Anyone familiar with using a PC or Mac for business will know that a productivity suite is practically essential, and it’s one of the first things that we install onto new machines.
Productivity suites are a collection of several programs from the same publisher that are designed to work alongside each other and make day-to-day business tasks more manageable.
At their core, many of them contain three types of software: word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation packages. Some suites contain more software, to enable, for example, desktop publishing, building databases, image editing, and calendar and mail tools. Some expand even further with features and collaborative or connected working options.
With cloud computing, it’s not even necessary to install software, with many of the popular suites being made available as in-browser web-based software; some suites such as Google’s G Suite dispense completely with the concept of desktop apps, making their apps browser-only.
If you prefer to use standard downloadable software packages, many of the suites also offer traditional apps.
Some, such as Office 365 include more features and tools depending on the package you pick, offering their basic suites at a lower cost than their fully-featured ones.
As of 2019, there are a few options when it comes to choosing a software publisher:
Each has their own unique features, pros and cons, and we’ll be going into these in greater detail over the next few posts. Stay tuned!
