Cloud Solutions

Microsoft 365 (formerly called Office 365) is Microsoft's expanding family of client productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft 365 applications and cloud services are available in a selection of packages, or subscription plans, intended for customers ranging from students and households to major enterprises.

The most popular Microsoft 365 titles can be installed on a variety of devices such as PCs, Apple Macs, iPads, and smartphones. These multi-device apps include Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. PC-only applications include Access and Microsoft Publisher. To accommodate individuals who have multiple devices, many subscription plans permit you to put Microsoft 365 apps on several devices. For example, Microsoft 365 Business and ProPlus packages allow each Office application to be installed on as many as five customer devices.

Progent offers quick and easy online access to a support consultant with expert knowledge of Microsoft, Mac, iOS, and Android technology. Progent can help you to understand the numerous subscription plans available with Microsoft 365 and integrate your IT system with Microsoft 365 in a way that delivers the highest possible competitive advantage. Progent can help you manage multi-vendor networks that include Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS or OS X, and Linux technology. Progent can also assist you to create and maintain hybrid environments that transparently integrate local and cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft 365 Applications and Cloud-based Services
Microsoft 365 packages are designed to serve a broad selection of users including businesses, schools, state and local government, home and nonprofits. Some subscription plans, such as Microsoft 365 Business Essentials, includes no apps but only cloud services. Others, like Microsoft 365 Business, offers apps but provides only the OneDrive cloud service. The top-of-the-line Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 subscription plan includes seven applications and seven cloud services. Progent's consultants can help you to select an Microsoft 365 bundle that's right for your situation, assist you to move from outdated editions of Office apps, and help you unify the management of Microsoft 365 and other network resources to create an efficient, protected and productive IT ecosystem.

Major Microsoft 365 Apps
The most obvious difference between Microsoft 365 apps and their related Office releases is that Microsoft 365 apps are subscription based rather than perpetually licensed. In addition, traditionally licensed Microsoft Office apps are supposed to be run on just a single device and are not patched automatically or upgraded at no extra cost when a major new edition comes out. For example, upgrading from Office Word 2013 to Word 2019 requires that you purchase a new copy of Word. Minor updates to Microsoft Office apps are made available to Microsoft 365 subscribers faster than to users of permanently licensed versions. Also, Office suites purchased with a permanent license do not include any of the Azure-based services bundled with Microsoft 365.

Apps available with various Microsoft 365 packages include:

Microsoft 365 Word includes the ability to create and review Office files across Windows, Google Android, Apple Mac, and iOS devices while maintaining a common look and feel. You can also co-author documents, find out which colleagues are editing various shared projects, and see changes made by others as they happen. As with Microsoft 365 Excel and PowerPoint, you can instantly share without leaving your documents. In addition, you can review who has permission to view or edit a specific document and who is now working on it. For your own documents, you can quickly change edit permissions. Learn about Progent's Microsoft 365 Word consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Excel permits you to employ the powerful Exponential Smoothing (ETS) algorithm to create forecasts for predicting trends using historical data. New data types that access current online databases in real time include Stock and Geography. Stock downloads the latest stock price, price change, and other equities data. Geography allows you to select a region and extract current online demographic or economic information such as population or gas price. As with Microsoft 365 Word and Microsoft 365 PowerPoint, Microsoft 365 Excel also supports Scalable Vector Graphics files. These can be turned, colored, and scaled instantly without any loss in image quality. Find out about Progent's Microsoft 365 Excel consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 PowerPoint lets you work with three dimensional objects and features an expanded library of animation functions like jumping and turning. As with Microsoft Office Excel and Office Word, Microsoft 365 PowerPoint enables you to convert drawings into standard shapes for charts, diagrams, and other objects. Microsoft 365 PowerPoint for Mac includes the ability to incorporate and format video from within PowerPoint. PowerPoint's Media Browser offers convenient access to a broad range of media sources including iPhoto galleries, iTunes playlists, and iMovie libraries plus shapes, Clip Art, and other graphical content.

