How to save on office software

Hey guys!

Today we'll speak about saving money again. What most companies spend on most of all? Right, management and formalities. Collaboration software is one of these major things everyone spends on. Be it Microsoft Exchange Server or Lotus Notes, companies big and small spend thousands of dollars on e-mail systems. That sucks!

How can you save here? Use the power of internet! There are virtually hundreds of on-line collaboration tools and services, both paid and free. You can do a quick search on the topic and you will understand what I'm talking about.

Now after looking a little closer at the search results you can quickly realize that you don't even have to pay for these. Yup, you heard it right. No money required at all.

The best solution that works for me to date is Google Docs. You must have noticed that document samples for this project are shared via this service, too. Why is that? Simple! Why spend megabucks buying something that's free? At Google Docs you can have as many documents as you like. Together with check-box style sharing it's a very cool on-line service. Here are some more advantages it gives:

• Stable hosting (I actually saw the service being slow for only a couple times during two months)
• It's rapidly gaining the same features as the off-line suites like Microsoft office - Google is probably the richest internet-company on the planet so they experience no problem with funding at all.
• It even boasts some neat features never before seen in other office applications like recently added ability to include YouTube videos into Powerpoint'esque presentations
• You can save the documents for off-line use in Office and PDF formats and even synchronize them with the server, speaking of which...
• ...any on-line system of that kind is much more reliable than a usual one installed on personal computers) - you don't depend on the equipment itself, and if a colleague is ill or out for coffee it doesn't mean you can't get access to a document. That's really cool - I've been in such situations all the time before as probably have you yourself!
• They have a wishlist for new features to be added. Now imagine you ask Microsoft to add something. Yeah, I know. Wait 5 years till our next version comes out. And who mentions beloved MS bugs? )))
• ...and much more (they add value for free all the time!)

What's my point? Using on-line software at no cost at all can even save you money on hard disk drives and even on system administrator time - remember, all of these have to be configured and Google Docs does not!

Another advice is that you should always look for ways to save when doing business. Remember the two single objectives of any company that help earn big money?

Check out the full contents of the future book for more info!

I'd like to know how helpful this advice was, add your comments here please! And as always - I will be more than pleased to answer any questions you might have so feel free to ask them ))