April 20, 2011 in Moscow, at a press conference held in a restaurant with the symbolic name "Clouds", it was announced that the new solution - Microsoft Office 365, will be available to Russian customers before the end of the 2011 calendar year.
The first thing I want to say is that Office 365 is not a new version the well-known Microsoft Office suite of applications. This is an online (“cloud”) service paid by users according to the model subscription fee, and combines the functionality of Microsoft Office client applications, as well as server products such as Exchange Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Lync Server 2010.
For the US market, the subscription fee will range from $6 to $27 per user per month, depending on the chosen service plan, which is obviously very democratic. Service plans differ in the number of features available to the user.
Functionality
Office 365 is currently in public beta testing, which, unfortunately, is not yet available in Russia. Therefore, we will judge the functionality by the available English-language marketing materials, and also based on the knowledge of on-premise (intended for deployment on our own infrastructure) versions of the corresponding products.
So, what does an employee of a company that subscribes to Office 365 get?
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
Depending on the selected tariff plan, the subscription price may include a license (the right to use) the Microsoft Office suite, well known to many users, in the edition that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace and Lync. The installation distribution kit, about 640MB in size, is downloaded from the service's self-service portal.
For a moderate subscription fee, the company gets the opportunity to legally use Microsoft Office, and the latest version and the maximum edition. And to do it flexibly: if it is necessary to expand the staff, the number of subscriptions increases, and the number of staff reductions decreases accordingly. It should be noted that Microsoft's current standard volume licensing policy does not provide for a similar flexibility in handling purchased licenses. For example, an enterprise does not have the ability to “transfer” (sell) a very expensive license it has acquired to another legal entity. And in the conditions of Russian realities, such a need could arise quite often, for example, in connection with the transfer of any business functions between the holding's divisions, which are separate legal entities, and the corresponding movement of staffing units.
In relation to the Office 365 cloud service, Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 is a set of client applications. The code for these applications runs on a local PC, and therefore, in relation to the Office 365 service, they can be called "thick" clients, or desktop clients.
Enough has been said and written about the functionality of the applications included in the package, familiar to most users, I see no reason to repeat; Further, we will dwell only on the functionality that is associated with the operation of applications as clients of the Office 365 service.
Desktop client Microsoft Word 2010 with a file located in the SharePoint Online Library (see below) of an Office 365 service open
Microsoft Exchange Server (Exchange Online)
Thanks to the presence of the Exchange Online product in Office 365, users get the opportunity to work with enterprise-class email, with "built-in" protection against spam and viruses. Exchange Online is a cloud version of the Microsoft Exchange Server product that has been on the market for a long time, the functionality of which is by no means limited to e-mail: users get the opportunity to centrally store their contact information (the company's address book will be generated automatically), they can manage their schedule through calendars and tasks .
The desktop client for Exchange Online is Microsoft Outlook.
Microsoft Outlook 2010 desktop client. Working with a corporate e-mail box located in the Office 365 service infrastructure.
Visible green presence indicators and icons with photos of email senders
Microsoft Outlook 2010 desktop client. Both the personal calendar of events and the calendar of events are open at the same time working group,
stored on an Office 365 SharePoint Online site
Exchange Online also has an online (thin) client - Outlook Web App, accessible from a browser and, accordingly, does not require installation on a PC. Interface Outlook user Web App is as close as possible to the desktop version of Outlook, almost all functionality is available, including clicks right click mice.
Outlook Web App in a browser. On the right side -
Lync web conferencing invitation email
Microsoft SharePoint Server (SharePoint Online)
SharePoint Online is a cloud version of the server product Microsoft SharePoint Server, designed to organize collaboration between employees of the enterprise, centralized intellectual storage of documents, support for their simultaneous editing, project management and many other functions.
Let's dwell on the functionality of this component of the Office 365 service, as, in our opinion, the least familiar to potential users of the service from the small and personal business sectors.
The so-called libraries are used to store documents on SharePoint sites. A document can be placed in the library in several ways: from the special menu of the Word 2010 desktop client, loaded from hard drive by clicking on the "Add document" link of the site or by rewriting the file in Windows Explorer because any SharePoint library can be opened in Windows Explorer as a network folder.
Office 365 SharePoint document library open in browser
What is the advantage of storing documents in SharePoint libraries in relation to the widespread file storage model in network folders? Firstly, this is an exception of conflict situations in terms of the contents of files, when one document is edited by two users independently of each other. If a document is "checked out" by a user from a SharePoint library for editing, other users will not be able to edit it at that time. You can always see who checked out the document.
The second is versioning support. A SharePoint library can be configured to store all versions of documents from the moment they were created. Moreover, any intermediate version can be opened, to find out who is the author of the changes and when they were made. You can even compare two versions of a document.
