Cloud Integration Services

Office 365 is Microsoft's expanding line of productivity applications and cloud services provided on a monthly or annual subscription basis. Microsoft Office 365 applications and Azure services are available in a selection of product bundles, called subscription plans, targeted at customers ranging from individual and households to global corporations.

Most Microsoft Office 365 titles can be run on multiple devices such as Windows PCs, Macs, tablets, and iPhones and Android smartphones. Multi-device apps include versions of Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. PC-only apps include Microsoft Access and Publisher. To accommodate individuals with multiple computing devices, many bundles permit you to put Office apps on several devices. As an example, Office 365 Business and ProPlus subscription plans allow every included application to be run on up to five devices.

Progent offers quick and affordable online access to a support consultant with expert knowledge of Microsoft, Mac, Apple iOS, and Android products. Progent can assist you to understand the many packages offered with Office 365 and integrate your IT network with Office 365 so it delivers the highest possible strategic advantage. Progent can help you manage cross-platform networks that include Microsoft Windows, macOS or OS X, and Linux technology. Progent can also assist you to implement and maintain hybrid environments that transparently integrate on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure.

Microsoft Office 365 Applications and Cloud-based Services
Office 365 packages are available for a broad selection of users such as businesses, schools, government, home and nonprofits. Some packages, like Office 365 Business Essentials, has no apps but only Azure-based services. Other plans, such as Office 365 Business, offers applications but provides only the OneDrive cloud-based service. The top-of-the-line Office 365 Enterprise E5 bundle includes seven apps and seven cloud-based services. Progent's consultants can help you to select an Office 365 plan that's right for your situation, help you to move from older versions of Office apps, and show you how to simplify the management of Office 365 and other network resources to build a cost-effective, secure and productive IT ecosystem.

Key Office 365 Applications
The obvious distinction between Office 365 apps and their related Microsoft Office editions is that Office 365 applications are rented instead of sold. Also, traditionally licensed Office applications are allowed to be run on just a single PC or Mac 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 new license for Word. Minor updates to Microsoft Office titles are made available to Office 365 users sooner than to owners of permanently licensed versions. Also, Office suites bought with a perpetual license do not include any of the cloud services that are packaged with Office 365.

Applications available with various Office 365 plans include:

Office 365 Word introduces the ability to write and view Office files across Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS computers while presenting a common look and user experience. Users can also collaborate on Office documents, find out which colleagues are editing shared projects, and observe changes made by team members in real time. As with Office 365 Excel and PowerPoint, you can instantly share without leaving your documents. Additionally, you can check who has rights to access a specific document and who is now working on the document. For your own documents, you can easily change edit permissions. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Word consulting expertise.

Office 365 Excel now allows subscribers to employ the standard Exponential Smoothing (ETS) algorithm to build forecast charts for predicting trends based on past data. New data types that are tied to current online databases include Stock and Geography. Stock retrieves the current stock price, change in price, and other stock market data. The Geography data type enables you to designate a region and retrieve current online demographic or economic information such as population or gas costs. As in the case of Office 365 Word and Office 365 PowerPoint, Office 365 Excel also can handle Scalable Vector Graphics images. These images can be rotated, colored, and scaled instantly without any loss in image quality. Find out about Progent's Office 365 Excel consulting expertise.

Office 365 PowerPoint lets you work with three dimensional objects and features an enhanced selection of animation functions such as swinging and rotating. Like Microsoft Office Excel and Office Word, Office 365 PowerPoint allows you to transform sketches into standard shapes for flow charts, diagrams, and other objects. Office 365 PowerPoint for Mac adds the capability to incorporate and edit video from inside PowerPoint. The Media Browser utility provides convenient access to a wide range of sources such as iPhoto galleries, iTunes playlists, and iMovie collections as well as standard shapes, Clip Art, and other graphics.

Office 365 Outlook provides significant enhancements to prior releases of the Outlook email and calendar app by introducing useful features like the focused Inbox, automatic downloading of OneDrive attachments, visibility of responses to a meeting request for people other than meeting organizers, streamlined email organizing, plus easier group creation and shared calendars. Also, Office 365 Outlook users can have their messages read out loud while the segments being read are visibly highlighted. Microsoft's Office intelligent services, when enabled, allows Office 365 Outlook subscribers to dictate emails. Office 365 Outlook for Mac now supports push email, online archiving, the ability to suggest a different meeting schedule in answer to a meeting request, and multiple calendar visibility. Full Screen Mode permits multiple open messages and permits users to run two Outlook sessions in split-screen. Find out about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Outlook and Outlook on the web consulting expertise.

