Microsoft Office 365 Business Essentials

BionicRasher

Looking at getting the Business Essential plan for Office 365. This includes the web/browser versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc and hosted Outlook.

Has anybody else had experience with this version and pros or cons?

It's for a small business (4 PCs) and funds are tight as we are a community centre so essentially a charity.

Need to have basic office tasks and email and file storage.

Germancarfan

As you've said it only includes the web browser versions of the office apps. Once you're comfortable with this it's fine.
Exchange ONlien plan 1 is included if memory serves which gives you the outlook online portion, again only accessible via your browser. Again no desktop office products are included at all.

If you sign up monthly and it's not working out for you, you can easily upgrade to Business Premium to get the office apps at short notice.
It will do everything you need but all in the browser which some people find cumbersome.

We stopped selling it as it only meets the needs of very few people. Exchange online plan1 and office home and premium on local PC's is a common combo but with a higher upfront cost. if you don't want to go for the full monthly commitment of Business Premium.

have you spoken with MS about a not for profit agreement ? you may not get full charity status but they do heavily reduced rates for organisations like yourselves.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/philanthropies/product-donations/eligibility

unkel

Germancarfan wrote: »

have you spoken with MS about a not for profit agreement ? you may not get full charity status but they do heavily reduced rates for organisations like yourselves.

MS doesn't do that directly but it works through the Enclude program

Linky

Basically you have to be a registered charity (most community centres are, if you are not and you are not commercial, then get it sorted asap)

And then you get the MS software almost for free. As in Office Professional Plus (normally about €300) for about €25, etc.

Firewalkwithme

Do you really need your email hosted? Are you using your own domain or something like Gmail?

Have you looked into using free software like Open Office / Libre Office? You could use Thunderbird instead of Outlook (or Gmail).

I'd be surprised if there was a real need to spend anything at all.

unkel

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

Have you looked into using free software like Open Office / Libre Office? You could use Thunderbird instead of Outlook

I get where you are coming from, Cartoon Head. But believe me, people who have very basic computer needs in a small charity tend not to be too fond of having to use different office software than the one (MS Office) that they are used to

Firewalkwithme

unkel wrote: »

I get where you are coming from, Cartoon Head. But believe me, people who have very basic computer needs in a small charity tend not to be too fond of having to use different office software than the one (MS Office) that they are used to

I know, it is part of the reason why more places don't use Open Source but since it is a whole new setup I wouldn't rule it out. Office 365 is so different to 2010 for example that it can be a bigger jump to move onto it for some people.

I don't think that the free option should be dismissed too easily, it can always be trialled with no risk.

unkel

True enough, but why would you cause potential aggro with staff when all 4 PCs could have Office Professional fully licensed and with support for the grand total of €100

Firewalkwithme

unkel wrote: »

True enough, but why would you cause potential aggro with staff when all 4 PCs could have Office Professional fully licensed and with support for the grand total of €100

If he can get it for 100 I agree it's the right thing to do, just need to sort the email out then. We don't know if he qualifies for it yet though.

BionicRasher

unkel wrote: »

MS doesn't do that directly but it works through the Enclude program

Linky

Basically you have to be a registered charity (most community centres are, if you are not and you are not commercial, then get it sorted asap)

And then you get the MS software almost for free. As in Office Professional Plus (normally about €300) for about €25, etc.

Excellent - I had found TechSoup but was struggling to make sense of how to get sorted. The link above looks much more straight forward. We will create an account and see what we can get

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

Do you really need your email hosted? Are you using your own domain or something like Gmail?

Have you looked into using free software like Open Office / Libre Office? You could use Thunderbird instead of Outlook (or Gmail).

I'd be surprised if there was a real need to spend anything at all.

