Microsoft is the first and only major cloud productivity provider to have ISO 27001 certification, EU Model Clauses (a robust Data Processing Agreement) and HIPAA compliance.
The new white paper "Privacy in the Public Cloud: The Office 365 Approach" examines Microsoft's broad approach to privacy governance and describes how these principles and processes have been applied to our latest cloud-based productivity service, Office 365
If you want in-depth information about the privacy and security practices for Office 365 you can visit the Office 365 Trust Center
Sometimes you might find yourself in a situation without your own PC and you need to book an online meeting asap.
Microsoft Lync Online Web Scheduler is a web-based meeting scheduling and management tool for users who don’t have access to Microsoft Outlook, are on an operating system not based on Windows, or use Microsoft Lync 2010 Basic. With Lync Online Web Scheduler, you can create
Limitations Compared to the Conferencing Add-In for Microsoft Outlook, Lync Web Scheduler has the following limitations:
Joining a meetingYour invitees will be able to join from the Lync client if licensed and installed - otherwise they can join from Lync Web App or Lync Attendee (supports computer audio and video). See client comparison here.
SchedulingJust type the URL https://sched.lync.com/ in your browser and start booking those online meetings (see how) :-)
Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (P1 plan) customers are currently limited to managing their users in the Office 365 Admin Interface.
The Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool - only available to E plan users - is a tool to replicate users, contacts, distribution lists, and other objects into Office. But its not available to P1 plan customers (and it wont install on a Domain Controller).
But what if a P1 plan customer is running Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (SBSE)? Then there is an AD schema in place. Wouldn’t it be nice if that opened up for at least some of the administrative benefits seen in the E plan?
Enter the (very) soon to be released Office 365 Integration Module (OIM) for SBSE
OIM extends the features of the server Dashboard by providing seamless integration with Office 365 services. When you integrate Office 365 with SBSE, you can:
OIM will be available as a free download from Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft Lync 2010 for Windows Phone (a.k.a. Lync Mobile) just released - get it here
If you want to have a play with Lync Mobile then we haven’t quite setup the DNS records yet (or they are still propagating round the internet).
So while we wait for the DNS records to propagate the internet here is a couple of preliminary helpers to help you setup your Lync Mobile:
If you are using
Other Mobile Platforms
Lync Mobile is available on other mobile platforms. Below you'll find a highlevel feature comparison chart:
For more detailed "Mobile Client Comparison Tables" click this TechNet link
See also
You probably heard by now. Office 2003 isn’t on the supported software list for Office 365. We suggest that all Office 2003 customers upgrade to Office Pro Plus a.k.a. OPP which is the subscription based version of Office 2010 (or purchase Office 2010 itself) for the best user client experience with Office 365.
Plenty of documents exists describing why OPP is the recommended client for the best client server/services experience, e.g. the whitepaper “Business Productivity at Its Best” (from 2009, when Lync was OCS).
Current owners of Office 2003 looking at OPP in Office 365 might ask – what differences would be worth a look in terms of building a business case for upgrading to OPP? With the newest servers (or rather services) available through Office 365 what will my client/Services experience be on my unsupported Office 2003 if I decide to remain on Office 2003 ?
Below you will find my personal notes on what productivity experience elements would be worth a look in terms of the Office 2003 client/Office365 service integration, service by service. The list is by no means exhaustive, but is merely an expression of my current understanding.
Updates
SharePoint
Topic
2003 experience
Access
Access 2003 provides a limited ability to integrate Access databases with SharePoint sites. Individual tables can be exported to SharePoint sites (no link is maintained). Individual SharePoint lists can be linked into Access 2003 databases.
Access 2003 does not support the new data types introduced in SharePoint nor does it have the ability to take this data offline. Integration process is cumbersome and no ability to move entire database to SharePoint site in one step. As a result, Access databases remain isolated on the individual desktop where they create business risks because they are unmanaged.
Excel
Excel Services requires spreadsheets to be in Office Open XML formats (.XLSX). Users must save the spreadsheet they have created in the .XLSX format before uploading it to the Excel Services site. This process must be done “manually” and is somewhat cumbersome.
Excel 2003 does not support the ability to control which portions or components of the spreadsheet will display.
For example if a workbook has multiple spreadsheets, one of which might have confidential information, there is no way to prevent it from displaying on SharePoint site. (You need a newer Excel client to control component visibility when publishing the workbook)
Likewise, the Excel 2003 client does not enable specification of input (or parameter) cells
Groove
Integrating Groove 3.1 and SharePoint document libraries can be done in a limited fashion. Files residing in a SharePoint document library can be added to the Groove 3.1 workspace. No synchronization service is provided between the Groove workspace and the SharePoint document library and the files quickly can get out of sync.
(not sure about the SPO 2010 story – would expect no integration at all)
InfoPath
Once a form has been published to a SharePoint forms library a link to the library can be sent to individuals.
The challenge for these individuals is that they must learn the process of filling out a form in a forms library. (And they must have InfoPath installed on their PC).
To fill out the form they must click on the “new” button on the SharePoint site. This launches InfoPath 2003 in which the form can be completed. Saving the form populates the fields in the list on the SharePoint site. This unfamiliar process can be daunting for users and decrease the likelihood that the process will be used consistently.
With InfoPath 2003 forms cannot be published to SharePoint for browser based completion.
