Microsoft LIVE Online

I have been using (or maybe playing with) Microsoft’s Online  “LIVE” Workspace and I am finding it quite good. If you have followed things that I have written in the past about Google’s Sites then you will know that I keep trying to find the “Best In Show” for Cloud Computing for the individual as well as for that “Small Business” person.

Small Business to me can be that one person with a product or service that they are promoting as well as a business that may have a number of 1 or 2 people offices in a number of cities. These businesses also need the tools to help them with their day-to-day work the same as anyone at P&G or Kroger’s. At Google you can use Google Doc’s and use their storage facilities to work with your documentation for the business however if you already have Microsoft Office products you may desire something else that just may be a little more powerful and useful for your team.

That something else can be Workspace.OfficeLive.Com. It is FREE (a key word for us) and you have up to 500 MB of space to store documents. Per Microsoft that could be about 1000 Word documents. You can upload documents from your computer and you can set up Workspaces and share them with other’s. You can have collaboration tools similar to Windows SharePoint Services and it will connect to your Microsoft Office products in much the same way. Not everything is there however there is enough to make your job a great deal easier.

You do get the ability to create contact lists and event lists that will connect with your Outlook software or just create lists that you want, store them online and/or share them with others. If you install the Microsoft Office Add-In then you can create documents in your office product (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and save them to your Workspace as easy as if you were saving them on your computer. Once there you will be able to access them from anywhere, work, home or on the road. You just need an Internet connection.

Two notes: It is worth looking into and remember the key work FREE (at least for the time being). This is not the same as Microsoft’s Office Live Small Business. That would be something else to review.