As many of you know we do a lot of events, public appearances and posts about Office 365. Recently I had a colleague in a different industry ask me this question: “Why do you guys do so many things concerning Office 365? Don’t people know what the Office suite is and can’t they install it on their own?” I was getting ready to go into my normal spiel and then I quickly realized that he’s not the only person asking that question.
Office 365 IS for Business! I realized that we never really made it clear that we were talking about Office 365 for Business in all of our marketing efforts. Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to market to the masses by using the Office 365 moniker but it quickly confused people on what the actual product is. There are many varieties of Office 365. Yes Office 365 for Business can include the Office suite but the real power behind it is the Email, Cloud File Sharing and Collaboration as well as the Video Conferencing and Instant Messaging component.
So what exactly is Office 365 for Business you may ask? It’s a suite of products that levels the playing field for small companies and helps to reduce costs, storage issues and administration nightmares for larger companies. The suite includes:
Business Class Email via Exchange Online– Yes this is the same Microsoft Exchange product that large enterprises have been using for decades. The benefit for small companies is that it provides you the same email solution (Microsoft Exchange) that large enterprises use for a tiny fraction of the cost. Your email, contacts, calendar and tasks will synchronize across all of your devices seamlessly. For larger companies it can help to reduce the amount of data you have on-site that you have to back-up and be accountable for as well as eliminating the burden of managing Exchange servers.
Online File Sharing and Collaboration via SharePoint Online- Yes this is the same SharePoint that Fortune 500 companies use internally for File Sharing, Document Management and Collaboration. Now companies of all size can use it out of the box as an Intranet Portal, a place to share documents, a way to collaborate with external users or partners and a way to synchronize documents across devices.
Corporate Instant Messaging and Video Conferencing– Lync Online is a hosted service that lets you connect with others through instant messaging (IM), video calls, and online meetings. Large and small companies can benefit from real time instant messaging or video calls. You can have employees working from anywhere and still stay in touch as if they are in the next room!
So I understand that this is now starting to sound like a sales pitch but I wanted to make sure people are aware of what the product really is. This is one of the fastest growing products for Microsoft and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. It’s definitely a benefit to any business and at costs starting at only $4 per user per month, it’s almost a true No Brainer.
See Post On Linked In here
