Elegant. Simple. A revolution is coming to Microsoft. Its name? Microsoft Office 365 2013 Edition.
The features of the new system make it the best cloud productivity solution in the Industry.
Microsoft Office 365 with Office 2013 is a software suite that works equally well on the Mac as it does on a Windows PC.
One Microsoft Office 365 account can be installed on up to five computers, so multiple users can share Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac data.
Mobile computing works great on every kind of phone. The new version may even boast live video chat on mobile, which we will test out in this series.
Anything a business wants to accomplish can be completed with these tools.
Influential think tank Forrester Research says that the Office 365 cloud model provides a far lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) when compared to a traditional on-site installation of the same options.
Microsoft Office 365 2013 Edition is user-friendly whether you have a PC, Mac or Phone.
From a compliance standpoint, Office 365 services offers a 99.97% Financially-Backed Uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA).
New Office 365 2013 Preview Table of Contents
Starting with this introduction, there are three more sections which will showcase the most salient aspects of the new technology in a logical format. We are testing this new system out starting today, and the categories below will fill up as we complete our testing and research and fill in the categories. As of today we are starting with expected archetypal categories, but as we learn more these will change and grow from time to time.
According to news sources including Neowin.net, Microsoft Office 365′s new edition will be released on January 29.
In previous articles, we have covered what new features are going to be available in the new edition in-depth from a technical standpoint, including the ability to program custom SharePoint applications using a number of common languages very familiar to developers. However these technical aspects are beyond the scope of this article, because the interests of our readers are the actual business uses for the new technologies including new functionality and its business impact.
Rumors have abounded for weeks, including speculation by highly respected Microsoft Reporter Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet and bloggers from Brazil. Originally, speculation was that the planned Microsoft launch on January 29 would be about the release of Windows 8 Phone operating system and equipment in countries like Brazil where they were not yet available. However, when speaking to our contacts in Brazil we were told that Microsoft was not in the habit of launching their new phone technologies directly in Brazil and other countries directly, but rather left these launches to their individual distributors in these countries. There was also the possibility of a launch of Surface Pro, so that was another reason to wait with the announcement of what the launch was about. We saw no benefit to announcing a launch without being certain of the content and impact for the end users. This author has been eagerly awaiting announcing this because of the new capabilities of Microsoft Office 2013 as well as new functionality in Microsoft Lync and SharePoint. However we have waited until we had more confirmation, and this came some ten hours ago.
We at the Web and I have been assured by Microsoft that all of the technologies and techniques available in the previous version of Office 365 would remain intact. Existing business processes will not be interrupted or affected. As a further safeguard for the proper and effective management of change in client organizations, the upgrade will not become mandatory until November. After the upgrade, new technologies and techniques will be available, but the Web and I can help with any re-training for changes and ensuring the continuity of existing business processes and workflows.
New technologies in SharePoint include the ability to create programs within SharePoint include both features for internal SharePoint intranet and extranet sites as well as the ability to create much more sophisticated public facing sites. That is just the tip of the iceberg, however, with Java and CSS becoming available, both branding and functional capabilities will increase. The Web and I will be helping many of our clients transition to sites that can help them create effective client portals, easing the workflow and communications between businesses and their clients. Minimal development costs will deliver tremendous ROI on this front. New business connectivity service capabilities in SharePoint will allow interfaces both inbound and outbound with SharePoint, making SharePoint the glue that binds newer and more streamlined business processes, saving a great deal of time and money on the way. Search improvements, improved Identity Management functionality, and granular security for content management will round out the most exciting new aspects of SharePoint 2013. Social computing for the workplace has also improved, but the utilization in the workplace is more applicable to larger enterprise users than to small and medium businesses. Our larger government clients such as Hunter College may be good candidates for increased use of social computing through SharePoint, but discussions on this matter have not yet commenced.
