Cloud Integration Services

Office 365 is Microsoft's expanding family of productivity applications and cloud services provided on a monthly or annual subscription basis. Office 365 applications and cloud services are available in a selection of product bundles, or subscription plans, aimed at customers ranging from individual and households to major enterprises.

Most Microsoft Office 365 titles can be deployed on multiple computers such as PCs, Macs, iPads, and iPhones and Android smartphones. These multi-device applications include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. PC-only applications include Microsoft Access and Office Publisher. To accommodate users with multiple computing devices, many Office 365 subscription plans permit you to put Office 365 applications on several devices. As an example, Office 365 Business and ProPlus subscription plans permit every Office application to be run on as many as five devices.

Progent offers quick and easy remote access to consultants with expert knowledge of Microsoft, Mac, iOS, and Google Android software. Progent can help you to understand the numerous subscription plans available with Office 365 and configure your information network with Office 365 so it delivers maximum competitive advantage. Progent supports multi-vendor networks that incorporate Microsoft Windows, macOS or OS X, and Linux based products. Progent can also assist you to build and maintain hybrid networks that seamlessly integrate local and cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft Office 365 Applications and Cloud Services
Office 365 plans are designed to serve a broad selection of users including businesses, schools, state and local government, home and nonprofits. Some plans, such as Office 365 Business Essentials, includes no applications but only cloud services. Others, such as Office 365 Business, includes apps but only the OneDrive cloud service. The high-end Office 365 Enterprise E5 subscription plan includes seven apps and seven cloud services. Progent can help your organization to select an Office 365 subscription plan that makes sense for your business, assist you to migrate from outdated editions of Office applications, and help you streamline the management of Office 365 and other system resources to build a cost-effective, secure and productive IT ecosystem.

Major Office 365 Applications
The most obvious difference between Office 365 applications and their related Microsoft Office editions is that Office 365 apps are subscription based rather than sold. Also, permanently licensed Microsoft Office applications are allowed to be run on only a single PC or Mac at a time and are not patched automatically or replaced at no extra cost when a major new version is released. For example, upgrading from Word 2013 to Word 2016 requires that you purchase a whole new license for Word. Incremental updates to Microsoft Office titles are provided Office 365 users faster than to owners of perpetually licensed editions. Also, Office suites purchased with a perpetual license do not include any of the cloud services that are included with Office 365.

Applications available with different Office 365 packages include:

Office 365 Word offers the ability to edit and review Office files across Windows, Google Android, Mac, and iOS computers while maintaining a common look and feel. Users can also co-author documents, find out which team members are editing various shared projects, and see updates made by others in real time. As with Office 365 Excel and PowerPoint, you can instantly share without leaving your documents. Additionally, you can check who has permission to access a given document and who is currently working on the document. For your own documents, you can quickly change edit rights. Find out about Progent's Office 365 Word consulting and training services.

Office 365 Excel permits you to employ the standard Exponential Smoothing (ETS) algorithm to create forecast charts for predicting trends based on historical data. New data types that are tied to online sources include Stock and Geography. Stock downloads the latest stock price, change in price, and other equities data. Geography enables you to select a region and retrieve current demographic or economic information like population or gas price. As with Office 365 Word and Office 365 PowerPoint, Office 365 Excel also can handle Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files. These can be rotated, colored, and resized instantaneously with no deterioration in image quality. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Excel consulting and training expertise.

Office 365 PowerPoint lets you work with 3D objects and includes an expanded library of animation effects like swinging and turning. As with Microsoft Office Excel and Office Word, Office 365 PowerPoint enables you to convert drawings into uniform shapes for flow charts, diagrams, and various other objects. Office 365 PowerPoint for Mac includes the capability to embed and format video from inside PowerPoint. PowerPoint's Media Browser utility provides convenient access to a broad selection of media sources like iPhoto galleries, iTunes playlists, and iMovie libraries plus standard shapes, Clip Art, and other graphical content.

Office 365 Outlook offers significant improvements to previous versions of the Outlook email and calendar app by adding useful features like the focused Inbox, automatic downloading of OneDrive cloud attachments, display responses to a conference invitation for people other than conference organizers, simplified email sorting, plus easier group creation and shared calendars. In addition, Office 365 Outlook users can hear their messages read out loud as the segments being read are visibly highlighted. Microsoft's Office intelligent services, when enabled, allows Office 365 Outlook subscribers to dictate messages. Office 365 Outlook for Mac includes push email, online archiving, the ability to propose an alternative meeting time in response to a meeting request, and multiple calendar visibility. Full Screen Mode allows multiple open emails and permits subscribers to run two Outlook instances in split-screen. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Outlook and Outlook on the web configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Office 365 OneNote for Windows 10 is included in the majority of Office 365 bundles, installed by default in Windows 10, and offered for download as a free mobile application. The older OneNote 2016 release, which includes features not initially provided in OneNote for Windows 10 such as Record Video, is still available at no cost but is not being updated with new features. OneNote for Windows 10 introduces a fresh customizable interface consistent for Windows 10, Apple Mac, iOS, Google Android, and Web. Other features offered exclusively on OneNote for Windows 10 include enhanced ink-to-text capability, a notification center that shows changes in your open and recent notebooks, automatic transformation of drawings into standardized shapes, and a virtual ruler to create straight lines and measure distance.

