Office 365 is a suite of products offered by Microsoft “in the cloud” as a service. Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and Office 2010 are all part of this online service. Microsoft delivers these products via the Internet and is therefore responsible for the installation, management, maintenance, and security of these services. Instead of, for example, installing and maintaining an Exchange mail server yourself, you can use Exchange Online.
Packages are available for small, medium, and large businesses. The smaller packages are suitable for businesses with up to 50 users. By signing up for the larger plans, you can grant access to more employees. You’ll also get additional features such as Active Directory synchronization, email archiving, SharePoint sites, and Office Pro licenses for editing files offline.
Individual products or a complete suite?
Office 365 is a suite. Which services or applications are actually used depends on the suite selected. In addition, it is possible to purchase the various services separately.
Trial Period
Office 365 distinguishes between two types of users: so-called knowledge workers, who need access to all services, and kiosk users, who can use a more limited version of the various services.
Microsoft has extended the trial period for its Office 365 bundle for small businesses from 30 to 90 days. The new package is available for testing through the end of February 2013 and will be known as Plan P1. It allows you to store your email in the cloud, share calendars, and collaborate on files. After the trial period, you’ll need to switch to the full version of the product.
Also available on mobile
A mobile version of Microsoft Office for iPhone, iPad, and Android will be available in 2013. With Office Mobile, you’ll be able to view Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files for free on your mobile device. Office 365 subscribers will also be able to edit these files, but only basic edits such as changing text and performing simple calculations will be available. For more features, you’ll still need to use the full desktop version or the online Web version of the Office suite.
Office or Office 365—what's the difference?
Office is software (including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and OneNote) that is installed on your desktop or laptop computer. Office 365 is a subscription service that gives you online access to email, shared calendars, documents, chat, web meetings, a public website for your business, and internal team sites—all accessible from virtually any device with a browser and internet access.
Customers who have Office 2010 installed on their computers can reconfigure their software to use Office 365.
Put the puzzle together
You can therefore customize Office 365 entirely to your liking, depending on which features you want to offer your employees. Be sure to learn more about the various options available in each package. Alistar is happy to help you put the puzzle together.