Office 365 OneNote for Windows 10 is incorporated in most Office 365 packages, pre-installed in Windows 10, and offered for download as a no-cost mobile app. The older OneNote 2016 release, which includes functions not initially provided in OneNote for Windows 10 likes Record Video, is still available for free but is not being updated with new features. OneNote for Windows 10 sports a fresh configurable interface common for Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Google Android, and Web. Other features offered only on OneNote for Windows 10 include enhanced ink-to-text, an alert center that indicates changes in open and recently used notebooks, automatic transformation of drawings into standardized shapes, and a digital 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 a rich library of templates to streamline business processes and build advanced forms and reports. Office 365 Access includes the connector library to extract data from a broad range of leading business apps and data sources for generating quality reports from within the time-tested Access environment. The ability to store Access data in both Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL gives you a world-class database plus SQL syntax for Access applications hosted either on premises or in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Microsoft Office Access 365 now includes an updated 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 Office 365 Access development and troubleshooting services.

Office 365 Publisher, available exclusively for PCs, is a popular entry-level desktop publishing tool that takes advantage of the familiar Office environment to deliver an intuitive program for creating and sharing modern-looking publications like mailers and newsletters that call for precise image placement control. Since publications can be stored in the cloud, you can distribute a document as easily as providing a link. Publisher's popularity and ease of use allow you to hit deadlines on time-critical jobs without having to rely on instant access to a desktop publishing guru for implementing eleventh-hour changes.

Office 365 Cloud Services
Office 365 cloud services enable organizations to leverage Microsoft's vast cloud infrastructure to host mission-critical servers like Microsoft Exchange, Teams and Skype for Business. This provides enterprise-class levels of reliability and protection while reducing the substantial investment costs and management effort associated with deploying and supporting robust on-premises computer facilities. For cases that call for some systems to be kept on-premises for compliance, throughput, or other reasons, most Office 365 server platforms can be implemented with hybrid network models that transparently combine local and cloud-hosted resources.

Office 365 Exchange Online provides email hosting and supports user mailbox sizes from 50 GB to unlimited. Key features include custom domain addresses (name@​your­company​.com), shared calendars and contact lists, the Outlook Web app, one-click archiving, and simple-to-create collaboration groups. The web-accessible Exchange admin center lets you control email configurations for your company and gives you complete control over critical areas including permissions, security and compliance, mail flow, making mailboxes and defining limits, team work, contact lists, Unified Messaging, monitoring and reporting, and backup. Learn about Progent's Office 365 Exchange Online configuration and management consulting.

Office 365 OneDrive is Microsoft's popular file synchronization and sharing platform. Office 365 bundles usually include 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage, allowing you to store, access, and share data across Microsoft Windows, Mac, or iOS and Android devices. By automatically syncing your files to your work station, OneDrive lets you modify documents even when you are offline. OneDrive simplifies sharing and collaboration, keeping track all changes to prevent inconsistency issues. You can start a team project on any computer and switch smoothly to another computer at any time. For advanced collaboration, a variety of utilities allow you to annotate and highlight shared documents. Advanced discovery tools help you to locate files fast, and tracking tools provide insights such as the number of people who accessed or shared a file.

Office 365 Skype for Business offers cloud-hosted voice, video, and conferencing. Online Plan 1 offers IM, real-time presence, VoIP, and HD video, plus federation and directory search. Online Plan 2 includes pre-scheduled and ad hoc conferencing with audio and video calling as well as screen and application sharing on iOS and Android devices, Windows PCs, and Apple Mac computers. For hybrid environments that combine a local Skype for Business Server with Skype for Business Online cloud services, you can deploy a seamless solution using a Split Domain implementation. Find out about Progent's Office 365 Skype for Business Online planning and integration expertise.

Office 365 SharePoint Online combines content management with internal web publishing to allow organizations to distribute and share content and to promote teamwork. SharePoint's admin center now includes usage analysis, Message Center updates, and a Service Health dashboard designed to simplify management. Also, you are able to now connect up-to-date SharePoint team sites to Office 365 Groups, enhancing SharePoint sites with group conversations, calendar, and project planning. Features to support cloud coexistence now include hybrid taxonomy and hybrid auditing as well as an enhanced development model for building SharePoint environments on-premises, in hybrid implementations, and in Office 365. Learn about Progent's Office 365 SharePoint Online configuration and development services.

Microsoft Office Teams is the future of Skype for Business, providing a unified portal for conversations, contact lists, and content with persistent threaded chat, file sharing, and built-in IP voice and video conferencing. Microsoft has built the cloud infrastructure supporting Teams so it can deliver faster meeting join times than Skype and to allow integration with Microsoft Cognitive Services like transcription, translation, speech recognition, and machine learning. Progent's consultants can help you to test Office 365 Teams to evaluate the advantages of utilizing this new communication platform. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Teams migration services.

