Intranet Journal
The online resource for intranet professionals
What is a Web Office?
1/4/2008
What is a web office? With so many web-based applications using office as part of the product name it can be confusing. At its most basic, a web office is for sharing information online and team collaboration. Depending on the needs and size of the organization, other features may be sought out, such as intuitive integration with common word processing applications, or more advanced communication tools and database applications.
A fact no one can deny is that the number and types of office collaboration tools available through the web browser is increasing constantly, and thus, the expectations of a hosted web office suite now include services for storing, and sharing your information, to-do lists, group calendars and more. A small few, such as Zoho, or Google Apps Premier Edition offer to replace the word processing capabilities of incumbent MS Office, but the fact remains people do not want to abandon familiar tools -- and the working world still revolves around MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
A growing number of word processing and spreadsheet applications available through the web browser make it tempting to call these kinds of tools "web office" applications because they emulate the industry standard Microsoft Office Suite in the browser. However, a more traditional view of the office dynamic and office productivity is a better guide.
Think of the web office as a hosted application, with bundled tools that allow users to share and collaborate on a broad set of information and ideas such as documents, tasks, and calendars. This feature set has been defined by a number of terms. Back in the late 90's such an application was called an intranet or an extranet. Analysts define these kinds of products using terms such as "team workspaces," "shared workspaces," "virtual workspaces" and "team collaboration software." Another popular description is "SaaS" (Software as a Service).
A web office could include an online spreadsheet or database, but it should also include many other services that allow users to work together. Ultimately, it is likely that the word processing and spreadsheet creation and editing tools available on the web today will become features of broader collaborative applications in the future, only with the more robust management tools found in team workspace applications.
A Different Approach to Email Communication
With a web office users can avoid the disconnected and disjointed communications that businesses typically experience when relying exclusively on email to collaborate. That is, web offices rely less on the poor workflows associated with email and rely more on sharing though collaborative spaces. Brief email action alerts, and other mechanisms such as RSS, are utilized to keep team members up-to-date and on the same page.
Furthermore, this structure makes it easier to manage participation and notifications. When a user updates a general interest document the entire site receives an alert, but when a user updates a document used only by the finance department, only members of that team receive a notification.
Defining Roles
Privileges associated with a given document, or databases for that matter, should also be managed easily within the group, individual, and role level. For example, a marketing team may manage a content library that is shared across marketing and sales teams, but only members of the marketing team have the ability to upload, revise and delete content. The sales team members would only be able to read and comment on the content.
A working world example from users of WebEx WebOffice involves a payroll team that needs to ensure they support all the work that needs to be done in their area. By creating their own database of tasks that need to be completed each day, the team can assign them to individuals, complete them as required, or pass the items on to others in the group. By ensuring all filings for government agencies are done on time, the payroll team never needs to worry about late filings or penalties.
Future Platform Plays
In the future, the web office will also be a framework in which other applications create composite tools via widgets and mashups to help workers collaborate in a broader context. Some of these capabilities can be seen in SaaS platforms such as Salesforce' AppExchange and Cisco's WebEx Connect.
To elaborate, a real estate management firm's web office might include a mashup of a project management application to help share project management capabilities between a client, the real estate management firm, and the general contractor. The rights and privileges associated with users from each company will give them different views into the applications.
The web office may only be shared between the management company and the lease holder. The general contractor may be the primary user of the project management application, share different subsets of data with the management company and the client -- and the real estate management company and the general contractor could share architectural drawings and invoices while the client would only see the project timeline and progress reports.
As the types of collaborative capabilities available through the web browser change it is important users consider the basics that will help them work effectively as well as the security model.
Ease for IT and Ad Hoc Team Management
For any kind of collaboration to happen efficiently and securely, the web office needs underlying administrative and security tools that are trusted across all sectors of your business. It should not just be easy to share a document with an entire team; you need to have as little ramp-up time for your team possible across the range of applications in the suite.
One of WebEx WebOffice's strengths to highlight in this area as a workgroup solution for small to medium businesses and individual departments, or ad hoc project teams in larger enterprises, is in not requiring the assistance of IT to set up a WebOffice to reach beyond the firewall and involve customers, and partners in projects.
Summary
The evolution and volume of features being built into browser-based apps from a competitive landscape around the web office is exciting innovation for everyone. Whether you are a small business looking to create and share documents online, or have project management set in your sights, the above information should better outline what can be completed via online office productivity suites.
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