ONLYOFFICE

Secure And Sophisticated Digital Document Processing

ONLYOFFICE is a free and open-source editor for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations and a great alternative to MS Office Apps. Since people are turning more to open source technology, this SaaS Online Office Suit has been a game-changer. It enables users to edit their valuable business data on a secured server. And it’s completely compatible with MS Office formats DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX. Put it simply, the editors offer Ms Office-Like functionality and are collaborative like Google Docs.

Moreover, for additional protection of confidential files, ONLYOFFICE offers exclusive private rooms. It’s a robust document encryption protocol enabling users to securely share and co-edit documents in real-time. With a gamut of tailored features, ONLYOFFICE has grown into a trusted envelope for digital documents. Very soon, the online suite will be bundled with a smart feature to automate user’s paperwork routine through interactive electronic documents. These will be similar to adobe and befitting to online collaboration. With such underlying infrastructure, ONLYOFFICE surely promises to be a tough competitor to many global magnets.

THE IDEATION
ONLYOFFICE is found by Mr Lev Bannov (CEO) in 2009 under the banner of Ascensio System SIA. Before becoming a sensation, it was devised for internal office use under the banner – Team Lab. Back then, the Company was building collaborative project management tools for internal use. After several endeavours, it developed an in-house Office suite based on HTML 5 canvas. In the coming years, the project grew, and the Company renamed it as ONLYOFFICE and published it as an open-source code.

As of now, ONLYOFFICE is a premier collaborative office suite, promising secure, powerful and accessible document processing across verticals. ONLYOFFICE can be installed on a desktop or smart device and adjoined with other applications for better efficiency.

A FLEXIBLE PRODUCT SUITE
In this interconnected era, transitions and challenges in businesses are widely common phenomena. Technology is an increasingly disruptive sector – and has an avalanche of challenges. Every company has its unique set of concerns, but improving product/service quality is fairly typical. Being a tech-enabler by heart, ONLYOFFICE faces struggle in technical and marketing aspects. Product security, reliability and high quality ensure the scalable standard of its product. And using technology, these aspects need to be nurtured constantly. Another hurdle is promoting the product. Although ONLYOFFICE is a globally established platform, promoting it in new geographies often becomes – quite a challenge.

On top of these, Technology is spurring new opportunities and challenges every day. And with that, customers are more attracted to a product’s add-on features. Likewise, a modern office suite is expected to be accessible from the cloud, have a desktop application and provide mobile suites with enhanced security. Now that, majority of the businesses are online, it’s more likely to migrate to cloud technology for customized solutions.

Last but not least, users are preferring a more open and decentralized ecosystem that enables them to choose different solutions accustomed to their needs. While these might shake things – a little bit, ONLYOFFICE keeps its sails high by working as a team. They hold meetings and collaboratively form solutions distinct from problems. Moreover, meetings also become a source of learning about industrial trends. Its centric features adhere to every requirement, ensuring a value for money to clients.

DEEPLY ANALYSED SOLUTIONS
As mentioned above, ONLYOFICE is adaptive to scenarios and trends. And for that, R&D and data analytics plays a prominent part. Nonetheless, it does not rely on technologies for analytics, rather standard methods. Not only does it save time, but increases overall efficiency too. ONLYOFICE has skilled programmers with a robust academic background. They use their expertise to understand emerging software from the core and how it can benefit the Company’s product. Analytics also contributes to customer satisfaction. Besides putting efforts into quality, a lion’s share effort goes to collecting customer feedback. Listening and collecting their suggestions helps in adding certain features in the product or in its portfolio for further implementation.

Working on a centric model, ONLYOFFICE has been a valuable asset to businesses of all sizes. Its users hail from education, public administration, banking, legal, etc. Unlike its peers, ONLYOFFICE can be deployed as a self-hosted solution within a private network in integration with ONLYOFFICE Workspace or any other file-sharing platform or enterprise content management system. Both the online and desktop editors are built on the same engine, which ensures a similar functionality. Moreover, it offers mobile apps for on-the-go document collaboration on iOS and Android.

THE VISION OF A VISIONARY
While technology, research and talent are three pillars of a Company, they can’t function without a diligent leader. Lev is a visionary, and being the executioner of this excursion, played an integral role in decision-making, development of the philosophy and marketing strategy. At the outset of the ONLYOFFICE project, Lev and his team were greatly inspired by Google Docs. However, they believed in creating something different and profound.

“The idea was to find our own niche within the international system of labour division”, says Lev.

However, there weren’t enough resources that could help in growing like Google Docs; hence, ONLYOFFICE was focused on integrating with other software products. While most players focus on competition, ONLYOFFICE stepped out, creating a niche by collaborating with able platforms. One of its programmers explains it better, “We stick to another approach. We don’t seek confrontation with our competitors but want to find a sustainable place in the software market”.

Culture of collaboration over competition. With a zealous leader and win-win approach, ONLYOFFICE has sustained over a decade of the journey. ONLYOFFICE has formed a very cohesive and professional culture that can navigate the Company through highs and lows to forward.

SWIFTLY DEALING WITH COVID-19
While COVID-19 put everyone’s skill to the test, it gave impetus to style and work in new ways. Like every prosperous entity, ONLYOFFICE swiftly adapted to remote work and provided appropriate hardware and infrastructure to employees to work comfortably from home. Communication tools, such as Telegram and Zoom, were a big help to uphold the collaboration of the team. The founder says it was surprising how tactically every individual was dealing with the pandemic while working from home. When the scenario began coming under control, few employees were allowed back at the office but not without proper precaution, like sanitisers, medical face masks, gloves, etc.

AIDING THE LARGER COMMUNITY
Besides enabling collaboration with software products, ONLYOFFICE makes a fair amount of social contribution by offering its SaaS solution to NGOs for free.

“Any non-business entity can send us a request, and we will allow them to create a free collaborative office in the ONLYOFFICE cloud. There are a lot of such use cases in different countries, and we are proud of this achievement,” proudly asserts Lev.

A REWARDING EXCURSION
Being a niche product, ONLYOFFICE has constantly aligned itself with the technology curve to succeed. Off-course, the underlying efforts brought valuable experience, but more importantly, enabled it to emphasize employees. It initially sought trained specialists but quickly discovered that young and ambitious professionals who value corporate principles would be assertive to growth. Since then, ONLYOFFICE has been empowering young assets capable of building a competitive product and uphold its core ethics – it’s truly a major achievement.

With such resources on board, ONLYOFFICE is planning to further explore opportunities in their space, especially cloud and mobile technologies. People are more inclined to online SaaS-based products for better efficiency and yield. Not to mention, the increasing use of Smart devices is pulling a shadow over desktop applications. Based on that cognizance, ONLYOFFICE will continue delivering tailored cloud solutions; and mobile apps for Android and iOS.

A PARTING NOTE
“Have one ambitious goal and follow it. And always be clued about the knowhow of your expertise. And since it’s always not possible to be a virtuoso, delegate responsibilities to suitable people,” Lev Bannov (CEO)