Global IT news has been abuzz with the announcement from Microsoft on the release of Microsoft Office 365 and the early reviews look promising. While they won’t say definitively, we can expect to see it in Australia towards the end of 2011 or early 2012. The PR announcement, “Microsoft Office 365: The Power to Think Big and Be Small, to Be Big and Act Fast” refers to, “a new service that brings familiar applications, including Office desktop software and Office Web Apps, together with SharePoint, Exchange and Lync in the cloud, for the first time”.

The Lync you need

The upgrade of BPOS to Office 365 includes Microsoft’s new communication package “The Lync” which replaces Office Communications Online and Live Meeting. The Lync provides an audio and video conferencing tool and a voice call service. It has been planned to sync it to iPhone and Windows Phone 7 allowing calls to be made from your mobile, making it a choice tool for those working on the run.

At last - Web Apps are here!

Web Apps have finally been included into the service where users can pen documents and put presentations together. With the hosted version of Exchange, users are able to move all their mail to local deployments enjoying a faster uploading time along with added features like opening Office attachments in a pop-up window and keyboard shortcuts. “Team Site” is the new SharePoint. It has the exact same features and workflows allowing access to shared documents which can be read and edited locally without having to leave the page or using another software suite.

Office 365: The best of everything

Office 365 has been created to meet a wide range of customer needs. As Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft, said, “Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service. With Office 365, your local bakery can get enterprise-calibre software and services for the first time, while a multinational pharmaceutical company can reduce costs and more easily stay current with the latest innovations. People can focus on their business, while we and our partners take care of the technology.”

Clayko offers support on Microsoft Office 365. We welcome you to contact us should you have any further queries.

What have you heard about Office 365?