Office 365 pricing is competitive and the first choice for organisations that need a cloud-based suite of productivity and collaboration applications.
Download Getting to know Office 365
Office 365 Pricing: Of course I’m someone who uses this suite in the office, and almost everywhere in fact. I’m not at all surprised to see so many other organisations choosing Office 365, even if you compare Office 365 pricing UK changes since 1st January 2017. Most organisations are aware that Office 365 gives you access to the core services, such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Skype for Business and OneDrive for Business. What many are not aware of are the components of Office 365 also contain fantastic automation, such as Flow, analytics tools, in the form of PowerBi, and even an application development tool, PowerApps. That’s not to mention the often forgotten things such as the self-learning audit tool, Delve, the chat platform, Yammer, and the media curation tool, Sway.
Having Microsoft Office available almost anytime, practically anywhere and on virtually any device makes it a great option for current users. They can build on their experience with Microsoft solutions with hybrid implementation, whilst also enjoying the flexibility of a cloud-based service being quickly adopted by users due to familiarity. Even organisations with no previous investment in Microsoft will find Office 365 has a lot to offer in terms of comprehensiveness, security, support and Office 365 pricing is still competitive with other services. Last year the Gartner Office 365 Survey revealed adoption of Office 365 is widespread. Key insights from the survey include:
Office 365 Leads the Way
78% of surveyed organisations are currently using or planning to use Office 365. That’s a 13% increase on the previous survey in 2014. As a result, Office 365 is arguably the most popular cloud-based productivity suite.
The comprehensive suite of Office 365 applications continues to drive productivity, with Exchange Online for e-mail and calendar use the most popular, OneDrive for Business is second and Office 365 ProPlus, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. ranked third.
Is it plain sailing?
As the usage of Exchange Server on-site has hardly budged it suggests that hybrid deployments are proving popular. Due to Office 365 pricing being geared towards total adoption it’s actually more competitive to buy cloud licences than it is to add existing or upgrade new licences. However, hybrid implementation, customisation, Single Sign-On with Multi-Factor Authentication and general administration of the service are key areas where the experience can be improved. From my perspective I can only encourage organisations considering adopting Office 365 take these factors in to consideration. As a result, many organisations are taking managed on-boarding and migration support to overcome these obstacles. It’s a steep learning curve, as we’ve seen with our own customers.
Just because it’s ‘in the Cloud’, it does not make it easy to deliver from an operational and technical perspective. Decision makers are keen to take advantage of competitive Office 365 pricing and users of course are keen to adopt. More often than not, if the deployment has been done properly, users believe it’s easy to use, intuitive and safe. Before making a wholesale move to any new platform every organisation must carefully evaluate what’s involved for successful results. A managed solution can help you transform.
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Compare Office 365 Pricing Plans:
With so many confusing options in the massive list of Office 365 subscription plans, rely on the expertise of a Cloud Services Provider (CSP) to match you with the right one. Office 365 Pricing is still competitive, however, in order to get the best Office 365 pricing only acquire licences appropriate for each individual user. You can find more on plans and pricing in our Compare Office 365 Plans.
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Prepare your Infrastructure:
While you should be focused on the broader business outcomes of an Office 365 deployment, a cloud managed services provider will be expected to focus on the detailed process of preparing your infrastructure for transformation. A cloud managed services provider will discover your infrastructure before any transition, troubleshoot during the delivery and support you fully following a successful completion.
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Get Hybrid & Administration Right:
There is no doubt about it, hybrid implementations and administration of the services are challenging. By partnering with the right cloud managed services provider, you will receive crucial support and get hybrid & Administration with PowerShell right.
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On-board your Users:
Don’t leave your users out of the loop, engage them at the earliest possible opportunity, not when you have everything up and running. The right partner will help you evaluate a number of options to get all stakeholders on-side as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
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Seamless Email:
Email is the core of workplace communication and, as a result, it is perceived as one of the toughest applications to move. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to make the transition as smooth as possible. Find a cloud managed services provider that can demonstrate they have successfully migrated TB of email, how tough it was and what they did to remedy the inevitable problems.
Relying on a cloud-based collaboration and productivity suite is now becoming the norm. As there is with any IT solution, there are ways to make the most of Office 365 to enhance productivity, however, there are equally as many ways to cause productivity to grind to a halt. A cloud managed services provider can help mitigate the risks, enabling you take full advantage of Office 365 today, save money with competitive Office 365 pricing and reap the results of everything Office 365 can offer tomorrow.
For more information on Office 365, download this Getting to know Office 365 eBook. In order to offer our clients complete peace of mind, we’re a Silver Productivity Partner with Microsoft and use select partners for High Availability. Through our partnerships, you can choose from multiple service tiers to target specific requirements.
