Intranets.com Helps Company Collaborate
Let's be clear here to start off with, this isn't an unbiased interview at all. The question “What competitive products did you consider?”
wasn't even answered. That out of the way the article does bring
up excellent point for why hosted services like Intranets.com are right
to many companies. I think the most important is the fact that it
is hosted: you don't have to worry about building or
maintaining your infrastructure. The other collaboration features
they talked about can be found within any decent groupware
package. Even with Outlook you have a lot of this
functionality. Again, though, to use most of those features, you
have to have the servers on site.
There
are alternatives to Intranets.com. SocialText is a good example,
but I think the user interface could use some work. I found the
whole scheme pretty confusing. Bell Canada offers packages for SMBs to get online and some include Exchange and SharePoint (I think).
The other option, especially if you just starting out and don't need calendars and tasks, is a hosted blog.
I
would read this article to get a handle on one companies requirments
and solutions. Their experience might help you work out your own
requirements.
Intranets.com Helps Company Collaborate
Just
because your employee headcount doesn't number in the thousands doesn't
mean you don't need to think about ways to communicate more
efficiently. Boston-based Intranets.com caters to the needs of small
and mid-size businesses by providing software that lets you share
files, calendars and databases with co-workers, suppliers and other
business partners. (The basic rate is $59.95 per month for five users;
10, 25, 50 Workgroup plans are also available for $99.95, $229.95,
$399.95 per month, respectively.)