Thirdly, it is support for the possibility of simultaneous editing of documents. In particular, for example, it is possible to simultaneously edit one word document by two or more users. A paragraph that one user is working on is assigned to it and other users cannot make changes to it. (Excel locks at the cell level.) During this editing, users can communicate with each other via instant messaging, voice, or video through the Lync Online component of the Office 365 service (see below).
Microsoft Word 2010 desktop client. A list of users is visible,
simultaneously editing the same document stored
in an Office 365 SharePoint Online site library
Fourth, it is the possibility of organizing a full-text search for the content of documents. By typing part of a word into the search box of a SharePoint Online site, the search results will include all documents whose content contains that combination of letters. This allows you to effectively manage the information accumulated in the company, located in Microsoft documents office. Each new document will complement the knowledge base of the enterprise.
SharePoint Online also includes a set Office applications Web Apps are thin clients for working with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files. Thin clients run in a browser, therefore, do not require installation on a PC, and implement the most requested by users functions of their desktop counterparts. The supported browsers for Office Web Apps are Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, and Chrome (see below for detailed specifications).
With Office Web Apps, you can both view and edit Office documents right in your browser. It should be noted that Office Web Apps do a good job with quite complex formatting, and only extreme tricks will be displayed approximately. To open a file in Office Web Apps, just click on the link to the corresponding file in the library.
A Microsoft Word document opened for viewing in the Word Web App thin client. Quite complicated formatting is displayed correctly
With Office 365, you can stop sending files as email attachments and only send links to documents that are in a SharePoint library. Thus, a reduction in the amount of information sent by e-mail is achieved, one current version document stored centrally, and there is no need to worry about whether the recipient has the latest version desired application Microsoft Office - Office Web Apps will help you open a document in any browser.
Offline file editing is also possible. Microsoft Application SharePoint Workspace, included in Microsoft Office Professional Plus, transparently manages the local copy of the library's documents for the user, synchronizing modified documents when there is a connection to the Internet, and, accordingly, to the Office 365 service.
SharePoint Workplace
You can upload a database to an Office 365 SharePoint site Microsoft Access, which allows you to have a single up-to-date copy of a small database available via the web interface, sufficient, for example, to keep inventory of a small enterprise.
Microsoft Access database published to a SharePoint Online site
The Office 365 SharePoint Online site libraries can be configured to support alert mechanisms and business processes.
In particular, using the notification mechanism, subscribed users can receive e-mail messages when documents are added or changed in the library of interest to them, which allows them to always stay abreast of changes in documents that are currently being actively collaborated on or vice versa, rarely changed, but important documents in the company's activities - various provisions and regulations. In this case, the employee who made changes or published a new document is relieved of the obligation to notify interested parties - SharePoint Online does this work for him.
The mechanism of business processes allows you to automate typical processes for the passage of documents within the enterprise. For example, in the editorial office of a computer publication, after the preparation of materials by the author, approval by the editor must take place, and then the material is put in the queue for publication. In this case, the workflow has obvious steps that can be configured in Office 365's SharePoint Online service. After the document is placed in the library, the workflow will automatically run and the editor will receive an email notification of new material that needs to be reviewed. After reviewing the material in Word or Word Web App, the editor can either approve the document or reject it with a comment. In any case, the author will receive a corresponding notification by e-mail. After the material is approved by the editor, the notification will be received by the person responsible for further actions employee and so on until the end of the business process. The site always provides information about the stage at which a business process that has started is located, which allows you to keep the situation under control.
Business process engines in Office 365 can be configured quite flexibly. The system already has a number of pre-configured business processes, and document approval is one of them. If you need to modify a business process or build your own, several tools are available: simple configuration can be done directly in SharePoint Online, more complex operations - in specialized SharePoint Designer software (distributed for free) and Microsoft Visio.
Project management features are available in SharePoint Online. For example, a list could be created containing a list of tasks performed by members of a project team. Such a list can be visually displayed as a Gantt chart. When a task is assigned, a corresponding notification will be sent to the responsible person by e-mail. Also, a notification will be sent to all signatories in case of any change in this task: terms, content, status; due to which the project team is always aware of the progress of the project.
A SharePoint Online site can host a project team calendar, including meeting dates, that can be accessed from both the Outlook desktop client (see 3) and the Outlook Web Access thin client. The meetings themselves can be held online through integration with Lync Online.
Microsoft Lync Server (Lync Online)
This component of the Office 365 service is responsible for communications between users. Actually, Lync Online is a cloud implementation of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 unified communications server. Like any product that claims to implement the concept of unified communications, Lync considers the user's personal computer as the main subscriber communications terminal.
