ScalIT web applications are designed to work with most popular standards and protocols.  This means that it should work equally well with OpenOffice.org as it does with Microsoft Office, with a Mac as well as with Windows, etc.  Here are some popular and robust open source applications that are available for free download and usage:

Email and Calendaring

Thunderbird with the Lightning and Zindus Addons

Office Suite (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, etc.)

LibreOffice

Instant Message Software

Jitsi

Pidgin

ScalIT web applications also work well on there own, as web applications, and with popular commercial applications, such as Microsoft Office, Apple Mail, iCal, and iChat, and many others.

No, you do not need Microsoft Office in order to use ScalIT. For your email, calendaring, and contacts, you may use ScalIT with its provided web interface, or you may choose to use it with Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mac Mail, etc. ScalIT’s file and document management software works with its own web interface to create company intranet sites and pages. It is also designed to work with imported documents, spreadsheets, images, etc. It recognizes documents made in Microsoft Office formats (i.e. .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.), as well as those made conforming to the Open Document Format (supported by OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, newer versions of Microsoft Office, Star Office, and many other applications). The ScalIT file and document management system also recognizes .pdf files, most pictures files, and many other file types. ScalIT’s Contact Management applications is fully web based, but also works with documents made in other applications. ScalIT Instant Messenger works with the provided web-based application, or with other popular chatting applications, such as iChat or Pidgin.

Absolutely.  Although ScalIT actively scans emails, documents, and files stored on your company servers, that does not protect your individual computer from other external threats.  It is always best to have a multifaceted defense against viruses, spyware, and other malware.  ScalIT suggests always having current editions of a quality antivirus, firewall, and spyware applications, with all kept up to date.  Some companies provide a holistic product that contains a whole suite of security applications within it, such as Norton 360, while others provide individual applications requiring you to assemble your own suite.  Which ever method you choose, be certain to keep your security applications up to date not just with the latest virus definitions, but with the latest application engines, too.  This requires you to occassionally manually check with your software manufacturers website to see if a version update is available.  Most security software providers sell their products as one year subscriptions, which entitles you to any upgrades they release to their products during that year you are currently subscribed to, in addition to virus definition updates.

All ScalIT web applications are backed up on a nightly basis. Anything that you put into a ScalIT web application is backed up, so you do not need to back up items.

Documents and .pdf files that are generated via conversion from an application directly (i.e. saving a Word or Excel document as a .pdf from within Word or Excel itself) contain the actual words and numbers included in the original document themselves. Therefore, .pdf files made in this method are easily indexed and searched for. When .pdf files are made by scanners or copiers, they are actually images, or pictures, of the documents. Since only a graphical representation of the documents is in the .pdf itself in this instance, the individual words and numbers are not available to be indexed and searched.