We are asked this a LOT. If you don’t know already, Office 365 is Microsoft’s next generation of the classic Office product line moved into the cloud. That means that you don’t have to purchase copies of the Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel etc) anymore. You can purchase a subscription to Office that allows you to work entirely online with web-based versions of the Office apps, or you can purchase options that let you download and run Office as a desktop application as you have always done. The advantage of the subscription model is that upgrades are included in the price, so you always have the latest and greatest versions of the Office suite available to you.
So is Office 365 the right thing for you? As with all things, the answer is “it depends”, but if you are embedded in the Microsoft world, then in all likelihood the answer is an enthusiastic yes.
What are the benefits of Office 365?
The Cloud – The biggest advantage is the cloud integration of the product line. Web versions of the applications are available anywhere on any device, so you can get access to your documents, mail, spreadsheets etc on whatever device and wherever you have an internet connection.
File Storage – If you are looking to access your documents from anywhere, you will need cloud storage of your data. Office 365 comes with OneDrive and SharePoint, which provide not only personal file storage, but also ample tools for sharing data across teams.
Video Conferencing – Office 365 comes with Skype for business. While this isn’t our first choice for conferencing tools, it is a good product and the price is certainly right.
Collaboration tools – Office 365 has several tools that are great for working with teams. Sharepoint for file sharing, Microsoft teams for group chat, Skype for video / voice calls and real time co-authoring in documents are just a few examples. See more from Microsoft here.
What are my Office 365 Options?
Office 365 for Enterprise is sold in tiers. The higher the tier, the more products and services you get. For more detail, see the Microsoft site but briefly:
- Office365 ProPlus – Web versions of the Office applications plus 1TB of OneDrive storage
- E1 – Web versions of the Office applications, 1 TB of OneDrive storage, email hosting (50GB mailboxes) plus business service apps (skype, sharepoint, Microsoft Teams, Yammer etc)
- E3 – Everything in E1 plus Downloadable versions of the Office apps, 100GB email boxes, one license covers 5 phones, 5 tablets, 5 PC’s or Mac’s per user, unlimited personal cloud storage.
- E5 – Everything in E3 plus “advanced security, analytics and voice capabilities”.
In general, we recommend E3 for most businesses, unless there is a need for some of the voice services that Microsoft provides. The “advanced security” features are nice, but there are other third party services, like Proofpoint, for example, that provide better and more comprehensive features.
Contact us at contact@silverminetechnology.com and let us help you sort through your options.