OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR

TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

03 Executive summary?
04 What is Micrososft 365?
06 System requirements for Microsoft 365
06 Why does Microsoft 365 matter?
06 How does Microsoft 365 compare to G
Suite?
07 Who should use Microsoft 365?
07 When is Microsoft 365 available?
07 How do I get Microsoft 365?
09 How do I use Microsoft 365?

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS

LEADERS
Microsoft 365 provides the productivity tools required by enterprises. This guide
covers key details about Microsoft 365, including available Office applications,
system requirements, and pricing.

BY MARK KAELIN

For just about any enterprise of any size, the productivity of its workforce revolves around the basic office
suite of email, calendar, word processor, and spreadsheet. But as the enterprise workforce has become more
mobile, the basic productivity toolset has had to adapt and change to match new requirements. This is why
Microsoft updated Office 365 to be a mobile collaborative platform ready to get work done wherever and
whenever it happens.

As of April 21, 2020, Microsoft has officially changed the name of its productivity suite from Office 365 to
Microsoft 365. From that date forward, billing, marketing, and alerts will reflect the Microsoft 365 branding.
The new naming convention will not affect the current subscription pricing levels for current customers, nor
will it change the level of current service. Applications included in the various versions of the productivity
suite will also remain the same.

Disclosure: TechRepublic may earn a commission from some of the products featured on this page. TechRepublic
and the author were not compensated for this independent review.

Microsoft 365 is the de facto productivity suite for many enterprises, and it is the suite all the other compet-
itors are measured against. So as an IT leader, it’s in your best interest to know everything about Microsoft
365. To help you achieve that goal, TechRepublic compiled the most important details and related resources
on Microsoft 365 into this guide, which we’ll periodically update as new information becomes available.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• What is Microsoft 365? Microsoft 365 provides users with the basic productivity applications
necessary to get work done in the modern enterprise. It includes applications like Word, Excel,
Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and OneDrive, just to name a few.
• Why does Microsoft 365 matter? As the standard for productivity suites, competing products are
generally measured against applications from the Office 365 suite.

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

• Who does Microsoft 365 affect? In the modern mobile-centric enterprise, Microsoft 365 provides
the tools used to get work done. This makes Microsoft 365 important to just about every working
individual.
• When is Microsoft 365 available? The latest version of Microsoft 365 is available right now. The
current subscription includes Office 2016 applications.
• How do you get Microsoft 365? Enterprises can purchase a subscription to Microsoft 365 via the
Microsoft website. Subscriptions range from $8/user/month to $35/user/month.

WHAT IS MICROSOFT 365?

Microsoft 365 is a subscription service that provides users with the basic productivity applications necessary
to get work done in the modern enterprise. Productivity applications include, but are not limited to, a word
processor, a spreadsheet, an email client, a calendar, and a presentation application. In fact, because of
Microsoft 365’s cloud-based structure, the suite of productivity applications is constantly being updated and
improved.

As an example, a Business Premium subscription to Microsoft 365 ($12.50 per person per month) includes
these applications:

• Word: This app sets the standard for word processors and is available with Microsoft 365 for both
Business and Premium. If users in your enterprise need to create documents, this is the tool they
will use.
• Excel: The spreadsheet has been the workhorse for basic data analysis since its invention back in the
previous century. Excel is the current standard-bearer and comes with Microsoft 365 for Business
and Premium.
• Outlook: Microsoft 365’s solution for managing email and an appointment calendar is called Outlook.
The app has been around for many years and its busy interface tends to be either loved or hated by
users. It’s available with both the Business and Premium subscriptions.
• PowerPoint: Communicating information to a group of individuals at a meeting often involves a
presentation. Microsoft 365’s PowerPoint allows users to create, display, and disseminate information
in formats ranging from the basic slide to animation to video.
• Publisher: Sometimes communicating information to a broader audience requires something
more permanent and more formal than a presentation at a meeting. The Publisher app in
Microsoft 365 provides users with the tools they need to publish professional-looking newsletters,
brochures, and booklets.

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

• OneNote: As the workforce has become more mobile, the need to capture information on the go has
become increasingly important. Applications like OneNote allow users to take notes on any device and
then retrieve those notes from any other device. It’s your basic productivity cloud app.
• OneDrive: The other basic and fundamental cloud-based application is storage. With each Microsoft
365 Business subscription, Microsoft provides users with up to 1 TB of cloud storage in the form of an
application called OneDrive for Business.
• SharePoint: A subscription to Microsoft 365 Business Premium also provides an enterprise with a
few applications for backend infrastructure management. SharePoint, for example, can be used to host
intranet websites for the enterprise. It also can be used to host smaller sites designed for smaller teams
or divisions. The permissions for these sites can be designated by the users themselves or by appointed
administrators.
• Exchange: Each Microsoft 365 for Business subscription includes an Exchange Server, which
handles all the email management duties. By default, each user is granted 50 GB of storage for email.
Maintenance of the Exchange Server is generally handled at the administrator level.
• Microsoft Teams: Younger members of the modern enterprise workforce are very familiar and
comfortable with chat applications. To satisfy the needs of those employees, Microsoft 365 now
includes Microsoft Teams, a chat-based workspace that integrates people, content, and tools into a
single platform.
• License scope: One licensed subscription to Microsoft 365 covers five phones, five tablets, and five PCs
or Macs per user.
• Support: Each Microsoft 365 subscription includes full 24/7 web and phone support.
• Collaboration tools: Along with the typical productivity applications, Microsoft 365 includes many
collaboration tools like Delve, Yammer, and Sway. These tools allow users to communicate, brainstorm
ideas, share documents, and have video meetings while on the go.
• Power BI: One of the most powerful tools any enterprise can have, regardless of size, is reliable
business intelligence (BI) gathering applications. Microsoft 365 for Business, through its Power BI
application, provides enterprises with a set of tools for collecting, sorting, and presenting business
intelligence data.
• Infrastructure: All Microsoft 365 subscriptions include a reliability guarantee of 99.9% uptime. In
addition, permissions for internal access control are handled by administrators designated by the
enterprise using tools supplied by Active Directory. Each Microsoft 365 subscription includes five
layers of security and proactive monitoring to help safeguard your data.

