"This is a good example of a rapidly growing area of technology, software as a service, which allows anyone to have the use of sophisticated software without the need to provide their own IT staff," says Amy D. Wohl, president of Wohl Associates, an office automation consultancy in Merion Station, Pa. "It doesn't mean we won't have IT; it means IT can focus on high-priority projects and leave commodity applications like e-mail to an outsourced service."

But one customer preferred the full features of Microsoft Outlook to HyperOffice's Web e-mail service. So HyperOffice created a tool that synchronizes data between Outlook and HyperOffice.

"The newest version, HyperShare for Outlook, allows customers to synchronize not just their personal information, but all of their groups as well," says Morris. "With HyperShare, customers using Outlook can share calendars, contacts, documents, tasks and more without the need for MS Exchange."

The company is adding features to HyperOffice, but judiciously. The plan is to keep the product simple to install and use without extensive training.

HyperOffice counts big companies like Conoco Phillips Co., Re/Max International Inc. and Toronto Hydro Corp. among its customers. These enterprises don't use HyperOffice as a replacement for collaboration software; they use HyperShare for Outlook to extend that collaboration off-site with suppliers, contractors and mobile workers.