Office Live Beta Puts SOHOs Online
Posted by
Rick Scott
February 22, 2006
Essentials comes with a license for 10 users; you can buy additional five-packs. Storage space is limited to 50MB. Security is limited: You can assign a user to be an Administrator (to set up other accounts), Editor (to view and update information), or Reader (viewing rights only) — but only for all Business Applications as a whole.
By accessing applications online rather than running from your hard drive, you’re likely to experience slight delays between the time you press the Enter key and when your screen is refreshed. That’s the trade-off of using software as a service. The big benefit: Updated information is immediately available to your co-workers.
Shared Sites Stumbles
Besides sharing data among your co-workers, Office Live includes a tool called Shared Sites that lets you share key information with customers or partners (in the same way that an extranet does). A Shared Site can let you view a document library and limited business information such as project status; the portal-like view makes organization and navigation easy.
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