But is your small business ready for Google to take over your desktop and office apps as well?
If you’re intrigued, we offer below one path to potential Web office nirvana: ten steps to moving your small business office and productivity apps onto the Googleplex.
The upside: free apps; free online storage (no more losing data to system crashes); the ability to work on multiple computers; strong collaboration tools, such as document co-editing; and improving integration among its various products. These are all features and capabilities that could bring new efficiency to your small business.
And did we mention free?
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Take a close look at your current office suite. Most likely it’s a version of Microsoft Office. Just as likely it’s an old version of Office. Are there features you can’t live without? Are you a heavy spreadsheet user, with tons of formulas written and a several sheets you run your business on? Are you a writer or publisher, and need to format documents for print? Do you live and breathe in Outlook, maybe using it to synch to a Treo or Blackberry attached to your hip.
If this sounds like you, stick with Office. If not, keep reading…
Step 2: What Google apps are you already using? How dependent are you on Google already? If your small business is Web-based, you might already be a big AdWords buyer or Google Analytics user. Or if you do tons of research, you might live on Google search. Some advanced users count on Google for email (Gmail) or RSS reading (Google Reader). If this sounds like you, you might already live part of your online life under the Google banner and be comfortable using online services. If so, carry on….
Step 3: Google-ize Your Start Page What do you see when you open up your browser? The MSN home page? AOL.com? The Firefox download page? Maybe it’s time to build yourself a Web Start Page. While there are some very cool alternatives for building a start page—check out NetVibes, PageFlakes or Protopage — Google has a great alternative as well with iGoogle.
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| An iGoogle Weather Gadget (click to enlarge) |
These pages, also known as AJAX desktops or aggregated start pages, allow users to assemble and move around application widgets on a page. You can create and add an app to read news headlines, get the weather, keep up with your email, build a simple to-do-list, watch videos, and much more. You can also use it to build a really nice launchpad for Google’s office-style applications, make iGoogle a great way to break into the world of Google apps.
