Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

Re:Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (... by nwallin on Thursday March 05, 2020 @10:00PM (#22500660)

The overwhelming majority of people who double click the Excel icon would be equally well served by sheets or localc. It's fine if you're an analyst and are more productive with Excel, but if you're the rest of us, it doesn't matter what spreadsheet app you use. For most of us, a spreadsheet is a spreadsheet and don't need anything more complicated than sum().

In most companies, it's silly to have Office installed by default for all employees. If you need it, fine, put in a request and we'll get it done.

(please note there are a few things I'm NOT saying: 1) localc or sheets are as good as Excel for all users. 2) companies should save money by never paying for Excel, even if an employee wants to use Excel. 3) all companies should follow the rule of thumb outlined in my second paragraph.)

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Re:Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (... by prepend on Friday March 06, 2020 @08:37PM (#22509111)

You’re right for creating. But many people read spreadsheets that are created by someone who needs those functions. If only 1% of spreadsheets use that function, the entire organization needs it. Training users how to double click icons is surprisingly hard. Trying to train them how to open some spreadsheets in Sheets and some Excel is a support nightmare.

Maybe I could see an argument for localc, but sheets is actually pretty costly at $50-150/year.

I think it’s fine for non-business people to just use the free sheets, but an org would have to not care about excel to use sheets for everyone.

With 365, it’s sort of a no-brainer as while it’s not as good as sheets for accessibility, if I’m going to pay $100/year/user then it’s easier to plan for 365, than sheets, I think.

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Re:Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (... by adjkant on Sunday March 08, 2020 @12:54PM (#22519038)

> Maybe I could see an argument for localc, but sheets is actually pretty costly at $50-150/year.

Where are you getting that from? I see Enterprise GSuite at $25 a user (max) and that includes mail and drive. The cost of sheets here is probably $10 or less.

It does seem like the cost is in line, but if you're already paying for Gmail/Drive or other Gsuite things then saving the office 365 cost absolutely helps and Sheets is essentially a no-cost add-on.

https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html https://products.office.com/en-us/compare-all-microsoft-offi...

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Re:Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (... by anthonypasq on Friday March 06, 2020 @10:31AM (#22504313)

i think you are severely underestimating the amount of people whose entire job is excel

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