Cloud Solutions

Office 365 is Microsoft's expanding line of client productivity software and cloud-based services available on a monthly or annual subscription basis. Microsoft Office 365 apps and cloud services are available in a selection of bundles, or subscription plans, intended for markets ranging from individual and households to global corporations.

The most popular Office 365 titles can be run on multiple devices including Windows PCs, Macs, iPads, and smartphones. Multi-device applications include Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. PC-only applications include Access and Office Publisher. To accommodate individuals who have multiple devices, many Office 365 packages allow you to run Office applications on several devices. As an example, Office 365 Business and ProPlus subscriptions allow each Office application to be installed on as many as five devices.

Progent offers quick and affordable online access to consultants with expertise in Microsoft, Mac, Apple iOS, and Android products. Progent can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription plans available with Office 365 and integrate your IT network with Office 365 so it delivers the highest possible business advantage. Progent has experience supporting multi-vendor networks that include Windows, Apple macOS or OS X, and Linux based products. Progent can also assist you to build and manage hybrid environments that transparently integrate local and cloud-based infrastructure.

Office 365 Apps and Cloud Services
Microsoft Office 365 plans are available to serve a wide selection of users such as businesses, schools, government, and home. Some plans, such as Office 365 Business Essentials, includes no applications but only Azure-based services. Other plans, such as Office 365 Business, offers apps but only the OneDrive cloud-based service. The top-of-the-line Office 365 Enterprise E5 bundle includes seven applications and seven cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to select an Office 365 subscription plan that's right for your business, assist you to move from legacy editions of Microsoft Office apps, and show you how to streamline the management of Office 365 and other system resources to create a cost-effective, protected and productive IT environment.

Major Office 365 Apps
The obvious distinction between Office 365 applications and their related Office editions is that Office 365 applications are rented instead of sold. In addition, permanently licensed Office applications are supposed to be installed on only a single device and are not updated automatically or replaced at no extra cost when a major new edition is released. As an example, upgrading from Office Word 2013 to Word 2016 requires that you purchase a brand new copy of Word. Minor releases of Microsoft Office applications are provided Office 365 subscribers faster than to owners of perpetually licensed editions. Also, Office suites bought with a perpetual license do not include any of the Azure-based services included with Office 365.

Apps offered with various Office 365 subscription plans include:

Office 365 Word introduces the ability to edit and review Office documents across Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS devices while maintaining a consistent look and feel. You can also co-author Office documents, see which team members are working on various shared projects, and see updates made by team members in real time. Just as with Office 365 Excel and Office 365 PowerPoint, you can instantly share without leaving your documents. In addition, you can check who has permission to view or edit a specific document and who is now working on it. For your own documents, you can easily change edit rights. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Word consulting services.

Office 365 Excel now allows you to use the standard Exponential Smoothing algorithm to create forecast charts for projecting trends using historical data. New linked data types that access online databases include Stock and Geography. The Stock data type retrieves the current stock price, change in price, and other stock market information. The Geography data type enables you to designate a region and extract current demographic or economic data such as population or gas costs. As in the case of Office 365 Word and PowerPoint, Office 365 Excel also can handle Scalable Vector Graphics images. These can be turned, colored, and scaled instantaneously without any loss in quality. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Excel consulting and training services.

Office 365 PowerPoint supports three dimensional objects and includes an expanded library of animation functions such as swinging and turning. As with Office Excel and Word, Office 365 PowerPoint allows you to convert sketches into standard shapes for flow charts, diagrams, and other objects. Office 365 PowerPoint for Mac includes the ability to incorporate and format movies from within PowerPoint. The Media Browser utility provides convenient access to a broad range of sources such as iPhoto albums, iTunes playlists, and iMovie libraries as well as standard shapes, Clip Art, and other graphics.

Office 365 Outlook offers significant improvements to prior versions of the Outlook email and calendar app by introducing useful features like the focused Inbox, automatic downloading of OneDrive attachments, visibility of replies to a conference request for people other than conference organizers, simplified email organizing, plus more intuitive group creation and shared calendars. In addition, Office 365 Outlook subscribers can hear their messages read out loud as the sections being read are visibly highlighted. Office intelligent services, when activated, also allows Office 365 Outlook clients to dictate emails. Office 365 Outlook for Mac includes push email, online archiving, the ability to suggest a different meeting schedule in answer to a meeting invitation, and multiple calendar visibility. Full Screen Mode permits multiple open messages and enables users to run two Outlook sessions 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 incorporated in the majority of Office 365 bundles, installed by default in Windows 10, and offered for download as a no-cost mobile app. The older OneNote 2016 release, which has some functions not at first available in OneNote for Windows 10 likes Record Video, continues to be available for free but is no longer being updated. OneNote for Windows 10 introduces a fresh configurable look consistent for Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Android, and Web. Other features available only on OneNote for Windows 10 include enhanced ink-to-text, a notification center that shows modifications in your open and recent notebooks, automatic conversion of drawings into standardized shapes, and a digital ruler to draw straight lines and measure distance.

