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Over the last year or so, I've spent a great deal of time looking for better ways to be more efficient with the dollars that we spend on software – both in our company and at the local church that I attend. In my research I've found that there are many ways that ministries and businesses could be saving a great deal of money just by properly researching the software that they are purchasing (or not purchasing).
Long story short, I wanted to share with you one of my findings that I believe may be helpful to your ministry; it comes in the area of Office & Productivity Suites.
Our company and church have been using Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) for as long as I can remember. I estimate that in the last 10 years, our company has spent in the range of $30,000 purchasing new and upgraded versions of Microsoft Office. About a year ago, we investigated the possibility of moving to OpenOffice, a free open-source software suite that generally speaking, does all of the same things as Microsoft Office. I am pleased to announce that not only have we switched to OpenOffice, most of us like it better the Microsoft Office. It's still able to open all of your old Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents (and save them in that format), and in our opinion runs a lot faster and smoother than Microsoft Office.
So if you're in the mood to try something different and don't mind getting it for free, OpenOffice could be the start of something good for you and your ministry. :)
Comment
OpenOffice has worked great for me for basic needs, but I've found Calc to be far more limited in its usefulness than Excel 2007. And for me at work (a charitable organization), we made the decision that the difference was worth the small price we pay for a license of Microsoft Office. At just about $100/license for the full version (not an upgrade) of Office Professional Plus, the savings wasn't worth it.
There are other restrictions for this price, such as needing to purchase at least 5 licences at a time (at least every two years) so I've found that OpenOffice is still great for small organizations who don't have more than 3 or 4 users.
Leave a Comment
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Over the last year or so, I've spent a great deal of time looking for better ways to be more efficient with the dollars that we spend on software – both in our company and at the local church that I attend. In my research I've found that there are many ways that ministries and businesses could be saving a great deal of money just by properly researching the software that they are purchasing (or not purchasing).
Long story short, I wanted to share with you one of my findings that I believe may be helpful to your ministry; it comes in the area of Office & Productivity Suites.
Our company and church have been using Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) for as long as I can remember. I estimate that in the last 10 years, our company has spent in the range of $30,000 purchasing new and upgraded versions of Microsoft Office. About a year ago, we investigated the possibility of moving to OpenOffice, a free open-source software suite that generally speaking, does all of the same things as Microsoft Office. I am pleased to announce that not only have we switched to OpenOffice, most of us like it better the Microsoft Office. It's still able to open all of your old Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents (and save them in that format), and in our opinion runs a lot faster and smoother than Microsoft Office.
So if you're in the mood to try something different and don't mind getting it for free, OpenOffice could be the start of something good for you and your ministry. :)
Comment
OpenOffice has worked great for me for basic needs, but I've found Calc to be far more limited in its usefulness than Excel 2007. And for me at work (a charitable organization), we made the decision that the difference was worth the small price we pay for a license of Microsoft Office. At just about $100/license for the full version (not an upgrade) of Office Professional Plus, the savings wasn't worth it.
There are other restrictions for this price, such as needing to purchase at least 5 licences at a time (at least every two years) so I've found that OpenOffice is still great for small organizations who don't have more than 3 or 4 users.
OpenOffice has worked great for me for basic needs, but I've found Calc to be far more limited in its usefulness than Excel 2007. And for me at work (a charitable organization), we made the decision that the difference was worth the small price we pay for a license of Microsoft Office. At just about $100/license for the full version (not an upgrade) of Office Professional Plus, the savings wasn't worth it.
There are other restrictions for this price, such as needing to purchase at least 5 licences at a time (at least every two years) so I've found that OpenOffice is still great for small organizations who don't have more than 3 or 4 users.
Leave a Comment
OpenOffice has worked great for me for basic needs, but I've found Calc to be far more limited in its usefulness than Excel 2007. And for me at work (a charitable organization), we made the decision that the difference was worth the small price we pay for a license of Microsoft Office. At just about $100/license for the full version (not an upgrade) of Office Professional Plus, the savings wasn't worth it.
There are other restrictions for this price, such as needing to purchase at least 5 licences at a time (at least every two years) so I've found that OpenOffice is still great for small organizations who don't have more than 3 or 4 users.