Microsoft office 365

[Ben g-p Tempest]

Hi

\I'm considering upgrading my business to office 365 however i don't know an awful lot about it or the process.

Does anyone currently use this?

Would you recommend it?

Is it a simple process?

Thanks

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Office 365 has a number of components and the process will vary depending on which ones you use.

If you go for the top office 365 package each user gets to install word, excel etc. locally and also use the web versions for when they are on a machine without office or a tablet, phone or other non windows device.

You also get hosted exchange (email sever), sharepoint and onedrive (for file storage).

If you want to use all the options then the complexity of the process will depend on what setup in terms of email and file storage you have now.

 

[packagingsupplier]

We're looking to switch over to office 365. It works out better especially when using Microsoft Exchange. A better overall product than Google Business Apps.

 

[wearewattle]

I would add another +1 here - I struggled with Google Business Apps for a year, trying to get my Outlook calendar, phone and everything in sync was a constant battle - Exchange on Office 365 just works, on everything, and it is cost equal.

Here at Wattle we are Microsoft Partners and provide Dynamics CRM consultancy so for us, to be able to simply add an entire CRM system into the mix as well is a blessing. It is a no brainer - do it!

 

[Excel Expert]

My whole business is developing applications that run under Office (Excel, Access etc). I also develop the odd application in Google.

If you just need to type up basic documents and add up a few columns of numbers, Google is good enough. If you need any more than that then it is Office 365 all the way. I've seen companies of all sizes experiment with things like Google and OpenOffice but at least 9 out of 10 of them returned back to Microsoft.

The way Microsoft integrates everything (emails, Word, Excel, OneNote, OneDrive) is (IMHO) far superior, quicker and smoother than Googles alternative.

Installation is dead simple and if you make a mistake it is easy to rectify.

 

[consulting.uk.444]

If something is too good to be true then .......

I'm a bit surprised about 100% positive comments on this topic. Looks like finally someone made absolutely perfect software without any disadvantages.

To be honest 365 has lots of positive features, biggest ones are related to exchange server and outlook and compatibility with phones, tablets etc (even Apple devices work very well with it). And when your business has less then 20 users, then you can benefit of all server side advantages without having any server hardware, sysadmins, painful version upgrades and other costly complex elements.

Still, file storage and sharing is really painful disaster. OneDrive and it's business version are headaches in square. If you so far have had in-house file server and you have been just granting user privileges for different users for shared folders, then prepare for cold shower. Most of file sharing is given to SharePoint server and this means people must send URL-s to files in SharePoint web server via e-mail for sharing file. It's slow and complex, with lot's of file sharing there is by the end of the day huge mess with lots of e-mails with links to somewhere. And to make sense all of it, Microsoft assumes that all office users will become webmasters and start building intranet sites for listing links of files they want to share inside their business. I have already seen some businesses to start using office365 with Google drive as file storage.

 

[Excel Expert]

I guess it comes down to the size of peoples operations.

Lots of small companies use OneDrive on a daily basis with no issues. When it comes to bigger companies running in house servers and sharepoint, I guess it is a totally different game

 

[Aloha Telecom]

If your a small business it's easily a must. Google apps we have found to be a little too complicated. It's pricing has become more realistic and works fairly well. We got setup within an hour on several devices.

 

[avecSys]

Hi there,

Small to medium sized businesses seem to work fine with sharepoint, but from experience the larger companies tend to have a few issues with it. We have a company with 30 users who have no problems, but another company with 70 users have various issues with it. The conversion process is fine and to have all of your office apps, emails and files available on the go, makes running the business out of office a lot easier

Sam Allen

avecSys