Microsoft has recently announced plans to bring versions of their popular Office software to everyone regardless of platform or device. Since the announcement they’ve been steadily rolling out more and more ways to connect with the Office ecosystem through a series of tablet and mobile apps. The result for your business is that it’s becoming even easier for employees to access work documents and emails quickly and securely from anywhere at any time – but only if you’ve planned ahead and made the switch to the cloud. Cloud solutions are expanding and your company needs to be ready for them. With cloud email and computing services on the rise and becoming more accessible than ever before – how can you position your company to take advantage?shutterstock_95010205

In March 2014 Microsoft released Office for the iPad – a major step towards their stated commitment to bring Office  access to everyone even without an Office 365 subscription. The move has been a popular one and Microsoft quickly reported over 40 million downloads. The iPad application uses the familiar design of the Office 365 web-based software within the Apple iOS to deliver total access to your Microsoft Office 365 account emails and documents. Since then Microsoft has continued to release more and more specific apps for both Android and iOS platforms for their most popular software solutions like OneNote, Lync, and Outlook. The company is looking to provide a consistent experience for Office 365 users and most importantly consistent and secure access to your data files and documents. Microsoft is also hard at work with plans to launch a Windows mobile and tablet optimized app selection.

With the recent announcement of specific mobile and tablet apps for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint Microsoft will fully deliver on their promise to bring the Office computing ecosystem to customers regardless of device or platform. If your company is using Office 365 already – the benefits are clear. You’ll now rest assured that all your employees can access, edit, and collaborate on their important work-related files any place they can connect to the internet. Because Office 365 is cloud-based the files are always available and always live-updated to the latest version. Office 365 subscribers can now carry their entire profile and all associated files with them at all times.

Additionally Microsoft has just announced an alliance with NetSuite – a top provider of ERP cloud solutions. The partnership will see the two companies working together to better integrate Office 365 and NetSuite offerings and to develop innovative and “future-proof” cloud solutions for business. This is undoubtedly an exciting time to make the switch to cloud-computing – but how can you position your own company to properly take advantage?

Here are a few steps you will need to take in order to get your business ready to transition successfully into the cloud and take advantage of Microsoft Office everywhere.

    1. Make a detailed plan / partner with experience: Do the research and understand your own limitations – migration is typically a complex, multifaceted process and you’ll want to avoid server downtime or any unnecessary hiccups by planning accordingly or by partnering with a confident and experienced professional.
    2. Assessing costs and future benefits: Be sure to know why you’re doing this. Complete a cost-benefit analysis and most importantly you should map a vision for the future. Having a clear strategy is key to a successful implementation and will allow to you properly assess how well things are going in both the short and long term.
    3. Assign leaders and eliminate potential roadblocks: Your plan is in place and you’ve got the expert knowledge needed to implement. Before you begin make sure you’ve looked ahead at possible scenarios and assessed how best to avoid or to face them. This step is also about assigning responsibility for the project to ensure that roles are clearly denoted and contingency plans at the ready if a crisis does strike.

Microsoft Office 365 and other cloud solutions are expanding rapidly. In general moving to the cloud means better access, better support, and better security for your most valuable company assets – but the transition can be difficult and you may need to enlist help in order to do it right and to gain the full benefits. If you’d like to read more about how the cloud can benefit your business check out our 15 Benefits of Cloud-Computing article or reach out to us anytime for a free consultation!

Benefits of Cloud Computing System for Your Business