Optimal Office Suite for Large Enterprises

Article created by Gemini, published 9th February 2024 [2nd draft]

DISCLAIMER & PREMISE

This article has been almost entirely written by Google Gemini A.I., and I just checked it on the basis of my limited experience of using and keeping running a large company Office Suite system. Hence, it is published here as an usage example of Gemini for a quite challenging task rather than a trustworthy guide for taking a decision about this subject. Also, Gemini closed its answer with similar advice.

No guarantee: check with your IT department before making a choice or a change. Moreover, check with your employees among your different departments because not all of them are working with documents in the same manner, method, style or are in need of full compatibility with Microsoft documents.

In some specific cases, you might be surprised to discover that TexMaker (or a similar editor for LaTeX) is their preferred choice for publishing R&D or scientific papers. Moreover, we might agree or argue that Open Source solutions are more or less a suitable solution, but for sure, adopting a strictly Open Format policy as per default will let your company easily change in the future (vendor lock-in mitigation) and facilitate collaboration with those companies that made a different choice than yours.

For all public administrations, the Open Format policy should be considered a MUST even if your domestic law does not impose it. In fact, no citizen should refrain from freely accessing public documentation produced with their own tax money, for whatever reason.

Prompt

Compare OpenOffice, Microsoft office 365 and OnlyOffice for large business.

In the following the words written in italic font are those replace or added or by the human author. No any removal have did take place, instead.

Selecting the Optimal Office Suite for Large Enterprises

Choosing the right office suite for a large enterprise requires a meticulous evaluation of several critical factors: budget, security posture, existing infrastructure, feature requirements, and user adoption potential.

A Comparative Analysis

Here's below a comprehensive comparison of OpenOffice, Microsoft Office 365, and OnlyOffice [3] to empower your informed decision-making.

OpenOffice Strengths:

Cost-efficiency: freely available, eliminating licensing fees, ideal for budgetary constraints.
Cross-platform Compatibility: seamless operation across Windows, macOS, Linux, and other platforms, ensuring adaptability.
Offline Accessibility: basic functionality remains available even without an internet connection, fostering flexibility. [2]

OpenOffice Limitations:

Feature Scope: a more limited feature set compared to its counterparts, potentially restricting advanced workflows.
Development Pace: slower development cycles and fewer cutting-edge features may hinder innovation.
Collaboration Capabilities: less robust collaborative tools might impede teamwork efficiency.
Support Structure: no official support exists, relying on online communities for assistance.

Microsoft Office 365 Strengths:

Market Standard: familiar applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook ensure user comfort and adoption. [1]
Feature Expansiveness: extensive features and functionalities cater to diverse business needs.
Deployment Flexibility: options for cloud-based or on-premises deployment suit various IT strategies.
Security and Compliance: robust security and compliance features bolster your data protection posture. [1]
Collaborative Suite: excellent real-time co-editing and collaboration tools enhance teamwork productivity.
Dedicated Support: direct support from Microsoft guarantees assistance and troubleshooting. [1]
Copilot AI assistance: it provides value by connecting LLMs to your organizational data. [4]

Microsoft Office 365 Limitations:

Subscription Costs: subscription-based pricing model can accrue significant expenditures for large organizations.
Vendor Lock-in: proprietary file formats raise potential vendor lock-in concerns.
Internet Dependency: cloud-based features require a reliable internet connection for optimal functionality. [2] [4]

OnlyOffice Strengths:

Cost-Effectiveness: more affordable than Microsoft 365, offering diverse pricing models to fit budgets.
Deployment Options: loud, on-premises, and self-hosted deployment options provide flexibility. [2]
Format Compatibility: good compatibility with Microsoft Office formats eases file transitions.
Collaborative Focus: real-time co-editing and collaboration features promote teamwork efficiency.
Security Emphasis: Strong security and data privacy features offer peace of mind. [1]

OnlyOffice Limitations:

Brand Recognition: less established brand compared to Microsoft, potentially requiring user training.
Feature Comprehensiveness: feature set not as extensive as Microsoft 365, potentially limiting certain workflows.
Third-Party Integrations: limited third-party integrations compared to Microsoft, possibly restricting ecosystem integration.

