Most people know about google’s suite of office applications, but did you know businesses are migrating away from Microsoft Office and into the cloud with google apps? There are many advantages. You can have all of your firm’s data and workflow in the cloud with the ability to access it anytime and anywhere from an internet connection. You can save money maintaining your own IT infrastructure, but you do rely on good internet access.
Matt Silverman from Mashable talks about the advantages to companies in the small business guide to google apps. And at $50 per user per year, it’s good value too. You get gmail, calendar, google docs and more. Google docs is a now a very credible alternative to Microsoft Office. I’ve used gmail for some time now and it’s my email client of choice.
Gmail can be used through your existing domain name. You get 25GBytes of storage per user, which is plenty. It’s intuitive and easy to use. Conversations can be threaded, like a forum, keeping them all together. It has a chat feature and it can integrate all of your email accounts in one place. Very handy.
Google docs is a word processor, presentation, spreadsheet and web forms. Everything is done from your web browser and all data is saved in the cloud. You get document sharing and collaboration features; useful for projects. And you can control who has permission to see the documents, so it can be shared with clients, for example, but kept private if the information is restricted.
Calendar can keep appointments and events synchronised across your business. With the ability to share you can combine calendars for the bigger picture. Calendar can be shared to help co-ordinate meetings and avoid scheduling conflicts. You can create events and email all interested parties easily. And there’s lots more.
If you want to save money and reduce IT support problems, move into the cloud with google apps.