Office 365 Access, available only on Windows PCs, enables you to use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and a rich library of templates to automate business processes and create modern-looking forms and reports. Office 365 Access comes with the connector library to extract data from a broad range of popular business apps and data sources for generating aggregated reports from within the familiar Access environment. The ability to store Access data in both Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL provides a world-class database plus SQL syntax for Access applications hosted either locally or in the Azure cloud. Office Access 365 now includes an enhanced Linked Table Manager, lets you include new charts and reports, and enables you to link or import data from Saleforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Access development and troubleshooting services.

Office 365 Publisher, available only for Windows PCs, is a popular user-friendly desktop publishing system that leverages the familiar Office interface to provide an easy-to-use program for developing and sharing modern-looking publications such as mailers and newsletters that call for exact image placement. Because publications can be saved to the cloud, you can deliver a document as easily as sending a link. Publisher's wide use and simplicity allow you to hit deadlines on time-sensitive projects without needing depend on the availability of a desktop publishing guru for implementing last-minute changes.

Office 365 Cloud Services
Office 365 cloud services allow you to leverage Microsoft's extensive cloud infrastructure to host business-critical servers such as Exchange, Teams and Skype for Business. These services provide high levels of reliability and security while saving the substantial investment costs and management hassle associated with setting up and maintaining self-sufficient local datacenters. For cases that require some servers to be located on-premises for regulatory compliance, throughput, or other issues, most Office 365 server products can be deployed using hybrid network models that transparently support local and cloud resources.

Office 365 Exchange Online offers email hosting and supports mailbox sizes from 50 Gbytes to unlimited. Key features include custom domain addresses (name@​your­company​.com), shared calendars and contact lists, the Outlook Web app, single-click archiving, and easy creation of collaboration groups. The online Exchange admin center lets you manage email settings for your organization and provides full control over critical areas including permissions, cybersecurity, mail flow, making mailboxes and imposing limits, collaboration, address books, Unified Messaging, monitoring, and backup. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online configuration and administration expertise.

Office 365 OneDrive is Microsoft's popular file sync and share service. Office 365 bundles typically include 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage, enabling you to store, retrieve, and share files across Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, or iOS and Android devices. By automatically syncing your files to your desktop, OneDrive lets you edit documents even when you are not connected to the Internet. OneDrive simplifies sharing and collaboration, tracking all file updates to help avoid inconsistency problems. You can initiate a team project on any device and move smoothly to a different device at your convenience. For enhanced collaboration, an array of utilities permit you to notate and highlight documents. Powerful discovery tools allow you to find files quickly, and tracking tools provide useful information like the number of people who viewed or shared a document.

Office 365 Skype for Business Online provides cloud-hosted IP voice, video, and conferencing. Skype's Online Plan 1 offers IM, presence, VoIP, and video calling, plus Skype Connectivity. Online Plan 2 includes pre-scheduled and ad hoc conferencing with A/V calling as well as screen and application sharing on Apple iOS and Google Android devices, Windows PCs, and Mac computers. For hybrid environments that combine an on-premises Skype for Business Server with Skype for Business Online services, you can deploy a cohesive environment using a Split Domain deployment. Find out about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Skype for Business planning and integration expertise.

Office 365 SharePoint Online integrates information management with intranet publishing to allow businesses to broadcast and share information and to facilitate teamwork. The SharePoint admin center has been enhanced with interactive usage analysis, Message Center updates, and a Service Health dashboard designed to streamline administrative tasks. In addition, you are able to link current SharePoint team sites to Office 365 Groups, expanding SharePoint sites with group conversations, calendar, and project planning. Features to support cloud coexistence now include hybrid taxonomy and hybrid auditing plus an enhanced development model for creating SharePoint solutions on-premises, in hybrid implementations, and in Microsoft Office 365. Find out about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint Online integration and development services.

Microsoft Office Teams is the future of Skype for Business, providing a single hub for meetings, contact lists, and content with persistent chat, file sharing, and built-in voice and video conferencing. Microsoft has designed the cloud infrastructure supporting Teams to deliver faster meeting join speeds than Skype and to allow integration with Cognitive Services like transcription, translation, speech recognition, and AI. Progent can help you to try out Microsoft Office 365 Teams to assess the advantages of adopting this innovative collaboration platform. Find out about Progent's Microsoft Teams solution design expertise.