The Lync Client client application implements a contact-oriented user interface, in which indicators of the presence of other users are immediately visible, and from which, using the same simple tricks, you can start an instant messaging session, voice call, video or web conference. In the process of communication, you can add participants, change the analog device - for example, switch the call to a bluetooth headset.
Microsoft Lync Client interface
Lync is well enough integrated with other Office 365 components that the following scenario can be implemented. In Outlook, once you have identified the potential participants for a web conference, you can start scheduling it with just one click. Outlook will receive information about the availability of potential participants and the current version of their work calendars from Exchange Online, so that the initiator of the conference can offer time not at random, but taking into account the busyness of colleagues, which significantly increases the chances of getting to a convenient time for everyone the first time. All potential participants will receive an email containing an invitation and a link to the scheduled conference. You can accept an invitation, as well as start or join a conference, directly from Outlook, also in one click.
Schedule a web conference in Outlook
Conference in Lync. Instant messaging session, active participant mapping video, Microsoft PowerPoint presentation slide show with participant navigation - all in a single interface
You can invite non-employee participants to participate in a web conference. Such participants will be able to join, for example, using the Silverlight version of the client, that is, to participate in a Lync web conference, you do not need to install any additional software on your PC. software, and, accordingly, you do not need to have local administrator rights. This scenario can be widely used when inviting customers and partners of the company to participate in webinars.
Lync is also integrated with SharePoint, so that, for example, while co-authoring a Word document, you can start instant messaging with other active users right from the desktop interface. Microsoft client Word, and then, if necessary, switch to voice or video communication.
On May 10, 2011, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Skype. At the press conference dedicated to the event, Microsoft plans for integrating Skype technologies with existing products: Lync, Messenger, Xbox. It is logical to assume that when these plans are implemented, Office 365 users will be able to directly connect with the multi-million audience of Skype users.
Enterprise public website
Using Office 365, an enterprise can create its own public website, accessible to users from the Internet at their own domain name companies.
You can choose a site theme and design style from the relevant extensive libraries.
Website Themes
Integration with mobile devices
To work with the Office 365 service, you can use almost all common smartphone models that support the protocol. Exchange ActiveSync. Including smartphones of the iPhone, BlackBerry lines, as well as smartphones with operating systems Android and Symbian (the latter with the Nokia Mail for Exchange client).
Support for the Exchange ActiveSync protocol gives smartphone users the ability to work with email, calendar and contact list stored in the Office 365 infrastructure. Email synchronization is possible in the so-called push mode, in which incoming letters will be “pushed” from the Exchange Online server to mobile phone immediately upon receipt, which, on the one hand, allows you to work with mail as quickly as possible, and, on the other hand, leads to a reduction in traffic and an increase in smartphone battery life.
Using browsers implemented in smartphones, you can work with SharePoint Online sites. SharePoint can generate custom, mobile-friendly views of relevant web pages that work well on small smartphone screens.
However, a particularly smooth and complete integration with the Office 365 service is, of course, implemented in Windows phone. In particular, the so-called Office Hub is implemented in the Windows Phone interface, through which the user has centralized access to Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile applications, as well as documents. Mobile versions office applications do an excellent job with documents of the appropriate formats, allow you to edit them. Integration with SharePoint Online allows you to see links to sites and individual libraries in the Windows Phone interface, open and save documents directly in SharePoint Online.
Windows phone. Calendar, SharePoint library, PowerPoint presentation, and side-by-side call
Microsoft announced the release of the Lync Moblie mobile client for Windows Phone and iPhone during the current 2011. In particular, on May 16, 2011, as part of the TechEd conference, an update for Windows Phone codenamed “Mango” was announced, which will implement even deeper integration with Office 365, Windows Live SkyDrive, and the Lync Mobile mobile client.
Windows phone. Lync Mobile
Functionality Summary
Despite the fact that we considered the components included in Office 365 separately from each other, for the user, the entire service looks monolithic. This is achieved by close integration of server components, desktop, thin clients, as well as the unity of approach to building user interfaces.
Office 365 can be attributed to platforms / solutions of the UCC class (Unified Communications and Collaboration), that is, products that provide unified communications and collaboration of company employees.
Benefits for business users
So, we can say that Office 365 is an offer to use almost the full range of software included in the Microsoft business productivity group, according to the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model.
According to the participants of the press conference held on April 20 in Moscow, where they announced their intention to launch Office 365 in Russia before the end of 2011, the new service may be of interest to both large companies and companies in the personal, small and medium business segments.
