How start up and small business can save money using Google Apps

Most business these days use Microsoft's Office suite of software applications. MS Office (as it is popularly called) is almost as common as a PC in an office. But using office is also a very costly affair. A cost which can be avoided by start up and small business.

Using Google Apps can reduce your cost multi-fold. Here is a quick assessment on how much you can save in an small office with 10 persons:

MS Office
MS office: $400/licence (Cost $4000)
Hosted Email solution for 10 employees: $114/month (Annual Cost $1368)
Installation and maintenance: $600
Total: $5968

Google has offered something similar for over a year, and like OpenOffice (another free package), it's free. Just sign up for Google Docs, and you can create new spreadsheets, documents and presentations or upload those created by Office or OpenOffice, and export or download them in formats that are also supported by both.

Google Apps
Package cost: Free
Setup cost: $50
Training cost for 10 employees: $500
Ongoing Maintenance: Free

You save: $5968 - $550 = $5418

While not as full-featured as Office or OpenOffice, Google Docs offers much more flexibility. You can share documents with multiple people and even allow them to make changes so multiple people can collaborate. If you're out of town or on vacation, you can review and edit files saved online from any machine with an Internet connection and a web browser.

If you combine OpenOffice (another free open source application) and Google Docs, you'll be able to do anything you currently use Microsoft Office for and more (yes more) at zero cost. There may a training cost for training your staff familiar with Microsoft Office to make them aware of google Apps.

And to be on safe side you can keep one or two full version of Office available just in case you need. Microsoft will soon be releasing a version of Office that will run in an ordinary Web browser, called Office Web Applications. These will be available at a small cost compared to Office but not free.

So before you are writing your check in the name of Microsoft for hundreds of dollars to buy expensive Office licences, you should definitely check out the free alternatives available. And sice they are free - what you are going to lose?