Outlook
The major issues with Outlook 2003 integration with SharePoint calendars is that only read-only access is provided. The process of connecting a SharePoint calendar is straightforward but the side-by-side viewing mode is not as user-friendly as it could be. Any changes to the SharePoint calendars must be done on the SharePoint site. The inconvenience of this process (having to leave Outlook) reduces the attractiveness of SharePoint calendaring to users and reduces adoption
No ability to copy contents of SharePoint Server lists and libraries for offline access in Outlook folders. Basically the offline experience in Office 2003 is way below whats seen in Office Pro Plus.
PowerPoint
No ability to publish slides to server where they can be easily shared, access slides on Slide Library from within PowerPoint, receive notification if slide on server changes.
Exchange
Outlook 2003 was designed and built for an environment where servers are maintained locally within an organization and not part of a cloud service. Outlook 2003 does not support features and functionality that depend on the re-architected identity infrastructure and newer server architecture available in Office 365. Given these changes, Outlook 2003 cannot provide an acceptable end-user experience when connected to Office 365
Outlook 2003 access via POP/IMAP is technically possible but also not supported. If Outlook 2003 customers call for support, they will be advised to upgrade to a later version of Office. If they choose to remain on Outlook 2003 via POP/IMAP, they will not get calendar support, free/busy information, Global Address List, push e-mail, and many other features most people consider essential to the Outlook experience.
Update March 23, 2012: "Office 365 will now support POP and IMAP Connections to Outlook 2003" - link. Please be aware of the limitations compared to MAPI and OWA in Outlook 2007 and 2010 (see table below)
Note that the “Microsoft Exchange Online Connector for Office Outlook 2003” (enables free/busy lookups and offline address book downloads) only works with BPOS – NOT Office 365
Lync
In a spreadsheet with smart tags enabled you can see a persons availability and contact card
No ability to Share Now and Send by IM (exposed by Ribbon in 2010)
In the email From box you can see a persons Presence and Contact menu. Presence status in the Microsoft Outlook To and Cc fields appears on hover
No Reply with conference call from the availability menu
No Presence status in a meeting request on the Scheduling Assistant tab
No Reply with IM, or call from the toolbar or ribbon in a received email
Word
In a document with smart tags enabled you can see a persons availability and contact card
Of course all of the above has to be contrasted with the OPP experience. If you do not yet subscribe to Office 365 I encourage you to sign up for a trial and experience for yourself (e.g by following this Office 365 Trial Guide)
Finding it difficult to navigate the various service plans in Office 365 - deciding which one fits your needs?
Microsoft has released an Office 365 Advisor tool that will recommend a plan for you, based on your answers to simple questions, e.g.
The tool will help you select between the different technologies, scenarios, etc and will even provide a .pdf output file which describes all about the plan we recommend for you.
To see which plan we would recommend for you now, click this Link
Maximize Your Cloud Opportunity! Show your customers what Office 365 can do for their business.
Attend this technical overview and learn how to demo Office 365 and utilize the Demo Provisioning Toolkit (see below) to engage your customers and close Office 365 deals. This event is targeted to Microsoft Cloud Essentials Partners.
Webcast Date: 12/13/2011Webcast Start Time: 10:00 AM (Pacific)
Registration - link
Demo Provisioning Toolkit for Office 365Use this demo tool to setup up a new Office 365 tenant, complete with users (all with the same password), realistic email and calendar entries and sharepoint sites with webparts, document libraries, even sections that show off excel and visio web services. All you do is create a new tenant and make sure the initial user is admin@"domain".onmicrosoft.com with the password of pass@word1. After that, the entire setup is automated. You can use this for demos and if needed extend the expiration date for your demo account.
Links:
One of the benefits of being a “Microsoft Cloud Accelerate” partner is the ability to offer delegated administration right from within your own Office 365 tenant. Delegated administration is you administrering a company account on behalf of one (or more) of your customers. As a delegated administrator, you can perform simple tasks such as adding users and resetting passwords, or more technical tasks such as adding a domain.
Two questions often comes up when delegated administration is on the agenda:
How to invite your customer to authorize you as a delegated administrator
Before you can start administering your customer's account, your customer must authorize you as a delegated administrator. To obtain your customers approval, you first send them an offer for delegated administration:
How to actually do the delegated administration
When you want to perform an administrative task for your customer, you can locate the account by searching for a user (name) or your customers domain name. If you are a delegated administrator for your customer's account, you can search for any domain name associated with the account.
Thats it :-)
Note: As a Microsoft partner, you can see a list of your Office 365 customers on your MPN Partner Dashboard: https://partnerdashboard.microsoft.com/PartnerDashBoard/home.mvc/show/PartnerId=[MPN ID]#/#onlineServicesTab
If you are licensed for Office Pro Plus (OPP) in your Office 365 license, you are allowed to install Office Professional Plus on up to five simultaneous machines.
But what if you lose count and try to install/activate Office Professional Plus on a sixth machine?
In the installation/activation attempt you will receive a message showing the machines that are currently active for your license. The message will instruct you to disable the subscription on one of your active machines to proceed.
You can always do the above maintenance exercise yourself at any time you prefer, using a command called osaui.exe, found in C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE14
If you use the /R parameter with the osaui.exe command you'll be presented with the above list of your computers on which you've activated OPP and be able remove one or more of these from your account.
Notes:
See Also: