Is your business thinking about making the transition from the popular Microsoft Office suite to the online subscription-based Office 365? Here are a few key points to take into consideration:
Public Cloud Access
The Microsoft Office 365 suite is a hosted, online version of the traditional installed version of Microsoft Office software. It is a subscription-based SaaS (software as a service) hosted by Microsoft – that is, on the company’s gigantic public cloud service.
The main advantage of using Office 365 is the direct access to Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, which eliminates IT maintenance tasks such as patching and significantly lowers the tech support costs.
Furthermore, employees and end-users can access Office 365 and its main popular apps – Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Microsoft Office Web Apps – from any connected device, anywhere, anytime.
That said, using Microsoft’s public cloud versus the on-premises software comes with additional considerations regarding server connection availability (99.9% financially-backed uptime guaranteed by Microsoft), data security and data loss prevention. The latter can be managed through advanced security permissions.
Accessible Pricing Levels
Furthermore, the SaaS subscription gives your business quick and easy access to the above Office 365 applications and their functionality, as you want it, when you need it.
Aside from accessibility and mobility, Office 365 makes collaboration with external partners faster and more accessible than an on-premise implementation which may end up more expensive given the required infrastructure – hardware, software and resources (e.g., SharePoint).
As a result, Office 365 is competitively priced and suited to your business needs, according to the subscription level purchased and the size of your business (small business, mid-sized and enterprise).
Some subscription levels include additional storage, desktop tools and collaboration and enterprise social networking services like Yammer and Skype for business. All packages integrate OneDrive for business.
