Hosted Collaboration Software

Hosted collaboration tools are computer-based instruments (supporting business activities and co-operation between co-workers) which can be installed, reached and operated remotely (via the Internet). In other words, hosted collaboration means that such software’s server component is working not at the corporate server of the company which uses this tool, but on the third party company’s facilities (such a company provides “hosting”). Hosted collaboration solution can perfectly work for companies that don’t have necessary IT infrastructure (for example no server computer exposed to Internet), so that they have to delegate this task to special organizations which allow renting their servers to place there software solutions for their clients. Hosted collaboration software is often used when it is necessary to organize co-operation in “virtual” project teams between multiple people who need to collaborate remotely, as they live in different distanced locations all over the country or world. Such solutions usually work in a client-server manner (clients applications connect to the server component which can be installed on any computer accessible via the Internet).

How hosted collaboration software is different from web-based analogues?

Formally difference between hosted collaboration tools and web-based ones can be explained as the following: hosted collaboration software is a type of desktop-based programs (usual installable applications supporting their own interfaces, without using any web-browsers) that work in a client-server manner, so that their server components (supporting their shared databases) can be installed on some third party server computer, while client components are installed on computers of team members who use Internet-based channels to connect to this server.

Purposes that different hosted collaboration solutions can cope with:

Hosted collaboration services may provide solutions covering the following needs:

• Work planning and delegating (sharing working plans);
• Work reporting and controlling (sharing progress over tasks and objectives);
• Documents and results sharing (sharing digital documents and other official information);
• Communication and messaging (real-time messaging or forum-like communicating);

VIP Task Manager is multiuser task and time management software that can work as hosted collaboration software. This solution is designed to be established and working within your corporate LAN (your internal office network), hosted on your company’s internal server. It can be also used when you seek for hosted collaboration services as it can work over Internet channels as well. You can try its free hosted collaboration method when using Hosted Trial version (30 days), which can be transferred then to some third party’s hosted server (or replaced to your own office server). This software is an alternative solution to Microsoft hosted collaboration services, as it can successfully cover the most of needs demanded by SMB and it offers moderate prices per license.