Online Productivity: Productive or Just Cost Effective?

For businesses with limited resources and a limited need for complex spreadsheets, documents, etc. something like Google Docs could be very useful.  You get some basic "Office" type programs without having to buy Microsoft Office, and because it is all online you also don't need a network for file sharing.  However, for businesses with more resources or ones that need to create complex documents "online productivity" is probably not the answer...at least not yet.

I mostly tried out the spreadsheet part of Google Docs and I found two glaring problems.  First, it does not convert Excel spreadsheets very well.  It appears that during conversion essentially all formatting is lost, and if you have any charts get ready to redo them.  My charts did not show up at all in Google Docs.

The second problem is that the programs are a little too basic.  For instance, the spreadsheet program does not have any easy way (that I found) of creating heat maps like what is possible in Excel 2007.  Even worse, it seems to be missing some very basic features such as the ability to zoom in and out.

My verdict:  Cost effective, but if you want real productivity stick with Microsoft Office.