The Ideas Bus: Pimping Everybody's Ideas: Look here for 50+ ideas on how to save 1,000's of dollars annually on your business costs.

Are you looking for ways to reduce your operating costs and save money on software? Maybe you're looking to enhance your productivity levels of your business? Or possibly you're looking to improve your marketing efforts and saving costs at the same time? Well, there are a lot of alternatives out there on the web to help you achieve and exceed any of these goals.

Organisation:
Are you looking to really migrate from proprietary technologies like Windows Office to using much more affordable solutions to experience huge cost savings? Try all these online applications out as I'm sure you will like them and see how easy they are to use. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your Microsoft Office:

WORD PROCESSING:
See this list of highly rated alternatives to Microsoft Word:

COMMUNICATION:
In this networked world, businesses have the ability now to shrink space and time and save costs on communications. For businesses that are looking to consolidate their communications platforms to allow their people to 'chat', 'share' and 'collaborate' with each other, these applications below will allow them to increase productivity through more efficient and effective communications. See this list of highly rated alternatives to Yahoo Instant Messenger or Hotmail's MSN:

DIGITAL STORAGE AND REMOTE ACCESS:
Are you looking to backup your files online? Then look no further than these robust and secure solutions. By uploading files online, you get to backup any work that you may have and you also get to have access from any computer connected to the web. Imagine leaving your important work at home and freeing up space on your hard drive. Simply log on to the web wirelessly or via landlines and access your files online. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your local hard drive and in-house servers:

Events:
Have an event you would like to promote to your customers and wider public? See this list of highly rated alternatives to your calendar notification application:

Mapping:
Looking to create a map for your clients to find you? Use these online mapping applications to help people find your location. They offer really extensive information from pictures of your building, your street, satellite pictures, landmarks (gas stations etc) as well as time and distance information. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your current offline map books:

Marketing:
Have you ever thought how to meet and exceed your marketing objectives using cost effective solutions on the web? See this list of highly rated alternatives to your current emailing application, brochures, offline ads:

Music:
Well, some say that music helps improve productivity especially if it's classical so I thought I'd give you guys a few links to sites to plug into. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your iPod:

Podcasting services:
In today's world with all the competition in business, it is very important that businesses know how to stand out from the crowd. Part of that process is communicating with your clients and staying in touch with them. One of these tools is podcasting. By using podcasting, businesses are enabled to develop their presence in the minds of the customers as the experts in their respective fields. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your using radio or television to push your message to your clients:

Social Networking:
If you're not social networking, your competitors are!! Join up to these social networking sites, add your friends, make new friends, meet new people and create a conversation. Build trust and bridges with people and let them understand what you do. Use these social networking services as another channel of communication to reach your clients. Always remember the golden rule, people buy from people they trust. See this list of highly rated alternatives to your normal email list of friends/family/networks etc:

Travel:
Are you looking for the best travel deal on the web? Save money for your business by looking no further than this list of highly rated alternatives to your normal list of travel sites like Expedia , Cheap Flights , or Travelocity

Good luck!!...and give this a DIGG to share the lurrrrve ;)