Live Documents is a collaborative office productivity suite that you can consume as a software on your desktop or as a service on your browser.
Live Documents blurs the distinction between web and desktop applications, providing a rich application experience for a user who is connected or disconnected from the Internet. Our offering merges the richness and responsiveness of desktop software with the reach and collaborative capabilities of web services.
Unlike traditional web applications, Live Documents works whether you are online or offline. Once you have installed the desktop version of Live Documents, you can view and edit documents - all the changes that you have made will be automatically synced to the server the next time you go online.
Live Documents offers an "SoS" - SOFTWARE OR SERVICE - value proposition.
SoS merges the best attributes of the desktop and the web to give you an application experience that far surpasses what each platform offers on its own in terms of choice and flexibility.
Live Documents :
- Does not force you to choose between the desktop and the browser - work on whatever platform that you prefer at any point of time - seamlessly switch to the other when you want to do so.
- Get the best of both worlds - the richness, responsiveness and offline capabilities of desktop software and the reach, collaborative capabilities and ubiquitious nature of browser-based services.
- Does not require a centralized place to store documents - no need to upload documents
- Works online and offline
- Automatically updates content whenever any change is made
- Allows you to assign, track and manage document lifecycle tasks for reviews, editing and approvals
How does SoS compare against Microsoft's "S+S" - Software plus Service" worldview?
In Microsoft's world view, the "Service" component is an afterthought - a bare-bones, stripped-down version of the software part and/or a marginal addition of web functionality to the software application designed primarily to allow the perpetuation of its software monopoloy rather than to offer the end user true choice and flexibility.
However, in the Software or Service world, both components - the desktop and the browser - are equal partners with congruent capabilties. SoS does not force users to choose one platform over the other and offers the flexibility of using either version at any point of time.