Lync has some exciting new developments which will greatly increase the functionality both for secure enterprise IM and for meetings with multiple users. A “Brady Bunch” style meeting will be possible, where all members of a meeting will be able to see all other members of a meeting tiled on their screens much as they did on the television show from the 1970′s. Unlike the show, however, they will be able to simultaneously edit the same document using Office Web Apps. Sporting a cleaner and more efficient interface with less “Chrome”, Lync will become easier to see and control as well as gaining these new functionalities. Persistent chat rooms and topics can be created, which can help smaller teams collaborate more effectively, even in disparate locations with disparate working hours. Asynchronous communication has become increasingly important in the global workforce, and Microsoft has given businesses greater potential for effective global expansion with these tools. Tabbed conversations will enable users to communicate more effectively with multiple users by allowing them to do so in one window with tabs instead of the usual many windows of the current edition of Lync. New video features including one-click start will be available, which is an excellent tool for managers to maintain a presence with their direct reports in disparate locations. Lync layouts will have many more options than they do now, and we will report on these once we get to test them. Lync mobile users will have added functionality including the possibility of video chat. No longer will employees be inaccessible anywhere, as long as they are provided with a Windows phone.
Exchange Server 2013 also holds great new possibilities for making the use of E-Mail more efficient. New built-in social features will allow users to have better control over conversations and related E-Mails, which will save users a great deal of time by not forcing them to continually search E-Mail for related items and persons. Users will be able to merge contacts from different E-Mail addresses so that they can be consolidated into a single contact, saving a great deal of time and confusion in the process. The great new streamlined look of Outlook will also save users time, so employers will benefit from less time being wasted on employee navigation of E-Mail, which is currently a serious cause of wasted time and money. Seamless integration with Lync will bring E-Mail, meetings, and Enterprise IM together in one place, saving even more employee time and effort. In addition to these time savings, we anticipate there will be a great savings in worker frustration. Often worker frustration with technology both new and existing leads to poor performance, and having a more seamless and well-designed interface and functional approach will lead to happier and more productive workers.
We at the Web and I are ready to help make this change happen for you starting in as little as ten days. Being the first Microsoft Partner in the United States to announce this detailed news helps set us ahead of the crowd. We want to help all of our clients make the best decisions, and we will discover with you on your own time what works and does not work for you. To find out more just call us today at 646-853-0573.
The University of California, Merced selected Microsoft Office 365 for their business productivity and E-Mail needs. The full complement of 8500 faculty, students and staff will be migrated in 2013. According to implementor CloudBearing, “After evaluating Office 365 for education versus Google Apps, the UC Merced team indicated in a report that it preferred Office 365 for email, calendaring and collaboration. The campus will be rolling out 25 GB mailboxes for everyone; a modern calendaring system that directly integrates with mobiles devices, Outlook and the Web; SharePoint for document management and file sharing; and Lync which provide enterprise-grade instant messaging, audio/video conferencing and whiteboard capabilities.”
The fact is that businesses and educational institutions are familiar with and trained in Outlook and the Microsoft Office suite, and any perceived gains from embracing alternative platforms is lost when you have no user acceptance of the new platform you have worked so hard for and paid so much to implement. People like the familiar, and managing change is already going to have to involve both technical guidance of how to work collaboratively as well as business process analysis and re-engineering.
Many companies, educational institutions, NGO’s, foundations, businesses and government agencies are worried about compliance.The fact is that legal compliance for businesses including SEC regulations, Sarbanes Oxley are covered. Government agencies in the United States will be pleased to know that the GSA has specified that Office 365 and related Microsoft Cloud products are legally compliant for government agencies. Healthcare organizations and medical research foundations enjoy the benefits of built-in HIPAA compliance. ISO 9000 compliance for up-time rounds off the list with 99.97% up-time guaranteed by a financially backed Service Level Agreement (SLA) which refunds customers in the event of an outage. Microsoft Office 365 is continually backed-up, but the Web and I can assist you with additional backup methods on-site including hybrid on-site off-site co-existence.
When you tell your Information Technology people that you are ready to go to the Cloud, their reaction is one of terror. They are interested in working by waiting around for malfunctions, not providing new usability and change management. The fact is that the maintenance of servers, the licensing of the software, and the technical assistance provided by Microsoft to solve any and all problems can make most of an organization’s IT staffing costs disappear. The cloud solutions typically cost less than the ancillary services. Any IT staff that is needed are functional problem solvers, teachers, advocates, and business engineers. The Functional Engineers must have large project completed with a management-level role before taking on your project. Your project is not the place for your engineer to learn, you need seasoned veterans.
