Top 10 Q&A: Feature Edition

It’s been a while since we’ve fired up the Q&A section. We’ve received a bunch of great questions the past few weeks about what features will be available with Microsoft Office 365, and I wanted to share the answers broadly. For those of you with further questions or who want the nitty gritty details, check out our Office 365 Service Descriptions. These documents cover each of the services in Office 365 (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and Office Professional Plus) as well as information about our support and security. Enjoy!

1)       I have several other personal e-mail addresses that I want to access from Office 365. Will I be able to sync these with my Inbox in Office 365?

• Yes.  With Office 365, you can sync up to 5 other e-mail accounts (Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, etc) to your Office 365 mailbox. For the most part, all you have to do is enter your e-mail address and password in Options under “Connected Accounts.” This article provides an overview of the process (note: the article uses the name “Outlook Live”, a previous name for the Office 365 mailbox, but the information remains the same.)

2)       Are contacts shared across the same domain with Office 365? Our company has a large number of contacts which they would like to share with each other with updates being reflected to everyone when they're made.

• Yes.  Office 365 provides External Contacts for your company. These contacts are displayed in your global address book and can be added to distribution lists and email groups.  All changes to a contact’s information (name, email, phone, etc) will be immediately available to everyone in the company. These contacts cannot sign into your domain and do not cost you anything to setup. You can also maintain private lists of contacts that are not shared across the company.

3)       What about Calendars? Can we share these with our co-workers as well?

• Yes. You can share calendars with anyone in your organization and, if you like, with anyone who has Exchange Online or Exchange Server 2010.  To simplify scheduling meetings, you can even give a conference room a calendar, and anyone can view and update that calendar when scheduling a meeting.

4)       I run two small businesses that work closely together. They each have their own e-mail addresses and domains; will we be able to instant message, voice & video call and hold online meetings between our companies?

• Yes! You can ‘federate’ (or ‘hook up electronically’ as I like to call it) with other organizations that use Lync Online or Lync Server 2010.  That means you can see their availability and click to IM, voice and video call and hold online meetings.  You can also federate with trusted Windows Live Messenger users to IM with them from Lync.

5)       What about users outside of my organization who want to join our online meetings but don’t have Lync Online? Will they be able to join via the web?

• Yes.  Attendees can join and participate in a Lync Online meeting, even if they are not a subscriber to Lync Online. External and/or anonymous users can join a scheduled online meeting with full fidelity PC-audio, video, and data sharing.

6)       Will I be able to connect my iPhone or Android device to Office 365?

• Yes.  Office 365 supports Exchange ActiveSync, which is available on a wide range of mobile devices, including Windows Phones, Nokia E and N series devices, Palm devices, Apple iPhone and iPad, and certain Android phones. And if you didn’t see the news, we just announced a deal with Research in Motion to provide free BES support with Office 365 for enterprises. You can also access Office 365 mail on your phone through BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS).

7)       I want to be able to setup e-mail lists (e.g. <something>@mydomain.com) and have that message sent to several people both inside and outside my company. Is this possible?

• It sure is.  Exchange Online makes it simple to setup distribution groups for your team. These distribution groups are available through the global address book for the organization to use. By combining this with External Contacts, you can send to both internal and external e-mail addresses.

8)       My small business is still in the startup phase, and it's easier for us to pay monthly than up front in a lump sum? Can we do this in Office 365?

• Yes.  You are not alone, and that’s why Office 365 for small businesses is a monthly service. We bill monthly, and you have the ability to increase or decrease your users at any time. You can also cancel with no termination fee. But we don’t think you will J.

9)       I love the idea of using SharePoint to save and share my company’s documents from a centralized location. But do I always have to go to a browser to get to my documents? Do I lose access when I’m offline?

• No, you don’t.  With SharePoint Workspace (part of Office 365 for enterprises for $24/user/month or as part of Office Professional Plus) you can sync local copies of your SharePoint Online documents. You can work on docs while disconnected, and SharePoint Workspace saves and syncs your updates when you reconnect.
• Further, once you sync a SharePoint Online mysite or team site to your SharePoint Workspace, additional features of Windows 7 are also available to manage your online documents right from your desktop, as if they were saved on your PC. A “Workspaces” folder appears in your Windows user folder (C:\users\<username>\Workspaces), so you can view, search and navigate the documents right from Windows Explorer. Best of all, you can pin these documents to your jump lists to access with just two clicks!

10)   My company needs to understand how Office 365 complies with ISO 27001/27002 and other standards. Where can I find more information on your security and compliance?

• Our Security Whitepaper includes details on Microsoft Office 365 compliance and industry certifications (hint: we’ve most likely got you covered; our engineers take this stuff pretty seriously). You can also find descriptions of each of the major services (Exchange Online, Lync Online, SharePoint Online and Office Professional Plus/Web Apps) here as well.

Yes, it’s a pretty compelling set of features!  I know many (many!) folks are on the waitlist for the limited beta, and I can now assure you that you will definitely get an invite to the beta.  Thanks for your patience as we continue to gather feedback and test our service.  Your beta invites are coming soon!

-Clint