Still not quite sure what Microsoft Office 365 is?

Well that’s about to change.

Let’s start with what you already know: the traditional Microsoft Office Suite – a bundle of products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.) grouped together in different editions with slightly different combinations. Most SMBs have MS Office running on their computers, along with other software of course.

Microsoft Office 365 is similar – a bundle of products (Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, Lync, etc.) grouped together in different plans with slightly different features. The difference is that these products specifically relate to anytime, anywhere business communication (hence the “365” – as in 365 days a year). As cloud computing gains in popularity, a growing number of SMBs are already running Exchange 2010, SharePoint or Lync, or some combination of the three. Office 365 simply bundles these hosted email and collaboration tools into powerful and convenient plans so that organizations can give employees real-time access to their email, web conferencing and instant messaging (IM), file sharing, website and more, virtually from anywhere and through any device

So what can Office 365 bring to your organization?

Anywhere, anytime productivity and collaboration

MS Office 365 allows employees to retrieve and share the latest email, contacts, calendars and files from any device, anytime.

Employees no longer have to worry about synchronizing devices, saving to USB keys or emailing files back and forth. Instead of potentially having multiple versions of data on multiple devices, employees can access a single, always-up-to-date version of data from multiple devices.

In other words, Office 365 is a hosted suite of productivity-boosting email and collaboration tools that you license for a fixed monthly cost. This means you’ll always have the latest versions of software while completely bypassing the costly software upgrades.

Of course, MS Office 365 also brings with it all the inherent benefits of any good hosted solution: no hardware investment, 24/7 access to specially trained administrators, network uptime guarantee, secure data centers, and clustered and redundant architecture. All of which will lessen the load for your IT staff.

Now that you understand what Office 365 is and how it can improve business outcomes, it’s time to introduce you to:

SkyOffice by SherWeb

Here’s where things get interesting. Microsoft sells Office 365 directly, but you can also buy its Office 365 plans from a growing number of hosting providers who adapt these Office 365 plans to better serve their specific markets.

Such as SherWeb, which is one of the most established and successful hosting providers on the market. SherWeb is one of the few providers to cater to largely-ignored SMB market.

And SkyOffice is simply the name of SherWeb’s enhanced Microsoft Office 365 plans.

SkyOffice: Office 365… with service

SkyOffice is similar to Office 365 but with a focus on customized service and flexibility:

1. More flexible plans with no user minimum so that you get exactly (and only) what you want.
2. More affordable per user/month fees
3. Easier migration, thanks to SherWeb’s famous MIDAS migration team and proven processes and tools.
4. Unique service with 24/7 live support by phone, email and chat.
5. Complete data security (and quick recovery) with SkyNox online backup.
6. Top of the industry reliability (SherWeb’s robust and tested infrastructure offers a 99.999% SLA).

More importantly, all the products in SherWeb’s SkyOffice plans are interoperable and seamlessly blend together to offer an intuitive and pleasant end-user experience. That means employees won’t have to overcome a learning curve; productivity and collaboration will improve right from day one.

See for yourself how SkyOffice compares to Microsoft Office 365.