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Office365

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  • 29-06-2011 10:20am
    #1
    BenEadir
    Registered Users Posts: 4,539 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    I have a small 2 person office using two laptops with MS Office on both.

    The laptops are getting a bit old and will need to be replaced soon.

    Todays announcement of Office365 from UPC looks interesting to me. I have some understanding of cloud computing as I use Dropbox and have all my files backed up via an online backup service so I'm comfortable with the idea of storage in the cloud.

    What I'm less comfortable/knowledgable about are the practicalities of running applications such as Outlook and in particular Excel and PowerPoint in the cloud.

    I'd appreciate any input you guys can give me on the pro's and con's of switching both laptops over to Office365? We do a lot of heavy Excel spreadsheet work so I want to be sure that will all work ok.

    I'd also like to understand whether you have to be online all the time when working on a document or is it possible to store documents you're working on locally and work on them offline? I guess that would require the relevant Office application to also be stored and operate locally which kind of undermines the entire concept?

    If Office365 is the way to go then perhaps I don't need to upgrade the laptops as they now become glorified browser machines storing and processing very little themselves. Correct?

    Lastly, does anyone know if Office365 ties into a MS CRM system?

    BTW, I've looked at the UPC and MS sites to try and get a handle on all this but I find the polished marketing material doesn't give much insight into the real world realities of switching to Office365.

    Cheers all,

    Ben


Comments

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    #2
    shanemort
    Registered Users Posts: 234 ✭✭shanemort


    Did you do anything in the end


  • Options
    #3
    BenEadir
    Registered Users Posts: 4,539 ✭✭✭BenEadir


    Na, I decided it was all too much hassle. In order to use the trial I would have had to discontinue using Google Apps to host my email and that was too big a barrier for me.

    Given the arrival of (relatively) low cost ultra laptops I just decided my current set up which allows me to constantly (in the background) sync my Google hosted email and calander with MS Outlook on my laptop and instantly sync all my work files via Dropbox gives me all the flexibility I need to be able to work offline if I want (on flights etc) and still access all my info (email, calander and documents) online from anywhere including my smartphone whenever I want works best for me.

    It's not expensive to use Google Apps for email and Calander and Dropbox is also not expensive so all in all I'm a happy bunny with that combo.

    Ben


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