What Should Junk Van Do
Hello Mr. Peterson,
I recently returned from Montreal from the meeting with Junk Van and their Information Technology consultants. The issue Junk Van was facing was regarding the need to expand their IT capabilities in order to expand their operations further. Currently they are experiencing daily processing errors such as inaccurate data, lost emails and manual calculation errors. The solution the consultants suggested was to use software as a service to provide them with the IT software required to function. Software as a service is as the name suggests software being treated as a service rather than a product. We will talk about the issues with that concept later in the memo, but for now one should focus on the positives Software as a Service. In this case, one can assume that the software in question would be similar to the microsoft office suite and google docs/drive. In this case one can view my previous post regarding which one to use between Microsoft and Google here: http://charliesitdepartment.blogspot.com/2017/05/should-we-use-google-drive.html
Right now Junk Van is not operating with any IT infrastructure or minimal IT infrastructure since they do get emails. Any small business, or even home in this day and age greatly benefits from having so. Simple software like Word or Google Docs allows for one to create a wide suite of documents ranging from flyers to well crafted written works of art. The other software like powerpoint, excel, google sheets, google slides, Access, and other software provide tools invaluable for businesses. Spreadsheet software like excel is vital for any business to operate even if it is used as a simple accounting tool.
With software as a service one would have access to any software supported by a given device. For example I can go on my iPad and access both Microsoft Word and Google Docs to type up any report. Save that report to the cloud. Then continue writing that report on my computer or even smartphone. Most of the software in question is easy to use or are variations on software people are already familiar with to an extent. I'm 100% positive that a person who knows how to work Word 2013, will be able to work the software as service version of Word 2016. Finally there is plenty of maintenance and support for a good majority of software as a service's software from their respective companies. This even includes plenty of "fan" or homebrew support which can be found via a quick online search.
Implementation of software as a service can range from simple to needlessly tedious. For example, when downloading Microsoft 365 office suite to my computer provided by montclair state, it was a fairly easy endeavor. However when my father tried to install the same suite onto a new computer for my mother's (who is a doctor) office, there was a wide array of issues. One such issue was saying that his account was suspended from even accessing the software.
This brings me to the ultimate concern of software as a service that I illuded to earlier. This concern is that, one does not actually own the software in question. It is a paid my month subscription more inline with Netflix than anything else. This means that once you stop making payments, or any other reason the firm can limit or remove your access to the software your business needs. To cite my experience with this phenomenon, when my undergraduate subscription to microsoft 365 ended in early 2017 I found that all of my microsoft office programs were lacking key features which I used often. It was like I was working with a lobotomized version of my software with all the other functions being locked behind a paywall.
In conclusion, I agree with the consultants solution to Junk Van's problems being Software as a Service. However, I do wish that they heed my warnings regarding the negative side of Software as a Service. This goes double if the CEO of Junk Van is as It averse as he appeared to be during the meeting. If he is still unsure about software as a service, my ultimate recommendation would be to find and buy a physical copy of an older version of Microsoft office as a safeguard. Thus if anything were to happen you can quickly get back to work with an older version while getting the software as a service up and running.
I recently returned from Montreal from the meeting with Junk Van and their Information Technology consultants. The issue Junk Van was facing was regarding the need to expand their IT capabilities in order to expand their operations further. Currently they are experiencing daily processing errors such as inaccurate data, lost emails and manual calculation errors. The solution the consultants suggested was to use software as a service to provide them with the IT software required to function. Software as a service is as the name suggests software being treated as a service rather than a product. We will talk about the issues with that concept later in the memo, but for now one should focus on the positives Software as a Service. In this case, one can assume that the software in question would be similar to the microsoft office suite and google docs/drive. In this case one can view my previous post regarding which one to use between Microsoft and Google here: http://charliesitdepartment.blogspot.com/2017/05/should-we-use-google-drive.html
Right now Junk Van is not operating with any IT infrastructure or minimal IT infrastructure since they do get emails. Any small business, or even home in this day and age greatly benefits from having so. Simple software like Word or Google Docs allows for one to create a wide suite of documents ranging from flyers to well crafted written works of art. The other software like powerpoint, excel, google sheets, google slides, Access, and other software provide tools invaluable for businesses. Spreadsheet software like excel is vital for any business to operate even if it is used as a simple accounting tool.
With software as a service one would have access to any software supported by a given device. For example I can go on my iPad and access both Microsoft Word and Google Docs to type up any report. Save that report to the cloud. Then continue writing that report on my computer or even smartphone. Most of the software in question is easy to use or are variations on software people are already familiar with to an extent. I'm 100% positive that a person who knows how to work Word 2013, will be able to work the software as service version of Word 2016. Finally there is plenty of maintenance and support for a good majority of software as a service's software from their respective companies. This even includes plenty of "fan" or homebrew support which can be found via a quick online search.
Implementation of software as a service can range from simple to needlessly tedious. For example, when downloading Microsoft 365 office suite to my computer provided by montclair state, it was a fairly easy endeavor. However when my father tried to install the same suite onto a new computer for my mother's (who is a doctor) office, there was a wide array of issues. One such issue was saying that his account was suspended from even accessing the software.
This brings me to the ultimate concern of software as a service that I illuded to earlier. This concern is that, one does not actually own the software in question. It is a paid my month subscription more inline with Netflix than anything else. This means that once you stop making payments, or any other reason the firm can limit or remove your access to the software your business needs. To cite my experience with this phenomenon, when my undergraduate subscription to microsoft 365 ended in early 2017 I found that all of my microsoft office programs were lacking key features which I used often. It was like I was working with a lobotomized version of my software with all the other functions being locked behind a paywall.
In conclusion, I agree with the consultants solution to Junk Van's problems being Software as a Service. However, I do wish that they heed my warnings regarding the negative side of Software as a Service. This goes double if the CEO of Junk Van is as It averse as he appeared to be during the meeting. If he is still unsure about software as a service, my ultimate recommendation would be to find and buy a physical copy of an older version of Microsoft office as a safeguard. Thus if anything were to happen you can quickly get back to work with an older version while getting the software as a service up and running.
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