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Office 365 a boon for SMBs

Small and medium-sized businesses obviously know about Microsoft Office, and how tools such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint allow employees to create documents, keep track of financial information and prepare presentations for meetings. Office 365 is Microsoft's latest offering that not only includes these products but many others to allow staff members to have unprecedented access to corporate content anywhere at any time.

Windows IT Pro's Paul Thurrott recently reported Office 365 is undergoing some important changes that will greatly benefit SMBs. He asserted all of these updates are positive, with price reductions for the solution especially noticeable for mid-sized firms.

Companies currently have three choices when selecting Office 365: Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Mid-sized Business versions. Thurrott noted these suites create a typical progression in terms of their offerings. The standard small business offering provides access to Lync Online, SharePoint Online and Exchange Online.

"Step up to Small Business Premium, and you get five installs of Office of PCs and Macs, plus five installs of Office for tablets (currently just iPad, but Android and Windows are coming soon). And if you step up to Midsized Business, you get support for more users (300 vs. 25), Active Directory integration (for the folks with on-premises infrastructure) and Yammer Enterprise," Thurrott explained.

Integration with other tools is a Microsoft staple
Yammer and Lync are two Microsoft products that stand to benefit Office 365. The former suite is a social network designed specifically for businesses, while the latter is a unified communications system that makes employee communication and collaboration effective through multiple channels such as video and instant messaging. Add these tools to Office 365, a cloud-based platform, and companies, regardless of size can support a truly agile and productive workforce - one that can use laptops, tablets and smartphones to view timely and valuable data without restricting them to just an office setting.

If your company is just learning about Office 365 and is interested in adopting this product, Beringer Associates can help your firm achieve a successful implementation from the start. For over two decades, we have assisted customers with their goals of maximizing their investments in IT solutions. We accomplish this feat due to our approach. We analyze a firm's IT infrastructure and operational needs to select the very best tools for their unique demands.

We are also a Certified Microsoft Partner, offering expertise in popular products such as Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Once an IT product is officially launched, we provide continued support. Our team of professionals are on call 24/7 to assist businesses with any complications that may occur, addressing the problems before they harm operational efficiency.

Office 365 takes what made Microsoft Office so effective and integrates with other products to deliver a unified experience. Cloud computing is not going away anytime soon. If your businesses wants to compete over the long run, contact Beringer Associates today.


theProfessor

theProfessor

Rob is the CTO of Beringer Technology Group, and focuses his efforts on software development, cloud engineering, team mentoring and strategic technical direction. Rob has worked with Beringer since 2005, and has influenced every department from Development, Security, Implementation, Support and Sales. Rob graduated with his MBA from Rowan University in 2012, earned his Bachelors of Computer Science in 1997, and is current with several Microsoft technical certifications. Rob is very active, and loves to mountain bike, weight train, cook and hike with his dog pack.