Phenquestions
The evolution of Cloud at the back-end has led to many changes over the Internet in the past few years. One of the best examples would be - document editing application on the Internet. First we saw Google-Docs, then came the Microsoft Office 365 and now IBM has announced its Office productivity software and it will be competing against Google and Microsoft. This is something more than just news; IBM has released its Beta version of IBM Docs online.
It took some time to get the insides, but the result seems to be impressive. All the features that have already been incorporated in Office 365 and Google Docs are now also present in IBM Docs.
Here are the differences between three online office suits from an end-user perspective.
IBM Docs vs Office 365 vs Google Docs
IBM Docs User Interface
To begin with, let us look at the user interface of the three web applications. Google Docs are pretty clean, doesn't have too much navigation, all options are readily available and is pretty easy to use. Microsoft Office gives you the ultimate Microsoft Office look and feel on its online office suite as well. If you are a Microsoft Office user, then you might enjoy the online version as well. You can go here to read the entire Office 365 Review, Features and Pricing Plans.
The new IBM Docs are pretty simple to use as well. It looks attractive with common features available up front. Here is how document looks.
IBM Docs Features
When it comes to features Microsoft Office 365 is rich in feature set. It is much more than just an Office suite. Lync along with Microsoft Office 365 brings many services together. It has all the presentation features, schedules, layouts and all the community tools for making a document available for multiple viewers at the same time. Google Docs offer some quick features, but not all as Office 365 does.
IBM Docs offers multiple viewers features and streamline documents in better way than Google Docs. Tags can be associated with the files; the layout or the user interface is user customizable and provides a comment section, allowing members to interact simultaneously. Moreover it has the feature of assigning a task to different members. All together managing document workflow is impressive in IBM Docs.
IBM Docs Complexity
Using Office 365 requires you to install some software. You need a browser plug-in, and you have to install Microsoft Lync for communication. You can use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Web Access (OWA) to connect to Office 365. The extra addition of SharePoint to Office 365 does hinder usage - it makes things more complicated.
Google provides a simple user interface that helps you to start it any time in your browser. Google Docs can be accessed from any browser while Office 365 doesn't work on Google Chrome - there has been issues regarding Active-X control on browsers.
IBM Docs fits somewhere in between the two. It has a simple interface and provides impressive features to make document sharing and team accessibility interactive. It also has some impressive features that leverages work load; specially the commenting section and display of active members on a particular spreadsheet.
IBM Docs License and Pricing
Microsoft Office 365 in not free. It requires a subscription. It has three version or plans based on the size of environment you are working on.
Google Docs is a free. It is integrated with major Google services including Gmail.
By the end of this year IBM will have both a rich client and a Cloud based solution for office productivity. There is uncertainty regarding the licensing policy as for now.
IBM's social push also includes analytics software called Connections, social-networking tools for content management systems as well as mobile and web-based collaboration software.
