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PowerTools for online collaboration
Glover Stanbury & Co partner Kevin Salter continues to unearth interesting tools and utilities in the explorations that feed into his AccountantsPowerTools service. In recent months, he has documented how his firm is using online collaboration tools unearthed by his investigations.As part of an "online collaboration" theme, February's AccountantsPowerTools update highlighted how the firm was using Google Docs and other services to share documents internally and with clients.
"With two offices trying to share information it is not efficient to mail spreadsheets around," Salter explained. You will also have trouble with version control and be uncertain whether a particular copy is the most up to date, or if any changes have been made in error.
When Salter first considered Google Docs last year, there were shortcomings that put the firm off using the service. But improvements to the formatting and an increase in Google Spreadsheets' capacity has won him over. "Whilst it is not 'Excel on the Web', there is sufficient functionality for the purposes of the spreadsheets we are sharing." He wrote.
Glover Stanbury has since uploaded client lists, staff contact details, work on hand, planning boards and other files to Google Docs. Colleagues in the other office can be invited either to view or edit copies and there is also a rollback facility if major mistakes occur in any of the files.
Google Groups, meanwhile, allows the firm to upload any kind of file formats, so now month-end accounts are shared in a similar way.
These Google tools can be accessed from the Google home page, or the Google Calendar site - another useful tool now being used to schedule staff meetings and equipment bookings within the firm. Meeting rooms, laptops and projectors all have their own calendar to make online booking easier, he reported.
"Another great advantage is that all these tools are currently free of charge," Salter added.
Stop press
Since documenting his experiences with Google tools, Salter has discovered OfficeZilla.com, an open source site offering online calendars, contact manager, file sharing, message forums and chat rooms, to do lists, RSS feeds and SMS alters. He has signed up for most of these services, and is seriously considering them as an alternative to Google.
More online collaboration tools
This article is based on content covered by the AccountantsPowerTools service, which is currently available for £5 per month. For more details about how to subscribe, visit the AccountantsPowerTools.co.uk website or email info@bbscomputing.co.uk
Number of comments: 8
AccountingWEB.co.uk 25-Mar-2008
Categories: IT Features, Software, Practice Management
Times read: 2760
Here we go again with Google
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/03/google_privacy_policy_avoids_home_page/print.html
In a predatory world where trust is wanting, Google must have known what they were doing - so what is going on & why are these guys always trying to pull a 'fast one' ?
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080510-security-flaw-turns-gmail-into-open-relay-server.html
It seems like all the tools mentioned so far are not really real-time or "live" collaboration tools (except a posted comment on Adobe's offering).
I use Glance (http://glance.net) for doing live sharing of my desktop. It's kind of like a conference call with your computer's desktop -- my collaborators can see what changes I make to my documents and immediately give me feedback.
There are other offerings out in the "web conferencing" space like Adobe's can't-remember-the-name, Webex and GoTo Meeting. But having used them all before, Glance is what I ended up coming back to time and time again because it doesn't get in the way of my work and the others in my team don't have to install any software. The other offerings took quite a bit of effort to get up and running and they were difficult to drive.
to consider
Adobe Photoshop Express - free, rich Internet version of its flagship image editing application accessible via a Web browser.
http://www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html
Google Docs - an enhancement that enables users to edit documents offline
Hackers seem to have cracked the captcha used by gmail - presumably applicable to any other form of captcha
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2211675/spammers-sneak-gmail
Perhaps not so secure as the Google Staff referred to in the previous link would have one believe
Depends where you look!!
http://getsatisfaction.com/google/topics/is_it_safe_to_upload_private_documents_on_google_docs
I was just posting about collaboration tools on my blog [http://www.topaccountants.typepad.com] when I spotted this article.
I have a feeling that these services are going to become very popular over the next two to three years. But, as Kevin has discovered, what provider should accountants go for? I am currently testing Office Live Workspace for our practice but was shown a great product [Vestri] yesterday which has been developed by a client company. Decisions, decisions...
For more information see my posting at:
http://topaccountants.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/collaboration-t.html
Interesting to note that whilst shortcommings were identified (formatting and Spreadsheet capacity) the whole issue of security seems to have been ignored in favour of functionality
Precisely what measures were undertaken by the firm to ensure security could not be compromised, before advising clients to adopt this product for sensitive information?
What Risk Assessment has been carried out prior to recommending this to clients?
http://blog.arhg.net/2008/01/spamming-with-google-docs.html
http://www.legalandrew.com/2007/09/24/warning-google-docs-is-not-safe/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/01/google_ssl_sidejacking/
Should this article be part of a case study for:
