The Amazing Adventures of Geek Girl : sharepoint online

Trying and Buying BPOS - It couldn't be easier!

tara — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:32:20 GMT

After reading my previous post, I know you're all super excited about BPOS and want to start using it as soon as possible! Well, great news - signing up for BPOS is a very straightforward process. You can either start a 30-day trial, or buy BPOS right from your web browser!

Below is a (long but very straightforward!) step by step guide to signing up for a BPOS trial and basic configuration of your BPOS environment.

Signing Up for BPOS

Step 1 - go to www.microsoft.com/online and click on 'Free Trials' on the left hand side of the page

Step 2 - Click on 'Try' under the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (If you haven't already signed in to Windows Live, sign in now)

Step 3 - Complete the contact information form

Step 4 - Complete the company information form

Step 5 - Complete service usage address form (this determines the services available and tax calculations)

Step 6 - Read the confirmation and click 'close'

Step 7 - On the Services page, select the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite trial and click 'Add to cart'

Step 8 - If you have been working with a Microsoft partner, select 'Find a Partner' on the Checkout page

Step 9 - Find the partner you've been working with by entering their Microsoft partner ID, or by searching for them

Step 10 - Review the information on the Checkout page and if everything is correct, click 'Checkout'

(For the BPOS trial, you are assigned 20 licences)

Step 11 - Read the Microsoft Online Services Agreement and if you agree to everything, enter your name, title and click 'I Accept', read the confirmation screen, then click 'Proceed to Activation'

Step 12 - Read the Service Provisioning information, enter your domain name and any promotional code, then click 'Next'

Step 13 - Complete the Service Administration with your administrator's information

(The administrator also needs a Windows Live ID and will be responsible for adding and removing users, configuring the service, accessing service management tools and receiving a notification when the service is provisioned)

Step 14 - Check that the summary information is correct and click 'Finish'

Step 15 - Read the confirmation screen and click 'Close'

From here, you'll be directed to the Subscriptions page, where you can see your BPOS trial account activation is in progress.

Provisioning the service can take up to 1 hour. When your BPOS account is ready, your administrator will receive an email with instructions on how to access the Administration Centre.

Administering BPOS

Step 16 - Sign into the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal, and from the Actions box on the Subscriptions tab, click 'Get Credentials' and then click 'Go'

Step 17 - Note your temporary administrator credentials and click 'Go to Administration Centre'

Step 18 (to be completed by service administrator) - Sign in to your account using the temporary administrator credentials

Step 19 - Choose a new, strong password and click 'Ok'. On the following confirmation screen, click 'Continue'

Configuring BPOS

Step 20 - A list of 'Tasks I Need To Do' is available in the centre of the Microsoft Online Services Administration Centre. Click on 'Add your domain to Microsoft Online Services'

Step 21 - Enter your domain information, and select 'Authoritative' or 'External Relay' depending on whether or not Exchange Online will host all mailboxes for this domain.

Step 22 - Click 'Close' on the confirmation screen. You can also choose to run the Verification wizard to guide you through the process of altering DNS settings (not shown here).

Step 23 - From the Administration Centre, click on the second task - 'Add a SharePoint site collection to setup portal'

Step 24 - Compete the site collection information and click 'Create'

Step 25 - Click 'Finish' on the confirmation screen

You will then see your site collection listed in the SharePoint Online Service Settings tab

Step 26 - From the Administration Centre, click on the next task - 'Add a user'

Step 27 - Complete user information and click 'Next'

Step 28 - Select the appropriate settings for the user

Step 29 - Select the appropriate services for the user and click 'Create'

Step 30 - Enter the user's email address if you would like a summary email to be sent to them, click 'Send' then click 'Finish'

Step 31 - In the Administration Centre, click the final task - 'Enable Office Communications Online for use'

Step 32 - Click 'Enable' on the Office Communications Online Service Settings tab (further steps not shown here)

(Note - users must install Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 to use Office Communications Online)

So there you have it - signing up for the BPOS trial, setting up an administrator for BPOS and the first steps to configure the BPOS solution in 32 very easy to follow steps.

Whether you're a Microsoft partner or a customer, I suggest you sign up for the BPOS trial and spend some time exploring the solution to see how Software plus Services works, and to help you understand where BPOS may be suitable within your own and others' organisations.

You can download this step by step guide from my SkyDrive.

Microsoft Online and BPOS - Welcome to Software plus Services!

tara — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:56:14 GMT

Lately, you may have heard yet another acronym being mentioned in the Microsoft world - BPOS. But what exactly is this mysterious BPOS?

The Business Productivity Online Suite (or BPOS for those of us who like shorter conversations) is a hosted offering from Microsoft Online.

Before we dive head first into the world of BPOS, it's important to understand Microsoft Online. Microsoft Online is software hosted by Microsoft and available for customers to use on a subscription based service. Essentially, it's a Software plus Services offering from Microsoft - Microsoft hosts software and data in our data centres, which customers can access via the web (using either a web browser or a desktop software application) from their own machines.

There are massive benefits for customers using the Software plus Services approach of Microsoft Online, including:

Latest Business Productivity Capabilities

Discover the latest in business-class email, Web conferencing, instant messaging, document collaboration and workflow
Get the benefit of the latest messaging and collaboration features, which are designed to work together seamlessly
Build your own solution with individual services or purchase as an integrated suite

Ease of Use

Your end users have a unified experience to access all of the hosted services you're using
Administrators only have one place to go to manage subscriptions and to configure all Online Services
End users have the ability to access the service securely, anywhere without the need for a VPN connection and through a wide selection of mobile devices

Privacy & Rapid Disaster Recovery

Secure Internet protocols including HTTPS and HTTP over SSL to access your services
Redundant network architecture capable of disaster recovery
In the event of data centre connectivity issues, services switch over to a backup data centre

Greater Flexibility

Online offerings integrate with on-premises servers and applications so that organisations can run some applications internally and others as hosted services
Leverages tools such as Active Directory synchronisation so you can make online, on-premises or hybrid deployment choices by service, user roles and geography to best meet organisational needs

Improved Agility

Quickly enhance or expand your IT capacity by adding new services without having to invest in the development of new skills or deploying new hardware and software
Free your valuable IT resources from routine management tasks to focus on core business initiatives that can deliver a truly competitive advantage

Business-class Security & Reliability

Microsoft Online Services run on a global network of world-class data centres
Our data centres and services are protected by multiple layers of security and operational best practices
Microsoft Online Services guarantee a service level agreement of 99.9% uptime
Managed by rigorously screened and highly trained staff

Overall, Microsoft Online allows customers to adopt and deploy new technologies quickly and without the upfront costs of an on-premise deployment. By using the hosted services from Microsoft Online, customers can be more flexible and adapt quickly to business change, while simplifying system management and maintenance.

So now you know all of the fantastic benefits of the software plus services strategy of Microsoft Online, it's important to understand which products are currently available through Microsoft Online:

Office Live Meeting

Connect with colleagues and customers through real-time meetings, training sessions, and events using only a PC with an Internet connection. Hosted Web conferencing services from Microsoft Office Live Meeting give your employees the power to collaborate wherever they are, to set up project meetings, brainstorm ideas, and collaborate on whiteboards without the cost and hassle of travel!

SharePoint Online

Share documents, contacts, calendars, and tasks in a single location. Based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, SharePoint Online delivers rich collaboration capabilities that enable team members to flexibly and efficiently collaborate, find organizational resources, search your intranet site, and manage content and workflow.

Exchange Online

Provide employees access to e-mail, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, at anytime, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices—while helping to protect against malware and spam. Exchange Online can be rapidly deployed, flexibly expanded, and is designed to be securely administered using a powerful yet easy-to-use Web-based console.

Office Communications Online

Enable users to find and rapidly connect with the right person from the applications they use most. Office Communications Online provides streamlined access to rich presence and instant messaging capabilities that are centrally managed by IT and work seamlessly with a range of Microsoft Office system programs.

Exchange Hosted Services

Protect your electronic communication and email using our services to filter viruses, worms, denial of service attacks and spam, to encrypt data, to satisfy retention requirements for compliance and to preserve access to email during and after an emergency.

As mentioned above, these products are available on a subscription model, charged per user per month:

Office Live Meeting - from £3.01 per user per month

SharePoint Online - from £4.85 per user per month

Exchange Online - from £6.69 per user per month

Office Communications Online - from £1.67 per user per month

Exchange Hosted Services - Filtering from £1.03 per user per month, Archiving from £6.00 per user per month

So now you understand the basics of Microsoft Online, it's time to talk about BPOS.

The Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) combines Office Live Meeting, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Office Communications Online into one single suite of products, purchased together. The real benefit of BPOS is the cost saving - a customer purchasing these four Microsoft Online products separately would pay from £16.22 per user per month; however the cost of BPOS is from £10.04 per user per month - saving more than 38%!

The four Microsoft Online products combined together in the Business Productivity Online Suite give customers effective messaging and collaboration capabilities for their business.

Getting started with Microsoft Online and BPOS couldn't be easier - a 30-day trial is available from the Microsoft Online website. Check back soon for my upcoming blog post walking you through the sign up process step by step.

Partners looking for more information about Microsoft Online BPOS - visit the Microsoft Online website, look on the Partner Learning Centre or contact me!

Sharepoint Online

tara — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:36:12 GMT

Just when you thought Sharepoint could not possibly be any more fantastic, Microsoft announce the release of Sharepoint Online!

This is a hosted service, which means customers no longer need to worry about deployment, configuration and management of Sharepoint server farms, but can still make use of the excellent collaboration and information sharing possibilities that Sharepoint provides.

There are two service offerings for Sharepoint Online (and for all other Microsoft Online Services): Standard and Dedicated.

Standard, where many companies will securely use the same architecture, has a minimum requirement of only 5 seats, so Sharepoint Online is available for even the smallest of businesses.

Dedicated, where each company has access to an individual, dedicated architecture, is also available, giving Enterprise level organisations access to more server features.

Troy Hopwood gave an excellent PDC session on Sharepoint Online. Check it out here. It's well worth viewing the whole session, but if you're not too techy, or don't have 75 mins to spare, make sure you watch the first 15 mins for a great overview of Sharepoint Online plus a quick high level demo. Troy also fields some interesting questions from 59 mins onwards. And don't forget to download the PowerPoint presentation that accompanies the session as a reference for the differences between standard and dedicated, as well as a feature comparison of MOSS and Sharepoint Online.

Last but not least, sign up for the beta of Sharepoint Online from www.microsoft.com/online.