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www.office.com/setup Blogs: Missing a key security signal could mean not catching a breach, but the number of security signals is increasing exponentially. It's becoming impossible to manually prioritize them. That's why Office 365 applies intelligence to help you proactively manage risk and ward off threats. Today, we're pleased to introduce several new capabilities in Office 365 that help you manage risk and stay ahead of threats: Office 365 Secure Score-A new security analytics tool that applies a score to Office 365 customers' current Office 365 security configuration. Office 365 Threat Intelligence Private Preview-Service that leverages billions of data points from the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph to provide actionable insights to the global threat landscape and help customers stay ahead of cyber threats. Office 365 Threat Intelligence is now in private preview, with general availability planned for later this quarter. Office 365 Advanced Data Governance Preview-Applies machine learning to help customers find and retain the most important data to them while eliminating redundant, obsolete and trivial data that could cause risk if compromised. Office 365 Advanced Data Governance is now in preview, with general availability planned for later this quarter. KNOW YOUR OFFICE 365 SECURE SCORE Do you know how you'd be rated if someone were to evaluate your security configuration? To give you better visibility into your Office 365 security configuration and the security features available to you, we're pleased to introduce Secure Score-a new security analytics tool. Secure Score helps you understand your current Office 365 security configuration and shows you how implementing additional controls can further enhance your security and reduce risk.* Here's how it works: Secure Score Summary-Displays your Secure Score and provides access to view your Score Analyzer. Your Secure Score, the numerator, is the sum of the points associated wi

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Office 365 is a subscription based package that buys you time limited access to a number of Microsoft services and software packages, including the latest desktop Office suite, an online version of Office, cloud storage, and premium mobile apps.Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They're Awesome Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They're AwesomeMicrosoft doesn't always get fair treatment. When it comes down to it, they're a pretty awesome company. There's been enough Microsoft bashing, now it's time for some love.READ MORE Office 365 follows a business model known as Software as a Service (SaaS), which has commonly been used for deploying enterprise software. With subscription-based services like Spotify, Napster, or Amazon Prime, it has found its way into the consumer software market some time ago. Does Office 365 provide enough value to be worth the money? CAN YOU STILL USE IT ON YOUR DESKTOP? Yes, absolutely! Microsoft isn't moving Office entirely into the cloud just yet. While you can access Office Online via the browser and store your documents on OneDrive, Office 365 offers many other ways to access and edit your documents. The current package of Office 365 includes the Office 2013 desktop suite (Office 2011 for Mac users). In the summer or fall of this year, you will be able to upgrade to Office 2016.Don't Pay For Word! 5 Reasons You Should Use Office Online Don't Pay For Word! 5 Reasons You Should Use Office OnlineOffice Online is the free and cloud-connected version of Microsoft Office. Limitations are compensated by features, useful even to users of desktop Office. Best of all is itsREAD MORE Microsoft Office - www.office.com/setup WHAT IS INCLUDED & WHAT IS THE PRICE TAG? The exact composition of the package depends on the Office flavor you choose. Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, and Office 365 University include the following software: Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote (now free for everyone) Outlook Publ

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: WHICH VERSION OF MICROSOFT OFFICE IS BEST FOR ME? www.office.com/setup Blogs: Office 365 and Office 2016 share a lot of similarities, yet deciding between the two involves a lot of factors. Office 365 is a subscription-based service that currently uses Office 2016 apps, but when the next version of Office is released, users will get that as part of their subscription. Office 2016 is a buy-once app suite that brings you the Office 2016 apps as they are, without any available updates in the future. If you want to upgrade to the latest version of Office without paying for a subscription, you'll have to pay full price for the new version - there's no discounted upgrade option. These are only a couple differences between the two products. Looking to invest in Office? We break down the differences between the two products to help you decide which is better for personal and home use. See at Microsoft Store Quick-reference table Apps and pricing Multiple devices Connectivity Support Storage Conclusion QUICK-REFERENCE TABLE Category Office 365 Home Office 365 Personal Office Home & Student 2016 Office Home & Business 2016 Office Professional 2016 Price $99.99 /year $9.99 /month $69.99 /year $6.99 /month $149.99 $229.99 $399.99 Users Up to 5 1 1 1 1 Apps Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote Outlook Publisher Access Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote Outlook Publisher Access Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote Outlook Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote Outlook Publisher Access Devices 5 PCs or Macs 5 tablets 5 phones 1 PC or Mac 1 tablet 1 phone 1 PC 1 PC 1 PC Skype minutes 60 per month for each user 60 None None None OneDrive storage 1TB each for five users 1TB None None None APPS AND PRICING Office apps on the go. - www.office.com/setup Office 365 is a subscription-based service. If you choose to pay on a yearly basis, you essentially get a discount that works out to two free months per year. If you choose to pay on a monthly b

