OfficeMedium: Web Based Intranet and Collaboration Based on Drupal

By Geoff Spick | Published Oct 9, 2009

New developer OfficeMedium launches its Web-based work environment aimed at the everyday small business that just wants to get the job done.

Designed for Small Business

Launched on the 7th October, OfficeMedium was developed in just seven months using the open source Drupal web content management system. It's aim is to offer everything that the typical small business user wants. All without cramming layers of extra bloat and over-priced features that are usually ignored.

Using hosted storage, it should help any company get a foot on the Enterprise 2.0 ladder with the minimum of expense.

As a launch offer, OfficeMedium (that's medium as in means of communicating information — not a size or psychic thing) comes with 512MB of free storage. That doesn't sound much in this media-heavy age, but, for the typical smaller company with a few common documents and a slowly growing contact management list, it should be more than enough to start.

If you do need more, it's only charged at US$ 1 per month per gigabyte. The base service itself costs US$ 8 per user per month.

Presented in a well-organized dashboard, what you get for your money is:

Status updates and newsfeeds
Personal and team calendars
Task and event management
Contact management
File sharing, storage, archiving and organization
Private messaging, user profiles and shared blogging

A crystal-clear dashboard awaits OfficeMedium users

Simplicity is Key

Naturally, with every cent counting for smaller businesses, potential users will want to try a demonstration before committing to a subscription. Handily, there is a live demo that anyone can log into to have a look around the features and judge if it is for them.

To accompany the "everyman" system, the Getting Started guide is also highly practical. It points out where everything is, for users who could feel overwhelmed by even a simply-laid out screen.

It explains how the super user creates the accounts for everyone else and there isn't a mention of unnecessary jargon like "admin" or "parameter" anywhere.

OfficeMedium can help the small workplace tick

In the competitive document sharing/workflow space it remains to be seen how OfficeMedium fares when there are the likes of the contact-focused HighRise or the well-rounded Front Office Box out there. But, at first glance it has the features and accessibility that could see it thrive in the marketplace.

It could also be compared to SharePoint online, based on most of the functionality provided. SharePoint Online, however, doesn't have Contact Management or twitter-like messaging capabilities, and it comes at a higher price point.

Those interested in the Drupal background of this project can read more in the development Case Study on the Drupal site covering the challenges, features, modules used and more.