What is Office 365?
Office 365 is Microsoft’s way of taking their flagship products and offering them in a cost-effective manner. In the past the norm was to purchase Office, Windows, Server, etc at a large Capital Expense and then use it for as long as possible before having to do another “Fork-Lift” upgrade with an additional capital expenditure.
Now, all of the products that have historically cost anywhere from $100-$7500 up front can be licensed with a monthly fee for as little as $5/mo per user to $50/mo per user depending on what your needs are. This newer Operational Expense licensing model not only gives you a set monthly price per person but it makes systems that were once out of reach for a small business much more manageable financially.
Why do you need Office 365?
Although you can still purchase licenses for Office, Windows, Server, etc as a One-Time purchase I have to believe that this model will be less and less accessible as time goes on. I believe this to be true for a lot of software vendors out there. The ability to do a one-time purchase versus paying per user per month will probably never go away but will likely just be made more difficult so you are steered towards the OpEx model.
What are some of the advantages of Office 365?
- The price per month depending on what level of Office 365 you purchase is very accessible.
- When you purchase a version of Office 365 that includes Office Software (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc) each user gets 5 licenses to use, that way it can be installed on a Desktop, a Laptop, a Tablet, a Phone, etc and still be in compliance.
- You can have Enterprise-Grade Mail for your business for as little as $5/mo.
- You no longer have to Fork-Lift in new software and pay a large up-front fee to do so for the software.
- Licensing Compliance becomes much easier as you are paying per user for your licenses.
- You don’t have to pay for as much server infrastructure to house Mail, Files, Etc. as it is all hosted on Microsofts servers.
- Non-Profit customers pay little to no cost to Microsoft to use Office 365
What are some of the disadvantages of Office 365?
Some of the Advantages of Office 365 are also Disadvantages depending on how you view the world!
- Paying per month means you never actually own the software.
- Your data is hosted on Microsofts Servers which requires different types of security than if you host it yourself.
- Because your data is hosted on Microsoft’s Servers you have little to no control over issues that happen in their infrastructure.
- You are still responsible for backing up your own data. Microsoft does not provide any specifics on backup of your data so it is up to you to make sure this happens!
Which version of Office 365 is right for me?
This really depends on your needs. Because there are so many flavors of Office 365 it requires better knowledge of your business and its requirements. Contact Us to discuss!
How do I get setup with Office 365?
It is pretty straight forward to sign up for an account and get started. However we have the experience and know-how to help you get setup, migrate your existing systems and data to O365, and make it secure. Contact us to setup a free consultation so we can assess your needs, learn about your business, and help you take advantage of all that Office 365 has to offer!