Understanding Office 365

I recently asked a very savvy business colleague the question “What is Office 365 to you?” Their response was “Outlook”. This is very surprising and telling because it comes from someone who has been using Office 365 for over a year! Ever since Microsoft launched Office 365 on June 28, 2011 (yes, it is already 5 years old!), there has been tremendous confusion in the marketplace about what really is Office 365. Five years later and there is even more confusion and misunderstanding. Whether you are a single consumer or a 500 employee company, I find a tremendous gap in what people think Office 365 is versus what it really is and can do.

There are over 85 Office 365 product SKU’s!

Although the person I questioned may be using Office 365 for just email and Outlook, it is something far greater; basically an entire ecosystem of solutions that can be catered for your specific needs. Further complicating the matter, the Office 365 ecosystem continues to grow, with new offerings added all the time. For example, Dynamics 365 was recently released this fall.

Office 365 has different product licensing and pricing for consumer, corporate, government and academic user types. Certain Office 365 products are available if you have 300 employees or less, which are not available once you cross that threshold.

The core basic concept and offering of Office 365 is the bundling of mainstream Microsoft products with the bundles defined to meet specific user and/or company needs.

You can buy pre-bundled packages

For a small company, you can buy packages based on your specific needs. For example –

• Office 365 Business Essentials – for companies that need email and file sharing, but don’t need Microsoft Office, this package includes only Exchange Outlook email, OneDrive Business, Skype for Business, and Team Sites (SharePoint)
• Office 365 Business – for companies that need the MS Office suite, but don’t need email, this package includes Outlook (no email, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher and OneDrive
• Office 365 Business Premium – for companies that need both email and the MS Office suite, this package includes Exchange Outlook email, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Skype for Business, Team Sites (SharePoint), and OneDrive

However, these packages are only available to companies with less than 300 employees. If there are 300+ employees you must uses the ProPlus or Enterprise editions, which also have multiple bundled package offerings.

The Enterprise level also provides additional software solutions, such as –

• Microsoft Access
• Skype for Business voice capability
• Power BI business analytics

You can add-on numerous individual products incrementally

Additional Microsoft solutions and products may be added incrementally to an Office 365 account based on specific business needs. These may include services such as –

• In-Place Hold to preserve deleted and edited emails for legal requirements
• Hosted Voicemail
• Data Loss Prevention to help identify, monitor and protect sensitive data, such as PII and PCI
• Offsite backup of laptops/desktops using OneDrive
• Microsoft Project Pro for Office 365
• Microsoft Visio Pro for Office 365
• Azure cloud services
• Intune mobile device management
• Sway (how many of you have even heard of this product?!)

Had enough yet?!

Did you know OneDrive is now robust enough that it could replace other mainstream solutions such as Box.com and Dropbox at a fraction of the cost? Or that you can backup server data offsite using Azure with your Office 365 subscription?

This short article should make it clear that Office 365 is a very robust set of solutions, but equally as complicated to understand. It’s no wonder, when asked, many think of Office 365 as black hole with no hope of understanding it all. The good news is you don’t have to, but you do need to know to ask for help. It’s amazing how many people and companies do not know where to go for help or know but don’t ask.

Fluid is one of a few Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Partners, which means we not only have expertise in Office 365, we provide end-user support directly. We can also help educate you on the best fit for your needs, as well as provide end-user training on the Office 365 products you already have to ensure you are maximizing the value of the solutions.

If you need help with Office 365, call Fluid today!