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No IT staff? No programming savvy? No problem.

That's the promise made by HyperOffice, a company re-launching a suite by the same name that aims to provide small businesses with instant access to effective online collaboration tools.

HyperOffice is a hosted solution, so there's nothing to install, and it can be accessed through a Web browser on any Windows, Macintosh, or Linux machine. The all-in-one package includes POP e-mail, online file storage, group calendaring, project and task management, and more, all of which is reached through a single sign-on.

The space for small office collaboration and intranet tools is rapidly becoming crowded, but HyperOffice sets itself apart with ease of use, low price, and an attractive feature set. To start using HyperOffice, contact a rep through the company's site and talk over the few details. You can get a dedicated URL or have HyperOffice work off of your existing site. The company will even help customize the look of your HyperOffice pages.

When users log in, they'll see a start page that provides a summary view of all their information, as well as links to specific tools on the left-hand side. Tools are conveniently broken into two areas: personal and group tools.

Hosted, Out-of-the-box, or Homemade? How do you like your intranet and group collaboration tools? Discuss in the Intranet Journal Discussion Forum.

HyperOffice personal tools include mail, calendar, documents, contacts, and tasks. The mail tool should be easy for anyone who's used to Outlook, and the account is compatible with Outlook. From this area of HyperOffice, users can review, store, and complete their individual projects.

The real power of HyperOffice comes in the Groups section of tools, which lets users coordinate schedules, call together other employees for meetings, create a network of shared contacts, create and monitor shared tasks, contribute to forum discussions, and create a list of shared links. Some users will find it odd that many of the same tools are duplicated in the Personal and Group areas of HyperOffice, but it makes sense to use. You don't want the personal contacts you store in the Contacts tool to reach the shared group contact directory, after all. Keeping the two areas separate is probably the best way to ensure that personal data stays personal.

Dot-Com Busted

If HyperOffice sounds familiar, that's because it was originally launched in 1998 as a free set of online tools given away by a company called WebOS. The idea was that the company would eventually start to charge for the tools, and charge a license fee to developers who worked with the WebOS platform. But before the company was in the black, its funding dried up. Like so many others, it ended up a great idea killed in the doc-com bust.

But unlike many others, HyperOffice has a second act. A group of entrepreneurs, including former WebOS board members, bought the intellectual capital of the bankrupt company and began planning to retool and re-launch HyperOffice. In April 2004, they did just that.

Pay As You Go

HyperOffice is targeted toward the small company, those with five to 150 employees, and has no contract, choosing instead a pay-as-you-go model. Clients pay monthly, with the per-user rate declining as the number of users increases. One user would pay $5.95 per month, while HyperOffice charges $3.80 each for 10 users and $4.50 each for 100 users. Companies get 100MB of storage for each user.

Need to keep your employees organized and on the same page, no matter where work takes them? Then look to HyperOffice. It's the affordable, scalable, no-hassle collaboration suite you've been looking for.

When users first sign in to HyperOffice, they get this start page with all of their information and tasks summarized in one view. Personal and Group tools are on the left.