Microsoft 365

Microsoft Office is now Microsoft 365

MiD solutions 4 Documents provides both IT Consultancy and a one-stop-shop for your software licenses, including Microsoft 365, installation and ongoing support.

Microsoft Office has been the most commonly used suite of office productivity software and undergone many changes as business requirements and internet services became more sophisticated over the years, eventually moving from physical software purchases that needed rebuying again and again to keep up with the latest developments to a subscription service providing your workforce with the latest tools when and where they need them.

As of April 2020, Microsoft changed the name of its ubiquitous productivity suite from Office 365 to Microsoft 365. It still provides the core applications of email, calendar, word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software, but can also be expanded to cover server and cloud-based applications required by modern businesses of any size.

The enterprise workforce has become increasingly more mobile, and Microsoft’s productivity toolset has had to adapt and change to match the new requirements. In response, Microsoft updated its 365 suite to a mobile collaborative platform, enabling your team to get work done wherever and whenever it happens.

Product Summary

Microsoft 365 key details are described below and we’ll periodically update them as new information becomes available.
(Current edition as of April 2020)

What is Microsoft 365?

• Microsoft 365 provides users with many of the productivity applications necessary to get work done in the modern business enterprise.
• It features essential applications including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and others we will also look at below.

Why Microsoft 365?

• Microsoft 365’s suite of office tools has become the standard all other products are measured against.
• In the modern mobile-centric enterprise, Microsoft 365 provides the tools your workforce need.
• Your customers and suppliers send you documents created using Microsoft 365 applications.
• This makes Microsoft 365 important to just about every working individual.

How do you get Microsoft 365?

• The latest version of Microsoft 365 is available right now and includes Office 2016 applications.
• Microsoft 365’s cloud-based structure, allows the suite of productivity applications to be constantly updated and improved to better serve evolving business needs.
• Businesses purchase a subscription to Microsoft 365, which would include the essential applications relevant to your business.

What else would I need?

Microsoft 365 will run on Windows 7, 8, or 10. Mac-Mac OS X 10.10, and depending on what subscription package you decide to run, Windows 10 may be included.

Microsoft 365 Applications

Microsoft 365 subscriptions are available in several packages depending on your business requirements. Microsoft now has a wide range of apps to choose from, including those listed below:

Word
The Word app sets the international standard for word processors and is available with both Microsoft 365 Business and Premium. If your staff need to create text, or text and graphics documents, this is the tool.

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Excel
The Excel spreadsheet application comes with Microsoft 365 for Business and Premium and is the standard workhorse for basic data analysis, providing an ideal platform for both financial and general numerical data analysis and reporting.

Key Benefits:

Outlook
Microsoft 365’s Outlook is available with both Business and Premium subscriptions and is the go-to solution for managing email and an appointment calendars for many companies.

Key Benefits:

To-Do
No longer just an underused afterthought piggybacking on Outlook, To-Do is now a feature-rich standalone application that integrates with the rest of Microsoft 365.

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PowerPoint
Microsoft 365’s PowerPoint allows users to create, display, and disseminate information in formats ranging from the basic slide show, to animation, to video, and offers a design tool for both presentations or documents that can be emailed to participants.

Key Benefits:

Publisher
The Publisher app in Microsoft 365 provides users with the tools they need to publish professional-looking newsletters, brochures, and booklets. With emphasis placed on page layout and design, you can quickly combine text, photos, and links, and publish in the way that suits your audience, whether that is email, PDF, XPS or high-quality prints.

Key Benefits:

OneNote
With an increasingly mobile workforce, the need to capture information on the go has become more important. OneNote allows users to take notes on any device and then retrieve those notes from any other device. It’s your basic productivity cloud app.

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OneDrive
The other fundamental and essential cloud-based application is storage. With each Microsoft 365 Business subscription users receive up to 1 TB of cloud storage on the OneDrive for Business application.

Key Benefits:

SharePoint
A Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription also provides businesses with applications for backend infrastructure management. SharePoint, for example, can be used to host intranet websites for the enterprise. It also can be used to host smaller sites designed for smaller teams or divisions. The permissions for these sites can be designated by the users themselves or by appointed administrators.
Note: The Sharepoint application may be in line for changes as its functions are now being included in other Microsoft apps, and we will provide updates as they become available.

Key Benefits:

Exchange
A Microsoft 365 for Business subscription includes an Exchange Server, which handles all the email management duties. Each user is granted 50 GB of storage for email. Maintenance of the Exchange Server is generally handled at the administrator level.

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Teams
Younger members of the workforce are familiar and comfortable with a variety of chat applications. To satisfy the needs of those employees and the wide business, Microsoft 365 now includes Microsoft Teams, a chat-based workspace that integrates people, content, and tools into a single platform.

Key Benefits:

Collaboration tools
Along with the typical productivity applications already listed above, Microsoft 365 includes other collaboration tools, including Delve, Yammer, and Sway. These tools allow users to communicate, brainstorm ideas, share documents, and have video meetings while on the go.

Key Benefits:

Yammer
Improve engagement and enhance communication in your organization. Build communities of interest, gather ideas and feedback, keep everyone informed, and share, create, and edit files directly from Yammer conversations with help from Yammer. Access to a Yammer network is determined by a user’s Internet domain so that only individuals with approved email addresses may join their respective networks.

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Sway
Sway allows users to create visually striking newsletters, presentations and documentation in minutes by dropping in photos, videos and other multimedia. Sway dynamically adapts so that it looks great on any screen, and can be shared or co-edited with a simple URL.

Key Benefits:

Power BI
One of the most powerful tools any enterprise can have, regardless of size, is areliable business intelligence (BI) gathering application. Microsoft 365 for Business, through its Power BI application, provides enterprises with a set of tools for collecting, sorting, and presenting business intelligence data.

Key Benefits:

Kaizala
Mobile communication is increasing vital to many organizations, and Kaizala adds a secure mobile messaging and workflow app that can be deployed both internally and externally. Employees, customers, and vendors can all communicate and coordinate with each other in a secure environment.

Key Benefits:

Skype
Skype is a telecommunications application that specializes in providing video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, the Xbox One console, and smartwatches over the Internet. Skype also provides instant messaging services. Users may transmit text, video, audio and images.

Key Benefits:

Flow
Managing workflow in a dynamic business and across various applications can consume precious time and resources. Flow provides a simple system to manage notifications within Microsoft 365 across all of the applications you use.

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PowerApps
For those situations when your organization needs a specific app to do a specific job, there is PowerApps. Using simplified development techniques, businesses can create sophisticated applications using features, procedures, and processes found in Microsoft 365.

Infrastructure
All Microsoft 365 subscriptions include a reliability guarantee of 99.9% uptime.
In addition, permissions for internal access control are handled by administrators designated by the enterprise using tools supplied by Active Directory. Each Microsoft 365 subscription includes five layers of security and proactive monitoring to help safeguard your data.

Licenses
One licensed subscription to a Microsoft 365 Business Premium plan covers five phones, five tablets, and five PCs or Macs per user.
Cover under other plans will vary. Please see our packages for further details.

Support
Each Microsoft 365 subscription includes full 24/7 web and phone support.

MiD will help you assess what you need, which applications are the most important for your business, and organise the licenses, installation and ongoing support your business will need to get the most out of the applications and deal with any bugs your system throws up.

Packages:

Microsoft 365 for Business

Microsoft 365 for Business Premium

Another MiD support package

Another MiD support package

Another MiD support package