You've all learned what tools you need to use to get a handle on the home office issue. Now, everyday life is returning and it's time to rethink your decisions. Because the home office thing isn't going away.
Special offer or even free of charge
Even if some of your favorite tools were just cheap or even free, SaaS services usually cost money. That is the principle of Software as a Service. Either you pay with your data, as with Google and Co, and the uncertainty of whether no one will ever access the data. Or you pay at the end of the "test period" according to usage. In most cases, you pay according to the number of users.
Actual costs
I looked at the typical user sizes of 10/25/50 and went to the price lists of the providers. I spared myself the conversion to euros. The prices are shown as dollar prices and are as of mid-June. The prices listed below are based on one year and take into account the possibly more favorable calculation by the providers.
- Zoom: Starting at 10 hosts for $199.90/month (https://zoom.us/pricing)
- Slack: $7.50/user/month (https://slack.com/pricing)
- Jira: $10.00/year (https://www.atlassian.com/purchase/product/jira-software)
- Dropbox: $18/user/month (https://www.dropbox.com/plans?trigger=nr)
| Product | 10 User | 25 User | 50 User | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom | $2,398.80 | $4,997.50 | $9,995.00 | |
| Slack | $750.00 | $1,875.00 | $3,750.00 | |
| Jira | $10.00 | $3,500.00 | $6,800.00 | |
| Dropbox | $1,800.00 | $4,500.00 | $9,000.00 | |
| sum | $4,958.80 | $14,872.50 | $29,545.00 |
Would you like a little more?
Feel free to add your other tools. For inspiration:
- a Wiki like Confluence (https://www.atlassian.com/purchase/product/jira-software?addons=conflue…)
- a Helpdesk like Zendesk (https://www.zendesk.com/product/pricing/#support)
- a Kanban-Board like Trello (https://trello.com/pricing) or
- a git-Repository like Bitbucket (https://www.atlassian.com/purchase/product/jira-software?addons=bitbuck…)?
The further challenge is then to get all the tools under one hood. That means connecting them to a central user management system. If you can't do it yourself, your IT person will certainly be happy to do it. Be fair and add the cost of this service to the list.
The bottom line is now the new annual budget you'll have to set year after year. I bet it won't get much cheaper if you stay where you are.
Free and open source software
You can save a lot of money if you use free and open source software instead. Only occasionally do you want to purchase extensions that are cheaper than if they are developed individually as services for you. In most cases, OSS makes no difference between how and with how many users you use the software.
I have compiled a small replacement list here.
Your tools are not included? Want to know how much you can actually save by using OSS? Challenge us! By the way, you'll get your digital sovereignty back.
