One of the biggest operating expenses for most small to medium businesses comes from tech. Whether you have five employees or 50, keeping up-to-date on hardware and software has the potential to squeeze your budget to the breaking point.
For this reason, many businesses choose to keep working with outdated technology – they reason that if something is working there is no reason to change it. But don’t confuse functionality with productivity. Support for software lessens over time, until one day you’re faced with the end of life for a key piece of software or the end of support for an operating system.
You can certainly choose to continue using a system that no longer receives support or updates, but understand that if you run into trouble, nothing can save you – or your business data.
The New (Improved) Way to Purchase Software
One of the reasons businesses continue to use software that’s out of date is that they’re trying to wring every penny of the cost out of it. And no wonder, considering that software purchases have traditionally looked like this: Go to the office supply store, purchase a box containing a software CD and license, install on your computer(s). That was it. Upgrades and patches were part of the software package, but after a certain point, you had to replace it with a newer version – another trip to the office supply store, another expense.
The problem with this process is that businesses tend to cling to software versions that become outdated and eventually begin to affect productivity. With the release of Office 365, Microsoft has changed the whole process. Office 365 is part of a growing movement known as Software as a Service (SaaS), which essentially moves software from a hard commodity to a subscription model – enabling businesses to enjoy automatic updates, immediate access to software patches, software compatibility for all users, easier collaboration, and global accessibility.
What You Get With Office 365
The business version of Office 365 gives you a whole host of programs and features designed to help your office operate more efficiently:
- Office Suite, including the latest versions of:
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- Outlook
- OneNote
- Publisher
- Ability to install on up to five devices per user – PCs, tablets, and phones (yes, Word and Excel on your smartphone!)
- File storage and sharing via OneDrive, with 1TB of storage per user
Advantages of Office 365
If you’ve been considering a move to Office 365 for your business, but can’t decide if it’s right for you, consider these items in the plus column:
- Accessibility – because Office 365 lives in the cloud, it’s accessible wherever you have an Internet connection, meaning you and your staff can work in the office, at home, or anywhere
- Updates and Maintenance – patches, updates, and maintenance happen in the background, so you never have to worry about performance issues with your software
- Cost – with the SaaS model, your business pays per user, per month, which can average out to a much lower cost than purchasing software off the shelf for each user
Office 365 can boost your productivity and benefit your budget no matter the size of your business. If you’re tired of the constant purchase-upgrade-replace software merry-go-round, take a look at what Office 365 can offer. And if you’re not quite sure where to start, Lieberman Technologies can assess your situation and assure that your entire staff is on the same page, technology-wise.