You are all familiar with Microsoft Office products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and now recently, you must be hearing the term Microsoft office365. Some may be familiar with the product but If you are not and you are wondering what it is? Well, this article will help you with the same.
This article would be covering the following
- Microsoft office 365
- Is buying office 365 worth it?
- Is Microsoft 365 any different from previous versions? Who are its users?
- What makes Microsoft 365 different from G Suite?
- Wrapping up
Fun fact: it is estimated that almost a 1.6billion people use Microsoft products.
Microsoft Office365
Most people are familiar with office products, and they might have used them at some point in life. Office products are useful for Multiple business enterprises, and it is used for creating their business presentation, business proposition, tallying accounts, and other official purposes.
Now, what is Microsoft 365?
Well, Microsoft 365 has opened new opportunities for users from the usual office products. Microsoft 365 was launched in the year 2001, and it is a subscription model with cloud storage features. Yes, you heard it right, it’s a subscription model as in, you need to pay for its special features.
The package comes with the usual office product alongside the additional special office product. Based on the plan you chose, you will get additional products such as publisher, planner, access, Skype, yammer, exchange, SharePoint naming a few. Packages also differ based on the type of user, if you are a household, trust, office, educational institution, the package will be different, and the user can choose accordingly.
And if you prefer working on mobiles, the office does come with the mobile version of all the software, but they will only have limited features.
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Is Paying for Microsoft 365 Worth It?
Well, yes, buying Microsoft 365 is worth it. To better understand, the two headings below will help you decide. So without any due, let’s get to the topic.
Is Microsoft365 Any Different From Existing Products?
Here we will be discussing how Microsoft office 365 is different from existing office products and services. Also, we can see the benefits of buying Microsoft 365.
So the major services provided;
- One of the major differences is that now the products come in a subscription model where the user has to pay every month rather than the one time purchase cost. This keeps the user at the advantage of getting the new updates regularly rather than buying new updates each time.
- Even though desktop versions are available, it is designed to be used online. 365 is designed to be a cloud service, and it is hosted by the Microsoft Azure server. This helps the user to access its services anytime, anywhere.
- Unlike the previous versions, Microsoft 365 doesn’t need hardware to install and run. The package comes with mail hosting and cloud storage so that the user can access the files anytime, anywhere through any device connected to the internet.
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Who are the Users of the Software?
More than a billion people have been using Microsoft products for decades now. Businesses use the majority of their services. For them, it’s more than spreadsheet and documentation, and these are included in their day to day activities alongside. They also need software to perform tasks such as team communications, data management, document creations etc. Let’s see how office 365 is useful.
- Productivity is achieved if the team members are acting like one and information is communicated correctly. The office contains features that can include individualised team comments on documents and recommend changes, and the author can view this, and necessary changes can be made.
- Communications: Talking about communications, the outlook is the feature that is used for this. It is not only used to communicate but also is used as a calendar. Meetings are scheduled, and links are shared with the attendees. With the help of Microsoft 365, all the data are interlinked, and all the teammates are looped, and the mobile version of the software makes it even easier to collaborate and work as a team.
- Data is an important aspect in the business world, the safety of data is quite important, and clients look into those factors. Microsoft 365 provides an extra layer of protection that helps in keeping the data secured.
- 365 helps in data processing, the huge piles of non-meaningful data is converted into meaningful data, which helps in better decision making. Also, faster data processing helps in spending more time on productive and innovative ideas.
There are a few apps that have recently been added to Microsoft 365:
- Connections: it is an email marketing tool and also a customer engagement platform. The product is mainly targeted at small businesses. This feature provides a wide-angle on a company email marketing analytics.
- Listing: It is an organiser used to manage a business on a single platform. The information contained in social media such as Facebook, Google, and Bing is made available on a single platform.
- Microsoft invoicing: software designed to design and send professional invoices to client’s and also collect payments.
- Outlook customer management: it is useful to an enterprise that doesn’t have a furnished CRM solution. It tracks customer details and helps in organising client information.
- Microsoft booking: software used to categorise and manage customer appointments, along with keeping a track on your schedule.
- MileIQ: the software helps track miles or distances covered related to business and helped in reimbursement related to travel.
- Business Centre: it is one-point access that helps to track information such as outstanding invoices, subscriptions and bookings.
So these are the new introduction to Microsoft 365. Most of the new launches focus on business analytics which helps in better decision making.
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What makes Microsoft 365 different from G-Suite?
First, let’s see the similarities. G Suite by Google is the competitor for Microsoft 365. Even though products like Corel, word perfect, and libre office are there in the market, they lack cloud storage. Let’s see what the similarities and differences between the two are.
- Similar to Microsoft offers, Google does have a Free version of its software which comes along with ads.
- Subscription model with ranging from 5$ to 25$ per user
- Similar functionality such as secure messaging, business email address, video and voice calls.
The main difference that arises in Microsoft 365 is in the payment – it should be done upfront, and the entry-level subscription does come with a lot of options compared to the G Suite. It does have a lot of features compared to the price given. Microsoft 365 does have the upper hand in certain aspects of the features.
Wrapping up
Microsoft office 365 is a must-have for all business owners, and the purchase is worth every penny. I hope this article was helpful to you, and do subscribe to our newsletter for the latest technical updates.
