With the rise of cloud computing in the business world, it was inevitable that Microsoft would get in on it. This started with their Business Productivity Online Standard (BPOS) suite, which offered a number of sharing and collaboration tools.
However, with their introduction of Microsoft Office 365 last year, Microsoft’s online services were kicked into high gear with a system that rivaled – and generally outpaces – similar services from firms such as Google and Zoho. For a Windows enterprise looking to embrace cloud computing, Microsoft’s online services have arrived, and they can mean huge boosts to productivity in your office.
How Microsoft’s Online Services Boost Your Productivity
- Simple Collaboration: If you have multiple employees all working on the same documents, forcing them to all be in the same room can bring serious productivity slowdowns. Applications like Office 365 allow your employees to collaborate seamlessly whether they’re in the office or home sick with the flu. And it’s as easy to use as the desktop Office suite. Why lose productivity to sick leave and business travel?
- Firm Administrative Control: With all your data stored in the cloud, that makes it simple for your systems administrators to oversee and manage all your data. Admins can control virtually every aspect of the system, from file access to in-app options available to end-users. Any problems with your data can be resolved far more quickly than with offline data storage.
- Guaranteed Uptime: Microsoft offers a money-back guarantee should they fail to deliver 99.9% uptime. When you consider the difficulties companies have had with services such as Amazon’s S3 cloud service, which has had several high-profile outages in the last year, this sort of guarantee means you know your data will be there when you need it, where you need it.
- Desktop Software Licensing: Unlike most other cloud productivity suites, Microsoft offers an option to add desktop software licenses to your per-user fee. With this, any Office 365 user can also run Office 2010 from their desktop machines, which sync files to the cloud systems, ensuring they will be able to work on your documents in any environment, even during an Internet outage.
Key Takeaway:
Microsoft’s online services allow for worldwide, real-time collaboration between your employees on virtually any Microsoft document. Combined with their ease-of-use and guaranteed uptime, this makes Microsoft’s online services turn your move to cloud computing into a true productivity booster.
Photo Credit: Jeff Wilcox