Tips and tricks for Office 365 migration

 Office 365 migration can be highly beneficial to businesses, whether it is small or big. Although the process can seem a bit daunting to administrators, here we've mentioned some valuable tips and tricks that help you migrate and make things easier once you have them.

Outlook Web Access offline mode

Migration can support OWA in the offline mode, provided you are using Chrome 18, Internet Explorer 10 or Safari 5.1. Think of it as being similar to running an Outlook client in cached mode. Offline mode allows the contents of your mailbox to be downloaded to your computer, improving overall performance and allowing access to your mailbox while offline.

Recover deleted items

Once an item has been deleted, it moves automatically to the 'deleted items folder. These usually remain for 30 days before being systematically purged. However, your deleted mail item can still be recovered 14 days later when you apply the 'Recover Deleted Items' feature.

Office 365 has one 'recover deleted items' bin, so regardless of the folder you want to recover the deleted items, it shows a single list for all the messages that Outlook can still heal for the whole mailbox.

Shared mailboxes

Your business may utilize shared mailboxes for various reasons, such as equipment scheduling or room calendars. Others may be used for communications intended to be sent via a departmental email address rather than that of an individual. Not to mention those who allow their assistants or team leaders to manage their calendars or other vital communications as part of a team. Shared mailboxes are worthwhile and can often make communications much easier between different departments.

Online archive

Office 365 email archive is like a second mailbox, only hosted on Exchange online, providing more centralized storage of email items, folders, attachments, calendar items and contacts. You'll find them appearing automatically in Outlook (2010+) and in OWA, reminiscent of how a.PST file would appear when enabled by the server administrator. They provide easy access via the Exchange server, although many businesses opt for third-party archiving software that recognizes more file types.

Need help migrating your business to office 365? You can contact Server Consultancy through email at contact@serverconsultancy.co.uk or call us at 0203 727 2000.

Distinctions between Office 365 and SharePoint Online

 Most of you might be familiar with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems like SharePoint or document management. Also, you might have heard that SharePoint Online and Office 365 are used interchangeably.

However, some people believe that Office 365 and SharePoint Online are one of a kind, but that’s not true. SharePoint Online and Office 365 might have similar capabilities, as both are Microsoft products. But, there are many distinctions between these two collaborative platforms.

Explaining Office 365

As per Microsoft, Office 365 is considered a subscription-based plan consisting of many Office productivity applications and services that can be accessed over the internet.

With applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the business plans of Office 365 also offer e-mail services, audio, video, and web conferencing infrastructure, and internal communication platforms while allowing you to share and store data files on the cloud.

What’s with SharePoint Online?

SharePoint Online, also available with Office 365 subscription, is a collaborative platform integrated with Microsoft Office. SharePoint Online allows businesses to store, share, search, retrieve, manage, and track internal documents.

Although you can access it as a cloud-based Office 365 subscription component, SharePoint Online is also available as a standalone product.

The few functionalities that make SharePoint Online and Office 365 similar include the ability to store and share documents with other users. However, choosing between these platforms depends on your business needs and usage.

When to choose Office 365?

• When you need file-based storage for ease of use, which can be availed with Office 365’s OneDrive
• When collaboration between teams is not much complicated – Office 365 Teams is your best bet here
• When users need personal file management across devices – OneDrive serves best here.
• When users need to email larger files – again, OneDrive is an excellent choice for it.

When to use SharePoint Online?

• In case of highly complex collaboration, tight security, and maintenance
• When you need to configure data types
• You need advanced security measurements for certain types of content
• When a custom workflow is required for content management

Based on these criteria, you can decide which platform best suits your needs. If you have a small organisation or business, then Office 365 is your best bet. On the other hand, if you have a large enterprise, there is no better solution than SharePoint Online. 

You can contact IT support services company to help you in having access to both Office 365 and Sharepoint subscription.

Microsoft Office 365 Contributes To Growing Cloud Adoption In Europe!

 The search engine giant – Google had broken the connection with Microsoft's cloud-based productivity suite – MS Office; however, now it looks like Google is at the edge to lose from Microsoft.

As per research, in the last year, the implementation of Office 365 by Microsoft in European countries has amazingly increased, being more than double. So, now it looks as if Microsoft is growing its share in the cloud-based MS Office suite market against the G Suite of its rival tech giant – Google.

What Bitglass Report Found About The Adoption Of Office 365 In Europe

The research by a company, namely Bitglass, a data protection firm, was based on a thorough analysis of eight thousand mail servers to ensure the adoption of cloud apps in businesses. This report found that in Europe, Microsoft Office 365 had grown from 16.4 per cent in 2015 to 35 per cent this year. Conversely, the G Suite of Google adoption also increased from last year as it was 7.2 per cent last year, and now it has reached 18.7 per cent this year.

Only in France implemented Microsoft Office 365 rose from 22.4 per cent last year to 49.8 per cent this year. Though in Germany, the adoption was grown from 16.2 per cent to 40 per cent. The adoption of G Suite in France has also risen from 14.5 per cent to 32.3 per cent. In Germany, the G suite adoption had increased from 6.3 per cent to 23.3 per cent.

From the industry sector perspective, Google has received great victories in various media companies, with significant businesses like News Corp as its early adopters. So, in media, Google enjoys a powerful position with a 31.7 per cent share, and in the tech field, it enjoys a 24.9 per cent share. However, Microsoft's cloud-based MS Office Suite displayed a more significant stake in adoption within varied sectors.

Research also reported that 49 per cent of companies with over one thousand employees had adopted Office 365 suite; however, only 20 per cent of organisations have used the G Suite of Google.

If we compare the private and public organisations, the research revealed a higher usage of the cloud in large-sized public organisations compared to small or medium enterprises. Moreover, the rate of adoption of the Office 365 suite had been observed to be higher as compared to G Suite.

Year after year, MS Office 365 adoption has risen 9 per cent among public organisations to 55.4 per cent, though the deployment of the G suite has grown but at a slow rate of speed in private and public organisations. The disparity between G Suite and Office 365 narrates the issue Google has faced. These issues include one in which several European companies prioritised data privacy favouring the Microsoft product – Office 365. The second issue was the openly stated plan of Microsoft to move its present customers over cloud products.

Considering these points and facts, Microsoft emerges as the clear winner in the cloud market with its Office 365 suite
beating Google behind.

Any issues related to office 365, migrating work to office 365, IT Support Services contact Server Consultancy through email at  contact@serverconsultancy.co.uk.