Office 365

[tierk]

I am hoping for a wee bit of information regards to this service. My company has been approached by a Microsoft rep who was singing the praises on this system and he benefits it can bring to our organisation.

Anyone have any experience using this service and if so would they recommend it for medium size real estate brokerage company?

What sort of problems should i expect with it?

1. Is there a good service backup?

2. Is it buggy or prone to crashing?

3. Security good or really bad?

4. Cost effective?

Any information is gratefully received.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Its too new for many to be able to give you those kinds of answers I think.

 

[old.Osy]

I wouldn't be an early adopter for MS enterprise solutions. Ever.

*especially cloud based

 

[Kryten]

We were also approached about this at work - the same representative afterwards told us to hold fire on it until it's better established.

I'm still really rather anti-cloud though.

 

[kirennia]

As said above (ish), always hold off from MS software releases until they're well established and have had the inevitable bug fixes that they'll always have within the first few months of release.

I'm still completely blind as to the benefits of MS office vs openOffice too; anyone able to shed any light?

 

[tierk]

Thanks to all the above, the advice given is pretty much what i was thinking just need to get my IT peeps to stop pushing so hard for this system.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Management were really wanting something like this (I work in a college) but we've found that it runs on a subscription basis costing £10 per member of staff per month, academically (I believe that was the price anyway), no word on the cost for students, I think that's not going to cost anything right now but there may be in the future. With 1000 staff at the college, it became a no brainer for us in these cash strapped times

Technically though? Couldn't rightly say, just looked like a cut down version of word tbh.

Edit. May not be the best source and could be out of date by now but this should give an idea of what to expect financially: http://www.computerworlduk.com/in-d...8/a-guide-to-office-365-versions-and-pricing/

 

[Embattle]

Cloud Pro | Your definitive guide to Cloud Computing in the UK

 

[tierk]

Management were really wanting something like this (I work in a college) but we've found that it runs on a subscription basis costing £10 per member of staff per month

We are being offered the service for free, currently but i am sure that we would be charged at some point and the MS people seem to be very coy on this subject. I get the feeling though that we will be offered this as a freebie because they want to use our company as a guinea pig and as a marketing tool for other potential clients.

Got a further meeting with the peeps from IT and the MS tech rep. On paper at least, it looks awesome and has massive potential for reducing costs and increasing productivity.

 

[Kryten]

We found that MS's licensing options for the local versions of Office (and Windows etc) were a far better option for costing. We're just about to buy into the MS EES scheme - basically for 7 grand a year we get licenses for whatever is the latest version of Windows and Office plus a few other gubbins we may or may not use.

 

[Jeros]

Part of the package

Microsoft Lync Online

Microsoft Lync Online provides communications features including presence information, instant messaging, PC-to-PC audio/video calling and online meetings that can include PC audio, video and web conferencing with application sharing, whiteboards, and other collaboration tools. Lync Online is accessed through the Lync client. Lync Online also supports presence information and click-to-communicate features inside Microsoft Office applications. Currently the Lync components of Office 365 exclude Lync's Enterprise Voice feature set.

Sounds just like and updated netmeeting to me

 

[FuzzyLogic]

We are being offered the service for free, currently but i am sure that we would be charged at some point and the MS people seem to be very coy on this subject. I get the feeling though that we will be offered this as a freebie because they want to use our company as a guinea pig and as a marketing tool for other potential clients.

Got a further meeting with the peeps from IT and the MS tech rep. On paper at least, it looks awesome and has massive potential for reducing costs and increasing productivity.

Did exactly the same thing to us, offered for free and found out about the charges being implemented later.

 

[ford prefect]

I think it is still very early days with the cloud issue. I just don't think many people or large companies are happy with the idea of their data not being stored locally. I just don't think the mentality is quite there yet, and I suspect people are still a little distrustful about the potential security risks and unsure about encryption ect.

I am sure it is the future, but I think we are still a couple of years away from this kind of thing being adopted on a really large scale by the majority of busineses and personal users.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

I suppose it depends where they store it, surely data held outside the UK won't be protected by the DPA and I don't entirely trust this European Safe Harbour act thing with the US, as if the authorities there won't snoop on the data just to make sure there aren't any so-called terror files.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

We were also approached about this at work - the same representative afterwards told us to hold fire on it until it's better established.

I'm still really rather anti-cloud though.

If you look closely at Microsoft's cloud offering, Azure, its got all kinds of lock-in. There's a lot going for it but you need to be aware that you're going to be operating as a Microsoft house and if you ever wanted to move off there, it is potentially difficult to migrate off there. But probably no more difficult than migrating off any other offering.

I've not seen any sample 'real' businesses advertising that they've moved to Azure/Cloud though I readily admit I don't follow it too closely.

 

[Wij]

I've tried it but doubt I'm allowed to comment

 

[tierk]

LOL had the rep back again late yesterday and man was he squirming!!

The meeting went along the lines of....

So tell me......

Q: What would be the cost of this service?

A: No cost it is free

Q: Ok at first its free but what about say a year down the road?

A: Ummmmm, errrrrrrr, squirm squirm

Q: Is it going to buggy like pretty much all MS products have been on release?

A: ummmmm, errrrrrrrrrrr, squirm squirm

It just went on and on, funny as hell to watch and the face of the people from IT...PRICELESS!!

I can safely say that this little IT Dept dream has been pushed way back over the horizon!!