Soft Options, Hard Savings

开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇Soft Options, Hard Savings范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！

Have you been walking the tightrope with your small enterprise—cutting costs and optimising resources—to rake in that precious mite of profit? If so, you will appreciate every bit of advice on shaving expenses. For business ventures that rely on computer technology, here are some software options that could help you scoop considerable savings without compromising on quality. Find out how you can dispense with proprietary products in favour of free services.

Open Source Software (OSS): You could call it the equivalent of community living. These programs don’t belong to anyone and as the source codes are available for improve- ment, they are often better than the proprietary ones.

is a common OSS that substitutes for the Microsoft Office. It’s ideal for entities dealing with clients who prefer the local language as it supports over 70 languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. This is because the project’s members, mostly volunteers, belong to all parts of the world. The switch can save you about $250 (Rs 11,000) for every user.

There are other OSS options that are as cost-effective. When a semiconductor chip manufacturing company shifted the maintenance of its online portals to OSS, it saved close to $1.5 million per year, claims Sonali Minocha, co-founder & head, MySQL Practice, OSSCube, a global company that develops customised open source software for clients.

You could search for OSS alternatives through sites such as , which index popular, global open source freeware and shared software. A word processor is just the beginning. From games and calculators to operating systems, there is an OSS alternative for almost every function.

Cloud Computing: You could save several thousands of rupees every month simply by adopting cloud computing. It’s the process of shar- ing resources over the Internet, instead of operating individual units, and involves moving servers from a server farm to a cloud service provider. Apart from cutting down on hardware expense, you can save on space, as well as electricity and maintenance costs. Such services typically offer better uptime and response time at much lower costs. You can even use these to create back-up files. Some of the popular cloud service providers include Microsoft, Salesforce, Skytap, HP, IBM, Amazon and Google, while , and specialise in providing data back-up.

Software as a Service: A relatively new concept, it involves providing online services and solutions to entrepreneurs whose business scales do not justify employing a large staff. Some of the common business tasks include computerised billing, invoicing, content management and document management—a profitable package for a small entrepreneur.

So, instead of relying on a PC, which can crash without warning and destroy valuable data, say, during peak tax season, a simple solution is to choose an online service. A Website such as allows you to access financial statements from any computer for free. Some sites offer to calculate tax and deductions, while those like help manage your money.

In a world increasingly connected by the Internet, you could resort to online marketing if your services are targeted at tech-savvy customers. This will help you save on paper work, time and delivery costs while getting a quick feedback. While a tool like QuestionPro offers analysis and even reports, you can use Survey Monkey for basic information, such as the number of people who answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a query. Both the sites offer basic services and online accounts for free, but you will have to pay for customised services.

Social Marketing: It is important for any organisation to have a presence on popular social networking sites, such as Twitter. For instance, , a research organisation that brings out month- ly reports, is active on all major social platforms and relies on such interaction for its reports. Visibility has worked for it as readers can easily communicate with the team.

There are other ways small enterprises can save money. For one, they could use e-mail instead of snail mail. Apart from time and effort, email marketing can help save up to 80% of the cost of direct mail. It works particularly well for marketing new products to existing customers. Bartering is another way entrepreneurs can accumulate an initial inventory of electronic items, with organised firms like ensuring safety.

So, use these options to cut down on your technology costs and give your business an edge.