Insights

Business Guide to Office 365 - Leap Consulting

Written by Zaun Bhana | Mar 20, 2017 4:03:08 AM

Office 365 is the plan or subscription Microsoft offers that provides access to their suite of applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. The business plans offer up to 300 users of the latest desktop versions, which can also be installed across up to 5 devices.

Since its release in 2011, Office 365 has seen major success. Its adoption slowly grew and in 2013, Microsoft announced it would allow enterprises (companies with more than 250 PC’s at the time) to add Office 365 to their existing volume agreements.

Following this, they reported seeing a 150% increase in the number of SMBs using Office. 365 is available in 3 different business plans and has been a popular choice for those looking to either replace or implement a new intranet system.

Why use Office 365 for business

For many businesses including small business, the business packages offer everything a team needs, utilising the cloud for increased productivity, helping save time, money, and free up resources.

Office 365 combines the desktop suite with cloud-based apps for communication and collaboration including email, online meeting, cloud file sharing, and portal platform.

Any of the business plans enable secure access to data from any device, anytime, anywhere. This facilitates sharing within a team and with clients, especially for those businesses that have team members working both in the office, at home, and in remote locations.

Office 365 is always being updated, which means businesses always have the newest version, giving users the benefits of any new functionality immediately.

Office 365 Benefits:

All Office 365 business subscriptions include:
• Financially backed service level agreement – SLA guaranteeing 99.9% uptime
• Simple deployment and management – ability to add and remove users instantaneously
• Regular updates as part of your subscription
• Active Directory integration with synchronisation to single sign-on
• Access to your files from anywhere – your email, documents, contacts and calendar can be accessed anytime from any Web-enabled device
• Collaboration tools – view, edit and share documents using Office Web Apps
• Storage and speed – mailboxes with 25 GB of storage that can send attachments as large as 25 MB
• Simple Web design – create a professional website in no time flat with user-friendly design tools
• Secure sharing – robust security settings allow you to share documents with colleagues and customers on sites you create
• Anti-virus and anti-spam – reliable, industry-leading security solutions
• Modern communication tools – online meetings for Web conferencing, multiparty data sharing and IM all from one convenient platform
• 99% uptime – financially-backed and guaranteed service
• Reliable support – community-based support that’s moderated 24/7

Office 365 Plans & Pricing

Microsoft offer Office 365 plans for Education, Small & Medium Businesses and Enterprises.

Office 365 Business Essentials Office 365 Business Office 365 Business Premium Enterprise
K1
Office 365 ProPlus Enterprise
E1
Enterprise
E3
Enterprise
E5
Advanced
Services
Enterprise Voice
RMS, Archiving, DLP
Excel/Access/Visio
Services
Active Directory
Office
Client
PowerPivot, PowerView
Click to Run Pull Pull Push Push
Office Installed on PC/Mac
Standard
Services
IM, Virtual Meetings
Collaboration
Office Web Apps Authoring Authoring Authoring Authoring Authoring Authoring Authoring  Authoring
File Storage & Sharing 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB 1 TB
Email, Calendar 50 GB 50 GB 50 GB 50 GB 50 GB 50 GB 50 GB
Seat Limit 300 300 300 No Limit No Limit No Limit No Limit No Limit
Admin Console Simplified Full Advanced
Price per month $7.00 $13.20 $17.50 $5.60 $19.14 $12.70 $29.60 $51.70

Office 365 Setup Providers

Microsoft helps businesses setup of Office 365 through its FastTrack program, but many more businesses use third-party tools and consultants to facilitate them moving into Office 365 with ease.

With services from Leap and Microsoft Office 365 business, working on the go has never been simpler – so you can effectively communicate, collaborate and stay up-to-date, no matter where your business takes you.

Get in touch today!