14 DAY TRIAL // Instant Collaboration Software Technologies (InstaColl), the company founded by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia unveiled its Live Documents on Wednesday. The office productivity suite in question is set to compete with Microsoft and Google and it allows users to access and work on their documents online using a browser and at the same time collaborate and share documents in real time with others.
Live Documents will support any browser that itself supports Adobe Flash and will run on any computer operating system, Sumanth Raghavendra, chief executive officer of InstaColl said. The reason Adobe technologies are used (besides Flash, Flex technology is also important for LD) is that they greatly enhance user experience to bypass the online office applications from Google, basically stripped down versions of MS Office, according to him.
"Even power-users of Microsoft Office can use our service," he added. Microsoft will not sacrifice their desktop software licence business by offering a fully online office productivity service, which presents an opportunity for InstaColl, he added.
"Online documents can also be synchronized and worked with off-line, using a desktop client that wraps around an office suite running on the desktop," Raghavendra said. "Live Documents automatically synchronizes all changes, the next time the user goes online. Users can work on the document in Microsoft Office when off-line, for example, and then the document will be updated in Live Documents for online collaboration", he added.
It is expected that besides Microsoft Office for users that choose to work offline, Live Documents will also extend support for OpenOffice.org, an open source office suite. This is said to happen in a couple of months.
At the moment the service is free for individuals but corporate users will have to pay for it if they choose to use it. "Corporate users can sign up for the hosted service, or run a license of the software on an internal server within the company," Raghavendra said.