I’ve a need for a new piece of business software which is Windows based. I’ll be wanting to run it on my MAC.
If I install Fusion 5 / Parallels will said new software simply work or will I also be needing to procure Windows OS as well (pretty sure I will need the windows OS as well, seems logical)
Or, might it run in my Windows Office for MAC, which I do have installed?

Oh and, experiences, please on running either Fusion or Parallels – is it all straightforward?
(I’m really, really rubbish with computers… but, you guessed that already…)

You’ll need to install Windows in a virtual machine first. Virtualbox can do this and is free, no need to spend on Parallels.

Parallels / VMWare both work very well. Free alternatives may also work – but I’ve never really used in anger. I’m currently running on a Mac using Parallels to run a Win7 and a WinXP virtual machine and it’s working a treat. You will need a version of windows to install.

I believe that VMWare/Parallels have better integration with the Mac OS than the free options as well as better performance- but as I said, I have not used them so can’t really offer much advice.

Office for Mac is pretty good really. If you have it anyway, I’d see how you get on with it. We use a fair few plugins for Excel which don’t work for the Mac version – but if you’re not doing anything too exotic they should work fine.

Edit –
Just thought I’d clarify you’ll need windows to install – and then Office for Windows as well.

And to answer one of your questions – setting the thing up is very easy – put the windows disk in the drive, start parallels (or whatever) and tell it to install windows. Pretty much looks after itself then.

I use Parallels to run windows and also some custom Linux stuff on my mac and it all runs really well.

The coherence mode is really good for using apps that only run in windows without having to swap into a windows OS all the time.

I run Parallels on my MBA for a couple of windows programs – SigmaPlot and SPSS, which can’t be had in Mac form. In coherence mode it is (almost) like running them natively, but for a few points:

1) Some software (and you!) can occasionally get confused between cmd and ctrl for keyboard shortcuts
2) I have had some issues copy/pasting between SigmaPlot and OSX software e.g. graphs into a document. Not such an issue as I have to export in EPS for publications anyway so I just insert the EPS into the word document. Copying data between Excel in OSX and seems to work though.
3) OSX only sees parallels as one program, so alt+tab / f3 only yields one parallels window with all your windows programs in – could be annoying if you’re using two windows programs and an OSX program simultaneously. I get round this by using multiple desktops.

You will need a valid copy of Windows too though (and an upgrade won’t do), so it can get pricey…