\nExchange<\/strong>, SharePoint<\/strong> and Lync <\/strong>have moved from a\u00a0traditional on-premise hosting to\u00a0Microsoft datacenters (i.e.. their \u201ccloud\u201d). Instead of paying for the software upfront<\/em>, you pay as a monthly\/annual subscription for those services (hence the term Software as a Service<\/strong> or SaaS).<\/p>\n
Office 365<\/strong> has a variety of different packages to choose from and some of them offer the Office Suite as part of the subscription too. \u00a0If you choose one of these plans you can put the latest flavor of Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) on desktops\/mobile devices. \u00a0And there are a variety of other services offered with Office 365<\/em> like OneDrive<\/strong> for Business, Yammer<\/strong>, Office 365 Video<\/strong> and more.<\/p>\n There are some key reasons why a move to Office 365 can benefit your organization<\/em>\u00a0from the perspective of an IT team getting ready to decide on-premises vs. cloud. \u00a0Let\u2019s consider four\u00a0benefits for moving to Office 365 and one key user consideration for\u00a0IT administrators.<\/p>\n No-Cost Server Infrastructure:<\/strong> \u00a0If you are looking to modernize your server-side solutions the cost of upgrading your existing infrastructure could be exorbitant. \u00a0Moving mailboxes to the cloud eliminates that concern and cost. \u00a0Microsoft will worry about the hardware and storage, and you can pay as you grow for easy scalability.<\/p>\n No More Upgrades or Fixes:<\/strong> \u00a0Much of the stress of an admin is handling fixes and upgrades for solutions to ensure they are patched properly and as secure as possible. \u00a0With Office 365 this is all handled for you.<\/p>\n Availability:<\/strong> \u00a0Microsoft provides a 99.9% SLA<\/a> for availability. \u00a0Whereas on-premise you would have to have redundant servers on-site and additional servers in an off-site location to provide that level of availability, Microsoft has it all in place from day one to ensure your users have consistent access to their email and other services.<\/p>\n Services Offered:<\/strong> \u00a0As mentioned earlier, Office 365 is a mix\u00a0of different services. \u00a0It\u2019s quite amazing really when you consider all the different tools provided. \u00a0You can access the services through traditional means (Outlook connected to Exchange Online) or through browser-based connectivity (Yammer or SharePoint Online through your browser).<\/p>\n Upon logging into your portal you are offered a variety of tools to choose from, and the list is growing! \u00a0Note the options in the figure below. \u00a0OneDrive, Sites, Delve, Video, Office Online (Word\/Excel\/Point\/OneNote) \u2026 offering a compelling price\/features proposition.<\/p>\n So we’ve covered four benefits of moving to Office 365, what could the\u00a0key consideration\u00a0be? Here it is\u2026<\/p>\n Take a user who has been on\u00a0Windows XP with Office 2003 for the past 10 years. \u00a0Give them a new laptop running Windows 7\/8 (v10 coming soon) and\u00a0Office 2013. \u00a0Introduce the user to\u00a0the new tools for communication and collaboration like Yammer, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business and so forth. \u00a0Instead of\u00a0praising your team\u00a0the users\u00a0vent frustration at the dip in performance as they struggle to process all the new upgrades.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t do that to your people.<\/em>\u00a0 Going\u00a0from the menu structure of legacy Office into the new ribbon interface alone will be an overwhelming task for some. \u00a0If you have gone with Windows 8, the new interface is quite a step change\u00a0(even for experienced users).<\/p>\n Support your people.<\/em> \u00a0You want to give them the latest and greatest and you want them to experience the productivity boost that should come with new hardware and software possibilities.<\/p>\n Manage the change for users through classroom training<\/strong>, with all the benefits of hands on exercises\u00a0under the guidance and support of\u00a0an experienced trainer. \u00a0Or even run\u00a0workshop sessions<\/strong>\u00a0BEFORE you put that new laptop or desktop in front of them with all the new bells and whistles.<\/p>\n And then you might want to provide 24\/7\/365 support training through a video portal<\/strong>, which perfectly complements any classroom based training. An eLearning portal with an easy to use interface and short searchable learning clips helps\u00a0users improve and maintain performance.<\/p>\n We are certainly living in exciting times. \u00a0Cloud solutions like Office 365 are\u00a0offering small-midsize business an opportunity to have enterprise grade solutions right at their fingertips, without all the server side heavy lifting being placed on the IT admin. \u00a0The end-users will love the new possibilities opened to them and the increase in productivity through new communication and collaboration tools. \u00a0Exciting times indeed!<\/p>\n For information on eLearning services in the UK<\/strong>, ClipTraining partner and UK distributor, STL<\/strong>, can be emailed at info@stl-training.co.uk<\/em><\/p>\n Office 365 Training in the ClipTraining Library<\/a> 36.5 Office 365 Features That Will Boost Your Productivity<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By J. Peter Bruzzese The recent global recession is still quite fresh in everyone\u2019s minds. From an IT perspective it forced IT administrators to tighten their belts and hold off on upgrades of both hardware and software for quite some time. The growth\u00a0of “cloud” solutions (like Office 365) has provided IT teams\u00a0with another option\u00a0when considering\u00a0new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13,18],"tags":[171,243,345,395,396,400,403,404,420,473,486,498,596,617],"class_list":["post-2408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft-office","category-office-365-2","category-technology","tag-excel","tag-exchange","tag-lync","tag-office-365","tag-office-365-video","tag-on-premises-vs-cloud","tag-onedrive","tag-onenote","tag-powerpoint","tag-saas","tag-sharepoint","tag-software-as-a-service","tag-word","tag-yammer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6259,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408\/revisions\/6259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stl-training.co.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Four benefits of moving to Office 365:<\/h2>\n
![\"collaborate_office_online\"](\"\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/collaborate_office_online.jpg\")
<\/a>Training<\/h1>\n
But you must do so through training first.<\/h3>\n
![\"J._Peter_Bruzzese\"](\"\/b\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/J._Peter_Bruzzese-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0J. Peter Bruzzese (Office 365 MVP) is the CIO of ClipTraining.com<\/strong>, providers of short, task-based video training through an online portal solution. \u00a0He is an internationally published author with over a dozen titles to his credit about Windows\/Office\/Exchange\/etc. \u00a0He is a technical speaker for Microsoft<\/strong> and others. \u00a0He writes a weekly column for InfoWorld<\/strong> entitled \u201cEnterprise Windows\u201d and is a strategic technical consultant with Mimecast. \u00a0You can follow JPB on Twitter @JPBruzzese and email him at jpb@cliptraining.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nFurther reading<\/h3>\n
\nClassroom based MS Office training<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWhat\u2019s In & What\u2019s Out In Office 2013<\/a>
\nA well-trained I.T. team: Your company’s secret weapon<\/a><\/p>\n