The past few months have marked a transformative time in government IT, with the State of California, the State of Minnesota and New York City all embracing Microsoft Online Services. And now that momentum is carrying into the federal sector, with groundbreaking news from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), who announced that they are ready to go live with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Office Communications Online. The good folks at the USDA bring us Americans things like...

Audience: Small Business and Professionals Online meetings - getting work done in a mobile world No matter what the size of your business, you've probably attended online meetings and conference calls. With today’s mobile workforce, they're an essential part of getting work done. With Office 365, you now have a powerful, easy way to schedule and host your own online meetings—no IT staff, complicated software or complex dial-ins required. And these aren't just audio conferences—you...

With all the excitement around the beta of Office 365, we asked a few of our customers to share their thoughts and experiences thus far on using the Office 365 beta. You can read more guest posts like this one here . By David M. Kroenke, Textbook Author I’ve been an independent textbook author since 1974, mostly writing college-level texts on the use of technology in business. I’m based in Seattle and Whidbey Island, but I work with a team of editors and designers all over the United...

With all the excitement around the beta of Office 365, we asked a few of our customers to share their thoughts and experiences thus far on using the Office 365 beta. You can read more guest posts like this one here . By Francesca Geens, Director, Digital Dragonfly My company, Digital Dragonfly , is an IT consultancy that focuses on the one-person business. As a solo-entrepreneur, I am my own guinea pig for what works best for my clients. When I launched the business in January 2011, I was eager to...

As with any critical business decision, organizations considering Office 365 should first ask the question: Is it really worth it? A recent study conducted by Forrester Consulting answers that question with a resounding YES . The study, which was commissioned by Microsoft and analyzes the total economic impact of Office 365 on midsize businesses, found that Office 365 delivers an ROI of 321 percent with a payback period of two months for the composite midsize organization. Now that’s value...

Today, we announced worldwide availability of the new Microsoft Office 365 services for business; the most complete Office cloud service to-date has new features and offerings tailored to meet the needs and budgets of small, medium and large organizations.

Since launching in mid-2011, Office 365 is one of the fastest growing businesses in Microsoft history. We are pleased to welcome new customers the Hamburg Port Authority, Sephora, and Midroc Europe to our growing family. Read on for more about their stories.

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Office 365 is not a one size fits all approach like Google Apps. Businesses are unique and have many different needs which is why we have designed our product to have a variety of plans and options. Obviously then the question becomes: Which plan is right for me and/or my organization? Microsoft offers a wide range of affordable subscription plans based on the features you want, the size and makeup of your company, and the level of IT support you need. Some plans are designed for professionals and...

We’ve seen a lot of buzz about Office 365 in the market. It ’s amazing to see the enthusiastic response to the service. Check out these reviews ! We’re getting questions about what’s next for Office 365. On June 28 th , we’re planning a webcast to share the latest Office 365 news. Stay tuned to this blog (or @Office365 on Twitter or Facebook.com/office365 if you prefer) for more details. If you haven’t already, join the beta and the discussion in our community...

Hi, I hope you’re enjoying the SharePoint Online Product Insights series. Today we’re going to show you how SharePoint Intranet Sites can keep your entire company up to date on company news and information. With Intranet Sites you can: Keep employees up to date with the latest company news and information Simplify routine business processes using online forms and workflow Find important documents and people easily Share ideas and seek input from the company using community discussion...

Just like Office 2010, Project Professional 2010 is also designed to work together easily with SharePoint Online. Today my colleague Margaret Loosemore from the Project team is going to show you how to: Synchronize project plans with SharePoint task lists Track and update tasks easily from your team site And if you missed any of the videos in the SharePoint Online Product Insights Series, I’ve included a link so you can catch each of the videos in the series. If you want to dive into more how...