Are you still using Microsoft Office? Ever dream of breaking away from your reliance on the MS Office Suite? Do you really think you can go “All Google”?

I know, I know…trusty old Microsoft has been our go-to office productivity suite since the beginning of time. Back in the days when the only word processing app was MS Word and we all relied heavily on MS Excel for creating those helpful spreadsheets, there was only one company dominant in this space. I can even remember passing time by playing with MS Paint…yes, Microsoft Paint!

Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft Office is still king. However, times have changed and so have our technical requirements. We have to consider our business needs and how it will scale. The top two priorities when considering tech would be functionality and cost.

One of the biggest challenges that small to medium business owners face is adapting and keeping up with technology. A lot of offices are seriously attached at the hip with Microsoft Office Suite. But when you’re a start-up company or a small business – you can’t always immediately get IT staff on location to install software, fix installation problems, and troubleshoot existing tech. There’s also the problem of hardware – God forbid that your computer breaks down or gets stolen and you have to recover your info, reinstall, and relearn the software that has just been updated for the nth time.

Immediate Access
When you have cloud based productivity tools, you don’t have to worry about the downtime when you’re getting your machine installed or fixed. If or when your computer breaks down – you can immediately start working using another machine without having to wait for the faulty one to get fixed. You simply grab another machine and get back to work, picking up where you left off. You never lose access to your most valuable asset – information – specifically the information stored in your work files. Your documents will not be tied up to a machine, they can be ready in a jiffy from any device, from anywhere.

The pesky cycle of upgrades, patches, and updates.
If you have a different set-up from your co-workers, switching back and forth between different machines could be a huge hassle. If you’re doing this yourself, without the help of an IT professional – it could be a challenge to reinstall software and migrate files. There will be document versions and you have to contend with document incompatibilities. Switching to Google guarantees that you always have the latest version every time you refresh your browser. Plus, you never have to pay for the upgrade.

Still packs a punch.
Sure, Google Apps may not be as robust as the very formidable Microsoft Office Suite – but it’s NO lightweight and Google is still the industry leader in cloud at the moment. If your business isn’t heavy on design, then the basic layout features of Google Docs will do for preparing those reports, creating quotes and proposals, or formatting a price list. If you’re not using any of those advanced features of MS Excel, Google Sheets have a strong set of capabilities to help you with those spreadsheet requirements.

Another strong point and very important feature is collaboration, multiple people can work on the same document at the same time. When you use the desktop version of the MS Office Suite, you have to go back and forth with emails in order to collaborate on one document.

The price difference
Google Apps for Business costs $50 per user – for a whole year. If you want cloud – based convenience from the Microsoft Office Suite, it costs about $198 – that’s the subscription price per month.

This is just one of the options available for small to medium business owners. It’s up to you to decide if going “All Google” is right for your business. As always, stay humble, and hustle hard!

Written by Jaie O. The Help