Office 365 Access, available only for Windows PCs, allows you to use Visual Basic for Applications and an extensive set of templates to streamline business processes and build advanced forms and management reports. Office 365 Access includes the connector library to extract data from a broad range of popular business applications and data sources for creating aggregated reports from within the familiar Access interface. The ability to store Access data in both SQL Server as well as Microsoft Azure SQL provides a world-class back end and SQL syntax for Access apps deployed either locally or in the Azure cloud. Microsoft Office Access 365 now includes an improved Linked Table Manager, lets you include new charts and management reports, and enables you to link or import data from Saleforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Find out about Progent's Office 365 Access development and training services.

Office 365 Publisher, available exclusively for PCs, is a leading user-friendly desktop publishing system that takes advantage of the familiar Office environment to deliver an intuitive program for developing and sharing modern-looking documents such as datasheets and newsletters that call for precise object placement. Since publications can be saved to the cloud, you can deliver a document simply by providing a link. Publisher's wide use and simplicity allow you to meet deadlines on time-sensitive jobs without needing rely on instant access to a desktop publishing specialist for making eleventh-hour edits.

Office 365 Cloud Services
Office 365 cloud services permit you to leverage Microsoft's vast cloud infrastructure to host business-critical servers like Exchange and Skype for Business. These services provide enterprise-class levels of reliability and security while saving the significant upfront costs and management hassle associated with deploying and maintaining self-sufficient on-premises computer facilities. For cases that require some servers to be kept on-premises for regulatory compliance, performance, or other issues, the majority of Office 365 server products can be deployed with hybrid architectures that transparently support on-premises and cloud resources.

Office 365 Exchange Online provides email hosting and supports mailbox capacity from 50 Gbytes to unlimited. Important features include custom domain addresses (name@​your­company​.com), shareable calendars and contact lists, the Outlook Web app, one-click archiving, and simple-to-create collaboration groups. The web-accessible Exchange admin center allows you to manage email settings for your company and gives you full control over crucial areas including permissions, security and compliance, mail flow, creating mailboxes and defining limits, team work, address books, Unified Messaging, monitoring and reporting, and backup. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Exchange Online configuration and management expertise.

Office 365 OneDrive is Microsoft's popular file sync and sharing service. Office 365 subscription plans usually come with 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage, allowing you to save, retrieve, and share files across Microsoft Windows, Mac, or iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. By transparently synchronizing your files to your work station, OneDrive allows you to edit documents even when you are offline. OneDrive simplifies sharing and collaboration, keeping track all changes to avoid versioning issues. You can start a co-authoring project on any device and switch seamlessly to another device at your convenience. For advanced collaboration, an array of tools permit you to annotate and highlight documents. Advanced discovery features enable you to locate files quickly, and tracking tools provide insights like the number of people who accessed or shared a file.

Office 365 Skype for Business Online provides cloud-hosted IP voice, video, and conferencing. Skype's Online Plan 1 includes IM, presence, VoIP, and video calling, plus Skype Connectivity. Online Plan 2 adds pre-scheduled and ad hoc conferencing with audio and video calling as well as screen and app sharing on iOS and Android devices, Windows PCs, and Mac computers. For hybrid environments that combine a local Skype for Business Server with Skype for Business Online services, you can create a seamless solution via a Split Domain deployment. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Skype for Business Online solution design and integration expertise.

Office 365 SharePoint Online combines content management with internal web publishing to allow businesses to distribute and share information and to promote teamwork. The SharePoint admin center has been enhanced with interactive usage analysis, Message Center updates, and a Service Health dashboard intended to simplify administrative tasks. In addition, you are able to now connect current team sites to Microsoft Office 365 Groups, expanding your existing SharePoint sites with group conversations, schedules, and project planning. Features to support cloud coexistence now include hybrid taxonomy and auditing plus an enhanced client-side development architecture for creating SharePoint solutions on-premises, in hybrid implementations, and in Office 365. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint Online configuration and development services.

Office Teams is the successor of Skype for Business, offering a unified portal for conversations, contact lists, and information with persistent threaded chat, file sharing, plus built-in voice and video conferencing. Microsoft has designed the cloud environment that hosts Teams so it can provide faster conference join times than Skype for Business and to allow integration with Cognitive Services such as text-to-voice, translation, speech recognition, and AI. Progent's consultants can assist you to test Office 365 Teams to evaluate the advantages of migrating to this next-generation collaboration technology.

