Is Microsoft Office 365 Right For Your Small Business

Good question, isnt it? Years ago when I started getting involved with Office 365, it was the perfect solution for many small businesses, but in the past year…it has changed so much that now I question it when I do consultations with my clients. Not all clients need the full on “Office 365 Experience” and only need what they need…some of the products.

 

I’ll start with a simple explanation of the 5/6 products (I say 5/6 because Microsoft puts SharePoint and OneDrive in one category) There are 5 products sold under Office 365 for Business, I’ll explain (real name is in parenthesis)

1. Full, installed Office applications (Office 2013)
2. File storage and sharing (SharePoint and OneDrive) with 1 TB storage/user 
3. Business class email, calendar, and contacts with a 50 GB inbox (Exchange)
4. Unlimited online meetings, IM and HD video conferencing. (Lync)
5. Corporate social network  (Yammer)

Here is the problem with techs like myself selling full Office 365 for Business to my clients and this is all based upon my past experiences.

• There are way too many packages to sort through and figure out which one is best, which one will help you be efficient and save money.
• Many people already have Office 2013 (Do you? If so, then buying Office 365 with Office included would be a waste of money)
• If they have Office 2010 they don’t really need to upgrade unless they want to. If a client has Office 2010, I see no reason to spend the money on an upgrade.
• Many small businesses already have a file sharing program (most use Dropbox)
• Setting up and configuring SharePoint and OneDrive has become a technical synchronizing nightmare if you want it to work on the desktop, browser based is fine, but my clients don’t want browser based. (can’t attach a document if it’s browser based).
• The whole “Office 365 Experience” is not working for all small businesses (from what I hear from my clients, their stories in the past and from other techs)
• Email, calendar and contact synchronizing with multiple computers, devices and smartphones and team sharing is the most popular product “Business class email or “Exchange” (This is my best seller)
• Most already have a chat module in place if they use it (Google hangout chat)
• Only one of my clients has requested Yammer help

Here is what I help clients with now. Usually when they call in, I do my interview based upon a few factors. Please keep in mind that my target market is under 20 employees.

• What Office version they are using now
• If they need Exchange
• Do they need file sharing
• What is their backup solution

Then I build a solutions plan based off their answers. There are many companies like Call That Girl that do offer and support the full on Office 365 for Business “Experience”, many of those companies are also a managed service business and have retainers, monthly fee’s and other additional support options. Some of these companies also have their own inhouse programs that match very closely to Office 365.

Call That Girl is a break/fix company and we help on demand (by appointment too).

I hope this blog helps you understand if Office 365 for Business or just one product (Exchange, the product I do most support for) is right for you!

If you want to discuss what is best for your company, or would like a general consultation, please fill out the form below and schedule time with my online scheduler. Thanks!