www.office.com/setup Blogs: In today's post we take a look at the key admin setup steps of a Office 365 license. If you'd like the complete guide to Office 365 setup, you can download it here. This guide will walk you through the necessary steps to establish your Office 365 account, add your end users, and jumpstart collaboration. In today's post, we'll be discussing the setup process for you and your employee's Office 365 accounts from start to finish. What to Expect During The Setup Process Office 365 The process begins with the purchase of Office 365 licenses for all of your employees. There are different plans available, with options that include the full Microsoft Office downloadable suite of tools, and those that only provide the online, or web-based versions of the Office suite. There are plans available for an individual, small business, and for the enterprise. Each license type includes options for online and offline apps, email, and productivity solutions. Purchasing a New Office 365 Plan Once your plan is selected, you as the Administrator will walk through the purchasing process, allowing you to associate your new plan with any existing subscriptions, as well as associate your account to your personal Microsoft ID. If you've ever attended a Microsoft event or webinar, or purchased software from the Microsoft store, you probably already have a personal Microsoft ID. You can connect this to your new Office 365 account, or create a new Microsoft ID. The signup process has four simple steps: Provide your contact details Create a new ID (or associate your account with an existing ID) Review your order Place your order Once purchased, you will receive a welcome letter as the new Office 365 Administrator with details on signing onto the platform and getting started. If the license was purchased on your behalf, your profile will be added to the company account, and you will likewise receive a welcome email with your User ID and a temporary passw

www.office.com/setup Blogs: In today's post we take a look at the key admin setup steps of a Office 365 license. If you'd like the complete guide to Office 365 setup, you can download it here. This guide will walk you through the necessary steps to establish your Office 365 account, add your end users, and jumpstart collaboration. In today's post, we'll be discussing the setup process for you and your employee's Office 365 accounts from start to finish. What to Expect During The Setup Process Office 365 The process begins with the purchase of Office 365 licenses for all of your employees. There are different plans available, with options that include the full Microsoft Office downloadable suite of tools, and those that only provide the online, or web-based versions of the Office suite. There are plans available for an individual, small business, and for the enterprise. Each license type includes options for online and offline apps, email, and productivity solutions. Purchasing a New Office 365 Plan Once your plan is selected, you as the Administrator will walk through the purchasing process, allowing you to associate your new plan with any existing subscriptions, as well as associate your account to your personal Microsoft ID. If you've ever attended a Microsoft event or webinar, or purchased software from the Microsoft store, you probably already have a personal Microsoft ID. You can connect this to your new Office 365 account, or create a new Microsoft ID. The signup process has four simple steps: Provide your contact details Create a new ID (or associate your account with an existing ID) Review your order Place your order Once purchased, you will receive a welcome letter as the new Office 365 Administrator with details on signing onto the platform and getting started. If the license was purchased on your behalf, your profile will be added to the company account, and you will likewise receive a welcome email with your User ID and a temporary passw

