Microsoft Office 365 « « Forceworks Forceworks

Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 is designed to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes – everyone from sole proprietors to small, mid-sized and large businesses and from government agencies to educational institutions – helping them to save time, money and free up valued resources.

Office 365 is simple to use and easy to administer – all backed by the robust security and financially-backed, guaranteed reliability you expect from Microsoft, the biggest software company in the world.

Forceworks is a Microsoft Cloud Partner and has the expertise and experience to help small businesses and non-profit organizations make a smooth transition from desktop applications to Office 365.

Office 365 Includes

Microsoft Office - The world’s leading productivity tool on the desktop (Office Professional Plus) and on the Web (Office Web Apps) now seamlessly connected and delivered with cloud services – for the best productivity experience across the PC, Phone and Browser.
Exchange Online - Cloud-based e-mail, calendar and contacts with the most current antivirus and anti-spam solutions. Includes the ability to get e-mail on virtually any mobile phone and options for voice mail, unified messaging and archiving.
SharePoint Online - Cloud-based service for creating sites to connect colleagues, partners and customers. Includes enterprise social networking and customization options.
Lync Online - Cloud-based instant messaging, presence, and online meeting experiences with screen sharing and voice and video conferencing.

Key Benefits of Office 365

Access email, important documents, contacts, and calendar on nearly any device, including PC, Mac, Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry
Office Web Apps for viewing, editing and sharing documents
Large 25 GB mailboxes for each user and the ability to send attachments up to 25 MB
Easy-to-use design tools to build a professional-looking website quickly
Password-protected team sites for collaborating on documents and information
Industry-leading, automatically updated anti-virus and anti-spam solutions
Integrated IM, presence and online meetings with audio/video conferencing and multiparty data sharing
Financially-backed, guaranteed 99.9% service uptime
24×7 moderated community-based support

Microsoft vs. Google, Compare and decide

GOOGLE	MICROSOFT
Is Google ready for your business? Google Apps is an ever-changing solution with experimental features that can increase complexity and the need for change management and training. When your business needs help, Google Apps support falls short of delivering the kind and level of support you demand.	The Enterprise-proven solution Your organization has diverse needs. With Microsoft, you can deliver the right set of tools for the right users—all with appropriate layers of security and compliance technologies. Microsoft Online offers a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee with a financially backed SLA. And our 24/7 IT-level phone support is ready to provide help whenever you need it.
Limited and incomplete functionality Google Apps isn’t familiar to most information workers and it’s oversimplified. In fact, Google’s own executives admit they don’t believe their tools can replace Microsoft Office. Using Google Docs often leads to frustration with loss of document integrity and loss of formatting.	An unsurpassed productivity experience Confidently share information with your customers and colleagues knowing that Office documents are commonly accepted inside and outside your organization. Access your content virtually anywhere across PC, phone, and browse
One size fits none Google customers are given an ultimatum when it comes to delivery options and licensing availability. And because Google Apps delivers its solutions online only, clients are left with no choice but to move to the cloud immediately.	Delivering the cloud on your terms Microsoft offers licensing options designed for organizations of all size so you can select only the features you need and control your costs. Not ready to fully embrace the cloud? No problem—Microsoft provides the flexibility to build a hybrid solution so your people can share information on premise or in the cloud.
Google Apps Cost Considerations

Ten Ways Microsoft Exchange Online is Better for Business Communication than Google Apps

Microsoft, as part of its mission to improve business productivity, has been providing business communication products for more than 15 years. From Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 with Exchange Client to Exchange Server 2010 with the Microsoft Outlook 2010 messaging and collaboration client, Microsoft has proven its commitment to enterprise-level communication tools. In 2005, Microsoft anticipated the need to provide hosted communication tools as well. Since then, it has provided the power of cloud-based services to businesses everywhere, which will continue with the Office 365 suite which includes Exchange Online.

