SpreadsheetLIVE Beta from Pagos is a new entry into the web office applications space, currently dominated by Google, Microsoft and Zoho. Pagos is targeting corporate intranets, but also has a hosted version that could be useful for many web workers. Currently, this hosted version is available for free.

SpreadsheetLIVE has an easy-to-use layout that makes creating, uploading and accessing spreadsheets very simple. In my experience, of all the basic office applications, spreadsheets give most trouble to users, so anything an application can do to help the user get started is a bonus.

SpreadsheetLIVE has a reasonably comprehensive set of spreadsheet features, including charts, pivot tables and a function wizard. User and file management includes groups, folders, and organizations. You aren’t going to be running an accounting department with SpreadsheetLIVE, but then you won’t be with Google Docs, Excel Web App, or Zoho Sheet, either.  Web-based spreadsheets are great for tracking project information, light accounting like project budget tracking, and other lower-level number crunching tasks. SpreashseetLIVE also has a rather extensive library of spreadsheet templates available.

You can upload your existing spreadsheets into the app — it has a 6 MB file size restriction, which should be big enough to accommodate all but your largest spreadsheets. However, you can only export SpreadSheetLIVE spreadsheets to Excel 2007 (*.xslx) format currently, which could prove limiting to project teams with members using Office 2003. It would be nice to see the final version of the product support *.xls and *csv expert as well, since they are more common formats for spreadsheet data than *.xlsx.

SpreadsheetLIVE is a solid entry to the web office space; it probably has more marketing, rather than technical, challenges ahead of it in getting and maintaining user attention in this very competitive market.

Which online spreadsheet tool do you use?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Why Microsoft Office Web Is Good for Its Competitors

As a technical writer by trade, I have fairly strong opinions as to how a web office suite can fit into the workflow of a team publishing moderately complex documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. I do believe that a web office suite and Microsoft Office don’t have to be “natural enemies in the wild” and can coexist to offer web workers, their employers, and their clients the best possible document authoring, publishing and collaborative working solution.

This post is going to dive into some things web workers should consider in a mixed Microsoft Office/web office environment, and in environments where multiple web office suites are used.

Complementary Technologies: The 80/20 Rule
In my recent post, commenter Ray Stahl brought up the 80/20 rule, which says that 80 percent of an organization’s employees will have their needs met by a web office suite, while 20 percent of the employees (the “power users”) need full Microsoft Office licenses. Microsoft itself believes that this hybrid approach is likely to work in the future, with the desktop Office suite and its own Office Web Apps coexisting quite happily (although as Tom Reestman points out over on our subscription research site GigaOM Pro, its approach may actually be good for its web office competitors).

While each company’s needs will vary, the 80/20 rule seems like a reasonable rule of thumb. Microsoft Office licenses can be expensive, so only providing full Microsoft Office licenses to power users like technical writers and the accounting staff makes sense.

Web workers need to be aware with the 80/20 rule as it’s important that recipients can open documents without much fuss.

Here are some considerations:

• Is the recipient using Microsoft Office? If, so what version?
• Does the final deliverable require the advanced features of Microsoft Office? For example, does a spreadsheet rely on pivot tables or complex formulas?
• Only use document templates that don’t lose formatting or have issues when opened in a web office suite. Ask where does the power user sit in the document publishing process? If they are the final publisher then you may also want them to take on the bulk of the template, table of contents generation, and other tasks that require advanced features only available in Microsoft Word.

Web Office Applications Coopetion

The web office productivity world is very competitive, but there is also the opportunity for coopetion when different vendors integrate their services with each other.

Take, for example, the recent update to Zoho Projects (Zoho Projects 2.0 was covered by Doriano last summer) that now includes integration with Google Apps. This latest update includes single sign-on, enabling users to login with their Google credentials; the ability to upload documents from Google Docs to Zoho Projects; view project milestones in Google Calendar including project milestones, tasks and meetings from your Zoho Projects; and an embeddable Zoho Projects gadget you can insert in iGoogle, Gmail and Google Sites.

Perhaps coopetion could even better serve web workers better than all-out competition between the web office suites and Microsoft Office, as companies could build robust online and desktop Office ecosystems, offering web workers more opportunities to have collaborative and publishing solutions that best serve their employers and clients.

Do you use multiple web office productivity tools in your organization?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Why Microsoft Office Web Is Good for Its Competitors
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Recently, we covered the release of the Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps Technical Preview. While it was great to get a first look at this release, it was even more interesting to pull back and read the flurry of blog postings, pundit pontifications, tweets and articles that were all over the web, ranging from those stating that this was the end of Microsoft Office, to those saying that Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps is going to wipe Google Apps and Zoho off the map.

Most of these reviews were written by people used to trying out early release beta software. However, it is one thing for a new web office offering like Office Web Apps not to live up to its potential in a periodical’s lab environment; out in the wild, billable hours go up in smoke, deadlines get blown, and reputations get bruised if you adopt a web office app that doesn’t live up to its promises or mangles a document.

While web office suites are showing great promise, web workers need to get past the thoughts of escaping Microsoft Office once and for all. Rather, you need to ensure that the web office application suite you choose is going to be a real productivity boost and enable better collaboration with your teams and clients. It’s not a Microsoft Office thing, or a Microsoft vs. Zoho thing, or even a Google vs. Microsoft thing.

Let’s investigate some more practical concerns around web office adoption:

1. Potential file format compatibility issues. While the impending launch of the Office Web Apps is promising superior file format compatibility, what about Google Apps, Zoho Business, and ThinkFree? While early adopters are a lot more tolerant about bugs and anomalies, average users aren’t going to be happy when they upload their nicely formatted MS Word document into a web office application and find problems with formatting or, even worse, file corruption when the document comes out the other side.
2. Template compatibility. Many organizations use document templates to provide a consistent look and feel to their documents. This means that web office suites should be able to intake MS Office templates with little or no issues — but they can’t, currently. My testing so far has revealed inconsistent results when it comes to templates for documents like user guides and resumes. Microsoft Office and web office productivity suites are far from being aligned when it comes to template creation and management.
3. Spreadsheet features. Microsoft Excel is a rich and robust spreadsheet application that can suit everybody from casual to advanced business users. Web office applications like Google Apps, Zoho Business, and Office Web Apps Technical Preview do have spreadsheet applications, but they include only the base-level features, not the higher-end accounting and analytical tools like Pivot Tables.
4. File storage and security. Working for corporate and federal government agencies is not without its intricacies and rules when it comes to the file storage of project documents. The Sarbanes Oxley Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and Committee of Sponsoring Organizations all have standards over the storage and security of files.  This means any web workers supporting client projects governed by these standards need to be aware of how auditors treat the offsite storage of customer data (including storing data online using a web office suite).
5. Spell checking, grammar checking and track changes. Microsoft Office’s spelling and grammar checker is a useful set of extra eyes for writers of all skill levels, and for a web office suite to completely replace Microsoft Office it would need to replicate this feature. Unfortunately, Google Apps, Zoho Writer, and Microsoft Word 2010 Web App currently only include a spell checker, not a grammar checker. Track changes are a valuable editing and collaboration tool because they leave an audit trail in Microsoft Word documents. As of yet, no web office suite has track changes functionality along the lines of MS Word.

Have you considered abandoning MS Office in favor of a web office suite?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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