Looking for Free Business Productivity Software? Here are Two Great Options

Running a business in today’s times is not an easy thing to do. Operating costs are hitting the roof without any corresponding rise in level of business opportunities. In such a time, anything and everything one can do to save money is always welcome. One of the most important costs for any business concerns the software it uses. And when considering the different functions of any business, buying software for each of them is a hefty proposition. The two software products described below, however, are not only feature rich but are also free.

software

LibreOffice

Quite easily the most common piece of software used across different businesses, the Office Suite is a very important software that can costs a bomb to purchase (Are you listening Microsoft?). Sure, there are plenty of alternatives out there in the market for Office Suite with many being free as well. But the biggest gripe with those alternatives is the compatibility factor. Newer versions of MS Office Suite save their files in formats ending with an ‘x’, which causes office suites from other players to render those files improperly. Many times, MS Office saved files refuse to open in other office suites.

libreoffice-3.6

However, LibreOffice is a very able replacement for MS Suite. And although there are some differences in appearance when LibreOffice is used to open an Excel spreadsheet, the latter’s Writer app does as good a job as MS Office. Also, LibreOffice opens ‘.docx’ files seamlessly albeit there could be some formatting problems with more elaborate documents. It is recommended that before switching to LibreOffice, you should re-save all your newer ‘.docx’ files to ‘.doc’ ones or even ODF and RTF formats.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Security software is yet another aspect that most businesses should not compromise on. There are some very good anti-virus programs out there that also provide firewall features. However, most of them cost quite a bit. Microsoft’s Security Essentials, as such, makes for a fine alternative.

Microsoft-Security-Essentials

There are two parts to this in-house security software from Microsoft. Before Windows 8 arrived, all Windows versions had an app named Windows Defender, which was basically an anti-spyware. That app lacked virus tracking capabilities, which was accomplished by the Security Essentials app instead. However, Microsoft has chosen to combine the two and create a single anti-virus app for Windows 8 known as, Windows Defender.

Sure, Microsoft’s Security Essentials is not the most ideal AV software that businesses need but it still is a very good option and on top of that, is completely free. The app is capable enough of providing basic protection. Having said that, do not expect the app to function in the manner other AVs do.

Both these programs have their limitations but with minor workarounds and adjustments, you could save your business significant amounts of money.

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