Scott Miller outlines some of the issues that charities should consider when deciding which of the big two free cloud software solutions
With both Google and Microsoft offering their cloud-based products as a donation to registered charities there is a great opportunity for the third sector to take advantage of cloud-based IT solutions.
Not only are both organisations offering hosted email services for free but the whole basis of a cloud-based email solution cuts the cost of ongoing maintenance and support issues that an old fashion on-premise email system brings.
Six years ago if you were to utter the word cloud and email in the same sentence to an IT manager or IT service provider you would have them running for the hills. It was a buzzword and a new technology which was a big gamble – that added to the fact that you were taking away responsibilities from the IT department meant things moved slowly.
Fast forward to 2015 and everyone expects a cloud-based solution to be part of the overall IT setup. If you’ve still to make the leap to the cloud, or maybe you’re already in the cloud and want more, then there’s one big question you should be asking: which one fits best?
Google Apps
If you’ve used Gmail then this is the essence of Google Apps. It works great for small start-ups and creatives because of its cutting edge approach to web browser based applications and familiar Gmail interface. Its ease of use is key and with a clean interface, it is the choice of many third-sector organisations that have varying IT skills in their staff base.
Microsoft Office365
This is what you already know if you’re coming from business – Outlook, Word, and Excel with the added benefit of having offline access to your emails when there’s no internet. Your admin and accounts staff will thank you for choosing the 365.
It’s all about the user.
The big question you should be asking if making this choice is not how much storage each product offers or what features are nice to have and are included, but which one will work better for your organisation as a whole.
Having migrated many organisations to Office365 and Google Apps there’s always going to be a training requirement at the end of the project but there are some key issues to consider when making your decision.
Your office staff will work better with Office365 – how many accountants do you know that could live without Microsoft Excel?
On the flip side you’ve go to consider the staff that are delivering your services, the feet on the ground. What’s going to work better for them? Google Apps’ clean browser interface with no software to load makes it easy to access and simple to use.
Asking these type of questions before pushing the button makes a lot of sense and will not only help you make the right choice but also keep the organisation running efficiently.
Scott Millar is the business development consultant at Aberdeen-based Dynamic Edge
