In the business world, productivity is largely associated with just a few software applications – word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and email – typically referred to as a group by the term “office suite.” And to date the dominant player in that category has been Microsoft Office, with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook having established themselves as the de facto standards. But with the recent advent of cloud services there is new competition to Microsoft’s “King of the Hill” title in office applications.

A recent review by Tony Bradley in the October issue of PC World presents a nice comparison of three of the major competitors in this nascent arena. “Google Apps vs. Office 365 vs. Zoho Docs: Cloud-Based Office Suites Showdown” (click the title to view) objectively compares the various office tools themselves, their consistency of formatting, how they work on mobile devices and in different Web browsers, and how much they cost.

Of course, as a Microsoft partner and strong proponent of Office 365, we were pleased with the overall conclusions and resulting ratings:

Office 365            – 4.5 stars

Google Apps      – 4 stars

Zoho Docs           – 3.5 stars

Does that mean you should automatically choose Office 365 as your company’s cloud-based office solution? Not necessarily. In fact, one of the benefits you may derive from reading this review is the wealth of additional articles that are referenced, providing even more insight into the pros and cons of each of these individual packages.

Should you ultimately be interested in pursuing Office 365, or have additional questions, Simplex-IT is of course happy to be of assistance. Please feel free to contact us by emailing John@Simplex-IT.com or calling 234.380.1277. Operators are standing by!