A shift in the tide; how business views on cloud are changing.

After what many saw as a false start in Australia for Microsoft Office 365 (it’s no secret the business community did not look upon the exclusivity held by Telstra in an entirely positive light) we are now starting to see a shift in the tide. This shift is not just about the client-vendor relationship opening up to the reseller community … Read More

New Microsoft Office 365 Plans for Business

As of 1 October 2014, Microsoft revised their Office 365 for business plans. Enterprise plans remain the same, but here’s the new line up for small to mid-size businesses. Office 365 Business Essentials This plan does not include Office applications to install on your PC, notebook, tablet or smartphone, but you can access Office Online for Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. … Read More

Microsoft – Consumer vs Business

When it comes to Microsoft Office 365 and OneDrive, there’s a lot of confusion out there. This has not been helped by the duality of these two brand terms. For better or worse, Microsoft use the same brand names to label both consumer grade and business grade services. Let’s take a closer look at these brand terms and what they mean … Read More

Moving to Office 365? Things to consider…

Moving to Microsoft Office 365 without really understanding the features and functionality of SharePoint – the platform that supports document storage and management in Office 365 – is a missed opportunity to review and improve vital business processes and address productivity issues. A Document Management System will most likely fail to meet the needs of the business if it does … Read More

SharePoint planning tips – Part 2

Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint Online are fantastic options for businesses wanting to reduce the complexity of their infrastructure. In our last article, we kicked off a discussion on the importance of taking time to properly plan your SharePoint platform. Our first two planning exercises are designed to help you focus and clarify: The goals of the business and any … Read More

SharePoint planning tips – Part 1

One of the most powerful features of Microsoft Office 365 is SharePoint Online. But before you jump in and configure your new SharePoint site, it’s worth taking a step back to do some planning exercises. SharePoint has the ability to provide a technical solution to business problems. Constraints within the business, when broken down into their components, are usually comprised of … Read More

Office 2013 Present Online feature (video tutorial).

There is a growing trend of businesses investing in globally diverse teams, mobilised workforces and flexible work arrangements that allow staff to work from home.  This is creating a demand for software vendors to build sharing capabilities into our favourite productivity tools. If you’re new to Office 2013 or haven’t yet upgraded, you may not be aware of the “Present … Read More

Power BI; powerful departmental insight

It is easy to think that Big Data is all about having access to a huge sum of information, as the name implies.  While it certainly is that, the key for business is that Big Data is about harnessing the right data sources.  By aggregating data and analysing averages in a meaningful way, it is possible to gain insights that are … Read More

Office 365 news for Australian SMBs

The IT industry is set for a shake-up. In just a couple of months, Microsoft plans to put Office 365 in the hands of the entire channel. For some time now, Microsoft have been increasingly enthusiastic about moving clients to their public cloud offering; Office 365.  In Australia, the only way to access Office 365 to date has been via … Read More