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Today marks the general availability of Office 2016 for Windows, a suite of desktop applications that together with new mobile and web apps pushes Microsoft's new vision for PC-based productivity. Office 2016 is available immediately to Office 365 subscribers, as well as to individuals who would prefer to buy the software in standalone form. "We see Office 2016 as being just as important as the first release of Office," Microsoft group program manager Shawn Villaron told me in a briefing last week. "In the early days, Office was about bringing really important tools together to empower the individual for personal productivity. That was the way people wanted to work at that time. And for 20 to 30 years, Office fit right in. Today, things are changing. More people collaborate on work as groups and teams, so Office 2016 represents the change from personal productivity to team productivity." And that, really, is Office 2016 in a nutshell. If you're a typical information worker, student, or other person in need of standard productivity tools, Office 2016 of course works fine and represents an obvious and stable evolution from the Office version you're currently using. But the real meat in this release-now and going forward, as Office will of course be updated regularly, like Windows 10-is the designed around this new way of working. Confusing matters somewhat, Office-not Office 2016, but Office generally-is all over the place now. In addition to the classic, full-featured desktop suites on both Windows and Mac, Microsoft has high-quality Office Online web apps, mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Windows/Windows phones-and Office 365-specific solutions that are often available as web apps but are sometimes just integrated into the desktop applications. This ain't your father's Office anymore. Office everywhere: Microsoft Office is available on virtually any device you care to use. - www.office.com/setup Office eve

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Signing up for the Office 365 is a really straight forward process. You can buy licenses and start the tenant creation, or you can start a trial (30 days) and then add licenses with in that 30 days. Scroll down below where I will walk you through the Office 365 tenant creation. IMPORTANT INFORMATION Microsoft has two main service lines for Office 365 and three main pricing options (SKUs) within each service line; Office 365 Business and Office 365 Enterprise. For an interactive workbook to compare all the features of all the plans, use the following link; Office 365 Service Comparison. FAQ What are the major differences between Office 365 Business and Office 365 Enterprise? Short answer is that it's all about the features you get and size of your business. Office 365 Business has a cap of 300 licenses, so if you are over that the go right to Enterprise. With the Enterprise SKUs, you get more features, but you have to pay a bit more. Take note that with the Business plans, there are limitations not seen in the Enterprise plans. Those limitations include: Microsoft support, Exchange hybrid, Active Directory Connect, SharePoint Online features, Exchange Online features, Microsoft FAST Track support/migrations and Office features. Make sure to do the research and buy the right plan for your business. Can I switch between Office 365 Plans? YES, you can upgrade/downgrade and switch between Office 365 Business and Enterprise plans. Can I mix Office 365 Plans? YES, you can have one tenant with some Office 365 Business licenses and some Office 365 Enterprise licenses. Keep in mind the 300 license cap for the Business licenses. IMPORTANT DECISIONS The decisions here will be needed for the next section, where you will be opening your trial tenant. There are two important pieces of information that need to be taken seriously and cannot be changed once the tenant is created. It's impossible for you and/or Microsoft to change this information

As governments strive to become more responsive and transparent, it's important for them to make public information easily accessible to citizens. At the same time, it's critical that they protect confidential data. A key reason why governments choose Microsoft Office 365 is Microsoft's leadership in the industry when it comes to privacy, security, and compliance practices. In short, governments know they can trust Microsoft to help protect their data. So how does Microsoft demonstrate leadership and why exactly do governments trust Office 365 to help protect their data? Here are four reasons: We respect your privacy. Google is under criticism for its privacy practices. Office 365 does not build advertising products out of customer data, unlike other companies. Nor do we scan your email or documents for building analytics, data mining, or advertising, or to improve the service. What's more, you own your data. Office 365 customer data belongs to the customer. Customers can remove their data whenever they choose. Office 365 is independently verified. Office 365 is compliant with many world-class industry standards, and it is verified by third parties. For example, Office 365 is the first major business productivity public cloud service to have implemented the rigorous set of physical, logical, process, and management controls defined by ISO 27001, one of the best security benchmarks available in the world. In addition, Office 365 is the first major business productivity public cloud service provider to sign the standard contractual clauses created by the European Union ("EU Model Clauses") with all customers. Office 365 also implements security processes that adhere to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) required by U.S. federal agencies and to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). With Office 365, you know where your data is located. Office 365 customers know where major Office 365 datacenters are located

