Savannah Networks

While on my honeymoon, a news article flew across my trusty Droid Eris phone that read “IBM says ‘I Do‘ to Firefox“.  It was exciting news that came just over a month after Google announced that it was dumping Windows company-wide.  Why was it so exciting that I actually took time off from my honeymoon to read the article?  Because two of the largest technology companies in the world have exercised their right to choose what works best for them.  Google and IBM didn’t settle for what everyone else is doing and their decisions are making them more competitive in their respective markets.

Many people don’t know about the choices that they have or how to make use of those choices.  Our goal is to help you find the right options that suit your business and make them work for you.  Here are some examples of the choices that you have.

Web Browsers: If you don’t like Internet Explorer, you can try one of these great browsers:

• Firefox: Firefox is the standard alternative to Internet Explorer.  It’s a wonderful, fast browser that does everything that you could ever ask from a browser and then some.
• Safari: Safari is Apple’s browser that is shipped with OS X.  You can also run it on Windows.
• Chrome: Chrome is Google’s browser and, by far, our favorite.  It’s new, fast, and very flexible.  It almost makes using the Internet fun.  It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
• Opera: Opera is a neat browser that’s trying to become the end-all solution to all of your web browsing needs.  It runs on nearly every operating system available and on your smart phone.

Office Suite: If you’re tired of paying for Microsoft Office, you might want to give one of these applications a spin around the block.  They’re not perfect but they get the job done and they’re free.

• Open Office: OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
• Lotus Symphony: Lotus Symphony is IBM’s office suite.  It’s also free and it runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  It’s the only office suite that we use.

Information Sharing: If you’ve ever attended a meeting where every attendee has a different copy of the same spreadsheet or word document with different information on each copy, you know how important information sharing is.  There are applications that solve that problem!  Before you invest in Microsoft Sharepoint or another ridiculously expensive solution, you might want to check out these applications instead.

• Mediawiki: Mediawiki is the software that runs wikipedia.org.  It’s fantastic software that enables basic knowledge transfer with only a few bells and whistles.  If your organization is largely flat or you don’t have strict requirements on knowledge sharing, Mediawiki is fantastic.  The best part is that it’s free!
• Confluence: Confluence is the best knowledge sharing tool available today.  It’s an enterprise grade tool that we use every day and we’ve also implemented at multi-billion dollar companies with thousands of employees.  Once configured, Confluence makes knowledge sharing easy while enforcing your company’s data privacy rules and regulations flawlessly.  Confluence does cost money but it’s worth every penny.  If your organization has less than ten employees, you can purchase a 10-user license for $10.  If you’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Confluence is free.

Project Management: Project Management can be one of the biggest hassles in business.  Those of us that work with project managers know that we couldn’t live without them.  However, we could all live without some of the organizational tools that they use.  The spreadsheets!  The Microsoft Project files that we can’t open without buying MS Project!  If you live with this frustration every day, check out these applications:

• Open Proj: Open Proj is a free, open source project management application that’s on par with Microsoft Office.  We’ve used it for years and love it!  The best feature is its cost.  Everyone can install Open Proj at no cost and easily read project plans with no problems!
• Base Camp: Base Camp is a fantastic web-based project management tool that will help keep your entire team on the same page.  Since the tool is web based, you don’t have to worry about installing software on all of your computers or losing your project plans.  Base Camp pricing starts at $24/month and you can sign up for a free trial to make sure that it will work for you.

Non-Profit Management: If you’re a non-profit organization, you probably already know how expensive software can be.  In many cases, the software that you need costs more than your yearly budget.  Here are some applications that can help you without breaking the bank.

• CiviCRM: If you’ve looked at Blackbaud’s Raisers Edge software, you know how expensive constituent management and fundraising software can be.  CiviCRM is a free, web-based, open source application that provides most — if not all — of the tools that you need to manage donors, fundraising campaigns, and much more.  You can access a demo of the software here.
• Coordinated Youth: Coordinated Youth is a managed application service that helps youth-focused non-profit organizations manage cases and programs as well as generate standardized reports for donors and government agencies.  Coordinated Youth can be used over the Internet or it can be run on a computer in your office.