When I was In the process of re-organizing Sireh Dan Cengkeh Terpilih from scratch, I have minimum amount of money at my disposal. From the experience that I’ve gathered before, planning is essential. Above all, planning is the important process to ensure an organization is successful or not. It is the foundation of a very good organization.Note : This is a re-post of an old article originally published on 23rd May 2007 with some updates.

I have a long list of things to do and what to buy. First, prioritize. With the tight budget that I had and no manpower on my disposal, I have to play with what I have. Then I remember about an article in ThinkVitamin, where Ryan Carson explore the reality of Office 2.0

Office 2.0, as define by Ismael Ghalimi are;

1. No client application other than a web browser.
2. No files on personal computer.
3. Compatibility with the most popular web browsers.
4. No browser extension or plugin.
5. Collaboration features are good.
6. Syndication is the way to go.
7. AJAX is better.
8. Competition brings alternatives.
9 Data import/export is mandatory.

Based on the above, Office 2.0 is actually a virtual office. We can work using a basic PC from anywhere and still connected to our co-workers. I think to achieve all the rules above in our current situation in Malaysia is near impossible. Our broadband and 3G coverage still suck and not covering all areas in Malaysia. Furthermore, majority of software are not web-base. It still need to be downloaded and installed.

Here are some of the softwares I’ve used or try during the rebuilding process of s&ct;

The applications

Storage
1. MediaMax. (free)
2. Box. (free) Free version limited to 1G of space.

Chat/IM
1. Skype. (free). Don’t have to be a client to any web service provider (such as Hotmail or Yahoo!), easy to setup and it PC to PC calling service is second to none.
2. Meebo. No installation required and support almost all major IM clients.

Email
1. Thunderbird. (free)
2. Google Applications. (free). One of my favourite service from Google. There are few packages to choose from, for small business, school, enterprise & group. Simply sublime.

Calendar
1. Google Calendar. (free) A popular choice.
2. Yahoo! Calender. A close second to Google’s.
3. 360 boxes. (free)

Spreadsheets & Text editor
1. Google Docs & Spreadsheets. (free) Previously known as Writely, a web-based application that lets you save and share it with others.
2. ThinkFree. (free)
3. OpenOffice. (free) A popular free alternative for Microsoft Office.
4. Zoho. Another kick-ass online and offline application.

Project management
1. Basecamp. (free) Briliant application but better use the paid version for more features.
1. Coghead (free)

Majority of these products available for free and you only need to pay if you want extra features.

Applications that are hard to replace.

Operating system.

Although Linux and Ubuntu are attractive free alternative to Windows & Mac OS, they are not familiar to majority of popular web appliances thus making it hard to work with. There are lots of decent photo touch-up applications like Pixer.us but only good for hobbyist and not for real, hard core designers.

Image manipulating / photo editing.

Adobe is still the best, no matter how you look at it. I have not try GIMP or Paint and I’m sure they are also good. Freehand is also a good alternative, but still, it’s not free.

So, it is up to you to choose the correct application for your business. There are a lot of high quality and free applications available. Surf and ask around which one is the best.

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