Today, responsible implementation involves Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, which specify the best proven ways to make your implementation work as it should. Accepted project management techniques, metrics, software testing, usability testing, and employee training all serve to make sure the best use is made of your new system. We at the Web and I take care of keeping up with the latest not only in technology but also in the best practices for our industry. We know how to make Microsoft Office 365, Dynamics CRM and related technologies work for your institution. Call us at (646) 853-0573 for a complementary consultation with a knowledgeable professional.
This project is intended to provide a secure intranet environment for the multiple offices of Your Corporation with the features of secure services including zones for document collaboration, E-Mail with Exchange, remote PC access from tablets, and the ability to have multiple users collaborate on the same documents simultaneously. Corporate instant messaging and online meetings are also desired features. In short, an environment should be created on local servers in one office and be usable by the other offices. Security considerations include a secure locked area for servers at least consisting of a lockable server cabinet for access control and removable drives. Removable drives should be consistent in size and type across all servers so that they can be changed without powering down the servers. The parity information on the drives should allow for rebuilding of information on a freshly inserted drive. Two load-balanced web servers with firewalls will serve as application servers. Additionally, a firewall appliance can act as a second level of firewall protection. The firewall appliance should be a Linux-based model with statefull packet inspection, because this is a complementary firewall strategy to that of Windows. This strategy has been successfully used by clients including NYU School of Medicine and our own offices. The servers needed are: Lync Server 2012, Lync Edge Server 2012, SQL Server, Exchange Server 2012, Office Web Apps Server 2012, IIS Web Server (A component of Microsoft Server 2012), and SharePoint Server 2013. Using the most recent products will bring You in line with the upgrades for Office 365 scheduled tentatively for the end of December 2012. Investing in the latest technology has risks involved with using the newest technology including undiscovered performance issues. As an alternative, the earlier versions of the software can be purchased and used. Backup will be relegated to a dedicated appliance that provides continual automated backup, one backup appliance for each server. These appliances can be carried away from the premises if needed just as easily as the removable hard drives.
Martin Low of the Web and I, Inc. is available to serve as the functional lead and project manager, and he is working from his office to select experts for an installation and integration by technical experts in each server type which can take place over two days convenient to Your Company on that weekend Mr. Low will configure SharePoint, oversee technical staff, clean up the contact list for the Exchange Global Address List, and assign security roles to users at Your Company
Following installation, Mr. Low will initiate training operations at the pleasure of Your Company He can initiate training in the main office in the first week and can provide additional training at other offices in person or through web meeting. In person training is recommended, but the wishes of Your Company will prevail.
Your Company has expressed a concern with server maintenance including software and hardware maintenance hours and expenses. Software maintenance can be had through technical experts in the individual server products by remote access or in person locally from an area accessible to Katonah. We recommend using local resources for increased security. Maintenance of the servers from a mechanical standpoint has a few possible approaches. The Web and I is experienced in the sourcing and construction of quality servers brand new from parts. The advantage to this is the lower costs of the servers Your Company needs to purchase. However the Web and I can also purchase the necessary servers from Dell at a discount through Dell Outlet. The advantage of using Dell for critical equipment is that Dell has service plans that guarantee on-site service including any needed parts all included in low-cost annual plans. The Web and I, Inc., despite our ability to make our own computers also chooses to use Dell because of the security our organization needs for the computers which run our mission-critical applications. The Web and I, Inc. represented by Martin Low will do a study of projected expenses for purchase as well as ongoing expenses for maintenance prior to the commencement of the Project. A formalized project management strategy will be used in accordance with best practices.
Implementation Methodology: Project Management
Accountability
There are people who need to be assigned responsibility for actions, decisions, and policies concerning the management of the implementation and governance, all within the scope of their role within the project. In other words, someone puts SharePoint in place; and project management helps this by defining the what, when, why, and where of this implementation.
Sustainability
While preserving the integrity of the platform delivered to the organization, the platform must meet present needs, but also future organizational requirements. These new technological capabilities need to be managed and governed to grow. Project management helps by providing methods so that issues concerning the economic (user requirements in terms of added features or products), social (the ability to enhance and connect people), and environment (the infrastructure can be scaled, for example) are protected and managed.