Microsoft 365 Outlook offers significant enhancements to prior releases of the Outlook email and calendar app by adding features such as the focused Inbox, transparent downloading of OneDrive attachments, visibility of responses to a conference invitation for people who are not conference organizers, streamlined email sorting, plus easier group creation and calendar sharing. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Outlook users can hear their messages read aloud while the portions being read are visibly highlighted. Microsoft's Office intelligent services, when activated, allows Microsoft 365 Outlook clients to dictate emails. Microsoft 365 Outlook for Mac includes push email, online archiving, the ability to suggest an alternative meeting time in answer to a meeting request, and multiple calendar display. Full Screen Mode allows multiple open emails and permits users to run two Outlook sessions in split-screen. Learn about Progent's Microsoft 365 Outlook and Outlook on the web configuration and troubleshooting services.

Microsoft 365 OneNote for Windows 10 is incorporated in the majority of Microsoft 365 product bundles, pre-installed in Windows 10, and offered for download as a no-cost mobile app. The earlier OneNote 2016 release, which has some features not initially available 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 new configurable GUI consistent for Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Android, and Web. Other functionality offered only on OneNote for Windows 10 include improved ink-to-text, an alert center that indicates changes in open and recent notebooks, automatic conversion of freehand drawings into standardized shapes, and a virtual ruler to create straight lines and measure distance.

Microsoft 365 Access, available only for PCs, enables you to utilize Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and an extensive library of templates to automate business processes and build advanced forms and management reports. Microsoft 365 Access comes with the connector library to integrate data from a broad selection of popular business apps and data sources for creating aggregated reports from within the time-tested Access interface. The ability to store Access data in both SQL Server as well as Microsoft Azure SQL provides a world-class database plus SQL syntax for Access apps hosted either locally or in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Microsoft Access 365 now comes with an improved Linked Table Manager, allows you to include a wealth of new forms and reports, and enables you to link or extract data from Salesforce and Dynamics 365. Learn about Progent's Microsoft 365 Access consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Publisher, offered only for Windows PCs, is a leading user-friendly desktop publishing tool that takes advantage of the familiar Microsoft Office interface to deliver an easy-to-use platform for creating and sharing professional-looking publications like fliers and white papers that call for exact image placement control. Since publications can be stored in the cloud, you can deliver a document as easily as sending a link. Publisher's wide use and ease of use allow you to hit deadlines for time-sensitive jobs without needing depend on the availability of a desktop publishing specialist for making eleventh-hour changes.

Microsoft 365 Cloud Services
Microsoft 365 cloud services permit organizations to leverage Microsoft's extensive cloud resources to host mission-critical servers such as Microsoft Exchange, Teams and Skype for Business. This provides enterprise-class levels of availability and protection while saving the significant upfront costs and management hassle associated with setting up and maintaining complex local computer facilities. For cases that call for some servers to be kept on-premises for regulatory compliance, performance, or other issues, the majority of Microsoft 365 virtual server products can be deployed with hybrid architectures that seamlessly combine local and cloud-based infrastructure.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides email hosting and supports mailbox capacity ranging from 50 GB to whatever you can afford. Key features include custom email domain addresses, shareable calendars and address books, the Outlook Web app, single-click archiving, and easy creation of collaboration groups. The web-accessible Exchange admin center allows you to manage email configurations for your company and gives you full control over critical areas including permissions, security and compliance, mail flow, creating mailboxes and imposing limits, collaboration, contact lists, Voice mail, monitoring and reporting, and backup. Find out about Progent's Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and administration expertise.

Microsoft 365 OneDrive is Microsoft's popular file sync and sharing service. Microsoft 365 packages typically include 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage, enabling you to store, retrieve, and share files across Windows, Mac, or iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. By automatically syncing your files to your desktop, OneDrive lets you revise documents even when you are not connected to the Internet. OneDrive facilitates sharing and collaboration, tracking all file updates to avoid consistency issues. You can start a team project on any device and switch seamlessly to a different computer at your convenience. For advanced collaboration, a variety of tools permit you to notate and highlight documents. Powerful discovery features allow you to locate files fast, and tracking tools offer insights like how many people viewed or shared a file.

