You might be a whizz with Word or a PowerPoint pro, but these days you need more than the basic apps to get down to business. Office 365 is our productivity platform of choice, providing secure, cost-effective and familiar tools accessible from anywhere.
But exactly what bang are you getting for your buck? Here’s our ultimate guide to what’s included and all you need to know on the pricing plans available…
Stay connected with Exchange Online
Exchange Online is a hosted messaging solution that gives users access to their email, calendar, contacts and tasks, and as it’s all stored in the cloud this is all accessible from Macs, PCs, the web and mobile devices. With capabilities such as anti-malware and anti-spam filtering, data loss prevention and premier disaster recovery, not to mention a guaranteed 99.999% uptime, you can stay online securely and consistently whether you’re at your desk or on the go.
Share and store with OneDrive for Business
OneDrive for Business is a personal online storage space of up to 1TB, where you can store, sync and share your work files. Being cloud-based, the app lets you update and share your files from anywhere and work on Office documents with colleagues at the same time – never again will you find that you’ve wasted time working on an old version of a document attached to yesterday’s email. All your files are private unless you decide to share them, and you can choose to share with your whole business or specific colleagues.
Encourage collaboration with SharePoint Online
Enable your team to create and manage custom, project-focussed sites for collaboration with SharePoint Online. Accessible via almost any web browser, SharePoint Online gives you 500MB of storage per account and an additional 10GB for teams and projects (and if that’s not enough, you can take advantage of the 1TB available with OneDrive). For those worried about needing an internet connection for cloud computing, don’t fear – you can work on documents offline and have everything automatically synced back to the server when you reconnect.
Connect anytime with Skype for Business Online
Skype for Business Online is a hosted communications service that allows you to connect anytime, anywhere, giving users access to presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling, rich online meetings and extensive web conferencing capabilities. Whether you need to send a quick message to a colleague or conduct meetings with partners and customers around the globe, you can do so quickly and easily from Mac, iOS, Android, Windows or web clients.
Work on and offline with Online Office and Office Applications
Office Online gives you access to all your most-used, business-critical programmes such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote within a web browser. Work and share files from almost any device with an internet connection, so you’re never tethered to your desk and can stay productive on the go.
Going to be working offline? With Office Applications you can download the latest version of your Office desktop to up to five devices, Mac or Windows, from the Office 365 portal. You can also install and use all features provided by the Office Mobile apps on your iOS or Android devices.
Get organised with Yammer
Drive business alignment and agility with Microsoft’s secure enterprise social network. By allowing people to collaborate easily, make decisions faster and self-organise into teams, Yammer can engage your employees and improve relationships with both customers and partners.
Maintain security with Azure Active Directory
Azure Active Directory is a comprehensive identity and access management solution for cloud, providing a robust set of capabilities. Manage users and groups, and help secure access to applications including Microsoft online services and non-Microsoft Cloud services. Users can log onto all the cloud services you assign them using their Active Directory username and password, minimising the number of accounts and passwords they need to remember (how many times on average do you need to type in a password before you get it right?). And by allowing users access with a single sign-on, you can enable and disable access as and when people join or leave the company, so you’re not at risk from ex-employees gaining unauthorised access to your services.
Which Office 365 plan is best for your business?
We know that one solution doesn’t necessarily fit all, and with Office 365 there are a range of plans.
Business plans cover up to 300 users per plan, and includes 24/7 phone support from Microsoft for critical issues, OneDrive for Business (1TB cloud storage) and Active Directory integration.
Business. Also includes Office Apps and Office Online.
Business Essentials. Also includes Office Online, Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint and Yammer.
Business Premium. Also includes Office Apps, Office Online, Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint and Yammer.
Enterprise plans allow for an unlimited number of users, and includes 24/7 phone support from Microsoft for all issues, OneDrive for Business (1TB cloud storage) and Active Directory integration.
Enterprise ProPlus. Also includes Office Apps, Office Online and Access, Skype for Business.
Enterprise E1. Also includes Office Online, Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint and Yammer, and supports hybrid deployment.
Enterprise E3. Also includes Office Apps, Office Online, Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint and Yammer, and supports hybrid deployment.
There are also additional, standalone plans available if you require different sets of features, and you can always swap plans as your business requires. Get in touch with a member of our team to discuss your needs and find out which plan is best suited to your business.
Want to find out more about Office 365? Give us a call on 03332 400 888 or email sales@Jigsaw24.com. For all the latest news and reviews, follow us on Twitter @WeAreJigsaw24 and ‘like’ us on Facebook.