One of the great promises of computers is the ease with which colleagues can collaborate with each other to share information and organise meetings.

Zoho Virtual Office 3 offers most of the well-known features of Exchange (calendars, task lists, notes and the ability to share them) at a fraction of the cost or administrative overhead.

This is not a hosted service, but a software package. You will need to install and run the software yourself on a computer that becomes the server.

It is possible to set this up for internet access but there are some important points to be aware of, which we will return to later.

Setting up is very easy on a Windows host, with the most difficult decision being which port the clients will connect on. It is worth making a note of this as the port may need to be opened on your firewall.

Having said that, when we tested it Zoho worked with no warnings from ZoneAlarm.

Zoho Virtual Office is compatible with Internet Explorer, Netscape 7.1 and Mozilla 1.4 or later.

The main page shows a summary of emails, tasks and calendar items.Each also has its own page with more detail.

Email is supported but not provided by the software; instead it can read both POP and IMAP accounts.

For the services to be available the computer must be left switched on and connected to the internet at all times, with either a fully resolvable domain name or a fixed IP address.

Neither of these need be a big problem and many ISPs offer a fixed IP address at no extra cost.

When a computer is left constantly connected to the internet, it becomes far more important to make sure that security is up to scratch. We recommend appointing someone to regularly ensure that all security patches are installed.

At the time of writing, one unpatched problem was reported with Zoho Virtual Office on Secunia’s website (Secunia posts alerts for key software applications). The problem was rated 'less critical' but had remained unsettled for about a month at last check.

Zoho Virtual Office is free for up to 10 users. After you exceed this limit, pricing is very similar to that of WebEx WebOffice . For those who can keep below the 10-user limit and provide the necessary hardware, Zoho is the better choice of the two. It integrates with email and is available for free.

Anyone who wants to avoid the hassle of running their own server or who has more than 10 users should think about WebOffice.

Also consider:
Webex WebOffice
Online collaboration tool for small organisations at a reasonable price

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