Resiliency
A SharePoint implementation needs to be robust to survive. All systems must have the ability to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of faults and challenges to normal operation. Project management provides processes such as configuration management, planning for backup, disaster recovery, monitoring, and performance levels.
Supportability
These technologies need to be looked after. Project management defines the quality-control measures to be enacted by the team that is responsible for the implementation.
As a Project Manager Mr. Low needs to ensure that when describing the four above elements to the Your Company that they understand there is a timeline to put in these technologies. Best practices do not allow for letting the client put together the timeline themselves, because they will start by reasoning that anything they don’t do is easy to do. Designing a platform for mission critical operations cannot be completed in two weeks, for example.
Accountability, supportability, resiliency, and sustainability cannot be assured in a week. Those are continual processes, and to make sure you can apply those means planning through to implementation. The estimated project timeline is one month. Two days for installation of the servers, and one month for ongoing training, quality assurance, contingency planning, and more.
Securing Office Web Apps Server communications by using HTTPS
Office Web Apps Server can communicate with SharePoint 2013, Lync Server 2013, and Exchange Server 2013 by using the HTTPS protocol. In production environments, we strongly recommend that you use HTTPS. You’ll have to have to install an Internet Server certificate that can be assigned to the server that runs Office Web Apps Server (if you are using a single server) or to the load balancer (if you are using multiple servers that run Office Web Apps Server).
With Microsoft server products, properly integrated and implemented, there is no need for expensive Wide Area Network (WAN) solutions, as these server products can be accessed securely over the Internet with 256 bit encryption.
Next Steps
Approval of Project Outline by Your Company
Contract Signing and 10% down payment of consultation budget. (the Web and I, Inc. will sign any confidentiality contracts you may require at this time by authorized signer Martin Low.)
Plan for Procurement Methodology to be completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Approval of Procurement Methodology for hardware by Your Company
Project Budget to be prepared by the Web and I, Inc.
Project Budget to be approved by Your Company
Project Kick-Off Date selected by Your Company
Staff Selection Completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Staff Approval by Your Company
Technology Maintenance Plan to be completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Technology Maintenance Plan to be approved by Your company
Disaster Management and Recovery Plans to be completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Disaster Management and Recovery Plans to be approved by Your Company
Projected Ongoing Expenses to be completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Projected Ongoing Expenses to be approved by Your Company
Project Plan completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Project Plan Approval by Your Company
Business Process Re-Engineering Plan completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Business Process Re-Engineering Plan approved by Your Company
Software Testing, Quality Assessment and Quality Improvement Plan completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Software Testing, Quality Assessment and Quality Improvement Plan approve by Your Company
Regulatory Compliance Plan to be completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Regulatory Compliance Plan to be approved by the Web and I, Inc.
Staff Training Plan to be completed by the Web and I, Inc.
Staff Training Plan approved by Your Company
Payment of 40% of Consultation Budget and 100% of Hardware and Software. Alternatively hardware and software can be ordered by Martin Low directly at Katonah using Your Company payment methods for shipment to Your Company
Purchase of Servers to be shipped directly to Katonah Office.
Installation and Integration on Project Kick-Off Date to take place on two days.
Project Kick-Off Meeting.
Install Windows Server 2012 on all 8 Servers (6 product servers and two load-balanced web app servers).
There are several levels of lock-down security that can be implemented to ensure documents are saved to a specific location, including network drive or SharePoint library. The requirements of document storage and the amount of security determine the method which will be used for enforcing your policy.
Passive Measures
The first, simplest, and most cost-effective, especially when you have a number of workstations, is to limit where Microsoft Office documents are save, by using settings within Microsoft Office itself. Each program employees are using needs their settings individually set to your chosen location. This is especially useful for organizations wishing to have their users save to a SharePoint location, since SharePoint is optimized to be at its’ best for Microsoft Office documents, and most organizations are using Microsoft Office exclusively. This method can also be used for network drives as well.
