As usual, Microsoft, the creator of office suites is a late entrant to this web game, though basic functions are available at the site http://workspace.officelive.com. Microsoft has announced that Office Online would be available in 2010 - but you can sample the apps featured here right now!