Get In-depth Understanding of Office 365 to Help Your Business Growth

Understanding What is Microsoft Office 365? 

It got introduced to the market decades ago in 2011 and ever since it has become more or less a need for every business organization. Office 365 is a cloud and subscription-based model of Microsoft’s highly popular operational productivity suite Microsoft Office. Office 365 includes the same core applications as traditional versions of Office, such as Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote, as well as other programs and services such as Publisher, Planner, OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, Access, Skype, Yammer, and Microsoft Teams, depending on the plan purchased. 

As mentioned above, it is a subscription-based platform therefore it offers numerous package options when licensing Microsoft office 365. It includes versions depending upon your project requirements like for students, businesses, education institutions, households, and personal use. 

Additionally, there are also online and mobile-only versions of Office known as Office Online, which provide users with free availability to feature-limited versions of Office apps. 

Whenever we talk about advancements and upgrades, there comes a need to develop a comparison just to analyze the difference in functionality and understand the features better! 

Let’s understand how Microsoft Office 365 is different from the existing versions of office! 

Office 365 is a membership service, which means that instead of purchasing a copy of the software package outright for a one-time, one-time fee, users pay a subscription fee each month to access the service at the level of their choice. 

Office 365 is also developed to be utilized online, despite the fact that computer variants of its apps are readily accessible with certain plans. All Office 365 apps, services, and data are offered to host on Microsoft’s server farms. 

Users of Office 365’s membership model always have access to the most recent version because the platform is updated at Microsoft’s end, whereas perpetual, on-premise users would have to purchase a new copy of the most recent edition to use new features. 

Users are not required to install the software or sustain any hardware to run it. Office 365 also includes email hosting and cloud space for storage, allowing individuals to store their files online and access them from any device that can be connected to the internet. 

Let’s define the audience who uses Office 365 for their operations and why? 

Being in the software solutions industry for almost three decades, Micro office has been providing its consumers with productivity tools for better business operations. As a general overview, there are over a billion people who use Microsoft Office services globally. Office, on the other hand, provides far more than just word processing and spreadsheet editing for business owners! 

Although these prominent core apps continue to provide business owners with the basic tools, they need to perform everyday tasks such as data management, document creation, and information communication, Office has developed into a vast suite of insightful tools that enable organizations to be more efficient and productive. And, with a variety of customizable plan options available, organizations of all sizes and circumstances can gain instant access to these tools. 

With Office 365, all software applications and services are connected to one another and to the wider web, enabling effective team cohesion, saving time and labour, and allowing them to work effectively together through tools like team chat, virtual meetings, co-authoring, and file transfer, and group emails. The addition of cloud storage and phone/mobile applications to the Office 365 suite also enables businesses to work from anywhere, at any time, with protected access to their content, discussions, activities, and timetables from any machine. 

Let’s see how MS Office 365 can support businesses to grow! 

Excellent productivity tools enable everyone within an organization to be more constructive, enhance communication, and accomplish more. The Office 365 suite makes crucial functions like extracting knowledge, spreading information, having conversations with workmates, data processing, and organizing and planning faster and easier, allowing companies to spend less time on administrative duties and more time on creating, innovating, and moving the company toward success. 

Mentioned below are few factors that help facilitate growth through MS office 365: 

Helps you save costs – The subscription-based payment model eliminates the need to pay for the entire purchase in advance, reducing cash flow in the process. Per-user licensing is available to assist in meeting the specific needs of the business as they arise. 

Better email management – Effective email management is critical. To strengthen organization, Microsoft 365 allows Outlook subscribers to incorporate their mailbox with a calendar system. To avoid congested email inbox, the Focused Inbox feature segregates focused mail from ‘other’ mail, instantaneously placing email deemed most essential into the focused folder. Personal preferences enable users to declutter inboxes on a regular basis to ensure that the most valuable knowledge will always be visible. 

Effective collaborations – Because Microsoft 365 is cloud-based, the latest iteration of all apps can be allowed to access from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. This enables simpler and more efficient team collaboration, as well as greater mutual benefits when working on strategic partnerships and initiatives. In an era when more business owners are working abroad and travel is becoming less of an option, this flexibility is critical to an organization’s growth. 

Improved operational productivity – The entire suite of Microsoft 365 applications is built with productivity in mind. Sharing knowledge, communicating more effectively, streamlining systems, and processing data more efficiently saves time while also increasing output, allowing employees and business owners to focus on growing the company. 

Advanced safety protocols – Microsoft 365 enhances data and company information security features. Text encryption allows the user to encode email so only the intended receiver can read it. 

Advanced Threat Analytics, also known as ATA, detects normal or expected behavior and uses intellectual ability to notify the user to every vulnerability or suspicious behavior. Email messages are inspected to recognize and notify to any threats or malicious activity, with real-time updates to combat threats as they occur. 

Let’s look at a Few differences between Office 365 for Business and G Suite 

For decades Microsoft has dominated the productivity software industry, the corporate world is still controlled by Office; when someone wishes to send you a document or data base, you could indeed bet it’ll be in Word or Excel format. 