If an organization that wants their users to save to SharePoint and does not require users to have the advanced features of the Desktop version of Microsoft Office, then they can set options within the SharePoint library to cause the documents to be opened directly within SharePoint using the Web Edition Programs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. That is not practical however for special archives where documents are being prepared from templates with many features and defaults, because it would change the nature of future documents as well as past documents, should they be edited post-implementation. However if you are a small business just starting out, limiting use to the Web application and not installing Office on the local machine enforces strictly that all work gets done in SharePoint. This is also helpful with older computers, which may be very slow running Microsoft Office. Running on the Web Application provides another advantage: you are just running a web browser; the actual application performance will be faster, for the Web Application is running on the Servers.
Policy Enforcement
Mapping My Desktop and My Documents Folder to
The two methods above only involve saving Office Documents, but some organizations are also saving Adobe Acrobat *.pdf and / or Image *.bmp *.jpg *.gif *.png files of substantial importance, then you may want to include additional features. Most people save documents to their “My Desktop” or “My Documents” folder. This procedure can be used to enforce saving documents through proper configuration.
The first step is to use the Registry Editor’s HKEY Current User Software Microsoft Windows Current Version, Policies, and Explorer. Simply create a new DWORD named NoDrives. The value of the DWORD needs to be in hexadecimal format. You can blank out one or more drives, and the value of the letters A-Z of one or more drives need to be converted into a hexadecimal value. Arrange the letters from Z-A (Descending Order). Put a zero under each drive letter you are not hiding and a one under the ones you are. Starting with the one furthest to the left, you have a binary number. Convert the binary number to hexadecimal and enter it into the DWORD value. When a user opens up My Computer, they will now see all drives except the ones that have been hidden according the hexadecimal encoding. At this point, you will have successfully hidden the drives of the local machine.
Now map your network drive to the machine if this has not been done already or map the SharePoint library as a drive. Multiple SharePoint libraries can be assigned multiple network drive locations. Target both the My Documents and My Desktop folders to folders with the same names created into the appropriate target destinations using folder and search options of these folders.
Further Security Application for SharePoint
If you have SharePoint 2010 or Office 365 with SharePoint 2010, you have additional options available to protect important documents. Specifically there is a check in and check out version control that can be implemented very quickly and easily within the settings of each SharePoint document library. When you add this level of security, each person who wants to edit a document signs it out. This prevents one person from signing it out except as read only until the other user checks it back in. It is easily apparent who has stewardship of the document in question, and if anything goes wrong, an administrator can undo the latest checkout and have the last version intact. Version control allows both major and minor versions, and you can keep all versions of a document or restrict the versioning to a particular number. Strict archives will do well to enforce major and minor versions with enforced checkout maintaining all versions without limitation by number of versions. Storage conscious small businesses may elect to keep only 5 versions of a document, to improve storage utilization. However we advise organizations to carefully check their compliance requirements, for we are very sensitive to the needs of organizations to maintain compliance to industry standards as well as, state, federal, and local government standards.
Microsoft Office 365, the popular new cloud service which is revolutionizing business across the World, has four software products that serve to help people in business collaborate, communicate, store and share information: Exchange, Lync, SharePoint and Office. One of the most useful and important pieces of software in this suite is SharePoint, the highly customizable document storage and collaboration intranet portal.
Of all of the four products offered with Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint online might well be one of the most useful because of its usefulness in creating and sharing content. SharePoint Online comes with the base configuration, but with a bit of knowledge it can be customized to be useful for many types of businesses.
When different people are working on the same project and sharing the same files, SharePoint can help to keep track of all of the changes. SharePoint can also host databases for collaborative data. Larger companies that have enterprise systems can share the data from those programs with SharePoint where it can be analyzed.
The most common use of SharePoint is to make a corporate intranet to facilitate internal communication and sharing of common documents. The following are instructions on creating your first corporate intranet.
From SharePoint Administration, create a new site collection. Each site collection has a root template, and for this project it is best to use the Team Site Template.
Once the initial site has been created, sub-sites can be created for different purposes. Some sites can be for discussion. A site can be created as a document repository. There are no limit to the number of sites you can create, but it is best not to create unneeded complexity. Lists and libraries can also be added, along with lookup functionality that makes them act like a database application. Policies can be stored and shared using the Wiki Site Template.
