5 things to consider when choosing a business office suite

22 July 2009

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Office suites contain applications that play a fundamental role in the activity of any businesses, so it pays to get the right equipment. The following article explains what you need to consider when choosing your business' IT applications.

All office suites include two essential components: A word-processor, such as Microsoft Word or Lotus WordPro and a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3. The best known business office suite is Microsoft Office, but there are other similar suites available. Below are some considerations when choosing your next office suite.

Price

There's a rule that states that 80% of users make good use of only 20% of business suite functionality. As a small business, make sure you only buy what you need. Microsoft Office currently leads the market, but you will find competing suites, such as Open Office or Google Docs, available for a fraction of Microsoft Office's price (or even free!) without losing much of its functionality.

Ease of use

Moving to new applications will require you to get acquainted with a completely new set of tools. For example, Office 2003 and Office 2007 have two very different interfaces and a non-Microsoft product will be even more different. Bear this in mind when deciding what you need.

Backward/forward compatibility

If you share files outside of your office or have to edit files from external sources, file compatibility is an important consideration when choosing an office suite. It is not always the case that a document created using one piece of software will work with another, or that a document created using a more recent version of office software will open in an older version. Many of the larger office suites supply regular updates to counteract these issues.

Resource consumption

Although office suites do not tend to consume a lot of computer resources, some are more resource intensive than others. For example, grammar and contextual spelling in Word 2007 is not turned on unless the machine has 1GB of memory.

Licensing

Some office suites come with stricter licensing rules than others. Open Office encourages you to copy and share the application, and others like Google Docs and Spreadsheets don't have any license at all. However, it is illegal to use one license of Microsoft Office or Lotus Smartsuite on more than one computer. This can prove very costly for an expanding business, although both suppliers offer packages for small businesses.

If you would like more information, why not read our dedicated guide about Buying software.

About the author

This article was taken from the Business IT Guide, a resource developed in collaboration with industry experts to help small businesses find the right IT solutions.

Source: 5 things to consider when choosing a business office suite

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5 things to consider when choosing a business office suite

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