www.office.com/setup Blogs: The new admin center reached general availability one month ago. This was a big milestone in our mission to provide you with a first-class admin experience, with tools that enable you to efficiently manage all aspects of the service. We continue to evolve the admin center. This month, we focused on providing you with additional usage insights, including new usage reports, the preview of the Office 365 adoption content pack in Power BI and more role-based permissions through a new Power BI admin role. Here's a summary of the October updates: NEW USAGE REPORTS STARTING TO ROLL OUT TODAY In March, we launched the new reporting dashboard in the Office 365 admin center that makes it easier for you to efficiently monitor your service, identify issues, plan training and report back on the investment to your management. Today, we are happy to announce four new usage reports for active users, Email clients, Skype for Business clients and Office 365 Groups, that provide you with additional insights about how users in your organization are using and adopting Office 365. Here's a look at each report: Active Users report-Lets you see which of your users actively use one or more of the different Office 365 services. This report is especially helpful for admins to identify users for whom they might want to plan some additional training and communication. Often, after being assigned an Office 365 license, users need a helping hand to get started with the different services. They might not know how to activate the product or how the product can help them to be more productive. The image below shows all users that are licensed for one or more products and the last date they used any of those products. By clicking the Column icon, admins can modify the table to see which license has been assigned to a user, as well as when the license was assigned to the user. admin-center-october-1 - www.office.com/setup Blogs Skype for Business clients used r

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Last year, we released Microsoft Bookings to customers in the U.S. and Canada, introducing an easy way for small businesses to schedule and manage appointments with their customers. Today, we are pleased to announce that we're beginning to roll out the service to Office 365 Business Premium subscribers worldwide. Based on your feedback, we are bringing several new features to Bookings: Add your Office 365 calendar to Bookings-Connect your Office 365 calendar to Bookings, so that the times you are busy will automatically be blocked in your public Booking page. Add buffer time before and after your appointments-Do you need prep time before or after an appointment? Adding buffer time to a service automatically blocks that time in your Booking page too. Bookings apps for your iOS and Android phone-Now you can book an appointment, contact a customer or check a staff member's appointments while away from the office. Customize your Booking page-We added more color customization options, so you can better personalize your Booking page. These new capabilities will start showing up automatically in Bookings in the coming weeks. Let's take a detailed look at what's new. ADD YOUR OFFICE 365 CALENDAR TO BOOKINGS One of the top pieces of feedback we've heard is that you want to be able to add events from your Office 365 calendar to Bookings. So, we added integration between these calendars to help you avoid booking customer meetings during the time you've set aside for personal appointments, staff and partner meetings or other aspects of running your business. To add Office 365 calendars to Bookings, click the Staff tab on the left navigation panel. On the Staff details page, select the Events on Office 365 calendar affect availability checkbox. www.office.com/setup Add Office 365 calendar events to Bookings. Once you activate this option, the system automatically blocks busy times on the Bookings calendar and on the self-ser

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Today, we are pleased to announce the availability of Microsoft Forms for our Office 365 Education customers. Forms is the result of direct feedback from educators that they want to have a quizzing function with Office 365 Education. Educators told us they need an easy way to assess student progress on an ongoing basis. They also told us they want an assessment solution that will save them time, help differentiate instruction for all students and provide quiz takers with real-time personalized feedback. We designed Forms to be super easy so that anyone could confidently create a form and easily see results as they come in. Forms lets anyone with an Office 365 Education account create and/or respond to quizzes. What makes Forms unique and so valuable for educators is the automatic grading and in-quiz feedback functionality. Automatic grading does exactly what the name implies and greatly reduces the time spent grading. In-quiz feedback is a feature that lets quiz authors personalize messages depending how a student answers a question. For example, if a student answers a question incorrectly they may get a message, such as: "The answer is incorrect. I suggest you review chapter four as this will be on the final." HOW FORMS WORKS When an instructor wants to assess how well the students understand a given topic, they can quickly author a quiz directly from their desktop or mobile web browser. The instructor simply determines the questions they would like to ask and then chooses an answer type, such as multiple choice, text or a rating. The Forms authors can then send a link or QR code to quiz takers or embed the quiz into a web page, blog or Learning Management System (LMS), and recipients can complete the quiz on phones, tablets or PCs. And with the real-time feedback in Forms, the instructor can very quickly see where the class may need additional instruction or could advance more rapidly. Forms responses can also be exported to Mi

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Office 2016 for Mac is here, so we bring you everything you need to know about the new version of Office for Mac 2016, including Office 365, UK pricing, new features and more. OFFICE FOR MAC 2016 FIRST LAUNCHED AS PART OF OFFICE 365 IN JULY OF 2015, BUT MAC USERS WANTING TO BUY A COPY OUTRIGHT, RATHER THAN SUBSCRIBE, HAD TO WAIT FOR MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH THE BOXED VERSION. THAT FINALLY HAPPENED IN SEPTEMBER 2015, WHEN THOSE MAC USERS GOT THEIR WISH AND OFFICE 2016 FOR MAC BECAME AVAILABLE FOR £119.99 UPFRONT. HERE, WE TALK YOU THROUGH THE FEATURES IN OFFICE FOR MAC 2016, AND HELP YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO SUBSCRIBE TO OFFICE 365 OR BUY A COPY OUTRIGHT. PLUS, WE SHARE OFFICE FOR MAC 2016 UK PRICING FOR EACH VERSION. A number of new features for the MacBook Pro Touch Bar have been added as of February 2017, these are discussed here. Don't expect Microsoft Office for Mac 2017 anytime soon (or at all, for that matter). There was a five year gap between this current version of Office for Mac and its predecessor, Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. However, those with an Office 365 account will get regular, automatic updates since it is an online subscription. If you buy Office outright as a one-time software download, you won't get these benefits, so something to bear in mind. MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR MAC 2016 UK PRICE: HOW MUCH DOES OFFICE FOR MAC 2016 COST? Office Home & Student 2016 for Mac costs £119.99 ($149.99) and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. It's available to buy from Microsoft UK here or Microsoft US here. Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac costs £229.99 ($229.99) and includes Outlook as well as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. It's available to buy from Microsoft UK here or Microsoft US here. These versions are only available for one Mac. To install on more than one Mac Microsoft appears to be pushing users towards the 365 subscription model. If you buy a copy outright, you will only be able to install the copy on

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expects to save $12 million over four years. The City of Chicago anticipates saving $1.3 million over the same length of time. And the State of Minnesota expects to save at least $800,000. Governments of all sizes are finding ways to reduce IT costs while improving efficiency. What's their secret weapon? With public sector budgets shrinking in many places around the globe, smart governments are making taxpayer dollars stretch further by migrating from an on-premise environment to Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud. By moving to Office 365, governments can reduce both their capital and operating costs. And by saving money, they can make taxpayer dollars go further during a time when budgets are tight and there's often less revenue to work with. So how exactly can Office 365 save governments money? First, governments can cut back on the capital cost of investing in more computer servers. Second, they can reduce the administrative cost of having to maintain an IT environment. Third, they can lower their energy costs by reducing the size of their data centers. And they can also reduce costs using the many tools within Office 365 that improve employee efficiency. According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, Office 365 delivers an ROI of 321 percent with a payback period of two months for a composite midsize organization. That translates into huge value for public sector organizations! Among the government agencies that anticipating money saved by implementing Office 365 is the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency expects to save $12 million over four years by moving to the cloud and Office 365. Some of those savings will be in energy costs as the agency relies on Microsoft to operate its data centers. "The EPA will continue to lead the pack on environmental stewardship, and moving an IT environment to the cloud is a natural part of that," says Greg Myers, vice president of Microsoft Federal. "There

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows has landed and it brings many smart new features, including co-authoring with real-time collaboration, simplified sharing, a great feature search engine called Tell Me, and much more. The Mac version of Office 2016 has actually been around for a few months already. If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can get it now for free and we show you how below.A Microsoft Office 2016 Preview: Smart & Subtle Changes A Microsoft Office 2016 Preview: Smart & Subtle ChangesOffice 2016 for Mac was just released and the Windows version will follow in the fall. We show you the new look and features of the world's most popular productivity suite. Will you upgrade?READ MORE Alternatively, you can buy it at the Microsoft store (different packages available and Microsoft has a guide for installing it) or your local retailer and if you're unsure, we have a guide for what Office suite to get. Note that if you're running Office 2010 on Windows 10, you can get a 50% discount on a one year subscription of Office 365 Home; simply use the Get Office app in Windows 10. Get Office - www.office.com/setup Before you overspend your budget, remember you can get Microsoft Word for free and you can choose from many free alternatives for the entire Microsoft suite.This Is How You Can Get Microsoft Word for Free This Is How You Can Get Microsoft Word for FreeDo you really want the entire Microsoft Office suite? If all you need is Word without the fancy features, Microsoft will give it to you for free. Here is how.READ MORE FIND OUT YOUR VERSION OF OFFICE Unsure whether you have an Office 365 subscription? You can look up your status. Open a file, any Office document, then navigate to File > Account and under you'll see whether you have an Office 365 subscription. Office 2016 Account - www.office.com/setup Here is a complete list of ways to check your version of Office from Microsoft. YOUR UPGRADE WILL BE FINAL Before you

