Specifications

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•Internet telephony; chat rooms.
•Tracking of shipped packages.
•Stock quotes, headline news, travel
arrangements.
•Means of ordering office supplies and
services.
•Ability to publish files online securely;
ability to access published files from
anywhere in the world via the Internet.
OPERATIONAL TESTING
We set up an account and logged on
for the first time. The first thing we saw
was HotOffice’s Search screen within
our Web browser (Figure 19). This
screen included icons that gave us access
to other HotOffice screens, including
Comm Center, Service Desk, Employee
Tools, and Help. We’ll describe each of
these screens below, and pay particular
attention to Employee Tools, since this
screen allows you to publish documents.
We already discussed the Help screen in
the Documentation section.
Search: The Search screen is
HotOffice’s default screen. Here, you can
search for your documents (those pub-
lished to the HotOffice server), as well as
view other people’s shared documents.
Comm Center: The Comm Center is
where you can communicate with fel-
low employees, organize your calendar,
set reminders, and perform other tasks.
To communicate with other employees,
you can take advantage of HotOffice’s
Internet Telephony (IT) feature, which
utilizes Microsoft’s NetMeeting.
When employees log on to
HotOffice, they are able to take
NetMeeting calls, which enables them
to track down other employees. A spe-
cial HotOffice plug-in ties into your
browser. This automatically accesses
the NetMeeting program when you
click on another HotOffice user. We
tested some NetMeeting calls, and were
very pleased with the performance.
Service Desk: When we tested some
of the Service Desk options, we were
able to get stock quotes and track a
UPS package — two very practical fea-
tures in a SOHO setting.
Employee Tools: With Employee
Tools, we reviewed the latest labor laws,
accessed IRS forms, and changed our
user password. We also managed some
of our published documents.
Publishing documents was easy. We
began with the HotOffice Publishing
wizard, which is accessed via a button
that appears on Microsoft Word’s user
interface. After we clicked on this but-
ton, the wizard guided us through the
process, prompting us to give some
detailed information about the files we
wanted to publish. After we entered the
appropriate information (such as docu-
ment description, viewing access, and
expiration), the wizard offered us sev-
eral options for publishing (Figure 20).
Next, we connected to the HotOffice
server via our Internet connection, and
we uploaded our files, which were pro-
tected by encryption algorithms. To
select files for uploading, we relied on
the wizard, which included a browsing
feature. Maintaining documents is fair-
ly simple, thanks to the product’s
Publishing Manager (Figure 21).
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
As far as sending files is concerned,
we would like to see drag-and-drop
C T I LABS
FFiigguurree 2200..
HotOffice: Publishing
wizard for publishing files to
the HotOffice server.
FFiigguurree 2211..
HotOffice:
Publishing Manager screen.