Microsoft Office 365 is one of the most trusted cloud platforms for SME – are you ready to join?
While social distancing measures are well underway with the recent COVID-19 outbreak and employees are working remotely from the home office, I thought it would be useful to talk about how Microsoft Office 365 is changing the way small businesses work.
Why do small to medium sized businesses trust Office 365?
In my previous article, Need remote access? Microsoft Office 365 + Azure = the perfect work-from-home solution, I cited that 595,000 government, corporations and NGO’s in the United States are utilizing Office 365. With licences and users exceeding millions, it’s evident that Microsoft is a world leader for cloud computing. According to TrustRadius, Microsoft Office 365 has a trust rating of 8.6 out of 10.
With seamless remote access at anytime and from virtually anywhere, Office 365 offers the complete suite of apps that allow fast word processing, calculating, presenting and emailing as well as the cloud-based platform from which to access data. Therefore, tasks can be done remotely alongside hosted software which you can read more about in my article, Double Your Productivity with Integration, Synchronization and Connectivity.
Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, which are the bread and butter of business operations. Previously owned and managed ‘on-premise’ (i.e. installed onto the hardware of your computer), Microsoft Office software will soon be superseded. In other words, computers operating Windows 7 and older will only be able to access applications in the Office 365 cloud. Rather than performing software upgrades and updating licenses manually, Office 365 will assign licenses to users instead of computers therefore making it an efficient and user-friendly solution that requires little to no maintenance.
Furthermore, from security and privacy to compliance, Microsoft are dedicated to maintaining data integrity. Here’s a video from their Trust Center:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/videoplayer/embed/RE44T4B?autoplay=true
More productivity for architecture, electrical and construction businesses
Microsoft now offers several ‘levels’ of Office 365 for businesses, depending on which industry you operate in and what type of work is involved. Being the most trusted and widely used application developer on the market, Microsoft offers three tiers of service packages: basic, standard and premium. Quite frankly, you can’t get simpler than that!
In addition, the type and number of apps required varies whether you are a business or enterprise. Thus, you can take your pick depending on your company size, budget and IT infrastructure needs.
To assist you in deciding which Microsoft 365 package is best suited to you, I’ve put together a table below as a guide:
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Best for businesses that need Microsoft Teams and cloud storage. Desktop version of Office apps not included.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Best for businesses that need business email, Office apps, and other business services on PC, Mac, or mobile.
Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
Best for businesses that need Office apps plus cloud file storage and sharing on PC, Mac, or mobile. Business email not included.
To view all packaging and pricing options, click here to view the official Office 365 page.
If you’re having trouble deciding which package will give you the best value for money, don’t despair. Our team are happy to consult with you to determine what level of Office 365 you need currently while anticipating support requirements as your organization scales. We can also help with migration, implementation and security too!
We can partner with you and your IT solutions provider
Granted, your IT provider is doing a great job keeping your business up and running. But perhaps you require more hands-on deck when it comes to skillset, knowledge and time? We can consult with your IT resource or run side-by-side to deliver planning, licensing, migration, implementation and administrator training.
Whether you already have a cloud hosting service provider or are looking for one, be sure to note that migration of applications also includes migration of content and data! It’s understandable to have concern about downtime or the risk of lost files. Thankfully, we have checks and balances in place to help protect your data while ensuring you have minimum to nil disruption.
If you’re already working towards cloud computing or have completely moved over to the cloud, we’re here to help with your migration and consulting needs. Be sure to get in touch with your existing IT service provider and start the conversation about migration. You can also talk to us if you need any clarification or read my article on how to choose a cloud service provider.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me by email sales@aeccloud.com or call (212) 505-0381. To learn more about cloud hosting and Office 365, you can read our blog.