Central Desktop provides low-cost alternative to SharePoint-Office cloud collaboration

Central Desktop announced a new product this week called Central Desktop for Office, which provides a lower-cost way for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office users to collaborate online without having to use SharePoint to do it.

The tool, which is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS), integrates seamlessly into Office. In Office 2010 it appears as a new tab in the interface. Users can share documents and multiple participants can edit at the same time. Changes are updated automatically for all users.

Central Desktop CEO Isaac Garcia says his company banked on Office because of its popularity, figuring many companies wanted to collaborate this way without having to invest in a SharePoint installation to do it. "Because most people are accustomed to working with the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite, we wanted to develop a way for them to easily engage in web-based collaboration while remaining in the familiar Word, Excel and PowerPoint environments. Central Desktop for Office solves this issue by enabling users to access, edit and co-author files stored in the cloud directly from within Office."

Central Desktop for Office even includes a free version for individual Central Desktop users. To access advanced features, it will run you $30 per user, per year with volume discounts available.

For more information:
- see the Central Desktop press release

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