Why Is Microsoft Office 365 the de Facto Standard Today?

Office 365 is the Microsoft’s basic productivity applications. It includes the applications like the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and, more.
 

Microsoft Office 365 gives the necessary tools to bring communication and collaboration through extension and productivity services for an individual and the enterprise. It is necessary for businesses of any size or segments.
 

And, it has become the de facto standard for the productivity software.

“Office 365” is the brand name Microsoft uses for a group of subscription plans. It includes the access to the Office applications plus other productivity [hosted Voicemail, Azure, and, etc.,] services that could be enabled over the Internet [Cloud services].
 

The services facilitate the users to install Microsoft Office on their
 

• PCs
• Storage Space on OneDrive
• 60 Skype minutes per month
   

The subscription plans are available to regular and non-business consumers as well. A few of the plans are:
 

Office Online: Free Online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
 

Office 365 Personal: Access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access for home use on a computer, tablet, 60 minutes of Skype International calls per month and 1 TB of additional OneDrive storage.  
 

Office 365 University: It is the same Office 365 Personal version but available at a discounted price for those in Universities.
 

Office 365 Home: It includes the access as in Office 365 Personal, but for up to five devices, five users, and five tablets.  
 

Source: https://bit.ly/2IHDfQR
 

Techopedia explains “Microsoft Office 365 provides a comprehensive set of software tools and services that facilitate office documentation, communication, and management tasks. No upfront installation or integration is required, other than an Internet connection and supporting Web browser. The Microsoft Office 365 suite of applications includes several different online services, including Office Professional Plus, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and a lighter version of Office Suite, presented as Office Web Apps”.

How to Install Office 365:
 

The Office 365 customers are provided with an Office Desktop Setup at free of cost. The Office Desktop Setup comes with several benefits. They are:
 

• Automated detection of necessary updates.
• Install the updates from a command line or on approval.
• Automatic configuration of Outlook and Microsoft Skype for Business.
   

Moving further, in setting up the Office 365 for your business, Microsoft experts would help you to do so.
 

Office 365 Installation Requirements:

• Operating System: Windows 7 or 8; OS X 10.6 or later for Windows and Mac users
• Internet Access: Needed

           Office 365 runs offline. It should be connected to the Internet every 30 days so as to maintain the subscription that will be notified by 365.

• Browsers: IE9, Safari 5, Chrome 18, Firefox 12
• Hardware:
  • 1 or 2 GB RAM
  • 3 GB of hard disk space
  • 2.5 GB for Mac
  • 1 GHz or Intel Processor

• Display: 1280X800 screen resolution
   

Office 365 Payment Plans:
 

The customers have flexible options for payment. The different payment options include either monthly or annual commitment plan for Business, Business Essentials, and Business Premium plans.
 

Further, the existing plan could be upgraded to other ones as required. For instance: Office 365 business plan to an Office 365 Enterprise plan.

8 Interesting Facts about Microsoft Office 365:
 

• Microsoft Office 365 is in the cloud so that it is easy for the buyers to download and the office suite is set up in a way that the documents have to be saved to the cloud.
• Microsoft Office 365 Home is sold in the subscription model whereas other versions of the suite are sold as the perpetual license, i.e., one copy of the software is licensed to one machine.  
• Microsoft Office 365 could be installed on machines running on Windows 7, 8, Mac running OS -X [10.5.8 and higher].
• The Office 365 Home could not be customized for installation for selective apps, and as such the complete suite is installed even if you plan to use it or not.
• The Office 365 works on touch-screen devices namely the tablets and laptops running on Windows 8.
• The SkyDrive user gets about 7GB free space initially, while the home premium subscribers get an additional 20GB of space.
• The Home premium subscribers get 60 free Skype minutes per month to call landlines in all the supported countries. Skype-to-Skype calls are free always. At times, when dialed to an international landline number, the office free minutes could be used.
• Internet access is required to install and activate the Office 365 plans and manage the subscription account.

Henceforth, it has become the de facto standard for the productivity software.
 

Addition of Microsoft Solutions and Products:

Moving further, the solutions and products of Microsoft could be added to Office 365 as per the business needs. It includes services such as:
 

• Hosted Voicemail
• Offsite backups
• In-place hold to preserve deleted/edited emails for legal purposes
• Microsoft Project Pro
• Azure Cloud Services
• Sway
• And more
   

Microsoft Office 365 Security Features:

It provides the same user-level security options as the desktop version. Rights Management Services [RMS] supports the encryption and facilitates you to set permissions. The offsite, files could be saved in specialized data centers.
 

• The transmissions could not be intercepted without authorization
• It is compliant with accepted ISO standards
• The controls are in place so as to comply with FERPA and HIPAA

In a nutshell, if you are considering Office 365 for yourself, organization or the clients, it would be the right step and worth it.  
 

If you are interested to know more about Microsoft Office 365, there are IT Training available specified for your learnings.
 

For Instance:

• 20347A-Enabling and Managing Office 365 Course helps you to evaluate, plan, deploy, and operate Office 365 services.

• 10997-Office 365 Administration and Troubleshooting Course equip you with the necessary skills required for administering and troubleshooting Office 365.
   

The added benefit of this course is that it comes under eligible Microsoft SATVs and thereby you may fetch this course at free of cost by redeeming your SATVs at Mercury Solutions Limited.