Office365 or Open Source the better choice

A recent exchange between an Italian CIO, Stefano Bruscoli,

Municipality of Pesaro, and Microsoft has sparked some conversation
over which productivity software is more cost effective, Office365 or
Open Source.

Microsoft published a report based off of this exchange that states that
Microsoft Office 365 is 80% cheaper than alternative open source
software like OpenOffice. Despite the discovery that this statement is
slanted heavily in bias of Microsoft, what still remains to be discovered
is how much truth does this claim actually have?

What makes this claim biased?

The report that made this 80% cheaper cost claim was based off of the
15 minute loss of productivity tefa o B us olis tea
as e pe ie i g
due to problems reviewing, formatting, and having software crash
when using OpenOffice.

The catch is, these issues were simply adoption acclimation effects that
tapered off in the long-run. As the employees became more

accustomed to the software, the user count that was previously

experiencing the productivity loss dropped from 350 to a baseline of 50
employees.

Mi osofts lai of ei g heape did ot fa to i this tape ed g aph,

but instead created a projection of loss that visualized into a straight
li e o e the ou se of fi e ea s. What the o pa s a tual losses
looked more like this:

As opposed to saving on better or worse software, these numbers

reflect the difficulties that employees encounter when adopting new
software and how long it may take to completely adapt. This can often
take quite a few years because of the amount of companies that
employ vendors rather than open source software.

o, this egs the uestio , What as Mi osoft thi ki g he the

eated this epo t that ade su h a lai ? to hi h the a s e is

simple: Microsoft did not consider things in the long-term when

considering how an employee changes in their interaction with a
software over time.

So, what is the better choice in the end?

With respect to this report and the claims made by Microsoft about
being the more cost effective choice, the best choice for each company
eventually boils down to what the company needs most. But this is not
a simple catch-all to sa its up to ou . I stead hat this ea s is that
if your company absolutely depends on a software that offers full
compatibility, reliability, and vast feature options, the Office 365
subscription is likely worth the investment.

However, open source software is becoming more and more developed

by the year, with impressive management showing significant
improvements. Cost-wise, open source software can cover the
adoption costs innate in this route quite quickly. Many times this can fit
ight i to a o pa s eeds, espe iall if it is a s alle o pa
looking to break-even on their startup costs as soon as possible.

In either choice of Microsoft Office 365 or an open source software,

we can support you in your migration. Drop us a message to find out
how to go about doing this.
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/p-158305/?no_redirect
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/is-office-365-really-cheaper-than-going-open-source