Microsoft 365 Skype for Business offers cloud-hosted IP voice, video, and conferencing. Skype's Online Plan 1 offers IM, real-time presence, peer-to-peer VoIP, and video calling, plus Skype Connectivity. Online Plan 2 adds pre-scheduled and on-demand conferencing with audio and video calling as well as screen and application sharing on Apple iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets, Windows PCs, and Mac computers. For hybrid environments that integrate an on-premises Skype for Business Server with Skype for Business Online services, you can create a cohesive solution using a Split Domain deployment. Find out about Progent's Microsoft 365 Skype for Business solution design and configuration expertise.

Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online integrates information management with intranet publishing to allow organizations to broadcast and share information and to promote teamwork. The SharePoint admin center has been enhanced with interactive usage reports, Message Center posts, and a Service Health dashboard designed to streamline management. In addition, you are able to link current team sites to Microsoft 365 Groups, expanding your existing SharePoint sites with group discussions, calendar, and project planning. Innovative capabilities to support cloud coexistence now include hybrid taxonomy and hybrid auditing plus an enhanced development model for creating SharePoint environments locally, in hybrid deployments, and in Microsoft 365. Find out about Progent's Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online configuration and development services.

Microsoft Teams is the future of Skype for Business, providing a single hub for discussions, contacts, and content with persistent threaded chat, file sharing, plus integrated IP voice and video conferencing. Microsoft has enhanced the cloud environment supporting Teams so it can provide quicker conference join times than Skype and to enable integration with Cognitive Services such as text-to-voice, language translation, speech recognition, and machine learning. Progent's consultants can assist you to test Microsoft 365 Teams to evaluate the advantages of adopting this new collaboration platform. Learn more about Progent's Microsoft Teams migration consulting.

Microsoft 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, media, PowerPoint shows, and SharePoint content. The Discovery feed helps you locate content relevant to your job or concerns as shown by the groups you belong to, conversations you participate in, and people you interact with. You can find conversations, files, interest groups, participants, and other items related to a particular co-worker. Group Insights inform you how activities like posting, viewing, and liking are trending over time. Notifications tell you about relevant events such as new postings in your groups, comments in your discussions, and new followers.

Microsoft 365 Power BI is a stack of cloud services compatible with Microsoft 365 that enables you to build sharable dashboards and on-demand management reports that offer real-time insights into key facets of your business. Microsoft 365 Power BI dashboards can consolidate information from multiple internal and external sources like Excel, on-premises SQL Server Analysis Service, Azure, or popular sources 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 with OneDrive. Power BI mobile apps are available for Windows devices as well as iOS and Google Android smartphones and tablets. Learn about Progent's Microsoft 365 Power BI Online design and development consulting and training.

Basic Services for Microsoft 365 Migration
Progent can provide the support of a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Architect to assist you to design an efficient move to Microsoft 365 customized for your environment. Before proposing this migration plan, Progent's cloud expert will conduct a series of investigative exercises that include running tools such as IdFix, the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA), and custom scripts for viewing your AD, messaging, and Mobile Device Management arrangement. Key information that cannot be discovered with these methods will be found via interviews with your IT staff.

Key activities managed by Progent in developing an optimal Microsoft 365 migration plan can include:

• Hold a Project Kickoff discussion with your IT team to agree upon project objectives, services to be utilized, client and contractor responsibilities, schedules, etc.
• Create a Risk and Issue Tracking document.
• Create an Exchange Hybrid migration plan explaining how new services and necessary modifications to the IT ecosystem will be made.
• Examine the current Azure AD Connect Identity Management configurations and uncover any gaps.
• Identify and develop a plan for mail-enabled applications such as multifunction printers, monitoring systems, and other systems that currently submit SMTP messages.
• Develop end-user alerts to be published by your Help Desk.
• Identify existing Exchange mailbox sizes and item counts to help strategy for email migrations.
• Review your network bandwidth reports to verify you have sufficient bandwidth and nominal latency to support Microsoft 365.
• Assess your current Mobile Device Management solution to ensure it will operate with the Microsoft 365 services and capabilities.
• Run Microsoft's IdFix Tool to surface potential AD issues and detect duplicate SMTP addresses and user principal names (UPNs), invalid characters and formatting for object attributes, and UPNs that have non-routable domains.
• Lead an Architecture Review discussion with your IT team to identify problems that could prevent a successful migration.
• Create a way to permit mail to be sent to Dynamic Distribution Groups.
• Compile a list of ports and IP ranges for creating firewall rules.
• Work with you to identify any mailboxes that have been granted elevated rights to another mailbox.
• Develop an implementation plan that defines the processes associated with migrating to Microsoft 365.

Progent's ProSight family of Remote Management and Monitoring Services
Progent offers a family of budget-friendly, fixed-price managed services designed to enable small and medium-size organizations to utilize the same cutting-edge IT solutions deployed by many of the world's top corporations. The ProSight line of outsourced network management services covers all critical facets of information technology such as email content filtering, behavioral-based threat defense, cloud-based backup and disaster recovery, infrastructure monitoring and management, virtual server hosting, and network resources documentation management. Learn more about Progent's remote management and monitoring services.

Get in Touch with Progent for Microsoft 365 Expertise
If you are trying to find a Microsoft 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 increasing continually, making it hard for IT managers to select the best cloud strategy for their business. Progent has worked extensively helping companies of all sizes to plan, implement, and maintain hybrid environments that combine various cloud products and services from leading public cloud providers. Progent's cloud integration consultants can help you to assess the relative benefits and shortcomings of different public cloud offerings and can show you how to build a cloud-based or hybrid network that delivers maximum competitive value.

Public cloud products supported by Progent include:

Progent's Azure planning and integration experts can assist you with any aspect of Azure cloud migration such as requirements definition, prerequisites evaluation, solution architecture, pilot testing, implementation, centralized management, performance optimization, software license controls, disaster recovery preparedness, security planning, and regulatory compliance assessment. Progent can help your IT staff to configure and troubleshoot firewalls and VPN tunnels so your clients can securely connect to Azure resources, and Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can assist you integrate key Microsoft technologies to work in Azure including Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange Server, SQL Server and Skype for Business. Progent can also help your organization to create a hybrid ecosystem that seamlessly combines physical datacenters with Azure-based resources.

Microsoft allows you to create seamless hybrid ecosystems that combine Microsoft 365 and on-premises Exchange. This permits you to have some Exchange mailboxes hosted on your corporate datacenter and other mailboxes hosted by Microsoft 365. Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can assist you with any facet of planning, integrating and troubleshooting your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange network. Progent's Exchange specialists can provide as-needed expertise to help you resolve stubborn technical problems and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your hybrid Microsoft 365/Exchange initiative is successfully completed on time and on budget. For more information about Progent's online consulting expertise for hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange and on-prem Exchange environments, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration solutions with on-premises Exchange.

Progent's Amazon Web Services (AWS) planning and integration experts offer cost-effective remote consulting to help companies of any size to integrate Amazon AWS cloud services including Amazon EC2 for virtual machine hosting, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for scalable cloud storage, and Amazon Glacier for value-priced archival storage. Progent can assist your IT team with every aspect of Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting including requirements analysis, preparedness assessment, system design and review, testing, configuration, administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery mechanisms, and security strategies. Progent offers advanced expertise with firewalls and VPN technology and can help you create cloud-centric or hybrid environments that efficiently integrate Amazon AWS cloud services. Progent offers as-needed expertise or Progent can provide project management outsourcing or co-sourcing services to help you move efficiently to the Amazon AWS platform.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) is an integrated collection of APIs that allows Amazon sellers to improve the efficiency of their business processes by automating key sales functions such as listings, orders, payments, inbound and outbound fulfillment, and finances. By tapping into Amazon's extensive online selling environment and automating their sales processes, merchants can expand their reach, reduce their operating costs, accelerate response time to customers, and add to their profits. Progent's Amazon Marketplace Web Service consultants can collaborate with your development team and provide application programming, workflow integration, project management support, and training to help you shorten development time and speed up your return on investment.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform (GCP) planning and integration experts can provide affordable online and on-premises support to assist companies to move all or part of their critical network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform services. This can save time and hardware expense and enable the use of 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 needs analysis, readiness assessment, system design and review, pilot testing, configuration, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, backup/restore solutions, and security.