We all pretty much rely on computers to get things done these days, especially when it comes to business. While this has obviously increased the ease with which we do nearly everything, a lot of the software can come at a cost. Services provided by some companies can be costly but quality often comes at a price. If you believe iseries outsourcing could be of use to your business, it might be worth research this in greater detail. Fortunately, there are armies of people out there who spend their time making and creating free programs and software alternatives to help save people money. Software for your business is an important addition and must not be taken lightly. With companies like Mirantis who are able to provide support for deploying software applications, you will need to be assured that you are utilizing the right ones for your business for your day-to-day requirements. Here a few examples of free business software to get you off on the right foot.
Libre Office
Microsoft Office the go-to for most people when it comes to installing a suite of software for things like text documents, spreadsheets and presentations. In fact, it’s nearly instinct for some to go for that. The problem is, that it can be very expensive, but what else can you do? Everyone else seems to use it and you don’t want to have to deal with compatibility issues with your clients.
Well, out there on the internet, there is a whole suite of products that do everything Microsoft Office can do including all the same formats and it’s completely free. It’s called LibreOffice. The whole setup is so similar to Microsoft Office, that you don’t even need to really worry about re-training to use it. The interface is intuitive and it’ll just take a little getting used to before you won’t even notice the difference.
Mention
Marketing is obviously a big part of running a company. A lot of time has to spent getting your name out and about so you can increase your profits. The problem is though, how do you keep track of everything? It’s always good to know who is mentioning your company online and where. This gives you a chance to collate good and bad comments. It is great for being able to respond to criticism on forums and send thankful messages to those who support you. It also means you can keep on top of press attention.
Mention does just that. You simply enter a term and Mention will scan the internet for you and notify you when it pops up somewhere. This applies for social networks as well, so if someone is bad mouthing you on Twitter without tweeting it at you, you can still respond. This is something you can do yourself, but it is time consuming. Mention will collate everything for you so you can go through it all logically. It’s a great tool.
TweetDeck
Twitter is hugely important nowadays for your business. Whether it’s for advertising a new product or answering enquiries, it is foolish for companies not to have a Twitter account. TweetDeck is an in-browser piece of software that allows you to keep track of everything that’s going in. You can create columns that automatically refresh things like the tweets of who you follow, hashtags, messages to your accounts and pretty much everything else you want. It keeps everything together and looks pretty neat too. Much easier than using the actual Twitter website.
Joshua Danton Boyd is a copywriter for the accountants and RTI specialists, Crunch Accounting.
