Office 365 is NOT the next version of Microsoft Office. Rather, it's a cloud-based service where businesses can subscribe to Microsoft servers (e.g. Exchange, SharePoint, Lync) for a monthly fee per user. Think of Office 365 as an "office IT services" package.
There are positives and negatives to Office 365. For some businesses, the subscription plans are a fast, easy choice to get them up & running. For others, it may be useful, but over time it may not be as cost-effective as it appears.
Today's WOOF! talks about 10 key things to consider before making a move to Microsoft Office 365.
Office 365 Benefits: 1 through 5
- There are 5 subscription plans for offices.
Plan P is for solo professionals and small business. It's $6/user a month, for up to 50 users. Plans E1-E4 are for mid-sized and enterprise business. They range from $10-$27/user a month, for 50 users and up.
- The software choices available are:
- Office Web Apps (All plans)
- Exchange Online (All plans)
- SharePoint Online (All plans)
- Lync Online (All plans)
- MS Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (All plans)
- Active Directory Integration (Enterprise Plans only)
- Limited on-site deployments for: Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Lync Server (Enterprise Plans only)
- You can buy Office 2010 (Desktop version) through Enterprise Plans E3 and E4.
Plans E3 and E4 come with Office Professional Plus. Which is basically Office 2010, with a plug-in to the other Office 365 services.
One caveat: It is installed along with Lync 2010 as a download from the Office 365 site. An additional application for the Office 365 Web App is installed at the same time.
Based on the price differences, you'll pay about $8/user a month to get Office Professional Plus. Something to keep in mind.
- Lync Online comes with all plans.
Every plan includes Lync Online. The service gives you internal Instant Messaging, Presence (a way to know a co-worker's status), desktop sharing and online meeting capability. Plan P even adds internal PC-to-PC phone calls (with video!). It doesn't allow you to call outside the office though.
- More services will be added as time goes by.
We know that Lync Online will have more capabilities added to it. Dynamics CRM Online is scheduled for a future addition. More SharePoint tools. If Office 365 isn’t the right choice for you now—keep watching.
Office 365 Concerns: 6 through 10
- Even if you're a small business, you might need an Enterprise Plan.
The E1-E4 plans have many more options than Plan P. Phone support, for one. Another is Active Directory Sync, for syncing up & managing user groups. If you currently have a corporate domain – this is necessary in order to maintain the single sign on between Office 365 and your internal domain login. (Note – AD Sync is currently unavailable for the X64 platform)
Also, you can't migrate straight from a Plan P account to a Plan E account. So if you're approaching 50 users (or plan to in the future), go for Plan E1.
- You can get a Lync Server through Office 365 – but it will only have PC to PC Voice.
Plan E4 comes with a Lync Server that you can install on-site. But it will only run PC to PC Voice, the ability to make & receive internal phone calls via computer. Even at the highest-level plan, you're still missing out on external calling, conferencing, and mobile support.
Maybe this will change now that Skype is being integrated. So far, there's no way to know.
- Lync Limitation: Plan E4 is not worth the (hidden) cost.
Plan E4 is $27/user a month. Let's say you have 150 users. 27 x 150 = $4,050 each month.
The Enterprise Edition Lync Server (full version) costs $3,999, with a $107 license per user. 107 x 150 = $16,050 one-time payment
If you're after Lync Server, Plan E4 isn't the best bet. You'd pay the cost of a full-version Lync Server in just 4 months on Office 365.
- You have no control over outages.
If you have an outage with locally-running servers, you can fix it on-site. In Office 365, you have no control over when things come back up.
- If you're on 64-bit, you won't have Single Sign-On with Office 365.
Running your domain on 64-bit right now? You won't be able to use Single Sign-On, or the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization Tool, for Office 365.
We'll also add one recommendation, no matter which Office 365 plan you're considering:
Buy from a local Microsoft partner and get help with the setup.
Microsoft Office 365 – A useful alternative for those companies that want a cloud-based server setup. However, it may not be for everyone.
