Office 365 gets technology out of your way so you can get down to business

One sticking point in organizations is the challenge of sharing documents so that the same information is available to everyone in the same format, across geographical boundaries, whether your colleague is accessing the information on a desktop computer, netbook, Mac, or cell phone.

Office Web Apps, a feature of Office 365, provides browser-based viewing and editing of Office documents so that the people you’re working with can access the same document, regardless of their hardware or version of Office (even if they don’t have Office at all).

To see how this works, go to Get started with Office Web Apps in Office 365 and watch my video.

The idea for this video came from visits that some teammates and I recently made to Microsoft business customers. My team publishes content on Office.com, and we visited customers to learn firsthand the needs and concerns of small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Time and again, our team hit upon consistent themes:

• Antiquated database systems that are backed up precariously
• A collage of old and new hardware and software
• Documents stored on hard-to-get-at file shares—or sent around in an e-mail rendition of the telephone game we played as children.

Not that these factors prevented the organizations from functioning. But we did encounter worries, such as:

• The cost of maintaining old systems while wanting to take advantage of new technologies.
• The possibility of missing opportunities due to inefficient communication.
• Software that throws up roadblocks to productivity instead of paving the way.
• And for most small organizations: no desire to invest in an IT infrastructure.

Across the board, we found that businesses and nonprofits would much rather invest in their customers, clientele, and members than devote time and attention to their computer systems.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll share more videos to introduce you to the ways in which Microsoft Office 365 can get technology out of your way, freeing up your organization to do your real job.

Join the Office 365 beta, and see how you can get down to business. 

--Roxanne Kenison