In particular, according to Pavel Kuzmenko, head of Microsoft's office information systems promotion department in Russia, the value for large companies may lie in getting all the benefits from using modern information technologies, optimize investments and replace capital expenditures with operating ones (CAPEX OPEX). However, according to Andrey Patoka, Vimpelcom's vice president of corporate business development, large companies that decide to move to Office 365 will do so for a long time, through various hybrid models.
The participants in the press conference expressed the opinion that Office 365 is of particular interest to small companies, and there are several reasons for this.
The first is the ability to access state-of-the-art business productivity tools for a low monthly fee. Previously, for small companies, the costs of infrastructure and licensing of the corresponding software according to the classical model were prohibitive, and the enterprise was deprived of the opportunity to effectively apply modern IT. That is, Office 365 is the breakthrough that allows, for example, a startup to rise in terms of technology to the same level that is achieved by market leaders.
The second is the ability to flexibly manage the number of licenses (service subscriptions). If necessary, the number of subscriptions can be increased or reduced promptly, depending on the need.
The third is the ability to use the enterprise-level functionality of related products, such as high availability, which previously required the deployment of a very complex network and server infrastructure, staff training and very high licensing costs.
Fourth - no need for special knowledge. Deployment, administration of the service platform, updating of software versions is carried out by the service provider, a small company can focus on its core business, on its competence.
Fifth - the presence of several service plans that differ subscription fee. A small business can subscribe users to a cost-effective service plan that matches their needs for using the components included in Office 365.
Sales
In accordance with the model adopted by Microsoft to promote the new service in the world, access to Office 365 in Russia will be provided by Microsoft's syndication partners - OJSC VimpelCom and SKB Kontur. Their customers will be able to get the new solution as part of various combination packages designed to meet the needs of companies of different sizes and profiles.
In particular, Nikolai Pryanishnikov, President of Microsoft Russia, said:
“... the most important thing is that today we are announcing that we will be implementing this product, presenting this product to the market, with our partners. This is in line with the … model of Microsoft around the world, but at the same time, I will say that the number of partners is very limited, there will be only a few such partners around the world, and I am pleased to note today that we have chosen, and we have been chosen, by the most the best companies on the market. From the point of view of an active position, readiness for implementation, including a rather complex technical solution, synergy, I would really call these companies leading in Russia. VimpelCom as a leading telecommunications company; SKB Kontur, as a leading company in Russia, can be said to be the pride of Russia, a developer of web services, cloud technologies are great companies. I am sure that both we and partners will get very good benefits: we will get the opportunity to promote our products on the market, partners will additionally get a very big advantage in the fight for the client, in retention, loyalty, and increased profitability. Today, both in telecom and in the Internet business, it is very important to retain a client. The client may even come to you, but then switching costs nothing: in fact, you can switch from one operator to another. But if you have a package (of services)… when you offer a complex approach to small and medium-sized businesses, for example, telephony, software, services, and everything is integrated in one package with uniform discounts, of course, the client will not go anywhere . And the client will benefit, and the partner, of course, will benefit. Therefore, today I am very pleased with our partnership and I want to thank both Andrey and Dmitry for our partnership and wish us good luck in this launch. I am sure that the prospects here are very good.”
“Other Microsoft partners can remain sales agents,” explained Nikolai Pryanishnikov, answering a question from the audience, “of our integrated solution. They can be partners like VimpelCom and SKB Kontur, and Microsoft partners, but on sale. In this case, they will not have the opportunity to make integrated service packages, but they will be able to sell the product.”
At the press conference, not all information related to sales of Office 365 in Russia was announced, but only part of it, since work on the project to bring the new product to the market is still ongoing. In particular, prices have not yet been announced.
However, it can be said that VimpelCom plans to package Office 365 offers with offers for fixed and mobile services, and SKB Kontur with offers for access to their existing online services "Kontur-extern" (submission of tax returns through Internet) and others.
In particular, Andrey Patoka, Vice President for Corporate Business Development at VimpelCom, said: “Working with an infocommunication provider is very attractive for the customer, since one provider is responsible not only for the quality of the product, but also for the funds product access. Without communication solutions, the work of this whole idea is simply impossible.”
Dmitry Mramorov, General Director of SKB Kontur: “We assume that Office 365 will be included in package offers with our products, first of all, of course, Kontur-Extern - a reporting system. The DiaDoc system ... we believe that in combination with Office 365 there are good prospects ... and absolutely wonderful (Office 365) falls on Elba's electronic accountant, on the provision of services for micro-businesses, for small businesses ... ".
SKB "Kontur" expects to attract big number new customers. In particular, the emergence of an offer for Office 365 will allow the company to contact not only the accounting departments within the customer companies, but also the main business structures.
So, while the prices in Russia have not yet been announced, let's try to look at the prices announced as part of the global announcement.
