Since we have Google Workspace accounts for our staff and contractors we also have access to Google Chat, a worthy replacement for Slack. After 10 years of Slack use we will be sunsetting our Slack workspace and migrating our work and client interactions into Google Chat, saving over $1,000 per year.
We have decided to move away from Formstack and integrate forms with Ninja Forms in our WordPress-powered website.
We downgraded to 1 Zoom account used for Hero calls, and use Google Meet much more often. Zoom will be cancelled this year as well.
The new Google Calendar Appointment Scheduler supports Stripe now (Since June 2023) and as a result we will be sunsetting Appointlet.
Slack + Formstack + Canva + Zoom + Appointlet sunsetting will achieve about $3000 in yearly software savings.
NewPath has adopted a few new software packages including Make.com, Postman, Notion and Yoast for our development efforts and collaboration efforts. To pay our cross-border US-based contractors we are using a very useful foreign exchange system called AscendantFX that allows us to save money on USD<->CAD<->EUR currency exchanges. We still continue to use the tools below actively.
In 2020, NewPath Consulting spent just a tad over $6,000 CAD (about $4,600 USD) for SaaS products. The top SaaS in terms of cost were Formstack, Slack, Mad Mimi and Zoom. These 4 products accounted for almost 70% of our yearly technology spend. This is not surprising because all 4 products are integral to our efforts to sell to our prospects and service our customers.
