Setting up a business is expensive and being tied in to proprietary software and hardware deals can be a bitter pill to swallow. While there is little you can do about hardware with the exception of a
Microsoft Exchange server, using looking at cloud based SaaS (software as a service) can save you substantial sums of money.
Let’s say you have a new business with 10 people and require an office based package that traditionally would have meant buying into Microsoft Exchange and Office. This isn’t meant to be a blatant advertisement for Google but if you subscribe to its Apps package there are very real savings to be made.
I went onto the Google Apps site and completed their cost comparison option and it worked out that for 10 people the upfront costs for Microsoft Exchange would be $15,776. Google comes in at a fraction of this and the package includes email accounts with 25gb of storage per user, IM and voice and video chat, group calendaring, mobile access, spam and virus filtering (Gmail’s spam filtering is the best I have experienced) and web based Google Docs, Sites and Video for Business.
I just looked at PC World and discovered that Ms Office 2007 Standard Edition would set you back £329.99 and the Ultimate Edition would mug your credit card for £549.99. I took a quick whirl through the small print and it looks as though these are for single licences so to set up your ten man team with Office you are looking at over £3k. Now you can see why cloud computing has a silver lining! I don’t know about you but if I had the choice of coughing up a large sum of money for Bill Gates’ pension fund or using the alternative of a tried and tested, robust cloud based service, I know which I’d go for!
You can do your own savings evaluation by clicking here http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging_value.html
It is not only Google that offers this sort of service, Zoho has a complementary service that if anything is slightly better because the applications interfaces are more like Office than the Zen minimalist interfaces from Google and will be easier to use by staff familiar with the offerings from Microsoft.
Moving away from the email and office suites, there are a host of other services including project management, collaborating and tracking packages out there there offer scalability as your company grows. In fact many services offer a limited free package with limited functionality which gives you the ability to road test the product before you invest in more facilities.
Herein lies a major problem. SaaSCo A launches a beta service that is free to use and looks as though its hits all the right notes as far as your requirements go. A rival service, SaaSCo B already has a paid for equivalent but at $50 a year for 10 people you think you can shave a bit off the start up costs of your company so you opt for the free beta. It works fine and you get seriously tied into it until it comes out of beta and it will cost you $100 a year for your 10 staff. Is your data exportable? If so you might be able to seamlessly move from A to B if not you are tied into a more expensive option or you face the alternative of starting from scratch.
There is another problem here which we will cover in the third part of the Triple S analysis on sustainability.
When looking at scalability everyone seems to look at starting small and scaling up. Look at it from another perspective – if your company is hit by financial problems does the service/services you have bought into allow you to scale down and still maintain a reasonable level of facilities? This decision may not have anything to do with poor finances, it may be that by investing in cloud based services you can work better with a small team or by using remote teleworkers. Using cloud technologies will change the way you work and the way you look at work. It also provides you with the flexibility to adjust and change quickly.
