Over the years, many elements related to starting a business have remained constant: good ideas, a solid business plan and, of course, capital. When it comes to technology, however, cloud computing has made capital requirements lower than ever.
A few years ago even the smallest of offices required computers, a local area network with a file server, an email server, a phone system and a professional-looking website, among other investments.
Implementing your website and email also required establishing a domain name, which was no easy feat. And of course, many folks were faced with the reality that you had to buy several thousand dollars of software or risk being exposed as a criminal.
Nowadays, however, an investment on this order of magnitude is unnecessary. First of all, almost no capital expenditure is required to secure major office productivity software. Packages such as Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google Apps provide full suites suitable to most businesses or government agencies.
Microsoft provides both Web-based applications, as well as allowing you to download fully functioning desktop versions of Office, at no extra cost.
Office365 starts at $12.50 per user per month for small businesses and goes up to $20 per user per month for organizations of more than 300 users. Google Apps is similarly priced — after all, Google and Microsoft are in an arms race when it comes to cloud computing offerings. Until a winner is clearly established, consumers will have excellent deals. Thus, you’re not hit with a one-time cost of $300 to $500 per person for software.
What else? Well, both Office 365 and Google Apps include email and cloud-based storage. So you’re not buying a file server or an email server, which saves several thousand dollars right there.
Developing and implementing even the simplest of websites used to be a labor-intensive process for experienced IT folks only. Nowadays though, both Microsoft and Google provide a simple way to get a basic website up and running. Microsoft, for example, has partnered with godaddy.com so that you can get everything done in one shot.
Of course, we’re not getting away from the need for desktop computers. The relative processing power needed, however, has dropped dramatically. Adequate desktop and even laptop computers can be acquired for less than $500, both from local retailers as well as via the Web.
What about phones? Unfortunately, none of the free phone services, such as Google Voice, provides an 808 area code-based number as of yet. And don’t hold your breath on that one.
But the fact of the matter is that many folks use their cellphones for business purposes, even when they have business lines. Still, If you are looking for a phone system, many low-cost, Internet-based options are available from local and national vendors. This, however, is the topic for another column.
John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at johnagsalud@yahoo.com.