In 2006, Google decided to bundle Google Mail (Gmail) and other consumer online services as Google Apps for Your Domain, targeted at businesses. It launched the first Premier Edition in 2007. In 2009, the company upgraded Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Talk from beta status, and in 2010, it launched Google Apps for Government. Google continues to make improvements to its products to address consumer and enterprise communication, collaboration, advertising, and entertainment needs at low cost.

While Google has aggregated an all-in-one offering in this short period of time, here are 10 areas where Microsoft Exchange Online continues to provide a superior business communications experience:

Security by design and security by default. Since releasing Exchange 2000 Server SP3, Exchange has been following the Security Development Lifecycle process to reduce vulnerabilities in the product. In addition to certifications, including Common Criteria EAL4+ (Exchange Server 2003 SP3 and Exchange Server 2007 SP2), Exchange has proven that it can serve in a real-world secured messaging environment. Gmail has obtained Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) certification for some subset of Google Apps Editions, and it is working diligently toward addressing customers’ remaining security concerns, such as those of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Business innovation, not consumer experimentation. In the period of time between Exchange Server 2010 RTM and Exchange Server 2010 SP1, the number of features introduced in Exchange and Gmail was approximately the same. But does the number really reflect the innovative value for your business? Through Exchange Online, Microsoft introduced features that work the way your business needs to, like archiving in the cloud and extending the web-based management capabilities of Exchange Control Panel. Google Apps introduced features like Google Wave and YouTube Previews.
Real-world reliability.Not only does Exchange Online offer a financially backed 99.9 percent uptime SLA, but Bank of America has achieved 99.999 percent uptime with their Exchange Server deployment. Whether it’s online or on-premises, Exchange Server offers real-world reliability and doesn’t need to exclude outages for 5 percent of users to do it.
Anywhere access, including offline.With Microsoft Outlook and Exchange ActiveSync technology, you can access your email virtually anywhere, whether you have a network connection or not with offline access. This includes email, calendar, tasks, meeting invitations, address books, and more. Google provides Google Apps Sync for Outlook and Gmail offline (less than 5,000 messages worth) through the deprecated functionality of Gears, while insisting that an always-on Internet world exists.What good does a 25-gigabyte mailbox do when you can only access 5,000 messages of it offline?
Privacy and control of your data.Exchange Online adheres to Microsoft’s privacy guidelines, which were created specifically to give customers control of their information. Google Apps adheres to Google’s privacy policy, shared across business and consumer applications, which allows for Google to use customer information to improve advertising and other services in some instances.Google Apps and Google Apps for Business include contextual advertising functionality in some instances, just like free consumer Gmail.
24/7 support.Exchange Online provides a community forum, email, and phone support whenever your business needs it—24 hours a day, seven days a week (24/7). Google Apps has 24/7 phone support only for system critical events that affect more than 50 percent of users.The Microsoft Office 365 Community provides peer-to-peer and moderated support, in addition to email and phone support options.
Upgrades on your schedule. Exchange Online allows 12 months for transition, while Google Apps allows just one week for your business to validate whether the updates work in your business environment and against your line of business applications.
Easy to use. A small-business customer referred to Office 2010 as “by far the most intuitive, user-friendly productivity suite we have used,” and Outlook and Outlook Web App provide a similar experience in a rich client and in a browser. By contrast, Gmail provides an interface that causes some people to question whether it was usability tested on civilians.
Integrated email, tasks, contacts, calendar, and presence experience.Exchange Online provides a comprehensive communications experience, with rich presence information even in Outlook Web App. Some basic functionality is missing from Google Apps, and other basic functionality is still in beta and lacks integration.Outlook provides an integrated experience that enables smooth, rich communication.
Easy administration and deployment.Exchange Online provides the same unparalleled level of control for administrators, through role-based access control, management tools, and rich coexistence. Google provides little administrative granularity and advocates a big bang migration.Google Apps: Administrator privileges – check!Role-based access control through Exchange Online allows you to be as granular as your business needs, with 33 different roles that can be combined into role groups.