Ian Mayes
2/9/17
Homework 1
Page 44, #1
As a law firm it is important that the firm as the best software for its productivity
tools. This means the firm must compare and contrast the best software’s to see which
one best fits their needs as a business. Most of the employees will be using this software
to write up cases that they will be representing and also sharing information with the
court systems and clients for whom they work. The firm is deciding between Google
Apps or Office 365 to see which one best accommodates them.
When looking at Google Apps there is a lot of similarity to Office 365, but one of
the key advantages I found was price. Although Google Apps is free to consumers, for a
business plan the pricing is usually $5 per user per month or $50 per user per year. This
price includes all standard apps for the business package. Whereas, Office 365 the firm
could get one of the small business packages (25 users or less) which vary from $5 to
$12.50 per user per month or $60 to $150 per user per year. These cost cover most of the
standard programs that would be needed by the firm, but depending on the needs of the
firm will be the deciding factor whether or not to go with the cheaper plan or the more
expensive one. Another advantage I found for Google Apps is that it’s a lot simpler to
use compared to Office 365. The Google Apps software is not loaded with complex and
confusing tools that many businesses do not use, unlike Office 365, which can be hard to
comprehend unless you are used to using Microsoft programs.
Although it may seem like both software’s are very similar besides some few
minor details, I did find some advantages of Office 365 over Google Apps as well. One
of these advantages is privacy. Microsoft’s privacy policy says it will not share your
information with third parties, whereas the Google Apps privacy policy says that they can
use the information that they collect to use for advertising purposes. As a law firm
dealing with private information, this could be a deal breaker for Google Apps. A second
advantage I found for Office 365 was storage. Office 365 gives you 50GB of space in
Outlook and 25GB of space in Skydrive, which are the Microsoft programs for email and
storage, whereas, Google Apps only gives you 30GB of space, which is shared between
Gmail, Drive and Picasa. Also Office 365 gives 7GB of freebie space, while Google
Apps gives 15GB of freebie space. Also, if needed the firm can purchase more storage
with both of the different software’s.
Overall both programs are very similar and highly useful for the law firm, but I
would recommend Office 365 to the firm because the advantages of the software
outweigh the disadvantages. What I mean is that the privacy and storage advantages of
Office 365 compared to Google Apps would be more beneficial to the firm. The
employees will need to communicate with a lot of people via email so those emails will
need to be saved and also some of the information the firm deals with may be private
between the firm and the clients and Office 365 will help protect that information from
third parties. Also, even though Google Apps may be simpler to use, most people are a
lot more familiar with Microsoft programs, which defeats the purpose. Lastly, the pricing
between the two software’s is not that much different depending on which plan of Office
365 the firm would chose to purchase. If the firm chose the cheaper plan of Office 365
the cost would be the same per month ($5) as Google Apps, but there would be a $10
difference if the firm chose to pay per year (Office $60, Google $50).
Lastly, since I have recommended Office 365, I will also give you a couple
advantages this software has over traditional Office. First, if you have an active Office
365 subscription, it will automatically update the software to the latest version for only
the subscription cost, which is per month or annually. Office on the other hand is a onetime cost for the software that you can update, but when a new version comes out you
have to repurchase that version if you wish to update. The last advantage is that with
Office 365 you get the desktop version that you can install across multiple devices,
whereas with Office you can only install the desktop version to one device. Overall I
think Office 365 is worth the law firm’s investment.
Links:
https://products.office.com/en-us/business/microsoft-office-365-frequently-askedquestions
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/10-comparisons-betweengoogle-apps-and-office-365/