When starting a new business, or even in current businesses, software is a costly issue.  Everyone has become accustomed to the idea that you MUST buy Microsoft Office.  There are a few pretty good open source alternatives which don’t cost you a penny but your download bandwidth.  Open office is perhaps the biggest free rival out there – but there is no big brand behind it to help push it.

Now that Google has become the UK’s top consumer brand in July 2008, I feel it’s a perfect point to highlight that Google are not only a search engine, they also provide applications that are either free or ridiculously cheap for individuals or businesses.

Majority of the freelancers behind Gill & co all utilise the Google applications in one form or another so to kick off my introduction to Google applications for businesses, I will start with the application that I rely on the most.  Gmail for businesses – it allows me to use Gmail under my company domain name, so I can send emails out from info@gillandco.com or xyz@gillandco.com.  The emails are easy to setup and are all stored on Google’s servers, so it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, as long as I have an Internet connection, I can access my emails.

The second most used application I use is Google Docs, a Microsoft Word alternative that allows me to pretty much the same as I can in Microsoft Word but the major benefit is that all my documents are stored online, so I don’t have to worry about making sure my documents are the USB stick and packed in my case! When working on a project plan I tend to collaborate with others and Google Docs allows me to collaborate with other people and keeps track of versions – making sure no one overwrites each others work.

The third, and perhaps my favourite of the bunch, is Google Spreadsheet.  It is a Microsoft Excel alternative, again very similar set up as Google Documents and I pretty much use this to keep my financial records, again accessible anywhere with an internet connection, so I can always make sure I’m in the black.

Along with Google Documents, Google Spreadsheet is fully integrated into Gmail, so if a word document or an excel spreadsheet comes through on an email, Gmail automatically gives you an option to open it up in the respective application.

If you need advice or need Gill & Co to setup Google Applications for your business, please Contact Us.