Business

Cloud computing now able to deliver businesses a real and productive alternative to Office

‘Cloud computing’ has been one of those technologies I’ve been consciously avoiding, partly through natural aversion to any IT buzzword, and partly because the products seemed to be overhyped but undercooked. However, I now think it’s time for normal business people to look again because many cloud products are well developed, functionally superior in some ways to self-hosted IT, and very cost competitive.

The many micro, small and even medium sized businesses that are slaves to Microsoft Office should be able to deliver 50-70% cost savings and productivity gains by switching to cloud applications.

Does the description below sound like your business?

• Every employee has  Word, Powerpoint and Excel on their machine as standard, but barely touches the advanced functionality of MS Office
• Spreadsheets, gantt charts and documents are emailed between employees and customers as the main means of sharing information
• Most employees and directors store their files on their hard-drive, finding company document sharing and back up systems too cumbersome, only to come unstuck when they leave their laptop in a bar and lose all their data

If it is, it’s time to take another look at the alternative for mainstream office applications

Cloud alternatives to Microsoft Office

Cloud applications generally work through an internet browser or a custom ‘app’ with the processing and data storage being done somewhere out in the ether, or the cloud. Security and accessibility are real issues but let’s just park them for a moment.

I’ve been playing around with some of the services available recently, and while this will not be an exhaustive review, it is indicative of what is available

Google Apps – spreadsheet, word processing and presentation applications covering all the basic and intermediate functionality of MS Office, or what 90% of people use Office for. But in terms of collaborative working they are vastly superior. For example, several people can be in the same spreadsheet at once, seeing which cells others are active in in and live changes to the data. The exchange of data between files is very slick, and puts MS Office to shame.

Smartsheet – project management tools. Again, most of the basic functionality of MS Project, but many, many people can access and change the same file at the same time. I always thought that program sharing was the point of team projects, but in organisations where I’ve worked they could only afford for a handful of people to own a copy of MS Project.

Dropbox – file synchronisation and back up tool. Integrates seamlessly into Windows Explorer, allowing you to share your folders with other machines you have, or other people in your team. If you lose your laptop in the bar again, you’ll have your files back straightaway.

MobileMe – file, mail and contacts synchronisation and back up tools. Works best on Apple devices but can access through web browser too

Cost comparison of MS Office versus Cloud Office Applications (UK £)

Data based on typical needs of an organisation. Prices as charged by Microsoft, Google, Smartsheet, Dropbox and MobileMe for commercial licences

Access and Security Issues

The access and security issues associated with moving your software and data into the cloud are real concerns to many people, but I feel they shouldn’t be overplayed.

This week’s comments by Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, that cloud computing risked ‘pushing people into careless computing’ caused great debate on many forums including The Guardian and TechCrunch. The security issues are well debated on those forums, but TechCrunch sums it up well: “The question is not whether I should trust Google or Microsoft or Apple with my data in the cloud. The question is, rather, whether it is worth my time, attention, and resources not to”

Access is also worth considering. Essentially the problem is that when you don’t have access to the internet, you can’t use most cloud applications. That is becoming less of a problem as broadband quality improves and WiFi becomes widely available.

Conclusion

Cloud Office applications are significantly cheaper than Microsoft, and provide real productivity gains from collaboration, but they do not have the horsepower for the few people that really use MS Office to its extreme.

If you manage a small business or IT in a large business, it’s really worth challenging whether you can make the switch either totally or partially. How many staff really need the full grunt of Excel, or the polish of Word and Powerpoint? The Google Apps and Smartsheet sites are full of testimonials from sizeable companies that have made the switch.

In my company, Purecontent, we’ve managed to ditch everything but Word because many of our clients buy web content in Word format and we cannot afford and formatting discrepancies. I still need Excel for its calculation power, but most of our work flow planning and document sharing is achieved through Google Apps, Smartsheet and Dropbox for very little cost. We don’t trust our client data or archives to the cloud, but otherwise the cloud allows us to innovate quickly without a large cost outlay.

Tagged Cloud Computing, Google, Microsoft