Besides the obvious issues with privacy and proprietary etc - small orgs
have all sorts of practical problems with Google - stuff just not
working very well and being frustrating. Also sync not working properly
etc. Better to pay an expert (and opensource) provider of groupware
services? But it has to be borne in mind that small orgs are often
offline for a while as they use cheap broadband services and rubbish
routers and don't have regular tech support.
Worse, it can be really hard to migrate from Google - I've had people
whose sites have broken because Google changed their architecture and I
realised there was no export tool - we had to hand copy the content
page-by-page - to name but one.
If you really want to use a free, hosted collaboration system, Huddle is
more difficult to figure out but also more reliable, a UK company and
has a transparent privacy policy.
For small orgs, unless people have a strong need for a seamless
groupware solution, I'd go for a 'bits and bobs' approach depending on
what they really need - Scheduleworld, Dropbox (sorry, but UbuntuOne
needs to have x-platform clients), Firefox sync. Better still, a simple
terminal server with neatx (plus can use any or all of the ancillary
third-party services to avoid running complex groupware on their own
server). Pretty much any web hosting package will include enough email
addies and also imap.
Paula
On 27/07/10 21:40, Philip Stubbs wrote:
If you need to get up and running quickly, and resources are tight,
have you thought about using Google Apps for your domain? Register a
domain name, set up google apps with that domain name, and you
instantly have 100 email accounts all for the cost of the domain
registration. Client machines can be anything with web access and a
browser. Instantly have ability to work away from the office. Later,
as time and resources allow, you could either upgrade to the paid for
version, or migrate away to running your own servers, as required.
I would be interested in what you find in the way of ERP. There is
half an idea floating around inside my head that concerning that.
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