Still thinking about making the switch to Office 365? Already have Office 365 but have no idea what that really means? You have to come to the right place, join us on our series of exploring Office 365!
What is Office 365?
Office 365 is your complete office in the cloud. At its heart is Office itself—the familiar Office applications businesses use every day—now offered as a cloud service, so it’s always up to date. But Office 365 is also so much more—it gives you the ability to work from anywhere, on any device, whether you’re online or offline. It helps you do your best work, the way you want to, wherever you are. That means more powerful tools for creating content, better ways to work together, and easier ways to share.
How can Office 365 benefit my business?
Office 365 is extremely scalable, for the first time it is offering enterprise level solutions to organizations of all sizes, from online meetings, to sharing documents to business-class email. Small to medium business can benefit from the portability features, low cost, and high security cloud system.
Lets explore some of the other benefits and features:
Business-class email: Large, 50GB mailboxes that can send messages up to 25MB in size, with contacts, shared calendars, and spam and malware protection that stays up to date. Built with Exchange email technology, the leading email solution for business around the world. Use your own custom domain for your email address, connect with Outlook for fully featured offline support, and access via the web through any modern browser. Available on your PC or Mac, as well as Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices.
Online meetings: Hold scheduled or ad hoc online meetings for up to 250 participants, with screen sharing, audio and video, virtual whiteboards, polls, and shared notes. Partners and customers can fully participate through any HTML5 browser.
Online document storage and file sharing: 1TB of space in the cloud to store, backup, and easily share files. Files are accessible from almost any device, and can be synchronized offline and made available without an Internet connection.
Private social networking and collaboration: A social network that helps your company stay connected, share information across teams, and make faster, more informed decisions.
Get work done from anywhere: Wherever your people are, online or offline, they can get to—and work with—the most up-to-date versions of the files and tools they need to get things done, and on virtually any device.
Work better together—simply: Office 365 offers business-class email, shared calendars, IM, web conferencing, and access to the most up-to-date documents stored in the cloud. You can work together in real time without compromising security.
Reduce your capital expenditure: Office 365 is available as a simple monthly subscription. Avoid large up-front costs for new software while moving the cost of IT from capital to operating expense.
Be always up to date: Since Office 365 is in the cloud, it is always up to date. No patches or software upgrades necessary. Microsoft is adding new value and capabilities on a monthly basis.
Cut hardware and energy costs: Without servers to run for email, websites, and document storage, you can reduce energy costs and save by no longer purchasing new server hardware.
License per user: Simplify licensing while providing each user access to business-critical technology on 5 PCs/Macs and 5 mobile devices. Save money when compared to traditional, per-device licensing.
Scale your business quickly: Office 365 grows with you—adding a new user is as simple as buying an additional license.
Which plan should I choose?
There are three subscriptions available for small to medium size businesses that offer all of the features outlined above and more. You can consult with your IT provider or use Microsoft’s “Help me choose” tool to see which plan is the best fit for your business.
Want to learn more? Download the Microsoft Office 365 booklet below!