Although Microsoft offers a wide variety of site templates, pages, and other structures, they are very generic. Customization should follow careful planning by your SharePoint administrators in order to build an environment that reflects the needs of your company.
Another good feature is the ability to customize a site from a template and save that as a new template. This allows you to re-use any customization that you will need again, such as project-specific sites that will likely need to be replicated frequently over time. For companies that have their own on-premises SharePoint, the customized templates can be downloaded and transferred to your on-premises instance as well.
The process of saving a customized list or site template is quite simple.
If you are saving a list as a template, go to the default page for that list, then click the Library Tab at the top of the page under Library Tools. On the right=hand side click Library Settings. In the next option group that opens, click, “Save document library as template”. Fill in a file name and description and click OK. Then when you go to create a new list, it will be available under Lists in the Templates.
Saving a site you have created as a template is very much the same. On the top of the page, go to Site Settings under Site Actions, and then you can save your site as a template.
Another great feature of SharePoint is the ability to get access to external data for use in multiple scenarios from data analysis to mail-merge applications. Using the Business Connectivity Services (BCS) application this is possible. Use of this feature enables connectivity for ERP system data into SharePoint. The data is presented through a method that SharePoint calls the “External Content Type”. Our client First United Services makes use of this. They have their Microsoft Dynamics CRM data linked up to SharePoint. The great thing about Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that it is made to work with SharePoint, and it has an easy way to set it up.
For other ERP systems, open SharePoint Designer 2010, which will give you the option to create a BCS External Content Type. With the site open in SharePoint Designer, click the Site Objects list then under that click External Content Types. This will create a basic definition in SharePoint designer. Then you can add all of the details to connect to the external system.
In addition to ERP data systems, other types of web service data sources can be used, such as geographic data systems, market data, or other public data such as the public data accessible through Amazon’s Web Services.
Another option that Microsoft offers with SharePoint Online is the option to develop and deploy custom code. Visual design changes as well as new web parts are possible. With Office 365, Microsoft gives you the options to sandbox your applications. This segregates the code you make from the rest of the server farm, protecting other Office 365 user companies from the possibility of malicious code being written.
Office 365 is customizable because one solution does not suit all types of companies or sizes of companies. The customization possibilities in SharePoint Online allow for enough customization to be useful for any kind of company of any size, enhancing communications and collaboration. Other customizations that are available in SharePoint include:
Adding user defined fields to the user profiles.
Using the Content Organizer to arrange data in different locations based on metadata.
Create associations between a document template and a library.
Building workflows to define tasks and the flow of work.
Defining content type policies that can delete aging files or review workflows.
With the significant capabilities and possibilities available within SharePoint Online and Office 365, it is a great time for your organization to discover the possibilities. For a free consultation, please give us a call at 646-853-0573.
Office 365 Enterprise includes the ability to keep local copies of all of your files on any desktop or laptop computer. This has proved significant for clients of mine who wish to take their work with them on their laptop. They wanted to be able to work on their Microsoft Office 365 files remotely without an internet connection, and then to have the files synchronize later. Multiple people in an organization can have files checked out simultaneously. Synchronized files are not new. Windows 95 first introduced Windows Briefcase. You could use Windows Briefcase to synchronize to a network drive or to a removable device. People used them for file synchronization when they worked after hours or in travel on their business laptops, then later synchronized the Briefcase with the corporate serve. Limitations included the requirement to keep file names exactly the same. Not only could the system be used for documents such as Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, and *.pdf Acrobat files, but they could also be used to replicate Microsoft Access Databases.
Today SharePoint 2010 comes with Office 365 Enterprise and can replace your corporate network drive with sophisticated libraries and lists. Each library is like a server version of the Briefcase only with more functionality and strict security and versioning options. Just like with Windows Briefcase, SharePoint libraries can be edited offline and then synchronized later at the user’s convenience. Versioning control can be implemented optionally, allowing drafts and major and minor versions. The minor versions are draft versions. Administrators have total control over access to the documents, edit permissions, and versioning rules. These help protect the integrity of document libraries in the event of synchronization.
SharePoint Workspace 2010 is a desktop application that is included with Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise Version. This is your Briefcase, and setting it up can be tricky. Use the Web and I to set up your SharePoint 2010 portal site and the Workspace desktop for your users. Microsoft Office 365 is a sophisticated application with many options and is best implemented by certified Microsoft Partners like us. Call us today at 646-853-0573.
