Microsoft Office has always been the dominant suite for word processing and productivity in both the consumer and business sides of the computing segment. While organizations like IT companies have been leveraging on the suite’s set of applications for years, computing continues to progress from desktop to the Web-based solutions delivery model. With this, Microsoft is strengthening its bid for the cloud computing segment with the announcement of its latest offering, Microsoft Office 365.

The Unified Cloud Solution

Office 365 is a unified cloud service that integrates Microsoft’s word processing, communications and online collaboration solutions into a nifty suite geared for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and large enterprises. IT companies can surely benefit from its capabilities, seamless accessibility and its expansive support for most popular Web browsers, and multiple desktop and mobile operating systems. The solutions bundled into it are Office Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus.

Microsoft SharePoint Online

Microsoft SharePoint Online lets you create, store, share, and collaborate on documents with coworkers through the office Intranet or Extranet.

Microsoft Exchange Online

Built on the same technology behind Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, the Exchange Online e-mail software furthers its business-class capabilities with features like built-in mail archiving and a handful of Web-based management tools for online deployments. You also get 24/7 IT support via Microsoft, including maintenance, upgrades, and software patches.

Microsoft Lync Online

Previously known as Office Communications Server, Microsoft Lync Online is a real-time communications service that lets you connect with other users through instant messaging, voice and video calls, and structured conferences.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus

Microsoft Office Professional Plus includes the Microsoft Office Web Apps as an online companion of your natively installed Office suite. It combines the stability and straightforward interface of the Office suite with valuable cloud-geared integration, letting you make light document edits from a browser.

Productivity in the SMB Space

The cloud-based IT services within Microsoft Office 365 include quick and easy access to your e-mail messages, documents, contacts and calendar events anytime, anywhere. These can be retrieved over-the-air on any mobile device via Wi-Fi or the wireless networks available for your mobile carrier. It also offers a good amount of interoperability as it can run on most browsers, on either the Windows or Mac OS, or on leading mobile platforms like iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry.

This convenience will definitely prove valuable to any company, reducing the need to procure and deploy additional server- and desktop-based applications.

Another great value proposition Microsoft is offering to interested organizations is their guaranteed 99% service uptime. This ensures that there will be no downtimes to obstruct your productivity especially during mission critical processes, and significantly less IT support issues in the long run.

Availability and Pricing

The Small Business version, targeted for organizations with less than 25 users, is priced at $6 per user per month. Larger businesses, on the other hand, are offered with a variety of subscription plans to address different IT needs, ranging from $2 to $27 per user per month.

As of writing, Microsoft Office 365 is available in limited Beta to 13 countries, though the company estimates the official full version’s release to be during the second quarter of next year. Up for inclusion in the IT service’s future updates is Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to give users with a set of comprehensive business productivity tools.

Cloud-based services have definitely changed the computing landscape, and Microsoft Office 365 is only one of many cloud computing solutions that can revitalize the workplace to be more efficient and cost-effective. To learn more about cloud computing and how you can leverage on it to better your company, contact the IT experts at All Covered at 866-466-1133 or visit www.allcovered.com.