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Review
Created: November, 1999
If workers in a large company need to share documents and information, their company typically sets up a network that uses a Web browser and Internet technologies called an intranet. Small businesses often can't afford the setup and maintenance fees.
That's where HotOffice 3.0 comes in handy. HotOffice is a bunch of tools on a public Web site that lets your company share information privately. It's what is known as groupware in software lingo. Think of it as a corporate intranet for dummies.
Small offices and project teams that collaborate over networks have long been plagued by the high cost of maintaining servers and network connectivity for disparate human resources. It has been just a matter of time before someone offered a commercial solution via the Web. The day has finally arrived.
HotOffice's tools include a document archive, a corporate contact list, a corporate calendar, phone messages, chat rooms and discussion lists. Its administrative features allow you to give access to team members or clients on a project by project or department by department basis. It is pretty much everything you would need to have on a network in a rapidly growing business.
The most useful part of HotOffice for most companies will be the document archive. It has version control and document history features that have previously been unavailable to companies without fancy publishing systems.
Once you check a document out to work on it, others are locked out from it and are prevented from making changes to it until you return the updated version. The document archive is fully compatible with Microsoft Office documents.
During the installation, it installs a Publish to Your HotOffice button in each Microsoft application. You can then view an HTML preview version of the document without downloading the document.
You can also choose to be notified when new documents are posted, which saves you time digging through folders.
The performance of the current schedule and contact software doesn't hold a candle to Microsoft Outlook 2000, however. The future versions of HotOffice promise to address the feature list of the contact management and calendar to make it compatible with Outlook features, but that's no help now.
The core of HotOffice's strength is also its downfall. Organizational mission critical applications that are only Web accessible are subject to availability of Internet bandwidth. When you have connection troubles to the Internet, you are cut off from your HotOffice information. The same problem can plague your team members.
In a similar vein, it is worth noting that HotOffice is a rapidly growing company. During testing, this reviewer found that the HTML viewer sometimes returned a busy message, a likely result of an overtaxed system. The company is working on new versions and on expanding its network capacity.
In addition, there is one particularly limiting feature: HotOffice doesn't allow you to forward your mail outside of the HotOffice system.
Despite a few notable shortcomings, HotOffice is the market leader. If you need the features it offers and don't mind a few busy signals, it is the best game in town. You aren't locked into long-term service: if a better service comes along, you can get out within 30 days.
Access to HotOffice is available by signing up at http://www.hotoffice.com/
Rating: 4 / 5 stars.
Reviewer's comments: If it had full compatibility with Microsoft Outlook and the ability to forward mail outside of HotOffice, HotOffice would have scored a perfect five.
Price: 30 days free and a 30-day contract to get started. The charge is $12.95 US per person per month ($20 CDN). The ad-supported version, where advertisements are displayed on the service to users, is free.
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