Office 365 Yammer is a social network product intended to be used inside an enterprise and restricted to clients with a verified company email address. Postings can be files, links, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and SharePoint content. The Discovery connection helps you find information relevant to your job or interests as indicated by the groups you belong to, discussions you participate in, and people you correspond with. You can locate discussions, files, interest groups, participants, and other items related to a particular colleague. Group Insights show you how events like posting, reading, and liking are trending historically. Notifications tell you about pertinent events such as updates in your groups, input to your discussions, and new followers.

Office 365 Power BI is a set of online services integrated with Office 365 that enables you to build and share dashboards and custom reports that offer real-time consolidated views into key areas of your business. Office 365 Power BI dashboards can consolidate data from a broad array of internal and outside repositories like Microsoft Excel, on-premises SQL Server Analysis Service, Azure, 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 dashboards in the cloud using OneDrive. Power BI mobile applications are available for Windows devices plus iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets. Learn about Progent's Microsoft Office 365 Power BI Online development consulting services.

How Progent Can Assist You with Microsoft Office 365 Integration
For businesses looking for fast online guidance from a top-tier Office 365 integration expert, Progent offers a comprehensive sele3ction of support services including system design, configuration, troubleshooting, application development, management, and training. Progent's Microsoft-qualified support professionals, Cisco-certified network engineers, macOS and OS X technology consultants, iOS technology consultants and Android experts can assist you to enhance your network with Office 365 applications and services.

Progent's ProSight family of Remote Management and Monitoring Services
Progent provides a family of budget-friendly, fixed-price services intended to enable small and medium-size organizations to utilize the same advanced technology deployed by some of the industry's top enterprises. Progent's ProSight line of outsourced network management services covers all key facets of information technology including email content filtering, security and compliance, cloud-based backup and disaster recovery, network infrastructure management, VM cloud hosting, and network resources documentation management. Find out more about Progent's remote management and monitoring (RMM) 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 options offered for public cloud products and services are increasing rapidly, making it difficult for IT managers to select the right cloud solution for their business. Progent has in-depth experience assisting companies of all sizes to design, deploy, and maintain hybrid environments that integrate various cloud products and services from leading public clouds. Progent's cloud integration consultants can assist you to understand the relative benefits and pitfalls of different public cloud offerings and can help you build a cloud-centric or hybrid ecosystem that delivers maximum business value.

Public cloud products and services supported by Progent include:

Progent's Microsoft Azure planning and integration experts can assist you with any aspect of Microsoft Azure integration such as needs definition, prerequisites assessment, solution architecture, pre-production testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance tuning, license controls, disaster recovery strategies, security planning, and regulatory compliance assessment. Progent can assist you to set up and troubleshoot firewall appliances and VPN connections so your users can safely connect to Azure-based services, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting experts can help you integrate key Microsoft platforms to work in Azure including Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server and SharePoint. Progent can also assist your organization to set up a hybrid environment that transparently combines on-premises datacenters with Azure services.

Microsoft allows you to create seamless hybrid environments that combine Office 365 Exchange Online and on-premises installations of Exchange. This allows you to have some Exchange mailboxes hosted at your corporate datacenter or private cloud and other mailboxes hosted by Office 365. Progent's certified Exchange consulting team can assist you with any facet of planning, implementing and troubleshooting your hybrid Exchange network. Progent's Exchange specialists can deliver as-needed expertise to help you resolve stubborn technical problems and also can provide extensive project management outsourcing or co-sourcing to ensure your hybrid Office 365 initiative is carried out on time and on budget. For details about Progent's online consulting support for hybrid Office 365 and on-premises Exchange systems, see Exchange Online integration solutions with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Amazon AWS integration experts offer cost-effective remote support to help companies to access Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services such as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for expandable high-performance storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can help your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS integration including needs analysis, readiness evaluation, system design and review, testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, software license management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security strategies. Progent can provide advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN connections and can show you how to create cloud-based or hybrid environments that efficiently incorporate Amazon AWS services. Progent offers as-needed support or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing to help you move smoothly 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 business processes by automating crucial sales activities including listings, orders, shipments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and reports. By leveraging Amazon's extensive online selling environment 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 application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training to help you cut development time and expedite your ROI.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration experts can provide cost-effective online and onsite consulting to help businesses to migrate any part of their critical IT resources to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and equipment costs and enable access to Google's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning tools. Progent can help you with every phase of Google Cloud Platform migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, readiness evaluation, system design, pilot testing, deployment, administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security strategies.