If you were starting from scratch - which way would you go?

Hawk Tuah · 17 Oct 2013 at 13:40

We are in the process of forming a completely new company, that will be bidding for work in the near future. The four senior managers for the company currently have an iPad each, with a pop3 email account and an apple ID we've setup for them.

They've now asked me to get them laptops. I've had just one requirement stipulated by the CEO. Powerpoint. It has to work properly, and not move everything around like Powerpoint > Keynote does. They also want dropbox (or some form of cloud storage / collaboration).

So, at the moment I'm considering between three options.

Windows Laptops | Microsoft Office 365 | SkyDrive
Chromebooks | Google Drive
Macbook Airs | Dropbox | MS Office for Mac | AirWatch MDM

I've had a quick go with Google Drive - and the powerpoint I tested with it didn't render the same as in MS powerpoint.

Does anyone have any thoughts about these options, or any alternatives. Note, this is early days - and big budget solutions are not an option. Also, everthing must sync with their iPads.

OracIe · 17 Oct 2013 at 13:58

You can now get an Office 365 app for iOS - Perhaps worth a look.

Spooter · 17 Oct 2013 at 14:03

Windows Laptops | Microsoft Office 365 | SkyDrive

GhostlyPea · 17 Oct 2013 at 14:07

Spooter said:
Windows Laptops | Microsoft Office 365 | SkyDrive

1000 x this but with normal Office, unless you have a good reason to go into the cloud for the apps (based upon the point below)

Don't forget, wherever these guys go they can't guarantee they will have Internet access so don't rely on cloud storage for accessing files on the fly

- GP

m4cc45 · 17 Oct 2013 at 14:26

Windows laptops with Office 365. Skydrive would be fine as well. It depends if they're individually after cloud storage or if they want collaborative storage.

You want them to be able to work no matter where they are or on the type of connection they may or may not have.

Regarding the above I believe you can actually install the applications (needs the cloud initially) for Office on the laptop from Office 365 so this should work offline as well.

M.

Hawk Tuah · 17 Oct 2013 at 15:34

Hmm, well I've now tested out Office 365 & Skydrive, Google Docs and I've been running Dropbox myself for a couple of years.

I'll be honest - none of them are the whole package. Skydrive on iPad doesn't render Powerpoint any better than dropbox does. It is slightly better at editing than google docs though - however not enough better that you'd conceivably ever use that feature. The only benefit to 365 is that you get the office desktop applications included. Will have to do an overall price comparison against just buying office though.

I'm now thinking a different option.

Windows or Mac (doesn't really matter which) | Office | Dropbox | Airwatch

I think dropbox gives me more focused control over which devices can connect to the data, and it steer clear of taking over the whole show.