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 SharePoint is soon going to have a run for its money. The collaboration domain is getting hotter by the day, with "online collaboration" solutions gaining eminence.Â
Google recently launched its major "go Google" advertising campaign, promoting Google Apps, it's online collaboration software, specifically positioning it against Microsoft products. In this campaign, which is being seen as possibility its biggest offensive against Microsoft yet, Google will set up 4 giant billboards at prime locations, apart from using traditional online and offline media. Google Apps has earlier been seen as a substitute for SharePoint, with eminent tech blogger Michael Arrington even describing it as a "SharePoint Killer". Although Google Apps does not duplicate all of SharePoint's power, it (and other solutions in the online collaboration domain) does offer a viable alternative for small to medium sized businesses, bringing technology in a simple, end user oriented format, against SharePoint which is complex and expensive.  Although belatedly, Microsoft realised that it needed to enter the "online collaboration" market as well, as it was steadily growing in popularity. It launched the online version of SharePoint, simply called "SharePoint Online". Around the same time it launched Microsoft BPOS, which was closer in functionality to Google Apps as it also includes messaging (Exchange Online) and conferencing (LiveMeeting) capabilities. If it can be taken as the strategic importance of this domain, Microsoft has also gone into overgear to promote Microsoft BPOS, its parallel product. It has been agressively trying to push it into the market with the help of its massive partner network. Apart from these two players, there are players in the market, who have been in the web based "SharePoint alternative" market for much longer than either of Google and Microsoft. HyperOffice is one such player, which have been offering the HyperOffice Collaboration Suite to SMBs since 1998. HyperOffice is also in competition with Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS, because in addition to collaboration software features, it also includes messaging and web conferencing features. But HyperOffice is focused specifically towards the small business segment, and has also designed its products for that market, while Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS are both interested in the jucier, mid to large sized business market. I looked around for a good comparison of the products in this space, and found a good one prepared by HyperOffice. Check out their Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS comparison matrix.
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