Office 365 has been here now since June 18, 2011. Users are finding training needs minimal as they are used to the Microsoft Office Ribbon, even when they are using sophisticated add-on applications such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM! Desktop and online and server services in the future will be combined, but you will need a proper consultant in order to implement and make full use of the sophisticated features while maintaining a prudent and compliant information technology policy.
Microsoft Office 365 is a full suite of business productivity servers ready to run all of the computing needs of your business regardless of size. The product handles your corporate E-Mail, document storage, project management, scheduling, video teleconferencing, audio teleconferencing, PBX, enterprise voicemail, blackberry services, and integration with Microsoft Office, the licenses of which are also included with the plans we recommend. Soon you will be able to add-on accounting and project management as well. With the Web and I we are already implementing our first integrated accounting solution for one of our clients.. You may need only some of these services, and Office 365 has a plan to suit every user. However we recommend the E3 and E1 plans because they include the latest version of Microsoft Office for your desktop. With Dynamics CRM you will have integrated customer relationship management including Sales Management, Marketing Management, Order Management, and Invoice Management.
The Servers (and Services) Available with Office 365
Microsoft Exchange Online
Microsoft Exchange Online is an email, calendar and contacts solution delivered as a cloud service, hosted by Microsoft. The service is based on Microsoft Exchange server and offers 25 GB of email storage per user. In addition, Exchange online offers users personalized calendars and contacts with sharing capability and 99.9% reliability in online secure back-up. Exchange ActiveSync provides mobile connectivity to Exchange services and mobile email applications. With added E-Fax service your users can each have their own fax number and they can even send and receive faxes from their mobile devices or laptops.
Microsoft SharePoint Online
Microsoft SharePoint Online is a collaboration, sharing, and document editing service using internal and external sites. SharePoint is a great center for your corporate Intranet, and you can store and organize your documents, lists, and databases. Databases of increasing complexity are available with Office 365 including integration with Microsoft’s flagship accounting software, Microsoft Dynamics. One of our clients, First United Services, uses Microsoft Dynamics Customer Relationship Management software to handle client communications, document storage, information collaboration, sales management, order management, invoice management and interface with their soon-to-be-implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP Server solution.
Articles Written by the Web and I about SharePoint
Microsoft Lync Online provides communications features including presence information, instant messaging, PC-to-PC audio/video calling and online meetings that can include PC audio, video and web conferencing with application sharing, whiteboards, and other collaboration tools. Lync Online is accessed through the Lync client. Lync Online also supports presence information and click-to-communicate features inside Microsoft Office applications. Currently the Lync components of Office 365 exclude Lync’s Enterprise Voice feature set.
Office Professional Plus
Microsoft Office Professional Plus in Office 365 provides the same client software as the Office Professional Plus product available through Microsoft Volume Licensing.
An Article Written by the Web and I about Microsoft Lync:
Office Professional Plus in Office 365 has month-to-month, per-user licensing. It is an “Always On” service that has 99.98% reliability and can protect your data better and more cheaply than your staff can. Most very small businesses can afford no IT staff or servers at all. Office 365 provides server services that were once the exclusive domain of the Fortune 500 companies, who have been using enterprise class software since the turn of the millennium. If you were to purchase the servers, get a full-time IT person, and buy the licenses from Microsoft to do the same thing for a company of ten employees, you would spend $250,000 for the first year alone, and at least $75,000 each additional year. Now take that cost and compare it to the $3000 – $25,000 for the first year and $3000 – $15,000 for each additional year of service for a company of ten. For a sole proprietor like some of our customers are, you will spend between $300 – $10,000 for the first year and $300 – $1500 per year for additional years. These costs assume all of the installation, implementation, and customization costs. The lowest numbers are for the Microsoft Office 365 E3 plan alone.
Office Web Apps are browser-based versions of Microsoft Excel, Word, Access and PowerPoint that enable viewing and lightweight editing of Office documents in Web browsers while preserving the formatting of the original documents. When you have legacy computers or do not wish to tax the speed of the computer you are using, Microsoft Web apps are a great way to access your documents and databases.