Office 365 Yammer is a social network product intended to be used inside an organization and restricted to users who have a valid corporate email address. Postings can include files, links, videos, PowerPoint shows, and SharePoint content. The Discovery connection helps you find content relevant to your work or interests as indicated by the groups you belong to, discussions you follow, and people you communicate with. You can locate discussions, files, interest groups, followers, and other information associated with a specific co-worker. Group Insights inform you how activities such as publishing, viewing, and liking are trending historically. Notifications alert you about pertinent activity like new postings in your groups, comments in your conversations, and new followers.

Office 365 Power BI is a set of online services integrated with Microsoft Office 365 that enables businesses to create sharable dashboards and custom management reports that offer up-to-date insights into key aspects of your business. Office 365 Power BI dashboards can aggregate data from a broad array of internal and external repositories such as Excel, in-house SQL Server Analysis Service, the Azure cloud, or popular sources such as Zendesk, Google Analytics and Salesforce. Dashboards and reports created by Power BI can be refreshed in real time via data streaming. You can store and distribute your visualizations in the cloud with Office 365 OneDrive. Power BI mobile applications are available for Windows computers plus iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Power BI Online development expertise.

How Progent's Consultants Can Help Your Business with Office 365 Solutions
For businesses looking for fast remote help from a high-level Office 365 configuration consultant, Progent offers a comprehensive range of support services such as solution design, configuration, debugging, software development, management, and education. Progent's Microsoft-certified support professionals, Cisco-certified infrastructure engineers, macOS and OS X integration support professionals, iOS technology consultants and Android smartphone experts can assist you to enhance your information network with Office 365 products and services.

ProSight Remote Management and Monitoring Services
Progent provides a selection of budget-friendly, fixed-price services designed to allow small and mid-size businesses to benefit from the same best-of-breed technology used by many of the industry's leading enterprises. The ProSight series of network monitoring and management services covers all key aspects of modern networking such as email content filtering, threat defense based on machine leaning, cloud-based backup/recovery, infrastructure health monitoring, VM hosting, and network asset documentation management. Find out more about Progent's remote management and monitoring (RMM) services.

Get in Touch with Progent for Office 365 Expertise
If you are trying to find an Office 365 consultant, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

Cloud Integration Services from Progent
The options offered for public cloud services are expanding rapidly, making it difficult for IT managers to determine the best cloud solution for their business. Progent has in-depth experience assisting companies ranging from startups to large enterprises to plan, implement, and maintain hybrid networks that combine various cloud services from major public cloud providers. Progent's cloud integration consultants can assist you to evaluate the relative advantages and shortcomings of different public cloud options and can help you create a cloud-centric or hybrid ecosystem that provides maximum competitive value.

Public cloud products and services supported by Progent's consultants include:

Progent's Azure planning and integration consultants can assist you with every stage of Azure cloud integration including requirements definition, readiness evaluation, solution architecture, pilot testing, implementation, centralized administration, performance tuning, software license management, disaster recovery preparedness, security policy enforcement, and regulatory compliance validation. Progent can assist you to configure and debug firewall appliances and VPN connections so your clients can securely access to Azure-based services, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you set up key Microsoft technologies to run in Azure including Windows Server, Exchange, SQL Server and SharePoint. Progent can also assist your organization to create a hybrid environment that seamlessly integrates on-premises datacenters with Azure-based resources.

Microsoft allows you to create transparent hybrid environments that integrate Office 365 and on-premises Exchange deployments. This permits you to have certain mailboxes hosted at your on-premises datacenter and other mailboxes hosted by Office 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified Exchange consultants can help you with any phase of designing, implementing and troubleshooting your hybrid Office 365 network. Progent's Exchange specialists can provide as-needed expertise to help you through challenging technical issues and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your hybrid Office 365 initiative is carried out on time and on budget. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for integrating Office 365 and on-premises Exchange systems, go to Exchange Online integration with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Amazon AWS planning and integration experts can provide cost-effective remote support to help businesses to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services including Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual server hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for scalable low-latency storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can assist you with every phase of Amazon AWS integration including requirements analysis, preparedness assessment, architectural design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance tuning, software license management, backup/restore solutions, and security and compliance. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN connections and can show you how to create all-cloud or hybrid networking models that seamlessly integrate Amazon AWS resources. Progent offers as-needed consulting or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing services to help you migrate efficiently to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service is an integrated collection of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their operations by automating crucial sales activities such as listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and finances. By tapping into Amazon's vast online ecosystem and automating their sales processes, vendors can expand their market, reduce their cost of sales, accelerate reaction time to customers, and increase their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) developers can work with your development staff and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training so you can shorten development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform integration experts can provide affordable online and on-premises support to help companies to migrate all or part of their critical IT resources to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save management hassle and equipment costs and allow access to Google's cutting edge AI and machine learning technology. Progent can help you with every aspect of Google Cloud Platform integration including requirements analysis, preparedness evaluation, system design, pilot testing, configuration, administration, performance tuning, software license management, backup/restore mechanisms, and security.