Usually when you think about computer giants battling it out dominance in the small business IT world you think of Microsoft and Apple. Well it’s time to add another player to the mix—Google. So much more than just a search engine, Google is determined to take on both Apple and Microsoft as the small business IT products and services company of choice for New Jersey businesses. For now, let’s compare Google Docs and Microsoft Office 2010. Which is better for business?

Google Docs

Google has its own suite of apps for small businesses, including Google Docs. Google Docs allows multiple users to collaborate on one document at a time including spreadsheets, presentations and word processing documents.

Pros of Google Docs

One of the biggest benefits of Google Docs for New Jersey businesses is that the app is accessible from any computer, tablet or mobile phone with Internet access. This makes it easy to keep employees on the road in the loop and allows the office to be anywhere. Employees don’t have to be at their desk to get work done and they don’t have to worry about transporting files from one machine to another. Since Google Docs, like the rest of the Google business suite, is 100% web-based, there is no software or hardware to buy and New Jersey business owners don’t have to worry about onsite server maintenance as much. Each user is given 1 GB for file storage on a Google server.

And since it only costs $50 per year per user, Google Docs (as part of the whole suite) is a good idea for New Jersey businesses that are just starting out and have a tight IT budget.

Cons of Google Docs

Interestingly enough, one of Google Docs weak points is that is has no offline capability. Users can’t move documents onto their desktop and can only access the documents provided they have a strong Internet connection. While most companies can usually trust in the security and stability of their Internet connection, what would happen to your business if the connection was lost for a few hours? Without the ability to work offline and on their desktops your employees would be completely immobilized, and your business with it!

Google isn’t known for having the best customer support either, relying mostly on community forums and online guides to help customers with most of their troubleshooting issues. If something goes awry with your documents it may not be an easy problem to fix!

Microsoft Office 2010

Pros of Microsoft Office 2010

Office 2010 helps save time by allowing document sharing from within Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel without having to switch applications to open a new document. This means New Jersey business owners don’t have to worry about someone not being able to open an important document during a virtual meeting. Like Google Docs, Microsoft Office 2010 allows for “co-authoring,” giving multiple users the ability to edit the same document simultaneously.

A unique feature Microsoft Office has going for it is SharePoint Workspace 2010, which allows users to take content from SharePoint sites offline and work on it from their desktop, without relying on an Internet connection.  This means that even if your small business internet connection were to fail for some reason, your employees would still manage to stay productive while your IT team got the internet back online.

Office 2010 also offers new and improved picture formatting tools, such as color saturation and artistic effects to help take your business’s visuals to the next level. And the new PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show feature lets you to present slideshows and webinars right from your desk, while your audience views the presentations live online.

Cons of Microsoft Office 2010

Without the right partner to guide you, licensing for Office 2010 can be very expensive. As is it, it is a more costly application than Google Docs and depending on how large your network is it could eat up a substantial portion of your IT budget very quickly.

While both Google Docs and Microsoft Office 2010 have their advantages, Office 2010 beats Google Docs in terms of comprehensiveness and the amount of features available. It also has the great customer support you would expect from a company that has been around for decades. For businesses that have the budget to buy the full Microsoft Office 2010 suite, it’s well worth the investment.