What types of business applications would you deem important in a networked business office? What types of net

This is a highly subjective questions and is mostly dependant upon what "type" of business is being done and also the "size" of the business.





As an example, a marketing firm would require vastly different software to be deployed than a software company would.





In general, all business should have some type of MIME/POP3 email program, word processor, slideshow presenter just for starters. Any IT staff will likely need additional profiling, net capture tools. Accounting will need business reporting tools.





It also depends on whether these applications are being housed on a server, that will influence what type of security software will need to be deployed as you wouldn't want your admin staff with access to accounting information (as an example).





In short, you almost certainly need MS Office or Open Office, anything beyond that is really dependant to the nature of the business.