Five service plans have been announced for Office 365: P (aka P1) - personal, for professionals and small businesses, and E1, E2, E3, E4 - corporate, for enterprises. (Some materials also mention plans K1 and K2 for enterprises, but there is no information on them even on the profile site www.office365.com).
Plan P (P1) - $6/user/month includes:
- email corporate class, calendars and personal archive;
- 25 GB for mailbox and mobile mail;
- SharePoint team sites
- Office Web Apps
- a simple public website;
- ability to publish databases Access data;
- Lync conferences and the ability to demonstrate the desktop to a remote subscriber (desktop sharing);
- multipoint instant messaging and PC-to-PC calls;
- community support.
Plans E, respectively, include:
It's important to note that Microsoft Office desktop is only available on the E3 plan ($24/user/month) and is currently being offered by Microsoft for beta testing.
In general, judging by the structure and completeness of the presentation of information on the official website, it seems that by the time Office 365 beta testing is over, information on tariff plans will still be refined, even for the US market.
It seems appropriate, especially taking into account the planned special packaging of Office 365 offers in the Russian market, to carefully examine the service plans, their options, and functionality. On the other hand, you can always try an economical plan, and, in case of a lack of features, upgrade to a more advanced one.
How it works
Of course, Office 365 belongs to the category of cloud products, since the end user does not need to have any infrastructure of his own, except for a PC and Internet access - Office 365 will come to him “from the cloud”;)
The press conference participants answered several questions about the technical organization of the service. In particular, the server infrastructure that runs the Office 365 service is hosted exclusively in Microsoft data centers located around the world, partner data centers are not involved. To deploy the Office 365 service, of course, the Microsoft platform is used. The creation of a data center in Russia is not yet planned. An enterprise that subscribes to Office 365 will not know which data center hosts the hardware that powers Office 365.
For users, this means that e-mails and instant messages between adjacent desks in the office can go, for example, through Singapore ;)
And this, in turn, imposes certain requirements on the characteristics of the channel for accessing the Internet. Its speed should be enough for the transfer of bulk traffic (e-mails, Office documents), and for real-time traffic - voice communication and video conferencing. The required channel capacity depends both on the number of users and on the typical use of services by each of them, so it is difficult to give any specific recommendations.
Microsoft declares the reliability of the service at the level of 99.9%, and its financial responsibility in case of failure to achieve this parameter. This level of reliability means 8.76 hours of downtime per year (43 minutes per month). However, users should remember that the service is accessed via the Internet, and, accordingly, it is also necessary to think about ensuring the reliability of the relevant channels. Of course, end users are unlikely to be able to influence the reliability of the backbone channels connecting the data center with a provider in Russia, but it seems advisable to have a backup option for Internet access, for example, wireless.
In this regard, an interesting proposal is to receive services for accessing the Office 365 service from one source together with the Internet access service. In this case, the supplier will be responsible for the performance of the entire complex. However, the provider's liability, as practice shows, is likely to be within the portion of the subscription fee proportional to the service downtime in excess of the stated 0.01%.
Therefore, it seems logical to think about the possibility of offline work. In particular, you can choose a service plan with the ability to use the desktop version of Microsoft Office, so that you can continue to work even in the absence of Internet access, or purchase a license for such Microsoft Office separately. It also seems appropriate to have a backup of critical enterprise data somewhere on local media, as well as to have a minimal office IT infrastructure so that in case of unforeseen situations, the data and at least some possibility of processing it are not lost.
At the same time, Andrei Patoka, Vice President for Corporate Business Development at Vimpelcom, comments on the question of what specific responsibility Beeline Business will bear in the event of a service failure: “... all types of (responsibility), starting with moral . In business, it is very important to establish and maintain a good relationship with the customer. Plus the responsibility that is specified in the contracts. ... SLA, implying liability. Here we are no different from other major operators, in our relationships with customers we provide such a configuration of the product that would have all kinds of motivation for the provider so that the quality meets the requirements of the client.”
Service management
Office 365 can be started from the user's home page, which can quickly navigate to Outlook Web Access, download the Lync 2010 Client distribution, quickly navigate to a SharePoint site and download the Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus distribution, or go to service management.
General view of the start page of the user of the Office 365 service
The Office 365 service is managed using the web-based admin console.
Admin console. Adding a new user
System requirements
Operating Systems:
- Windows 7;
- Windows Vista with service pack 2;
- Windows XP with Service Pack 3;
- Windows XP Home Edition (limited);
- Windows XP Media Center Edition (limited);
- Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard.
System software:
- Microsoft. NET Framework 3.0 (for Windows XP);
- Java client 1.4.2 (for Macintosh OS X).
