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Episode Contents:
- 01:18 - What is Office 365?
- 02:02 - What are the benefits of Office 365?
- 03:10 - How does Office 365 compare to Office 2019?
- 04:20 - Who is Office 365 best for?
- 05:22 - What are the trade-offs and cons of Office 365?
- 06:23 - How can one obtain and setup Office 365?
Transcript
Ken:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Business Solutions Academy, by your friends at JD young technologies, there's no need to take notes here, because you can find a full transcript of this conversation at jd young.com. We'll share the URL to this episode in the description. My name is Ken Lane and today we're talking with Jason's Spivy — a vCIO, Virtual Chief Information Officer from JD Young Technologies about Office 365. But first, Jason, briefly, what is a vCIO?
Jason:
A vCIO — It's kind of a take on the Chief Information Officer that major corporations have. But the problem for small businesses is they don't have a whole technology budget to have a IT department and CIO. So, that's where the "virtual" part comes in. I'm not your CIO, because I'm not employed by you. So, I'm going to step in place and act as your CIO in a virtual manner. So, I'm acting in that role for multiple companies. I'm not dedicated to one. So again, I'm not the CIO, but I'm virtually acting in that role for you.
Ken:
Good to know. So, Jason, what is Office 365?
Jason:
Office 365 is, can be a bit of a confusing term. Most people when they hear Office 365, they're thinking the Microsoft Office product, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc. But it's more of their subscription platform because you can along with that you can get email (support). You can get OneDrive access. You get access to SharePoint — depending on which plan you buy determines when not by which plan you subscribe to. Because it's not a one-time purchase, that determines what all you have access to. But Office 365 is more of the subscription model, not one specific product.
Ken:
Okay, so what are the benefits of Office 365?
Jason:
The benefits, there's a couple of them, one of the most obvious is if you've got Office 365, the new version of Word Excel comes out, you just automatically get it, there's no upgrade fee, there's no new purchase — it's just included with it.
The other major benefit we come across — you go and you buy the, say, the 2019 version of Office, which is a one-time purchase. And now you got this little card that has a code on it. That's your license, Microsoft likes to audit businesses to make sure people are using the correct amount of licenses. So, Microsoft comes to you and says, "You've got 20 users. You've got 20 computers. Show us your 20 licenses." Now, go find those 20 cards you've bought over the last seven or eight years. Nobody can find those. They always get lost or stuffed in a corner.
With Office 365, you log into the admin portal, and you look at the list of licenses. And you print it off, you hand it to Microsoft. "I've got 20 employees, I've got 20 licenses." They're happy. They go away. And that's where it comes in real handy.
Ken:
Okay, so how does Office 365 usually compared to Office 2019, if someone's kind of on the fence between those two?
Jason:
Office 2019, as I mentioned, it's a one-time purchase. So, you're going to pay more now, but you don't have to pay again. So, that's the benefit most people are looking at as, "I can buy this and use it for six, seven, eight years, then buy the new version." And that works for some people.
Either way, to activate it, you've got to have a Microsoft account set up. So, if you bought a 2019, you set for Microsoft account, you log in, and you download the software, and you activate it. It's not difficult. The difficult part for a business is one Office 2019 account can be activated to one Microsoft account. So, now you got 20 employees, you got 20 Microsoft accounts, and it becomes a management headache. But again, it's a one time purchase. With Office 365, you get the same software. You get the updates. Management is easier.
You also get access to OneDrive. If you want to do your email through Microsoft that is also included in that fee. So, you get the software and you get some other benefits along with it.
Ken:
Okay, so who does Office 365 make the most sense for? What kind of business or who's looking for this and it would make the most amount of sense?
Jason:
Well, going back to the management licensing, it makes sense for any business to do it that way. Again, email is included with that as well. You have to buy your domain — your business-dot-com address you gotta buy that, but the actual email (support) is included in the Office 365 subscription, so that eliminates any current email fees that you have.
And just the ease of management makes sense for any business to go with it — if you just got two employees, then the Office 2019 (software), just two accounts, it's not a big deal. A home business where you're just the only employee then that the (Office) 2019 license makes sense because it's not a difficult thing to manage. So, it kind of depends on business size — that break-even point of when the (Office) 365 (account) is easier to manage, is kind of an internal conversation to have — what would be easiest for you.
Ken:
Okay, so we've kind of covered this a little bit already, but what would be some of the disadvantages and trade-offs, it sounds more like one person, one set is kind of more for a — (Office) 365 more for a subscription-model person, and the other one (Office 2019) is for a one-time, "I only buy it every couple of years" type of person. So, what would be the disadvantages are trade-offs for Office 365?
Jason:
The disadvantage is, if you're the type of person that, “I want to buy (Office) 2019, and I will use it for eight years, and I don't need the latest version of Office,” then Office 365 is more expensive. And if you're not going to use OneDrive, yeah — it's a freebie that comes with Office 365. If you don't use it, it has no value.
And the email (support), again — it comes with it. So, if you're going to use it, it's a great value. If you're not going to use it, it's a freebie that's doesn't have much value to it. So, in the long term, it becomes more expensive. But if you're a business, you're doing a lot of Word documents, you do a lot of Excel documents — having the latest version is a benefit to you, then Office 365 is a great value from that perspective.
Ken:
Okay, so how can one obtain and setup Office 365, if they wanted to?
Jason:
There's a few ways you can get it.
The way a lot of people get it is they'll got a local store, and they'll pick up the Office 365 portal card — it's got a code on it. You create your Microsoft account — or if you have one you go ahead and log in with that Microsoft account. And you put that code in there and it activates the software, then you download it from Microsoft. You can no longer get it on a CD — you have to download it regardless of how you obtain it. So, that's one way.
Another way you go direct office.microsoft.com, you can buy directly from there — you don't have to go to the store. It costs the same regardless of where you get it.
The last way is if you've got an IT provider, most IT companies now resale Office 365. The advantage there is they will take care of the management for you. You tell them, "I have x-number of users, here's the email addresses I want. Here's who needs which version of Office.” (etc.)
And that becomes another management issue as well as which version of Office. Just because it's Office 365, there's a few different versions. Part of that goes into email storage, or that goes into exactly what software you get. You don't get those choices. If you go to the store — you get one copy of Office at either the business or the home version. And that's your only choices.
So, when you go through direct to Microsoft or through your IT provider, they can tell you all the choices. It's not really telling you the choices as much as you tell your IT provider, "I need to do this," and they will help you choose the best one because they know what the different benefits are. And then they will get it set up and licensed for you and then you will pay them along with the other services you should pay them for each month.
Ken:
Okay, is there anything else you think people should know about office 365? before we head out of here?
Jason:
No, I think that covers most everything.
Ken:
Okay. So, thank you so much, Jason, for taking the time to talk with us today. And thank you, viewers, listeners, and readers for joining us for another episode of Business Solutions Academy by JD Young Technologies. For a full transcript of this talk, you can visit the link in the description or you can search for it and literally hundreds of other business solutions topics in the Resource Center at jdyoung.com/resource-center. If you're watching this as a video on YouTube and learned something, make sure to like it —this episode and subscribe to Business Solutions Academy or on your favorite podcast player to never miss another episode. I'm Ken with JD Young Technologies and we'll see you next time.
