I have a small business – very small; as in me and I also work with a couple of writer pals from time to time and frankly I’ve been unimpressed with the software choices out there. If you have a small business you know what I mean. You can get the biggie programs and have an overload of stuff you don’t need for a high cost or go spend a lot less but then the features run short. Until now.
CatalystWeb recently launched their brand new small business software, CatalystOffice. The main goal of CatalystOffice is to elevate the stress that small businesses encounter when trying to run their business with Microsoft Outlook and Windows. I like that goal because frankly I’m part of the ‘can’t stand Outlook’ camp (ducks and covers) – I just don’t like it. CatalystOffice works through the web as long as you have a Firefox browser and a computer you’re all set. Right away I noted that they push the Firefox browser which made me like them because I know not everyone has given up Internet Explorer but you should. Double bonuses – absolutely no software to download and a much more applicable to small business purchase cost.
I’m getting ahead of myself though. When I first visited the CatalystWeb website the first thing I noticed was its design. Nicely laid out, links that work, easy to understand product text, and simple to use. Every time I visit Microsoft I run into website issues so it was nice to visit a new, yet well made site.
The CEO of the company is Bob Mathew a former telecom executive who had worked with and run into frustrations with Microsoft software in the past. Mathew figured; if you don’t like what you’ve got why not create something new which is where CatalystOffice small business software originated. CatalystOffice offers all the basics – web based email, document creation, IM, contacts and also it works with other Microsoft programs so you can import Outlook information.
After checking out the basics of the website I signed up for a free trial and I’ve been playing around the last hour or so…
Here’s what I think.
First of all signing up for the free trial was super easy. They asked for little information and my confirmation email was instant After signing on to my, what’s essentially like a home page for my business I was prompted to enter users but also allowed the option of adding users later.
What I did was go straight to the administration section. The first thing I noticed was that my pages are customizable by color (yippee). I made mine green but liked the orange as well. It looks like each user would be able to customize their color themselves. You may think I’m fussing over something small like color but come on; color can affect your whole day. My feeds are color set why shouldn’t my office software be colorized as well.
On the bottom of the screen are little graphic and bright logos representing your administration panel, messages, documents, calendar, contacts, tasks, alerts, notes, and journal. One click takes you straight to the page you need.
Let’s just go in order:
Messages: I’m a huge Gmail fan but I also own a website so I have a few email accounts there as well but I can’t stand using my host email because of the interface so I forward them to my Gmail account. CatalystOffice email falls somewhere in-between I’d say. It’s not Gmail but the perks for a small business would be extremely easy usability in a clean layout and also having a dedicated spot where all team members can receive email. I looked all around the message page for how to create a new email but you do have to go through the administration panel – not too big a deal.
Calendar: I loved the calendar section. It was easy to use and had small whole month calendars (one month past, current, and one forward) that never moved right next to the big calendar. Nice layout. I like to see all my months at once. You can view your calendar by 5 day, week, day, month. The only thing that I thought was odd was a tab for T and a tab for D. D is daily but I think T is today so… but overall a nice calendar.
Contacts: The contact section was so much better than Outlook. However, remember I am biased because I already dislike Outlook. Still, in Outlook you have to click on a section and then a box comes up which may or may not fit the address you type. Here there was simply one basic add contact section and in the popup box you could add everything all at once – no more clicks. Ah, ease of use. Awesome.
Tasks: I never use the task function anywhere. I never understood why you’d put to-do items on a calendar and then also within a task function. Still, it’s there if you do like tasks.
Notes: The note function was slick. Also colorized so you can write a green note and then an orange note; or blue, lavender, etc. Great for separating ideas and plans.
Journal: In the journal feature I ran into a few glitches – my first real glitches so not bad. For some reason the font would not change in the journal; although I’d click font changes and also it was impossible to align text. Each time I clicked on the alignment tab, ironically the pop up box allowing you to choose an alignment failed to align. It was odd. I doubt I’d use the journal feature and it could have been just me but it is something to check when you visit.
Documents: According to CatalystWeb their document feature allows you “Share files throughout your organization effortlessly. It was exclusively designed to make things more efficient for small businesses and organizations just like yours.” You can instantly email the doc to someone and upload files. I did not try this feature out but my bet is that it runs smooth like the rest of the program.
Pricing: CatalystWeb notes, “There are 4 pricing plans starting at $25 per month – companies can add as many users as they want and the price does not increase, it’s only dependent on how much storage you use for your files (for example you get 10 Gigs of file storage for $25/month)”
Cons…
Overall I thought this was a great idea. I thought there were still a few too many features like tasks and journal but I also like things overly simple. Once I get more options I start messing around. I also ran into some formatting kinks in the journal section as noted abouve.
The problem with finding any cons is that I’d have to use it for a while; maybe a week to a month solid as my main form of office software to find the kinks. ALL programs will have something that bugs you. CatalystOffice has some nice feature options to play with – enough that a few hours isn’t enough to really make up your mind.
My final take for the purpose of this review is that the major perks include:
- No downloads.
- Extremely easy set-up.
- Increased productivity because it’s so easy to use – ie. Less messing around with software you don’t understand.
- Software that grows with your company; not software your company needs to grow into.
- Low cost based on your needs not some abstract cost.
So far, I feel like there are more pros than cons with this software and recommend you sign up for the free trial to see how it works for you and your small business needs. You get 30 days to play with all the features before making a decision and when you do decide there are various pricing plans offered. You cannot beat the price and especially since you get an easy free trial what have you got to lose? This is an especially good option for new small businesses who need good software but also need to watch their spending at first.
Oh, I know this has been a long review but I should also mention the Cayalyst launch blog, CatalystOffice. So far they haven’t posted much yet but I’m hoping they’ll use it to answer user questions, provide any bug info, and offer ways to use their product.
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