Microsoft Office packages:
- Microsoft Office 2010 or Office 2007 Service Pack 2;
- Office 2008 for Mac and Microsoft Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition;
- Office 2011 for Mac and Outlook 2011 for Mac;
- .NET Framework 2.0 or later late version;
- Microsoft Lync 2010.
Client applications:
- Services Connector (a special client for accessing the Office 365 service).
Browsers (to access the Microsoft Online Portal):
- Mozilla Firefox 3.x;
- Apple Safari 3.x.
Browsers - for Microsoft Outlook Web App:
- Internet Explorer 7 or later;
- Firefox 3 or later;
- Safari 3 or later running Macintosh OS X 10.5;
- Chrome 3 or later;
- Outlook Web App also has a light version that supports reduced dialing functionality, does not work with almost any browser.
Development platform
Office 365 is not only a ready-to-use service, but also a development platform.
For example, a developer can implement a so-called web part, a software applet that processes data that is on a SharePoint Online site and outputs it to specific area web pages in a user-friendly way.
You can write code that interacts with Excel documents and Access databases located in Office 365.
It is possible to create your own client for Lync that implements enterprise-specific functionality - for example, embed communications in the enterprise's main business application. Thanks to this, for example, in the text of instant messages, the numbers of customer requests or shipping invoices will be transmitted directly from the respective applications.
The Microsoft Office 365 Marketplace, an app store for Office 365, is currently in beta testing, opening the door for developers.
Microsoft Office 365 Marketplace
Conclusion
Office 365 is a logical continuation of the trend that has taken shape in the industry. The software must come to the user's PC in the form of web applications and cloud infrastructure services - private, hybrid or public. Microsoft has made it possible to deploy all major business productivity applications in the cloud. Building own service, which unites all these products into a single whole, and the launch of this service on the market was only a matter of time.
Possibility of licensed use of Microsoft Office, flexible subscription management, availability of several tariff plans, the ability to use enterprise-level functionality at a very affordable price, the ability to pay for a monthly fee model - all this makes Office 365 an attractive offer, especially for personal, small and medium business segments.
Working with Office 365
In this chapter, we will describe how to register and create an account for our organization in Office 365.
It consists of 3 stages:
- 1st. Sending an application.
- 2nd. Receive by e-mail instructions for activating the product.
- And 3rd. actual activation.
Let's get started. Initially, we need to go to the website of the Russian partner of Microsoft®: - the company "SKB Kontur". For this:
- Let's launch an Internet browser.
- AT address bar we will type the address kontur365.ru. By specified address we will get to the page Application for connection of the portal Kontur 365.
- On this page you can get acquainted with a brief description and features of the service.
- To create an application, click the Try button. An on-screen application form will open.
The form filling dialog has 2 tabs:
- Request a demo.
- And Buy the full version.
We will stop at free trial version Office 365. The demo version of the program is a full-fledged working version, only with a limited period of use. Office 365 will be available for a 30 day trial period. After a decision is made on the commercial use of the product, you will need to purchase licenses for the required number of users. In this case, all accounts from the trial version will be activated, and the trial version will be converted to the paid version.
On the "Order a demo" tab, fill in all the fields:
- name and surname of the first user of the service,
- Name of the organization,
- her TIN and KPP,
- region,
- email address to which a description of the activation procedure will be sent,
- desired domain name in the "onMicrosoft®.com" domain. We recommend that you enter your organization's abbreviation here. When you create the 1st account in this domain, your organization's public website will be created. In the future, you can continue to use the specified name or change to your existing domain. You can add multiple domains that belong to your organization to an Office 365 program. One of the video tutorials will be devoted to working with domains.
- After all fields are filled in, click the Submit Request button. There will be a procedure to check that the fields are filled in correctly and that the domain name you entered is not used. If successful, the application will be sent.
Within 12 hours after registration, an email with instructions on how to sign in to Office 365 will be sent to the email address you specified in the application.
After receiving a letter from the support service, we will perform all the steps indicated in the activation instructions.
- Old password,
- New Password. The degree of complexity of the password displays an indicator below the input field. If it is green, the password meets the complexity criteria.
- Re-enter the new password in the confirmation field.
- Click Submit. You will return to the portal home page.
- Make sure your ID is selected in the Login section and enter your password again.
- Click the Login button. In a few seconds you will be taken to the main page of the office. Registration and creation of the first account were successful.
The first account is the administrator account. The administrator has licenses to use Office 365 disabled by default. You can either assign licenses to an administrator or create a user and specify the required licenses for that user. Let's dwell on the option of assigning licenses for the administrator.
Up start page office is the main menu. So far it contains only 2 commands:
- Homepage
- and Administrator.