Nevertheless, the expansion of cloud technology has kind of levelled up the competition when it comes to enterprise applications, enabling companies of all sizes to access services and products that would previously have required a significant investment in software and hardware. Now that digital business techniques are more widely available, modern businesses are gradually transitioning to a new way of working. This transition has offered ascend to a slew of potential rivals for Microsoft’s productivity throne.  

In general, when it comes to apps, email messages, and data storage, Office 365’s entry-level memberships are more accommodating than G Suite’s, and the two are nearly comparable when you reach the mid-level plans. 

When it comes to the apps offered by these suites, some key differences exist in the areas of business consistency; Microsoft’s apps are more feature-rich than Google’s, and most Office 365 plans encompass desktop variants of the available apps, whilst the G Suite is cloud-only. 

Let’s understand how Office 365 is different from Microsoft 365. 

Since its launch in 2017, Microsoft 365 has been around in the industry for a while now; even though the branding similarity exists, Microsoft 365 should not be confused with Microsoft Dynamic 365. 

Microsoft 365 was created to provide businesses with all of the essential tools they really ought to operate their basic IT architecture, secure their operations, and get things done. In addition to Office 365, Microsoft 365 encompasses Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), which means subscribers get email and calendar management, data storage, data security control mechanisms, cyber risk protection, management, and implementation controls. 

What apps and services are included in Office 365 for Business? 

Few basic app for any organization includes: 

• Word 
• Excel 
• PowerPoint 
• Outlook 
• One Note 
• One Dive 
• Teams

Understanding Microsoft Sharepoint 

SharePoint is a collaborative web platform that works with Microsoft Office. SharePoint, which debuted in 2001, is primarily marketed as a document storage and management framework, but the commodity is easily customizable, and usage varies greatly between organizations. 

It allows its users to:  

• Document-level permissions safeguard data and content. 
• Using SharePoint Workspace, you can browse and access records offline. 
• Share information with coworkers in instantaneously using the SharePoint Online functionality. 

Understanding Skype for business 

Skype for Business is a commercial-only version of the well-known conversation and video conferences service. Organizations can use any device to access all of the telecommunication’s tools they could perhaps need on a regular basis, such as sending instant messages among colleagues, using video conferencing features, recording interactions, sharing screens, giving whiteboard presentations, and having meetings with up to 250 individuals at a time. 

Understanding Microsoft Teams 

Teams’ primary purpose is to encourage team cohesion and encourage productive capacity, with three key areas of functionality: chat, program management, and comprehensive integration with Office 365. 

Understanding Microsoft Exchange 

Microsoft Exchange is the company’s email server software. It serves as the foundation for email clients like Outlook. Everything that happens in Outlook is saved and processed on the Exchange server, including both incoming and outgoing mail, activities, contact information, and calendars. Exchange enables organizations to build their own, self-contained email system. 

Understanding Microsoft Graph 

Developers can use Microsoft Graph to create their own apps and workflows that use Microsoft 365 data, adding new functionality to the solution and assisting developers in integrating their services with platforms such as Azure, Excel, Intune, Outlook, One Drive, OneNote, SharePoint, Planner, and others. 

Office 365 plans for businesses 

For business users who want to implement Office 365, there are currently there are two licensing models available. Companies with fewer than 300 users can choose from three Office 365 for Business plans, while larger businesses can choose from four Office 365 for corporate plans, all of which assist unlimited users. License types can be mixed and matched to meet the requirements of the company. 

Cost of Microsoft Office 365 for businesses

Because much of Office 365’s architecture is hosted by Microsoft and desktop variants of its apps are optional, most Office 365 deployments can be completed in a matter of days. 

Nevertheless, for corporate customers, there will almost certainly be a huge quantity of legacy data to migrate in the type of documents, emails, contact information, shared calendars, and so on. Office 365 execution partners can assist new users in smoothly transitioning to Office 365 and correctly configuring everything. 

FastTrack deployment for office 365 

Microsoft FastTrack is a free deployment service that helps business owners get Office 365 into operation quickly. This service is provided remotely. 

FastTrack would be only available to clients who purchase 50 or more licenses, and customers who purchase 500 or more licenses will continue receiving technological support and software solutions to assist with data migration to the cloud. 

Compatibility of Office 365 with older versions 

Numerous existing Office customers who currently use an eternally licensed, on-premise version of Office can use Office 365 and take advantage of all the benefits that cloud connectivity brings. Office 365 works best with the most recent version of Office, Office 2016, but it also appears to work with Office 2013, and Office 2011 for Mac. Older Office variants, including Office 2010 and Office 2007, may also function with Office 365, but with fewer features. 

Admin centers for Office 365 

The Microsoft 365 admin center is now the only admin center for Office 365. This admin center will be used by all Office 365 customers, regardless of whether they license Office 365 as part of a Microsoft 365 plan or not. Administrators can use this admin center to oversee and control applications, assistance, information, equipment, and users. The Microsoft 365 admin center provides access to organizational settings for all Office 365 applications, including SharePoint and OneDrive.