21 Sep Benefits of Office 365 and Google Apps for Work

Office 365 and Google Apps for Work

Skype is down – Use instead Skype for Business

ZDNet today published an article on Skype being down, and a fix is promised. Its big news and its Trending on Twitter. Millions of people use and rely on Skype on a daily even hourly basis. But did you know there is another version of Skype most people don’t know about? Have you heard of part of the Microsoft Office suite called “Lync”? Microsoft -purchased Skype in the past few years and have only recently re-labeled and upgraded “Lync” calling it “Skype for Business.”

Important to note: Skype outage does NOT affect Skype for Business (Office 365) users.  Skype for Business formerly Lync, is included in some but not all of Microsoft Office 365 products. What is Office 365?  Office 365 came a little late to the party – but it came solid. Solid product. Office 365 is Microsoft’s version of “Google Apps for Work”

Think of it like this:

Consumer / Everyday users:     Google = Gmail.com/Gmail account            Microsoft = Outlook.com/Microsoft account

Business / Corporate:                   Google = Google Apps for Work                    Microsoft = Office 365

These platforms take the awesomeness of Googles Gmail and Microsofts Outlook.com and provide them to us as a business version of their products – on steroids. So for example name@company.com could be a Google Apps for Work – or – a Microsoft Office 365 account. Or it could still be on that old server provided by your Internet Provider or a registrar like Godaddy.

If your company still uses companyname@gmail.com its time to get into 2015. Lets make it user@companyname.com and place it on a very affordable platform: whether that is Google Apps for Work, or Microsoft Office 365.  One thing to keep in mind: Office 365 replaces “Microsoft Exchange Servers” in your business – an expensive complex server either in your office or hosted elsewhere. Google Apps for Work and Office 365 are both very affordable.

Back to the original topic – Skype for Business. If you have, or want to consider Office 365 – contact us to see if you have a package that includes Skype for Business. If you are not utilizing it – look into it!  We also love Google Apps for Work. Both are solid platforms. Contact me to see if either can benefit your business, big or small. – Jason