Run the Administrator command. The page of the same name will open.
In the left pane, under Manage, select Users. A section of the same name will be displayed, in which a table with a list of users registered in the system is located. So far, it contains only one entry - this is the administrator who logged into the Office for the first time.
Select the licenses to be assigned by checking and clearing the appropriate checkboxes. Selecting the Microsoft® Office 365 checkbox allows you to assign all three available licenses to the user:
- Lync Online,
- SharePoint® Online,
- Exchange Online.
- After checking the boxes, click the Save button. Licenses have been assigned.
- Click the Save button again. The changes will take effect and you will be returned to the Users section.
Note. 2 new commands appeared in the main menu of the office:
- Outlook®
- and the group site.
- To set up Office and its home page taking into account the assigned licenses, execute the main menu command Home Page.
After a short setup, the main (or home) page will change. It will contain sections according to the licenses assigned to the user. We will explore each of these sections in the next lesson.
| 1. | Introduction | 3:23 | 1 | 5504 | |
| 2. | How to get started with Office 365 | 6:04 | 0 | 6161 | |
| 3. | Initial setup | 4:21 | 1 | 4482 | |
| 4. | Introduction to the home page | 3:31 | 0 | 2009 | |
| 5. | Creating users and assigning roles | 6:07 | 1 | 3879 | |
| 6. | Import contacts from email | 3:33 | 0 | 4811 | |
| 7. | Adding other email accounts | 2:15 | 1 | 6426 | |
| 8. | Connecting on-premises Outlook® to Office 365 | 3:33 | 2 | 2703 | |
| 9. | Site Editing - SharePoint Online Service | 7:46 | 0 | 2869 | |
| 10. | Site settings and administration | 2:15 | 0 | 2865 | |
| 11. | Create and save a site template | 2:57 | 0 | 3934 | |
| 12. | Shared Document Storage | 1:24 | 0 | 2879 | |
| 13. | Create a document library | 4:49 | 0 | 3090 | |
| 14. | Documents folder in the library | 3:07 | 2 | 5078 | |
| 15. | Collaborative editing and conflict resolution to... | 4:16 | 0 | 4305 | |
Any program is not only files and functionality, it is also a service. And the more modern the program, the more complex its basis and the wider the scope of the services provided. Today, this concept has stepped to a new level, providing the user not with a service or program as such, but with a kind of integrated solution that includes both in different proportions. A striking example of such a coming future is a proposal called Microsoft Office 365 (available in Russian).
The new commercial concept of the developer company is a list of services available via the Internet by subscription, access to which allows you to use familiar programs, regardless of where exactly the consumer of the service is located and what device he uses. As a result of subscribing to Office 365, the user gets permanent access to a kind of business package that includes the necessary office suite, as well as software for managing it and email communication.
You can download office 365 for free in Russian (or rather, subscribe to these services), and get an activation key for 30 days for a test to evaluate how much you like this software.
The set of the software package, depending on the subscription option, includes a different set of programs, but in general, the following are available to the user:
- the Sharepoint system (Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies), which provides the user with a simple and effective page builder and allows you to create a business card site;
- a place to store absolutely any information within Onedrive (cloud file storage from Microsoft);
- the ability to forward e-mail using a business class service located on server base Exchange (originally conceived as a collaboration project, including a wide range of tools for exchanging voice and text messages);
- the Lync Communicator, which provides both text messaging and conferencing in both audio and video formats, including desktop display;
- access to the latest version of the office suite on the market, and it is currently provided by Office 2016.
AT this moment home users can take advantage of this package as a combination of desktop programs and network services. A fairly modest payment allows you to download to your PC and after installation use the almost indispensable Microsoft Access (creation and management of relational databases), Microsoft Word (known text editor) and Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet for formulas, various tables and graphs), as well as useful for business:
- OneNote(a note-taking program, extremely useful as a personal organizer, has a tree structure; recently, OneNote can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft website);
- Outlook(world famous mail client for management electronic mailboxes user, has a rich functionality, ample opportunities for managing contacts in the address book, configurable spam filters, mechanisms for creating backup copies of user data);
- PowerPoint(a well-known program for creating presentations);
- Publisher(custom publishing system that helps create marketing materials for the needs and objectives of the company).
A good finishing touch to the set is sixty paid minutes of Skype calls to phones in four dozen countries around the world, but the selection of these countries is not entirely clear - for example, Ukraine is not included in this list for some reason. Note that Skype was recently acquired by Microsoft, which is engaged in its further maintenance and development.
