- Types of Web-Based Apps
- Web-Based Applications on the Front Line
- Why Web? Reason Number One: Collaboration
- Why Web? Reason Number Two: Universal Access
- Why Web? Reason Number Three: Integration
- Why Web? Reason Number Four: Disaster Prevention and Recovery
- Choosing the Right Web-Based Applications for Your Needs
Why Web? Reason Number One: Collaboration
The number-one reason to consider moving to web-based applications is collaboration. Whether you work with other team members on projects or work as an independent consultant or solution provider, you're probably all too familiar with the normal methods for moving from a concept to a deliverable product or service:
- Initial meetings
- Prototyping
- Sending prototypes to participants
- Comments from each participant
- More meetings to discuss prototypes
- Development of revised version
- Sending revised to participants
- Comments from each participant
And, eventually, you're done.
The collaboration features built into many web-based applications enable much faster review turnaround times, as users can access documents and other files instantly on the web. Some programs support simultaneous review by multiple users, so there's no need to wait for a prototype to be passed from reviewer to reviewer.
Although file size is still sometimes an issue, many collaborative applications can support file sizes of 1MB to 10MB. When file size is an issue and files must be reviewed by multiple reviewers, online file storage applications enable collaboration to take place more quickly than with FTP or email-based file sharing.