Learn More About Office Suites Software
What is Office Suites Software?
Office suites have been an essential product for businesses of all sizes for many years. The three common components of an office suite include document creation software, spreadsheets software, and presentation software. While these three products are the bread and butter of a typical office suite, additional products often exist within a suite, as well. Other common additions include email software, internal communications software and cloud content collaboration software. Businesses must evaluate what tools they need for their business so they can purchase the ideal office suite software.
Businesses should also consider the various pricing models associated with office suites software. For example, many office suites vendors now offer subscription models. A subscription model is a business model that allows customers to pay a recurring price for unlimited access to a suite. The recurring price is either paid over a specific period of time or indefinitely. This is ideal for businesses that prefer paying for their software in small increments instead of purchasing the full software immediately, which is another option. Businesses should keep in mind that most office suites don’t allow product cherry-picking. In other words, in most cases, what comes with the suite stays with the suite. For businesses that only require specific tools might need to request special pricing from the vendor.
Many suites are open-source or free to download. Open-source office suites are ideal for businesses on a tight budget. Usually, open-source solutions still include major components of an office suite and are often compatible with other office suites solutions. While compatible with other office suites, open-source products may not always convert documents on par with paid office suite solutions. Businesses that convert different file types should consider this before implementing a free open-source solution.
Key Benefits of Office Suites Software
- Create text-based documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
- Convert multiple file formats
- Collaborate on documents across organizations
Why Use Office Suites Software?
Office suites software is a staple solution for many businesses and helps power office productivity and document creation. From product demos to content creation, office suites software is an essential tool for almost every industry.
Productivity — Office suites all help professionals produce content. A major benefit to office suites software is the number of things a user can accomplish within a singular suite product. For example, spreadsheets software, one of the three major components, has thousands of use cases. An accounting team may use a spreadsheet keeping track of a company’s daily finances while a researcher may use spreadsheets software to create pivot tables to compare data. Office suites help every department in a business be more productive.
Collaboration — Along with helping businesses be more productive, office suites promote collaboration, both within a team and across departments. Many office suites offer collaboration features that allow multiple users to create and edit documents at the same time. In addition, when a single office suites platform is integrated across a company, users can easily share documents with others. The ability to seamlessly collaborate on work increases productivity across departments.
Who Uses Office Suites Software?
Office suites are an office staple, so virtually every professional benefits from using this software. While some users may benefit from a specific product within a platform over another, the variety of use cases make office suites appealing to everyone. However, accountants, content creators, and sales teams usually benefit from office suites the most.
Accountants — Accountants use spreadsheets software daily to manage a company’s finances. Spreadsheets are ideal for tracking and calculating finances and often provide features and extension options to improve the accountant’s workflow. Accountants may also use document creation software to create expense reports to deliver their findings to other departments.
Content creators — Document creation software benefits text-based content creators. It allows collaboration across teams for content editing and copy editing, making content creation more efficient and collaborative. Beyond document creation, content creators might also use spreadsheets software to organize content ideas and to compile data related to a piece of content.
Sales — Presentation software is commonly used by sales teams to present sales pitches. While many sales teams may opt for a standalone presentation solution, the collaborative aspect of office suites platforms make office suites more appealing. Sales teams often use document creation tools and spreadsheets tools for lead organization, prospect information management, and more.
Kinds of Office Suites Software
While office suites platforms are typically solidified in their product offerings within the suite, businesses have plenty of purchasing options they can choose.
Subscription-based — Subscription-based office suites are increasingly common and allow cloud collaboration, making this choice appealing. Businesses can incrementally pay for the software instead of all at once. Another benefit of cloud-based office suites with a subscription model is that software updates are automatic and rolled out more often. This eases the duties of IT departments and makes the user experience more positive.
One-time purchase — While not as common, businesses may choose to purchase specific versions of an office suite platform for a one-time fee. While this option allows users to own the product instead of just subscribing, the fee is typically high. If users need access to an upgraded version of the product, they need to purchase an upgrade or purchase the product again. Additionally, any issues with the product might need to be handled internally and not by the software vendor.
Open-source — Open-source office suites are free to download, which is an appealing option for small businesses or businesses on a tight budget. Businesses must consider what their needs are as open-source options often don’t have the same features as paid options.
Besides different pricing model options, businesses can choose between an on-premise or online office suite as well.
On-premise — On-premise office suites are installed onto a user’s computer on-premise and are also known as SaaS (software as a service) products. Users might want to consider SaaS operations management solutions if they consider the on-premise option.
Online — Online office suites operate in the cloud and are not downloaded onto a user’s computer. Instead, a user accesses their office suites tools in their browser. This choice is ideal for web-based collaboration; however, web-based solutions may have limited features.
Office Suites Software Features
Depending on the products within the suite, office suites software offers a wide variety of features. The overall features of the platforms’ core applications range from collaborative tools to features that increase user efficiency.
Templates — Applications allow users to start a document from scratch as well as access existing tools. For example, users can create a presentation with available slide structure, fonts, and colors.
Cloud collaboration — Cloud collaboration tools differ depending on the type of suites platform. Typically, cloud collaboration allows multiple users to edit an application at the same time. Many applications also include annotations, notes, and chat tools that enable users to communicate with each other within an application.
File conversion — Files can be converted between applications. For example, a user can create a document within a spreadsheet tool and easily move the data within the spreadsheet into a presentation tool within the same platform. In addition, many suite tools allow users to convert files created outside the platform’s applications.
Dashboard — Web-based solutions offer a dashboard that houses each application for easy access. Some on-premise solutions also offer this feature.
Potential Issues with Office Suites Software
Unused applications — Office suites are purchased as an entire suite. That means users that don’t require spreadsheets software cannot exclude that tool from their suite to lower the price. This means many businesses resort to buying an entire suite with untouched tools. Before committing to a suite, businesses should assess whether some included tools will go unused and if it’s worth purchasing the suite at all.
