Start a company for £150

Office-in-a-Box provides the software and web access - but there's a also montly charge of £69.99

A new Office-in-a-Box package provides web access and all the software a small start-up company will need for an upfront cost of £150, the developers say.

The package is a joint venture between Formjet Innovations , best known for its Ability alternative office suite, and a new Tiscali-powered service provider Jungle247.

But, despite the web tie-up, the software will not be browser based like Google Apps, which is targeted at a similar market.

Office-in-a-box buyers will get five licences for the Ability suite and Panda Internet Security, two for a new finance and accounting package called Diamond Discovery Prelude, 5Gbytes of online backup space, a domain name and web-site design software, support, and an 8Mbit web link for a total monthly charge of £69.99.

Formjet product manager Graham O'Reilly said feedback from users was that they did not want to rely on an online connection to use applications. "Money can be a problem when companies start up. Office-in-a-box means they can get going at very little cost."

He reckoned that the total cost of the software bought as standalone packages would be £1200.

The package will be sold in stores as well as from Jungle247's site , which was not fully live today.