Category: Office Professional Plus
Today’s guest is Danny Burlage. Danny is the CTO of Wortell a Microsoft Gold partner in The Netherlands, which specialises 100% on the Microsoft Platform. Danny is working on the cutting edge of Microsoft’s cloud solutions like Office 365 and has a unique insight and depth of knowledge into the platform.
The basic premise of cloud computing is no software. With cloud computing IT departments don’t have to install and maintain software on server’s and PC’s saving many hours of configuration, problem solving. End users also don’t have to deal with added frustration when software doesn’t work because of a hardware compatibility issue. Instead, the vendor is responsible for the maintenance of the software and upgrades. Businesses have access to the latest versions of the software as soon as it is released without the headache of upgrading.
Microsoft has released Microsoft Web Apps as part of Office 365 eliminating the need for businesses to install Microsoft Office on their PC’s. Office Web Apps is an online version of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. The user interface is the same as their desktop counterparts using the intuitive ribbon except they have a cut down version of functionality. Microsoft has included only the most commonly used features.
One of the challenges of cloud computing is offline functionality. What happens when a user does not have internet access? A file created in Office Web Apps can be opened using the desktop version of the application with the click of the button. When the user is not connected to the internet users are able to create, modify and edit Microsoft Office documents making Office 365 much more flexible than other cloud services out there. SharePoint Workspace allows users to store these documents on their local machines for offline use.
If you are using Office 365 as an extranet for your partners or clients to access, they are able to open and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents even if they don’t have the software installed on their computer because Office Web Apps are built into SharePoint Online.
Office Mobile apps allow users to not only view these documents on mobile devices but also make edits while out of the office.
With Office Web Apps, Microsoft has significantly reduced the upfront and maintenance costs of using the core Microsoft Office applications for business. The Small Business version of Office 365 has Office Web Apps included, while the Enterprise version has Office Web Apps and Office Professional Plus, which includes the full suite of the desktop versions of Microsoft Office.
In Australia, we have a term called phone tag. It is the phenomenon of calling someone and getting his or her voicemail. They then receive the message and call you back, but you are busy at the time of the call so they leave a message on your voicemail. You receive their message and call them back, and well, you know what happens. Phone tag can go on for many more iterations before you actually make contact. The level of frustration you experience directly corresponds to the importance of the issue, requiring discussion.
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I left writing this post very late in the day as I have been enjoying preparing for the first “How Office 365 Can Increase Business Productivity” Webinar on Friday. The webinar is coming to together very well, so check out the dates and sign up!
Today I want to discuss Access Services as part of SharePoint Online. I am very excited about this feature because I work in the software development industry and am involved in building many line of business applications for our clients. We often have departments within a business approach us to convert their Microsoft Access application, which they have grown out of, into a more robust solution. These databases are often built by employees who are power users, have no programming experience, but are experts on the business. The two main problems have with their Microsoft Access applications are:
One of the challenges of implementing new systems into businesses is user acceptance. The new system can promise to benefit the business in a substantial way, but if the users don’t actually use the system for it’s intended purpose, then the investment can be lost. This can occur in it’s extreme form when users totally rejecting a new system, but is very common for users not to use a systems complete feature set. If this happens, a business may see some productivity gains, but will never see the full return on investment initially expected from the new system.
Microsoft Office has for a very long time been the leading office productivity suite for business. Most information workers are familiar with Microsoft Office, and use Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook on a daily basis. Microsoft updates Office every 3 years or so, but many businesses don’t upgrade when a new version is released. Many are still running Office 2003 or 2007 even though Office 2010 was released mid last year. One of the reasons this occurs is cost, as upgrading the licenses can be expensive for some businesses. This is a real shame as every release of Microsoft Office arrives with increased productivity for users.
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I started Talking Office 365 because I believe Office 365 is a significant release for businesses globally. I believe Office 365 will give small to medium businesses (SMB’s) the same tools large businesses have benefited from for years, but at a fraction of the cost and effort. Even though Office 365 is a game changer for SMB’s, it will also give enterprise users so much more, for less than they had to invest in the past.
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