Cloud Computing | Talking Office 365

Category: Cloud Computing

#18 Five business advantages of IT Pros using Office 365 – Adam Carter

Posted on July 6, 2011

Today’s guest is Adam Carter. Adam is a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft which means his job is to make sure IT Professionals are up to date with Microsoft’s latest technologies. Much of his focus is currently on Office 365.

Marlon and Adam discuss:

Does Office 365 and cloud computing mean your IT pros are not as important?
What are the business advantages of freeing your IT pros from the maintaining these systems?
How an IT pro can adapt their skill sets to be more useful in a cloud computing and Office 365 environment

Office 365 offering new business opportunities in the cloud for entrepreneurs

Posted on May 4, 2011

I think the new opportunities around the Office 365 platform arriving in July this year is going to allow Microsoft Partners to build significant businesses if they see the opportunity and exploit it. Microsoft already has had 100,000 businesses sign up to the Office 365 Beta. Come July there is going to be a tidal wave of new businesses signing up to the platform, all looking for services and solutions to extend their investment.

The Office 365 Marketplace is going to allow companies who build solutions for Office 365 to get that solution in front of potential customers, much like the iPhone App store does for developers in that ecosystem. If you have built an application for Office 365, the Office 365 could be just the boost you need to get your application in front of your target audience.

Businesses who will be successful will:

Not gripe about the limitations of SharePoint Sandbox solutions (the technology used to build on top of SharePoint Online), but just get on with building solutions that solve real business challenges
Focus on the new areas of opportunity and take action
Be early adopters, build solutions quickly and not wait to see if the platform is successful. By then others will already have a foothold on the market
Build solutions that fulfil a pain point for a business
Become thought leaders and innovators on the platform

The arrival of Office 365 is a game changer for businesses and IT professionals. These types of events don’t happen very often. When opportunities like this arrive you need to be early as timing is everything. Be the market leader not a market follower.

I have spent many months and very long hours interviewing experts, researching, writing articles, scouring twitter, reading whitepapers, presenting webinars and thinking about Office 365. Like the eBook I give away on this website, I present you with this new business opportunity as my free gift to you. Take it or leave it, but now you know.

What do you think about this new opportunity? Leave a comment below and let’s start a conversation.

#02 What your business should look for in a Cloud Computing Partner – Andrew Doyle

Posted on March 8, 2011

In this episode of the Talking Office 365 podcast Marlon interviews Andrew Doyle on what a business should look for when looking for a cloud computing partner.

During this podcast Andrew gives examples of why and how his clients are using BPOS and Office 365. He also explains the 4 characteristics of a cloud computing partner a business should look for.
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