The A- list: top technology for small businesses. It's generally accepted that IT is a key driver of business growth in small businesses. However, SMEs are not equally good at identifying and deploying the optimal mix of technologies. This can have important implications: a recent study by Symantec, for example, found that 'top- tier' SMEs typically spend 7 percent less on computing than 'bottom- tier' ones (Symantec's tiers are based on an index of IT confidence). This may reflect the fact that tech- savvy businesses tend to invest in the right technology, avoiding the costly need to 'rip and replace' their mistakes. The A-list: top technology for small businesses. Which products and technologies should small businesses be considering when investing in IT? We have some suggestions. The 2016 version of Microsoft's productivity suite includes features for easier collaboration and sharing. Excel gets a boost in power, Outlook streamlines everyday. Pros: Easy integration with other Microsoft products, and top tier support. Once it is up and running and configured correctly it barely needs to be touched. The best apps. Better together. You can do so much more with CloudConvert by connecting it to the other apps you use like Gmail, Google Drive, and OneDrive. ![]() A January 2. 01. 3 survey by the UK's Federation of Small Businesses, The Digital Imperative: small businesses, technology and growth, asked 2,2. The average investment over the previous 1. Software, laptops and website improvements headed the investment areas, with mobile computing (smartphones and tablets) and cloud services occupying a mid- table position: SME investment in different technology categories. Data and image: The Digital Imperative: small businesses, technology and growth; The Federation of Small Businesses, 2. SME sectors that credited their technology investments for business innovation were headed (not surprisingly) by IT, followed by education, real- estate and creative services: SME sectors crediting technology investment for 'moderate or significant' innovation during the past year. Data and image: The Digital Imperative: small businesses, technology and growth; The Federation of Small Businesses, 2. Software and online investments had the highest rating (8. SMEs, with cloud services (7. So, what does ZDNet reckon that SMEs should be looking at when investing in technology? Here's a selection of products and services worth considering. Email/productivity/collaboration software. Every small business will require email and some sort of office productivity suite, and there are multiple options available. If you're a sole trader and don't want to pay anything, there are free online services from Microsoft (Outlook. Word, Excel, Power. Point and One. Note web apps, plus 7. GB of Sky. Drive storage), Google (Gmail, Drive with Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Form and Drawing apps, plus 1. GB of storage — which includes the email allocation) and Zoho (Mail with 5. GB of storage for up to five mailboxes, Docs with word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool, plus 1. GB of storage). If you prefer to use desktop productivity software rather web- based apps, free options include Open. Office. org and the Libre. Office spin- off. Most small businesses will want more functionality than these free products deliver, which brings us to the next level. Microsoft offers its Office 2. Home & Student (£1. Outlook), Office Home & Business (£2. Office Professional (3. PC, or as an Office 3. Small Business Premium version (£8. Office 3. 65 Small Business Premium gives you eight downloadable desktop applications (Word, Excel, Power. Point, One. Note, Outlook, Access, Publisher and Lync), access to mobile and web apps, hosted email with 2. GB of storage per user and the ability to use your own domain name, 7. GB of Sky. Drive storage for documents, plus web conferencing, website hosting, security, support and a guaranteed 9. Google's web- based business productivity suite is Google Apps for Business, which for £3. GB of Gmail and Drive storage, unlimited users, 2. A 'with Vault' option (£6. Zoho's web- based business offering includes Zoho Mail with either 1. GB or 1. 5GB storage per user ($2. Zoho Docs with either 1. GB of storage or 5. GB of storage ($3/user/month or $5/user/month respectively). Many larger enterprises are effectively locked into a traditional Microsoft combination of in- house Exchange email, Share. Point document management and collaboration, and Office productivity applications. By contrast, small businesses — especially startups and micro businesses — have the legacy- free opportunity to explore alternative models, such as Saa. S or renting desktop software via a subscription. Line of business software. When it comes to the core applications required to run a business — accounting and payroll, business analytics, customer relationship management, human resources, resource planning, supply chain management and so on — there is again plenty of choice, ranging from integrated suites including some or all of these components, to individual desktop or Saa. S applications, to packaged collections of Saa. S apps from cloud service brokers (CSBs) with added migration, integration and management tooling. UK- based Sage is a leading provider of accounting and payroll software for SMEs — both on- premise via Sage Instant and Sage 5. Sage One. Sage also does SME- focused CRM software — both on- premise (ACT!, Sage CRM) and hosted (Sage CRM Cloud). Another well- known provider of desktop and online accounting/payroll software is Intuit, with its Quick. Books, Quick. Books Payroll and Quick. Books Online products. Small businesses may not have the financial or human resources to deploy and curate a full ERP solution such as Net. Suite — or even an SME- focused service like SAP Business One. However, there are a multitude of individual products, particularly Saa. S offerings, that allow SMEs to mix and match the components they require — if they're prepared to handle the integration issues that arise. You'll find an extensive (if by no means comprehensive) listing of Saa. S providers in various business categories in our special report on Cloud: How To Do Saa. S Right. Even this may prove a daunting task for many SMEs, in which case they're likely to turn to third- party cloud service brokerages such as Cloud Direct to ease their path to the cloud. Creative software. Another large software company to adopt the subscription model is Adobe with its Creative Cloud (CC), which has now, somewhat controversially, replaced the perpetual- licence Creative Suite (CS). A full subscription for new CC members costs £4. CS users, students and teachers, teams and enterprises. There's also a free membership that gives you access to 3. Adobe's rich portfolio of creative applications, plus 2. GB of cloud storage. Most of Adobe's applications still run on the desktop as before; but now, if your subscription runs out, you lose access to the software — and files saved in the CC apps' proprietary format. A subscription to Adobe's Creative Cloud gives you access to a rich portfolio of applications and services. Screenshot: Charles Mc. Lellan/ZDNet)If you're an SME with a strong creative requirement, a Creative Cloud subscription may be worth considering, as there are a lot of applications, tools and services included. However, although you can rent an individual desktop application such as Photoshop for £1. CC services, there are no sector- specific membership plans apart from the Student & Teacher edition. It's all or next- to- nothing with Creative Cloud. If you're uncertain about Creative Cloud, but still need image manipulation, vector drawing, video editing and other creative applications, there are plenty of alternatives, many of them free and open- source. Leading examples are Gimp (image editing), Inkscape (illustration) Lightworks (video editing) and Komp. Zer (website creation). Continued. NComputing's M3. Image: NComputing. Client devices. Desktops. The desktop PC market may be in decline, but plenty of small businesses still require large- screen computers that don't need to be moved very often. If expansion isn't an issue, one of the many all- in- one devices from leading players like Dell, HP, Lenovo or Apple could fit the bill. Alternatively, an entry- level thin- client/virtual desktop system such as the N- Computing M3. M3. 00 thin clients from a single host Windows Server system (the precise number depends on the server configuration). Laptops. The current flavour of the month for laptop vendors is the '2- in- 1' Windows 8 tablet/ultrabook, with the latest models based around Intel's new low- power 4th- Generation Core (Haswell) processor. All of the leading laptop manufacturers have products in this sector, and a number of form factors are being experimented with, including fully detachable screen/tablets from a keyboard dock and screens that slide up and down over a keyboard section. A high- end tablet/ultrabook: Lenovo's Think. Pad Helix. Image: Lenovo. At the top end, we like the design of Lenovo's Think.
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