[테크월드뉴스=정재민 기자] ONLYOFFICE. This is a free software office suite and collaboration application system. It consists of an online editor for text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and PDFs, as well as a Rooms-based collaboration platform. The company, which you may not have heard of yet, is called ONLYOFFICE as well.

Headquartered in Singapore, ONLYOFFICE was introduced to Korea in last June when it participated in an exhibition in Seoul. The company's founder and CEO, Lev Bannov, is an insightful team leader with over 20 years of experience in IT business, software development and distribution. TECHWORLD gave an interview to him saying he has a mission to bring the world's most innovative web office app to everyone.

Q: ONLYOFFICE is a name that is not yet familiar in Korea. Please introduce your company.

A: ONLYOFFICE(ONLYOFFICE Capital Group) is an international open-source project with a focus on secure and innovative document processing and collaboration tools for all kinds of businesses. With hundreds of employees and volunteer contributors in more than 30 countries, the holding company is located in Singapore and it has departments and branches in Singapore, Latvia, the USA, the UK, Serbia, Armenia and Uzbekistan.

The history of the ONLYOFFICE project dates back to 2010 when our team released a collaborative project management platform called TeamLab. Two years later, we launched a brand-new solution that was the first online office suite based on HTML5 canvas technology. In 2014, our product was officially rebranded as ONLYOFFICE, and its source code became available to the public.

At ONLYOFFICE, our mission is to bring the most innovative web office apps to everyone, providing an open-source secure alternative to the most popular proprietary software available on the market.

Q: Tell us about the main solutions at ONLYOFFICE
A: At ONLYOFFICE, we always keep up to date with the latest industry trends and use state-of-the-art technology in our products. At the moment, the main ONLYOFFICE solutions are:

ONLYOFFICE Docs= It’s an open-source collaborative office suite for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, fillable forms and PDF files.

The suite easily integrates with any web-based platform due to its open API and WOPI support, bringing secure document processing and co-authoring to document management systems (DMS), content management systems (CMS), CRM platforms, project management tools, e-learning environments and file storage solutions.

Some of the more than 40 ready-to-use integration examples are Nextcloud, Odoo, Confluence, WordPress, Drupal, Jira, Liferay, Moodle, Redmine, Piperdrive, Mattermost, Strapi, SuiteCRM, Alfresco, etc.

ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors= It’s the desktop version of the online suite for Windows, Linux and macOS. It’s a free app that combines viewers and editors for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, fillable forms and PDF files. The app can be used for offline editing with the ability to connect a cloud-based file storage, such as ONLYOFFICE DocSpace, Nextcloud, ownCloud, Seafile, kDrive, Liferay and Moodle for online collaboration.

ONLYOFFICE DocSpace= It’s an open-source collaboration platform designed to facilitate real-time document co-authoring with colleagues, teammates, customers, partners, contractors, sponsors and all other people you need to interact with. The platform provides a room-based environment allowing you to organize a clear file structure depending on your needs or project goals. Flexible access permissions and user roles make it possible to fine-tune the access to the whole space or separate rooms. ONLYOFFICE DocSpace can be embedded into any web interface, and there are ready-to-use connectors for Zoom, Drupal, Zapier and WordPress.

Q: Major References?
A: With more than 15 million users all over the world, ONLYOFFICE is widely used by organizations of all sizes and sectors, from educational institutions and nonprofits to law firms and financial organizations. It’s also very popular in governmental organizations and research centers.

Another popular application scenario for ONLYOFFICE Docs is its integration into web-based services by developers who would like to provide users of their software with document processing tools.

Today, ONLYOFFICE Docs is built into more than 300 web platforms globally, and the number is rising.

Q: What are the key advantages of ONLYOFFICE products?
A: Here are some of the main advantages of the ONLYOFFICE products that customers may want to know about:

No vendor lock-in= Both ONLYOFFICE Docs and ONLYOFFICE DocSpace seamlessly integrate with the existing IT infrastructure and third-party tools.

Open Source= The source of the ONLYOFFICE product is available on GitHub.

Complete office suite= Viewers and editors for all popular office files within one app, including docs, sheets, slides, forms and PDFs.

Real-time document collaboration= The ONLYOFFICE software comes with a full set of features for online collaborative work, including two co-editing modes, version history, flexible access permissions, comments and communication.

Support for all popular platforms= Both DocSpace and Docs can be either deployed on Windows and Linux servers locally or accessed in the cloud. There are also free desktop apps for Windows, Linux and macOS as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Highest compatibility with Microsoft Office formats= The native format of the ONLYOFFICE editors is OOXML so they seamlessly open and edit any Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Other popular formats are supported, too.

Free Community editions and paid enterprise versions= Any team can find the most suitable version of ONLYOFFICE Docs or ONLYOFFICE DocSpace depending on their size and needs. For large companies, the clustering option is available.

Security and regulation compliance= All ONLYOFFICE solutions are equipped with a set of advanced security tools, such as JWT and encryption, and are compatible with the GDPR and HIPAA privacy standards.

Q: What’s the strategy to target the Korean market?
A: When it comes to the Korean market, our main customers are big telecommunications companies and financial organizations. ONLYOFFICE closely works with local partners to provide customers with professional tech support and an outstanding user experience.

This is what one of the partners says about ONLYOFFICE: “ONLYOFFICE not only provides an on-premise form to alleviate security worries, but also provides the tools necessary for the overall business of a company, and provides a complete API for customers who would like to introduce collaboration into their own base systems.”

In collaboration with our partners, the ONLYOFFICE team constantly improves our solutions taking into consideration the specifics of the local market. For example, now we are working on making the ONLYOFFICE solutions more compatible with mobile devices and providing better support for the Hangul script.

ONLYOFFICE is looking for new partners in Korea. If you would like to collaborate with our team, please send your request on our website.

Q: Any plans to promote your company in Korea?
A: The ONLYOFFICE promotion plan for Korea includes several directions: First of all, our team is going to create various promotional materials and content in Korean, including presentations, white papers, leaflets, etc.

Secondly, ONLYOFFICE is planning to increase brand awareness among local users via publications in well-established and popular IT websites like TECHWORLD.

Thirdly, one of the best ways to make the local audience get acquainted with the ONLYOFFICE products is by sponsoring and participating in local events. For example, our representatives took part in Smart Tech Korea event in June 2024, where we gave a presentation about ONLYOFFICE Docs and all the new features from the recently released version 8.1. At the event, visitors to the ONLYOFFICE stand could see the interface of ONLYOFFICE solutions and try the product in action. Hopefully, there will be more events like this in the future. If you’d like ONLYOFFICE to sponsor your event or participate as a speaker, we’re willing to participate.