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

• Kaizala: Mobile communications is vital to many organizations, and Kaizala adds a secure mobile
messaging and workflow app that can be deployed both internally and externally. Employees,
customers, and vendors can all communicate and coordinate with each other in a secure environment.
• Flow: Managing workflow in a dynamic business and across various applications can consume
precious time and resources. Flow provides a simple system to manage notifications within Microsoft
365 across all of the applications you use.
• To-Do: An update to Microsoft 365 has added the To-Do app to the productivity suite. No longer an
afterthought piggybacking on the Calendar app, To-Do is now a feature-rich standalone application
that integrates with the rest of Microsoft 365.
• PowerApps: For those situations when your organization needs a specific app to do a specific job,
there is PowerApps. Using simplified development techniques, businesses can create sophisticated
applications using features, procedures, and processes found in Microsoft 365.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR MICROSOFT 365

• CPU: 1GHz or faster
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Hard drive: 3 GB of available space (6 GB for Mac)
• Display: 1280 X 800 screen resolution
• Operating system: PC-Windows 7, 8, or 10. Mac-Mac OS X 10.10
• Connectivity: Internet connection

WHY DOES MICROSOFT 365 MATTER?

Collaboration and communication are the key components of productivity in the modern enterprise, and produc-
tivity is the lifeblood of the enterprise. Microsoft 365 provides the tools necessary to bring collaboration and
communication--and by extension, productivity--to each individual in an enterprise.

For many companies, Microsoft 365 is the de facto standard for productivity software. The performance of
all competing products is generally measured against applications from the Office 365 suite.

HOW DOES MICROSOFT 365 COMPARE TO G SUITE?

The primary competition for Microsoft 365 comes from Google’s G Suite, which is a set of productivity and
collaboration apps, formerly referred to as Google Apps. The G Suite features the typical set of productivity

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

applications (word processor, spreadsheet, email, calendar), as well as several tools designed to enable and
enhance collaboration in a modern mobile workforce. Pricing for G Suite starts with a subscription of $5 per
user per month.

Other web-based and online productivity suites from other vendors are available--some are even offered
without a monthly subscription, but those suites often lack a full set of collaboration tools and are not
suitable for business enterprises.

WHO SHOULD USE MICROSOFT 365?

Just about every knowledge worker in every enterprise is required to have an email account and a calendar
application. Beyond that, most individuals in an enterprise will need to use, at least once in a while, a word
processor. And a significant number of individuals in an enterprise will also find themselves needing to use
presentation software or a spreadsheet at some point in their career.

These are the productivity tools of any enterprise. These are the tools used to get work done. That means
Microsoft 365 is important to just about every working individual.

WHEN IS MICROSOFT 365 AVAILABLE?

Microsoft 365 is available right now. The current subscription includes applications updated to the Office
2016 versions. The key to the subscription model is that each user will always be using the most current and
most secure version of each application because each application is continuously updated.

HOW DO I GET MICROSOFT 365?

Enterprises with fewer than 300 users can purchase a subscription to Microsoft 365 and download the
appropriate applications via the Microsoft website. The Premium version costs $12.50 per user per month
($150/year). There are also versions of Office 365 available for individuals ($69.99/year) and households
($99.99/year).

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS
IMAGE: MICROSOFT

Business pricing of Microsoft 365

For large enterprises, unlimited user versions of Office 365 are available, ranging from $12 per person
per month to $35 per person per month. Each subscription caters to a particular type of enterprise.
More expensive enterprise versions of Office 365 add features like voicemail, compliance auditing, rights
management, encryption, and Advanced Threat Protection.
IMAGE: MICROSOFT

Enterprise pricing of Microsoft 365

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 OFFICE 365: A GUIDE FOR TECH AND BUSINESS LEADERS

HOW DO I USE MICROSOFT 365?

Here are some tips and tricks published on TechRepublic.

• Microsoft Teams 101: A guide for beginners and tips for experienced users (TechRepublic)
• Move over Zoom, Microsoft Teams now allows for custom backgrounds during video calls
(TechRepublic)
• 10 best Microsoft Teams tips for business pros (TechRepublic)
• How to add guest accounts to your Microsoft Teams (TechRepublic)
• How to enable guest accounts for Microsoft Teams (TechRepublic)
• 55 Excel tips every user should master (TechRepublic)
• How to easily print Excel sheets in black and white (TechRepublic)
• How to add a curved shadow to create 3D PowerPoint shapes (TechRepublic)
• How to quickly highlight recurring text in Word (TechRepublic)
• How to use Skype Meet Now for virtual meetings (TechRepublic)

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