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The 'Back Office'
- There are free alternatives to Windows and MS-Office, and these can be more secure, can be licence free and reuse older hardware (that otherwise would be recycled) e.g. Open Office for Windows, Open Office for LinuxOpen Office for Linux, Google Docs etc. just as there are many alternative to MS-Outlook or Internet Explorer as I am sure you know,
- Especially useful if all you do is Word, Excel, email and browse
- E.g. try installing Ubuntu and Open Office on an old PC
- Consider using online ‘cloud’ storage for sharing/team use, archive and capacity e.g. Google Workspace and tools, OneNote, but there are lots of others. Information is then always available to whoever needs it from anywhere on most devices. You are not restricted to the office PC.
- Network and share scanners and printers to minimise how many you have or need or have to buy different inks for etc
Other tools I have found useful:
- Mind mapping software (mind mapping is a technique once used is never put down) https://simplemind.eu
Do you make regular backups and is one of them offsite, and/or in a safe or at a very minimum on a separate (removable) hard drive?
Backups: “Lots of copies in lots of different places keeps stuff safe” (locks). Do not be afraid of hard drives – the cloud is not necessarily the only solution – but P.S. hard drives do fail.