Points of Interest
1 Does our business really need enterprise-level software?
2 Can we get by without Microsoft Office?
The biggest trap small businesses can fall into is choosing software that's designed for larger companies. Enterprise products often suffer from feature bloat and come at prices that better fit the budgets of large corporations—or small countries! Small businesses should buy only as much "feature" as they need. Look for the simplest applications that can work, and investigate using services when possible. Software as a service (SaaS) means no installation, no expensive maintenance, and fewer things to go wrong at your company.
That said, for productivity applications, you should probably start out by purchasing Microsoft Office. If you're a real maverick, you might want to investigate OpenOffice.org, but your employees will be more comfortable using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. And don't discount the training costs of moving away from these de facto standards. On the other hand, just because you use Office doesn't mean you can't explore Google Apps. For a yearly cost of $50 per user, you can get the Premier Edition with 10GB per account (a 2GB version is free!). Google Apps is a great option for document and spreadsheet collaboration, and the package also includes traditional collaboration tools such as calendaring, instant messaging via Google Talk, and e-mail (Gmail, that is) using your own domain name.
If you have customers or employees who aren't on the same block, you can reach out to them with cost-effective Web conferencing. Products such as Adobe Acrobat Connect or Citrix Online GoToMeeting (each $39 per user per month) provide simple meeting setup at an affordable price. I highly recommend testing these products; they'll increase the effectiveness of your sales efforts and internal meetings with remote employees. To track customers in your sales pipeline, salesforce.com provides a $695-per-year solution for up to five users. Although companies such as Sage and Goldmine have software with many of the features you'll want, you may prefer the simplicity of the salesforce.com service.
No doubt you'll also need some financial software, such as Intuit QuickBooks. More than likely, there exists specialized software for your industry that can fulfill some of your unique business requirements
More issue..stay!!
Reference: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2130310,00.asp
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