Entertainment, information, and software are all available on-demand. If you have ever Pay Per Viewe'd, used the net to look something up, or used a web based based email service (Hotmail? Yahoo? GMail?), you're an active participant of the on-demand era.

Why web-based software? Just a few of the reasons are:

• There's nothing to install - just visit a web page.
• There's nothing to upgrade - since you haven't installed anything, you don't have to apply service pack n.11.2a.
• It isn't restricted to the computer you installed it on - you can (securely) log in from any computer with a web browser.

The above has probably peaked your interest. Thousands of startups are working very hard to convert that interest into actual users. Only some of them realise that you're interested in more than seeing your favourite desktop applications available via a web browser.

Here's the application that has me enthusing about all things on-demand: Zoho Projects.

Project management. Cost effective Project Management tools have been a major pain point for myself, for a while. In order of my options:

• MS Project - clunky to use
• phprojekt.com - Free! Poor usability.
• dotproject.net - Free! Poor usability.
• Basecamp - Hosted solution! More of task management, not project management, intentionally limited features (no dependencies, Gannt charts, etc.)
• ActiveCollab, Project Pier, et al. - Limited features.

When I was evaluating these, I had the following criteria:

• Under $300 (subscribe for a year/to install)
• Easy to use - good usability
• Well integrated - with email, documents, time sheets, issue tracking, etc.

After initial due diligence failed to uncover a viable Project Management solution which met my key criteria, I was making-do with under featured workarounds. And then I chanced upon Zoho's Projects. I knew Zoho had delivered well received web-based productivity applications, but I hadn't kept up to speed with their web-based SMB offerings.

Taking Zoho Projects for a test run I was pleased and surprised that my earlier disappointments, in evaluating the project management tools listed above, were completely dispelled by Zoho Projects. It has the full feature set I needed, at very reasonable price points. And then there were the unasked for, unexpected extras:

• Fantastic usability
• Smooth integration with other Zoho/Microsoft/Open Office applications
• Quick responses on the support forums

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