Office 365 Yammer is a social network platform intended to be used inside an enterprise and restricted to clients who have a valid company email address. Postings can include files, web links, media, PowerPoint presentations, and SharePoint pages. The Discovery feed makes it easy to find content that relates to your work or interests as shown based on groups you belong to, discussions you participate in, and people you communicate with. You can locate conversations, files, interest groups, followers, and other information related to a given co-worker. Group Insights inform you how activities such as posting, reading, and liking are trending historically. Notifications tell you about pertinent events like new postings in your groups, input to your discussions, and new followers.

Office 365 Power BI is a stack of online services integrated with Microsoft Office 365 that enables businesses to create and share dashboards and custom management reports that offer real-time insights into key facets of your business. Office 365 Power BI dashboards can aggregate information from multiple local and outside sources like Excel, on-premises SQL Server Analysis Service, the Azure cloud, or popular databases such as QuickBooks, Google Analytics and Salesforce. Dashboards and reports created by Power BI can be refreshed continually via data streaming. You can save and distribute your dashboards in the cloud using Office 365 OneDrive. Power BI Online mobile apps are available for Windows devices plus Apple iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets. Find out about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Power BI Online integration consulting services.

How Progent Can Assist You with Office 365 Integration
For organizations looking for fast remote help from a top-tier Office 365 configuration consultant, Progent offers a comprehensive sele3ction of services including solution architecture design, configuration, troubleshooting, application development, management, and education. Progent's Microsoft-qualified integration professionals, Cisco-certified network experts, macOS and OS X technology support professionals, iPhone and iPad consultants and Android integration experts can assist you to integrate your network with Microsoft Office 365 products and services.

ProSight Remote Management and Monitoring (RMM) Services
Progent provides a family of budget-friendly, fixed-price managed services intended to allow small and mid-size organizations to benefit from the same cutting-edge IT solutions deployed by some of the industry's leading enterprises. Progent's ProSight portfolio of IT management outsourcing services covers all critical facets of information technology including email content filtering, behavioral-based threat defense, cloud-based backup/recovery, infrastructure monitoring and management, VM hosting, and IT resources documentation management. Learn more about Progent's remote management and monitoring services.

Contact Progent for Office 365 Integration and Support
If you are trying to find an Office 365 consultant, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

Public Cloud Integration Solutions from Progent
The choices available for public cloud services are expanding rapidly, making it hard for information system managers to select the right cloud strategy for their business. Progent has worked extensively helping companies of all sizes to plan, implement, and manage hybrid environments that integrate various cloud services from major public clouds. Progent's cloud integration consultants can assist you to assess the comparative benefits and pitfalls of different public cloud offerings and can help you create a cloud-centric or hybrid ecosystem that delivers maximum business value.

Public cloud products supported by Progent include:

Progent's Microsoft Azure planning and integration experts can assist you with every phase of Azure cloud integration such as requirements analysis, prerequisites assessment, system design, pre-production testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, license management, disaster recovery strategies, security policy enforcement, and compliance assessment. Progent can assist your IT staff to set up and troubleshoot firewalls and VPN connections so that your clients can securely access to Azure resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you integrate critical Microsoft platforms to work in Azure including Windows Server, Exchange, SQL and SharePoint. Progent can also assist your organization to create a hybrid ecosystem that seamlessly combines physical datacenters with Azure-based services.

Microsoft has made a strong effort to enable seamless hybrid environments that combine Office 365 Exchange Online and local Exchange deployments. This permits you to have certain mailboxes located on your physical datacenter and other mailboxes resident on Office 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can help you with any phase of planning, integrating and debugging your hybrid Office 365 network. Progent's Exchange specialists can provide as-needed expertise to help you through stubborn technical problems and also offer extensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Office 365/Exchange initiative is completed on time and on budget. For more information about Progent's consulting expertise for hybrid Office 365 and on-premises Exchange environments, go to Office 365 Exchange Online integration with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Amazon AWS cloud planning and integration experts can provide affordable remote support to assist companies of any size to integrate Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services such as Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for scalable cloud storage, and Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can help your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness evaluation, architectural design, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security strategies. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewall configuration and VPN access and can show you how to create cloud-centric or hybrid environments that seamlessly incorporate Amazon AWS services. Progent can provide occasional support or Progent can provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to help you migrate smoothly to the Amazon AWS cloud platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is an integrated library of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their business processes by automating key sales functions including listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's vast online ecosystem and automating their sales processes, merchants can expand their market, lower their operating costs, accelerate reaction time to customers, and add to their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service consultants can work with your development team and provide programming, workflow integration, project management support, and mentoring so you can shorten development time and costs and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform planning and integration experts can provide cost-effective remote and on-premises consulting to assist organizations of any size to migrate all or part of their core network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and hardware expense and allow the use of Google's cutting edge machine learning technology. Progent can help your IT team with every aspect of Google Cloud Platform integration including needs analysis, preparedness assessment, system design and review, testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery solutions, and security strategies.