Review Rating – Two Thumbs Up! (because I have only 2)

Although we will review HyperOffice mostly as a "sharepoint alternative", it is pretty much the most comprehensive web collaboration software out there. It covers almost the entire range of features in the SharePoint & Exchange alternative domains, has sophisticated document management capabilities, and allows mobile access (HyperOffice on iPhone particularly impressed me) all rolled into one. 

To start our review, HyperOffice is web based, so it does not require any hardware setup, or any downloads at the user's end, as with SharePoint or some of its alternatives. To get going you need to sign up online (the customary free trial is there, and allows full access). You have the choice of setting up a domain with a HyperOffice extension (yourcompany.hyperoffice.com) or a custom domain (yourcompany.com) for a little extra charge.

Intranet - Each user gets a "personal area" which has a desktop (with announcements, to do lists, news, events, notes, access to tools etc), a mail client, personal document management, a personal calendar, personal contact management, "my tasks", "my links", "my reminders" etc.

In addition "group areas" can be easily set up for the entire company, departments, teams, ad-hoc projects etc. These group areas have a group desktop (or homepage) (group announcements, events, news, access to tools etc), shared document management, shared group calendar, group contact lists, group links, group project management, forums, polls, instant messaging etc. A group administrator can very easily manage membership of a group, by adding or deleting new members, and even managing the level of access different members have within a group.

This intranet design is very simple and logical, allowing employees to easily manage personal information, or get together and work and collaborate on group information. Each tool has its own nuances and power, but touching upon all of them would unnecessarily take up space.

Extranets & Customer Portals - Extranets/Customer portals are simply group areas which have membership of relevant employees and partners and clients, as applicable. So extranets can simply be seen as an extension of the intranet. External members can easily access these extranets with any web browser and the requisite login and password. 128 bit encryption ensures safety of company and partner information.

Customization - HyperOffice includes a "publisher" tool through which intranets and extranets can easily be customized to a great extent. "Publisher" is a push button tool, and does not require any designing expertise at all. You can easily manage the look, layout and design of group homepage; create any number of pages; add branding; create linkages to tools or documents etc. You can choose from a range of pre-built templates or even create entire websites from scratch. In addition you can choose what tools you want included in a particular group.

Customizing and branding intranets, extranets, and customer portals is a great way of impressing and motivating people. With HyperOffice's publisher, it is truly child's play.

Document Management - HyperOffice has an elegant and powerful document management system, and it is intelligently integrated with the intranet design as mentioned above. Some of its features are as follows:-

Organization - Personal and group documents can easily be organized as folders and subfolders.

Filetypes Supported - The system is filetype agnostic.

Collaboration - Multiple employees can get togather and work on documents and files. Versioning, change notifications, automatic locking, audit trails, document commenting etc facilitate collaboration.

Desktop Integration - HyperOffice's web folder concept allows users to access and work on files directly from their local system's desktop. You simply need to download a small module called "HyperDrive", which installs a "web folder" on your desktop through which you can easily navigate to all your files and folders like you would within Windows. Any changes you make to your documents are automatically updated on your online account.

Drag and Drop - Web Folders also allow you to drag and drop multiple files and folders to your online account. Beats doing it one at a time!

Access Control - The administrator can easily manage which people can access what information and what they can do with it (read, write, delete). Access can be set at the "group" level, the folder/subfolder level, or even the document level. Through "profiling" you can even hide information from people who do not have the rights.

Browser Access/Mobile Access – HyperOffice is accessible from any web browser, either Mac or PC. What’s more, its even optimized for mobile browsers. I was especially impressed with HyperOffice on iPhone. It pretty much powers iPhone to be used as a collaboration tool.

Security - In a web based system, letting go of your information and allowing it to be hosted on a third party's system is certainly an act of faith. HyperOffice certainly keeps the faith with an excellent record. They have extensive security protocols, 128 bit encryption, and automatic backups, which can be considered as better can provide in house.

Conclusion - The above features can well be called half of HyperOffice. It also includes integrated Exchange killer features like email hosting, Outlook integration, automatic synching; as well as cool concepts like “interlinking” (the ability to associate related data).

Pricing is very reasonable, at around $7 per user per month. Through ideal for small to mid sized businesses, the solution is highly scalable, with many 1000 user clients in its kitty.

All in all, it is a top notch tool, and goes highly recommended.