This article is more than 1 year old

Think twice before moving to SaaS office

Benefits available, but must do homework

Reg Reader Study We all have enough scars to remember that when it comes to core email and office productivity capabilities, migrations are never as easy as they seem. So when SaaS vendors claim that they can magically make things cheaper and simpler we know that it may not be quite that smooth in practice. So what's the real deal when it comes to Office and Email in the SMB space?

We rolled out a study last year that asked how you use email and office tools, and how you go about providing the supporting applications and servers to your workforce.

You told us that email is a vital enabler of the important business processes that keep the money coming in and paying the wages of the workforce. Despite SaaS vendors claiming that migrating email over to them is simple and convenient, the reality is that moving to a different provider of email is seen as a major hurdle.

You also said that things aren't all that bad when it comes to what you've already got in place, although as usual things could always do with being a bit better. What most are after is gentle evolution rather than a bold revolution in how email and office is provided.

But users are increasingly demanding anytime, anywhere access to email and documents. And with more employees working remotely the pace of change is starting to increase. Many respondents are starting to use advanced collaboration and conferencing, which they have to pull together from multiple suppliers – hampering integration and ease of use.

Tying everything together is where SaaS office can offer advantages, with more advanced services able to be provisioned at the touch of a button rather than requiring complex integration. However, adopting them requires balancing the migration and user experience requirements.

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