Everyone knows instant messaging and unified communication solutions can save you money, but I find the above statement a bit ironic, considering Microsoft’s pricing model. Only yesterday I spoke at a small gathering of hi-tech and SMB executives about collaboration at a start-up company – how you can save money by opting IBM over Microsoft. My post ‘Now’s the time to deploy IM‘ is also a great reference on this issue. Today Microsoft Israel CFO told a larger gathering of SMB executives that UC is the 2nd IT solution (out of 3) that can help mitigate the current economic crisis and decrease expenses.
First off I’m glad to hear Microsoft is doing what it can to help local businesses. These are tough times, and any executive needs to have some action plan in place to navigate the coming 3-9 months. Nevertheless, I hope customers, when evaluating IT spending, are looking more closely at the numbers, rather than the product logo. Here’s a slide that will help:
Lotus have an excellent, open standards, desktop solution that features:
messaging, basic collaboration and document mgmt., instant messaging, office productivity editors, mobile access, application development, SQL and SAP integration, Eclipse based and Domino server – for $201-$338 for user, depending on your OS.
If it’s only IM you want, Lotus Sametime can run on both Lotus Notes and or Microsoft Outlook, starting at $21 for user. More information about IBM’s award winning IM solution can be found here.
So, how much are you paying for your desktop?
PC.co.il – Microsoft CFO: Leasing can save up to 30%; recession is the best time to invest in IT (Hebrew)
Image: Microsoft vs. Lotus – Desktop components
