Office 365

Published: December 8, 2011

Office 365 is all of the familiar office productivity applications – Word, Excel, email, etc – based in the cloud (on the internet) and accessed/delivered via a web browser.

In other words, all you need on your end, is a web browser and internet connection. You don’t need to buy and install applications and you never need to update or upgrade your software. Updates happen on the server – in the cloud – and are done automatically and seamlessly. Your experience is always up-to-date.

You don’t buy Office 365 and you don’t install Office 365, you subscribe to it and it is ready-to-go. Add an employee, add a subscription. No muss, no fuss and no need to add another to-do item to your IT list.

Office 365 Includes

  • Email
  • Calendaring
  • Office Applications
    • Microsoft Word
    • Microsoft Excel
    • Microsoft OneNote
    • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Websites
    • Create a central place to access all your documents and business information or a public-facing website
  • Collaboration
    • Instant Messaging
    • Online Meetings
  • Storage

Advantages of the Working in the Cloud

Office 365 offers several advantages over traditional software installations.

First, there is the reduced cost. Up front costs are lower and you can subscribe for 3 years for roughly the cost of a license for Office Professional. Additionally, hardware requirements (costs) can be significantly less than traditional hardware+software approaches.

Second, flexibility is gained. Office 365 subscriptions are per user, not per device. In other words, an individual can now access all of their applications (and documents) from any internet connected device – desktop in the office, laptop on a business trip, home PC on a snow day, kiosk at the airport.

Best of all, Office 365 is built for collaboration. Documents can more easily be “shared” with collaborators. With automated syncing, a single copy of a document, in a single location, is worked on simultaneously – no more emailing multiple copies, getting them back with changes and comments and then manually folding them back into a master copy.

For more about Office 365, or a 30-day free trial, visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365