Open source is a well and good and I would be fine with it as I work in IT but most are used to MS suite of products so keen not to confuse things. we have domain etc so email is via that (I need to check it out t confirm as someone else set up the website and they have all those details - I am new to the Board of Directors so just getting to find out how things work in the center)

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

I know, it is part of the reason why more places don't use Open Source but since it is a whole new setup I wouldn't rule it out. Office 365 is so different to 2010 for example that it can be a bigger jump to move onto it for some people.

I don't think that the free option should be dismissed too easily, it can always be trialled with no risk.

Is Office 2016 that much different to the 365 version? Word Excel etc look similar and other than a few extra bits in the full version I think most could handle it. Its not a new set up as they currently use XP machines (new Win 10 machines on order) and are using Office 2002!

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

If he can get it for 100 I agree it's the right thing to do, just need to sort the email out then. We don't know if he qualifies for it yet though.

Looking at 365 online version a bit more and even though it seems fine and comes with Onedrive, Sharepoint Team sites etc it is reliant on internet access so the stafff are a little concerned that they may lose work stuff if the broadband were to go down. Will follow up on the link posted by unkel and we should be able to sort email etc so we are heading in the right direction.
Thanks for the tips folks

unkel

Good luck & keep us updated

Firewalkwithme

BionicRasher wrote: »

Is Office 2016 that much different to the 365 version? Word Excel etc look similar and other than a few extra bits in the full version I think most could handle it. Its not a new set up as they currently use XP machines (new Win 10 machines on order) and are using Office 2002!

The Office 16 desktop suite is far superior to the online 365 experience IMO. The switch from Office 2002 to OpenOffice would be less of a shock to the system that it would be to move to 16 / 365.

Looking at 365 online version a bit more and even though it seems fine and comes with Onedrive, Sharepoint Team sites etc it is reliant on internet access so the stafff are a little concerned that they may lose work stuff if the broadband were to go down. Will follow up on the link posted by unkel and we should be able to sort email etc so we are heading in the right direction.
Thanks for the tips folks

Losing work is not really an issue with 365 as it saves regularly as you work. If you were to lose your internet connection you could still work offline using the desktop apps and synced files.

ItHurtsWhenIP

BionicRasher wrote: »

...
Is Office 2016 that much different to the 365 version? Word Excel etc look similar and other than a few extra bits in the full version I think most could handle it. Its not a new set up as they currently use XP machines (new Win 10 machines on order) and are using Office 2002!...

Office 2016 and 365 should be fairly close (they are supposedly the same product)... but there's a massive change between 2002 and 2016.

LibreOffice would be closer to 2002.

Just saying.

BionicRasher

Cartoon_Head wrote: »

Losing work is not really an issue with 365 as it saves regularly as you work. If you were to lose your internet connection you could still work offline using the desktop apps and synced files.

However if you only have the online version (browser only) and no installed desktop apps then I presume you cannot work offline.

Office 365 Business Essentials only has online versions and no installed applications

ItHurtsWhenIP wrote: »

Office 2016 and 365 should be fairly close (they are supposedly the same product)... but there's a massive change between 2002 and 2016.

LibreOffice would be closer to 2002.

Just saying.

We want to get up to current version as there are funds available so I think its time to make the jump to the latest and greatest!

Germancarfan

BionicRasher wrote: »

However if you only have the online version (browser only) and no installed desktop apps then I presume you cannot work offline.

Office 365 Business Essentials only has online versions and no installed applications



We want to get up to current version as there are funds available so I think its time to make the jump to the latest and greatest!

Correct there is no offline mode in essentials. If comms are a potential issue then Business Premium is a better target for you or Exchange Online Plan1 for email only and just run local version of box product office. Outlook can cache data so you have an offline copy while the comms issue is resolved. Incoming mail will still deliver to the mail portal while you are offline locally.

Data can be synced via One Drive for business and again offline copies will keep you working while a comms issue is resolved.

If you can sort charitable status then it's a no-brainer for Business Premium IMO.
The other advantage is that you stay current on the platform. New versions of the office client are available for download and install by registered accounts once they launch.