Office 365 is the latest offering from Microsoft that has changed the way businesses use IT.

Offered as a monthly subscription based service, Office 365 is an effective yet affordable solution for organisations of all sizes.

Office 365 is a suite of hosted versions of Microsoft server software such as Exchange, SharePoint and Lync run from Microsoft’s own datacentres. The applications are mainly accessed over the internet using a web browser, although many of the traditional services can be accessed directly from within Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel and Outlook. There are also many other ‘apps’ which have been written for mobile devices to enable the best interaction available.

We can help you migrate to cloud based solutions, supporting you through each stage of the process, from consultancy through to implementation.

If you are just starting your own company and want a single solution to get you up and running with professional IT tools then Microsoft Office 365 should be your first choice. The biggest advantages when you’re just starting out are the low up-front costs with this solution plus there are no hardware requirements. Office 365 is a simple way for start ups to get their business off the ground and quickly running like more established companies, offering various productivity solutions, as well as more familiar basics like Word and Excel.

Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based solution built around the familiar Office tools (Word, Excel, Power Point). It also offers a wide range of products and services that you can select based on your own needs and preferences via the subscription based pricing. These services include Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync, the Microsoft Office Suite, and Microsoft Web Apps.

Prices for Office 365 range from £3.10 per user per month to £14.70 per user per month. The higher the monthly payment, the more services you get. Office 365 is adaptable and can be customised to create a solution that meets your needs, and can always be upgraded as your requirements change.

There are no initial setup fees for Office 365 – everything is included in the monthly subscription. As a comparison, were you putting together a more traditional infrastructure you would have to purchase everything separately, therefore increasing your initial startup cost.

One major benefit with Office 365 is that it always offers access to the latest versions of Microsoft Office Suite (and other applications). Normally, when you purchase this software, even with site licenses, you get a single version and there are additional costs when you want to upgrade when newer versions are released.

For established SME’s, Office 365 takes the problem of servers and associated maintenance contracts away. All the required services are provided from the Microsoft Data Centres with guarantees of service availability meaning no worries about reliability and security. Every package comes with built in anti-virus and spam-fighting technologies.
Microsoft Exchange is a leader in business email communications and the version offered for Office 365 users gives every user a 50GB mailbox. As it is hosted in the cloud, it’s accessible from anywhere there’s internet connection, whether that’s at work on your computer or at home on your PC, smartphone or tablet. You can access from one device or many devices, and they all remain in sync with one another. If you don’t have your own device with you, then you can access via any web browser so that you can work anywhere where there is an internet connection.

Lync is an internal organisation instant messaging tool similar to Skype. It allows everyone in an organisation to communicate quickly by typing, voice or video, as well as allowing them to share desktops and applications over the network, wherever they are. Users can work on a document together or show a presentation directly from their desk.

Another component of the suite is SharePoint 2013, a web based portal that allows a business to get organised, share, collaborate, store and find everything easily. In its simplest form, it is somewhere to put your documents. Every user has 1TB of personal space to store their data, as well as shared space for all users (the amount varies according to subscription). It can be used just like DropBox or Google Docs.