For your E-Mail you will be using Web Outlook or your desktop outlook you already enjoy. For those not familiar with Web Outlook, it is Outlook that can be accessed from any modern web browser with all of the features of Desktop outlook and connected to the same information, so you are never away from home as long as an Internet connection is available.
Enterprise users always have access to the desktop edition, but it can be handy. An example would be when you are without your computer at the client’s office. They ask for a brochure that you do not have with you but is on the corporate shared drive for your department. Your client only has Mac computers, and they do not run Office at all. How do you save the day and impress your client? You can either go on their Mac, log in to Office 365 on the Mac Safari browser, navigate to your corporate shared drive, then open the brochure and print the one you need. For our E-Fax users, this can be even easier, they can retrieve any document in their corporate servers on their Blackberry or Windows 7 Mango phones and send it to any fax machine in the world in seconds. Paper records in the home office can be scanned into the Multi-Function Printer and have it sent directly to Office 365 and into the hands of your employees on the road immediately.
Video teleconferencing was always a very expensive but very desirable feature for remote communication with clients as well as staff on the road or in their homes. With Office 365 each employee or client can be connected with a $20 webcam with integrated microphone. Video and audio teleconferencing is a great way to help the environment and your budget by avoiding travel and still meeting. With Office 365, multiple users can edit the same document simultaneously in multiple locations while on video teleconference.
As an added option, Blackberry services will be available, so that you can run Exchange on Blackberry for secure corporate messaging. Remote access to what you need is a big part of Office 365.
Backups are included in Office 365 for Small Businesses, and the Office 365 for Enterprises comes with ISO compliant archiving features, and both editions come with the ability for people in separate locations to simultaneously have open and work on the same document with a picture in picture video conference. All of this securely on your bonded and trustworthy Microsoft-hosted extranet.
With the high costs of IT personnel needed to baby sit servers, as well as the down time and expensive licensing, cloud hosted server services from Microsoft make sense. These are tools of unprecedented power, offering true ERP solutions for small businesses.
Office 365 is the successor to Office Live, which is our specialty. We are part of an exclusive list of Office Live consultants with Microsoft Bizspark Startup grants who can start you out on Office Live today and upgrade you to Office 365 as soon as it becomes available! Take advantage of most of the features of Office 365 by calling us for Office Live now! Call 646-853-0573 and visit thewebandi.com.
Collaboration and Communication Available With Enterprise: Communicate and collaborate with any device and monitor your employees from anywhere in the world.
SharePoint and Office 365, and how you can collaborate as well as track employee productivity.
Lync and Communication including video teleconferencing. Work from anywhere and always contact your employees.
Enterprise Exchange Online and mobile office working. Your employees can help you from anywhere, no more excuses.
For small businesses and even home users, SharePoint features can be leveraged to share and collaborate on the same documents, and provide the basis for integrating the following vital enterprise program modules:
Contact Management.
Sales Automation.
Document Management and Archiving.
Scheduling.
Reservations.
Time Management.
For Multiple Resources.
With Live Website Calendaring.
Project Management.
Boardroom Collaboration.
Blog.
Forum.
Expenses.
Call Center.
Mail Merge.
E-Mail Marketing.
All of these modules work together and share data. When business data is planned so that there is only one entry for each piece of data, and the data is integrated into a centralized architecture and shared by all modules and workflows, two important things happen to your productivity:
Duplication of effort is eliminated (e.g. you only enter in a customer information once into contact management, and it is automatically available to all other modules. The ramifications of this are:
When data is entered in only once, the data is inherently more accurate because there is only one list. Increasing the incidents of data being repeatedly entered into different places creates additional opportunities for error.
Entering the same data repeatedly into multiple locations takes longer and therefore costs more money.
Control of data and visibility of all data in the workflow is returned to administrative management.
Executives can have broad access to view all data and create reports.
Great decision-making information availability increases the value of a business to their clients. People are more likely to engage in your efficient services.
Costs of IT, Labor, and paper are strongly reduced.
Data entry personnel can have limited edit access to only the modules they need.
Granular control allows business managers to have great control over who accesses what data and who can edit or view which items.