Any previous version in Russian Microsoft office can be downloaded for free for windows 10, 8, 7 and XP on your PC, however, it would not be entirely appropriate to think that downloading office 365 is not entirely appropriate in view of the fact that this package is a set of web services that is distributed through a subscription.
The users of one more popular operating system from Apple - Mac OS X. They also have access to the main programs of the office suite at the Office-2013 level, and in addition to them - a place for files on the SkyDrive cloud.
In both cases, all programs are licensed and contain only those functions that the developers endowed them with, but there is a catch in that case: all licenses are tied to the same account. Microsoft records, therefore, it will not be possible to make someone a beautiful gift (put it on the Internet) or sell your purchase just like that.
However, there is a plus in this approach: having purchased licenses once, the user can regulate them within his account - add useful features or remove unnecessary functionality using the office.com portal.
The biggest advantage of the innovation is the possibility of collaboration: files located on SkyDrive can be viewed and edited by office applications, which made Office 365 a truly innovative and progressive solution in the application software market.
Its interface has also become a distinctive feature of the proposal: after all the programs included in the installation package are installed and launched, it becomes clear that this is a slightly adapted and modified Metro interface, which became famous thanks to Windows 8.
The new design is distinguished by a pleasant lightness, which immediately favorably affects the speed of applications and ease of use, which is typical of almost all products from Microsoft.
In general, we can confidently say that the development and implementation of Office 365 will not go unnoticed by the company, because the trend towards the development of client-server technologies continues to gain momentum. Add to all this the well-known office programs and their high speed and proper reliability Office 365 will definitely confirm its high position in the office software market, and for many consumers, the web orientation of popular software will become a decisive factor in their choice.
Download Office 365 for free. The latest, up-to-date version of Microsoft Office for PC is available for download. Downloading is available both from the official site and via torrent.
Take advantage of all the features without exception latest versions main office application from Microsoft is now completely free, just by subscribing. The latter allows you to install the product on up to 5 computers. Office 365 distributed for use as a home personal computer as well as in universities.
All you need is to get a unique username and password. After that, you will have access to all the benefits of the program. By the way, another important addition is that here you will have a whole terabyte of space on the cloud drive, where you can store your documents without fear for their safety.
In addition, the utility allows you to use the same file on different devices, and also provides a multi-user mode, which will come in handy when editing a document together. And finally, it is worth noting that this version works much faster than its predecessors and has a nice design in the style of Windows 8, which cannot but please users.
office 365 mail login
Browse this manual to sign in to Office 365 and activate the program for 1 year.
The program is available for download for Windows 7 and Windows 10 (x32 and x64 bit).
You can now take advantage of all the features of the latest versions of the main office application from Microsoft, without exception, absolutely free of charge, simply by subscribing.
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| Standard installer |
Is free! | ||||
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| check | Official distribution Download Office 365 | check | |||
| close | Silent Installation without dialog boxes | check | |||
| close | Recommendations for installing the necessary programs | check | |||
| close | Batch installation of multiple programs | check | |||
Microsoft Office 365 license, is undoubtedly one of the most optimal solutions for corporate use at the moment. Thanks to it, users have access to all workflows and can be in touch at any time, wherever they are. There are flexible plans to purchase Microsoft Office licenses as the product meets the needs of small, medium and large businesses.
The Microsoft Office 365 cloud services package includes
The Microsoft Office 365 license is one of the most popular suites of applications in the world, allowing employees to collaborate in the most convenient way, regardless of their location. A Microsoft Office 365 license allows you to maximize your enterprise's return on investment, increase productivity and work efficiency through familiar and intuitive applications.
Microsoft Office 365 License Benefits
There is also a financially guaranteed SLA, giving you more confidence in choosing the best cloud solution. The electronic license of Microsoft Office 365 will allow corporate clients to receive whole line advantages:
. Simplified login and connection to work
All your employees, whether experienced or ordinary users, can easily and securely use the same corporate tools and data within Microsoft systems office.
. Workflow optimization
. High service standards
The global redundant architecture provides built-in scalability while ensuring that users receive the level of service they require, regardless of seasonal or cyclical changes.
. Guaranteed uptime - 99.9%
Purchasing Microsoft Office 365 licenses
Cloud license price Microsoft Office depends on several factors: the size of the company and the individual business needs of your organization. To date, there are several service plans for using the package of "cloud" services Office 365.
This type of licensing is suitable if your company has more than 100 PCs and has the following business needs:
- Possibility of additional IT settings;
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus, Active Directory and advanced archiving capabilities;
- 24/7 technical support(by phone or Internet);
- IT administrator support;
- Possibility to choose one of two types of contract: monthly or yearly.
To buy an electronic license Microsoft Office 365 just fill out a short order form posted on our website, after which our specialists will contact you to clarify the details.