Microsoft is coming out with a new product called “Microsoft Office 365.”
This product is being pushed more for the business market and not towards home users as much as their popular “Microsoft Office Suite.”
Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription based web application that essentially gives you your copy of Microsoft Office anywhere you are and at any time, using Internet Explorer and a web connection.
This software is powered by Microsoft’s already popular “SharePoint” collaboration application.
Office 365 doesn’t give you access to all of the applications available in the traditional Office suite – for instance, Outlook isn’t included in the package – yet.
Microsoft Office 365 includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft OneNote, and something Microsoft is calling Microsoft Outlook integration.
Outlook integration links a local copy of Outlook that is installed on your PC to the Office 365 suite in the cloud.
One of the best features in Office 365 is the ability to share files and documents on the go through a web interface that acts like a centralized server for your company.
This connection is 100% secure with encrypted data transfers and is password protected allowing only those who know the password to access to your company’s data and files.
This gives you access to the documents that you were working on in the office while you are on the road. And, anyone else in your organization that needs access to your files can use them anytime, anywhere.
Another advantage of using a web based application like this one is that, since it is a web hosted application, you don’t need to install any software.
You can access your documents from any computer with and Internet connection using just your password. The ability to store and work on your documents anywhere doesn’t come without some caveats.
Although Microsoft guarantees 99.9 percent uptime, most Internet service providers don’t. If your entire organization was deployed on the Office 365 platform and your company’s Internet connection went down, you could very well experience a bout of low productivity until everything came back online.
Office 365 and other cloud services are undoubtedly the wave of the future.
If you’d like to explore some cloud solutions for your organization, please give the office a call at 734- 457-5000.