General Additional Considerations:

Software Integration: ensure seamless integration with existing systems and tools for optimal workflow.
Scalability: select a solution that can expand alongside your growing business needs. [2]
Data Security: prioritize a suite with robust security features and data privacy practices. [1]
User Training: assess the training needs of your employees to facilitate a smooth transition.

Recommendation:

OpenOffice: best suited for cost-conscious businesses with basic office needs and minimal emphasis on collaboration features.
Microsoft Office 365: ideal for large organizations requiring extensive features, robust security [1], and seamless collaboration within the established Microsoft ecosystem.
OnlyOffice: a compelling option for cost-conscious businesses seeking an alternative to Microsoft, offering a balance between affordability, features, and collaboration capabilities.

Ultimately, the optimal choice hinges on your unique business requirements and priorities. Consider conducting trials with each solution before making a final decision to ensure the best fit for your enterprise landscape.

NOTE

These notes have been entirely written by the human author, except for #4, where the text has been taken from the Microsoft website.

We may agree or not that Microsoft Office 365 is safe, safer, or the safest solution to adopt in terms of cyber-security but, for sure, because it is the most widely spread Office Suite, especially in large companies, this implies that discovering a day-0 bug or exploit on it in order to access or alter information by malicious third parties or attackers is worth much more than a similar discovery for every other Office Suite. In particular, that value is not as simple as linear but more than linear, tendentiously exponential like the #1 - the market leader's {fees, prices, revenues} charts usually show. This also means that your company's IT department will need to stay safe {posture, updates, alert, etc.} much more even if Office 365 is adopted with the Azure cloud, which - for the reasons expressed above - tends to be a must as long and as much Microsoft provides security fixes and support (aka dedicated support in the list above).
Data availability is partially included in cyber-security but completely contained in it, or written in other words: data availability intersects cyber-security and vice versa. For example, data availability can depend on Internet or private network availability. A rat that eats and cuts a cable is not a typical cyber-security threat but a risk that should be mitigated by Risk Management which is a broader area of intervention and planning than the two above. For example, adopt two physically separated connections from two different network operators and join the two backbones into a single virtual network stub. Moreover, while cyber-security is mainly focused on protecting data from unauthorised access, modification, or corruption from internal and external attackers - the data availability is about business continuity, or sometimes Reputation Management. For some data, it is better to lose them rather than be disclosed, especially publicly disclosed while usually it is the opposite. In fact, an industrial secret, even if unauthorizedly leaked, is still protected by law in some fashion. While some data leaks are going to damage the reputation in a way that is not easy to quantify in a short or longer period of time. For example, a recent EU law establishes that public administrations are responsible for paying damages due to an information leak, whether the damage is proved or not, and they are on duty to prove that no damage happened because of the leak. Moreover, some information is not reputation-sensitive by itself, but it might be in the future when combined with other leaks or other information. In practice, this has a strong impact on storage and safety policies. Usually, passwords offer a weak protection level, but they are easy to adopt, use and reset. On the contrary, other forms of safe storage might lead to a data loss event rather than unauthorised access. As you can imagine, this implies a not-so-banal trade-off between security and availability. Another data availability risk is about the cloud, which is usually is completely driven by a third-party company and accessed under a B2B contract. Finally, data availability is also about the format in which that data has been stored, and in this case, the vendor lock-in is the peak of the iceberg about the data format.
OnlyOffice Community Server - A free open source office suite with business productivity tools: document and project management, CRM, mail aggregator.
Microsoft Copilot Data Security and Privacy - <<When a user interacts with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps (such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Loop, or Whiteboard), we store data about these interactions. The stored data includes the user's prompt, how Copilot responded, and information used to ground Copilot's response. For example, this stored data provides users with Copilot interaction history in Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat and meetings in Microsoft Teams. This data is processed and stored in alignment with contractual commitments with your organization’s other content in Microsoft 365. The data is encrypted while it's stored and isn't used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.>>