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Friday, October 3, 2014

What You Need To Know About Office 365

By Alex D White


After introducing Office 365, Microsoft has received plenty of publicity on the service. As such, you might be wondering if the service is right for you, a client, or your organization. Office 365 is basically the cloud version of Microsoft. You can connect with it on the internet, set up an account, make a subscription, download the necessary files and start working. You do not need any installation disks. You may want to know a few things about office 365 in order to know if it is for you.

For many people, when they hear the term office 365, what comes to mind is the cloud productivity suite. Cloud can be defined as an off the site file hosting service that was popularized by the IT industry. The cloud version of Microsoft is Windows SkyDrive that enables you to upload your files and synchronize them to access later from any device without office installed.

Previously, windows users were confined to the desktop version of Microsoft office. However, this new service comes with new additions, including office web applications. The latter is an internet version of Microsoft office that is synchronized with SkyDrive. With these tools, you can be able to read and edit files from devices that have not been installed with office.

When installing Office 365, your computer needs to run on windows 7 or 8, while Mac users will need to install on computers running on OS X10.6 and above. Since this is an internet-based installation, you will also need to have internet access to install it, as well as to activate and manage your monthly subscription. A compatible browser such as Chrome 18, Safari 5, Firefox 12, and IE9 will also be needed.

The subscription costs for the service will depend on the size of your organization. Fortunately, you can subscribe for the service with a business of 25 or less users. There are various subscriptions plans, and you can decide to pay on either a monthly basis or yearly. In simple terms, the small business premium plans are designed for twenty-five users or less, midsize business premium is meant for 25 to 300 users, and the enterprise premium plan accommodates 300 plus users.

The best thing about office 365 is the fact that you can still use it with Office 2010 or 2013. Unfortunately, if you are using office 2007, you may have to tolerate some lost functionality, but the service will still work. If you want to install the service to share files, you can upload the files on SkyDrive and then invite your contacts to view them without necessarily installing the service.

You may be wondering why you need the service if the office web apps are free. While these apps are great for viewing files and editing them, it does not come close to being a substitute for the regular desktop version, not to mention office 365. The latter, for instance, allows you to view your files on multiple devices with no office, which the office web apps cannot.

For most people worried about security, as you are, the service provides a similar Trust Center and user-level security as the desktop version. With this, you can set permissions through the Rights Management Service that supports encryption. As such, you are provided with a reasonable level of user security.




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