Microsoft's Office 365 is the premier business productivity and collaboration solution trusted by millions of companies worldwide. Using this cloud-based subscription service, your organization can lower overall costs and deliver the right set of tools for your users along with the necessary layers of security and compliance. Best of all, you won't have to worry about versions or licensing – with Office 365, you're always up to date. In this article, we’ll spell out 2 of the 8 reasons why you need an IT Provider to help you with your set up for Office 365. Look for continuing articles on this site for the remaining reasons.
If You Can Sign Up For Office 365 On Your Own, Why Do You Need An IT Company To Help?
Microsoft's Office 365 is the premier business productivity and collaboration solution trusted by millions of companies worldwide. Using this cloud-based subscription service, your organization can lower overall costs and deliver the right set of tools for your users along with the necessary layers of security and compliance. Best of all, you won't have to worry about versions or licensing – with Office 365, you're always up to date. In this article, we’ll spell out 2 of the 8 reasons why you need an IT Provider to help you with your set up for Office 365. Look for continuing articles on this site for the remaining reasons.
1. You’ll have a true expert who can explain ALL the subscription levels and which is right for your business.
Choosing the right Office 365 plan for your business can be a daunting task. You’ll have to consider the nuances among the feature sets and applications of each plan while understanding how they align with your business needs and budget restrictions. Your IT provider will help you identify and match your business needs to the appropriate plan, and help you successfully use Office 365 to its fullest extent possible.
They’ll take into consideration the industry you serve, whether you have compliance-related needs, how your workforce operates (in-office/out of office/remote), and more. Other things they will consider when helping you choose the right Office 365 Plan include:
- Your total number of employees.
- The email client you use.
- The devices you use to access email.
- If remote access to documents is necessary.
- If you have IT staff onsite.
- The IT tools you use to conduct meetings.
- How you maintain email continuity during an outage.
- If you need access to Microsoft Exchange to serve as your email client, calendar, contact list, and personal archive, or if a different tool is in place.
- If you have email journaling needs.
- How you currently prevent data loss in the event of an outage.
- If you need full, installed versions of the Office applications, or if Microsoft Web Apps will suffice.
- What your file sharing needs are.
- If your employees need to share a desktop.
- And more
Here are some scenarios to further clarify what we mean…
Scenario 1: You work in the education sector, you have 65 employees on site, you use Gmail, you have an IT staff on site, and you need:
- Simple archiving to remain compliant.
- Access to Office apps from any device.
- A collaboration tool that allows file sharing.
- An email system that includes the ability to share calendars.
In this case, Enterprise E3 makes the most sense, primarily because you need compliance archiving and access to Office apps from any device (including tablets). You must remain compliant with FERPA, so you should also have additional Email Encryption for any users who regularly send or receive emails with confidential information. While E3 comes with Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Email Encryption is vastly more feature-rich and any breach that DLP doesn’t catch will end up costing you more than the price of Email Encryption.
Scenario 2: You operate a retail/book store. You don’t function under any regulations, your operations are in-house, you use Yahoo email, you have 1,800 users, you don’t have onsite IT staff, and you need:
- Access to desktop versions of Office apps.
- IM platform with screen-sharing and call capabilities.
- A way not to have to worry about updates or hardware.
In this case, Business Premium will meet your needs. Although it might seem like Business will work for you, remember that you will need a platform like Skype. You will be getting it with this Plan, although, you might want to go a la carte, especially if you don’t have any plans to use Exchange or SharePoint. Plus, you might want to consider Advanced Email Security. Whether you stick with Yahoo or use the Exchange mailboxes granted to you through Business Premium, Advanced Email Security’s easy management can save you more time – and money – than Microsoft’s Exchange Online Protection.
Scenario 3: You run a legal practice, use IT in-house and remotely, use Outlook Email, have one IT guy, and you need:
- Access to full Office suite on any device.
- IM platform with video conferencing.
- A way to save documents to the Cloud.
In this case, Office 365 Business (with the Skype Plan 2 add- on) will meet your needs and will be the most affordable option. One reason this is the right choice is that you already have Exchange licenses. If you must comply with regulations, these must be considered. An Email Archiving Service would also be recommended. And you can benefit from O365’s eDiscovery tools. This will save you time and money, and your team can search easily and quickly for client information and case documents, regardless of what device they use.
2. Your IT Provider Can Set Up & Manage SharePoint Sites And File Storage.
SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service that helps organizations share and collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers. With SharePoint, you can access internal sites, documents, and other information from anywhere—at the office, at home, or from a mobile device.
Your IT Provider can set up and manage your sites and file storage. Before you dive into building and configuring your organization's SharePoint environment, there are a few things you should think about that you’ll probably need help will. For example, how will you manage sites with the objective to collaborate (team sites) and those with the objective to broadcast and share content for viewing (communication sites)?
Your IT Provider will:
- Set up your SharePoint environment.
- Help you plan for your SharePoint hub sites.
- Manage your external sharing.
- Manage your search.
- Manage your site creations.
- Customize sites with solutions & apps.
- Organize site content and plan content features.
And much more…
So, you can see there’s a lot of information to gather before beginning your selection for the right Microsoft Office 365 subscription; and quite a number of ways to customize your SharePoint setup that validate a need for a Microsoft Certified IT Provider.
If you need assistance with Microsoft Office 365, the team at Alltek is here for your business in the Tampa/Lakeland Area.