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Microsoft today detailed the new features and improvements that it delivered to Office 365 users this month. Key among them are new Excel co-authoring capabilities, Microsoft Teams, and new OneNote inking and accessibility updates. "Office 365 provides the broadest and deepest toolkit for collaboration between individuals, teams and entire organizations," Microsoft corporate vice president Kirk Koenigsbauer explains. Here's what's new in March. CO-AUTHORING IN EXCEL 2016 FOR WINDOWS Following similar functionality in Word and PowerPoint, Microsoft has enabled co-authoring capabilities in Excel for the Windows desktop (Excel 2016). (This feature is also available in Excel Online and Excel Mobile on Android, iOS, and Windows 10; Excel for Mac support is coming soon.) "This allows you to know who else is working with you in a spreadsheet, see where they're working and view changes automatically within seconds," Mr. Koenigsbauer says. Co-authoring in Excel 2016 for Windows is rolling out for Office 365 subscribers in Office Insider Fast, Microsoft says. Co-authoring in Excel for iOS is currently available for Office Insider. The feature is generally available in Excel Mobile for Android and Windows, and in Excel Online. AUTOSAVE Microsoft is working to expand the availability of AutoSave beyond mobile versions of Office: Office 365 subscribers in Office Insider Fast now have access to AutoSave in Word, Excel and PowerPoint on Windows desktop, for files stored in SharePoint Online, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business. "With AutoSave, you can stop worrying about hitting the Save button, whether you're working alone or with others," Mr. Koenigsbauer explains. MICROSOFT TEAMS Microsoft delivered its long-awaited Slack alternative, called Microsoft Teams, earlier this month to all Office 365 commercial customers. And last week, it shipped Microsoft Teams to all Office 365 Education subscribers as well. "We are thri

www.office.com/setup Blogs: YES. Microsoft has some FREE help with the NEW Office 365. One of the places that I send people to first is the Ignite Online training center. How to configure federated identity sign-in model for Office 365 OFFICE 365 GUIDES Exploring the Office 365 Administration Center - In this guide, you will become familiar with the Office 365 Administration Center and learn how to perform key administration tasks. Office 365 Overview for IT Administrators - See how the new Office 365 Administration Center provides improved ease-of-management for IT professionals. There is also a great three part series on how to setup Identity Management. 1. Installing and Configuring Active Directory Federation Services - Learn how to prepare for and install AD FS, which is a preliminary step for the Office 365 federation and hybrid scenarios. 2. Configuring Active Directory Federation Services and Verifying Federation - In this guide, you will learn how to add and verify federated domains in Office 365. 3. Installing and Configuring Active Directory Synchronization - Learn how to install and configure Active Directory Synchronization in Office 365, which is a preliminary step for the Office 365 federation and hybrid scenarios.

When FHI 360 wanted to move to cloud-based business productivity services, the organization decided to implement a Microsoft cloud-based solution. We recently spoke to Douglas Wilkins, Director of IT Infrastructure at FHI 360, to learn how the company is benefiting: FHI360 logoQ: Please tell us about FHI 360. Douglas Wilkins: FHI 360 is a nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. Our staff includes experts in health, education, nutrition, environment, economic development, civil society, gender equality, youth, research, technology, communication, and social marketing-creating a unique mix of capabilities to address today's interrelated development challenges. FHI 360 serves more than 60 countries and all US states and territories. Q: Why did you want to move to cloud-based services for messaging and collaboration? Wilkins: We had a diverse IT infrastructure. Employees in the US had different IT toolsets and Internet access than staff in countries like Mozambique. Subscribing employees to a single, cloud-based solution was the most expedient way to ensure that everyone had the same IT tools, to work efficiently regardless of location. Migrating our communication and collaboration technologies to the cloud reduced much of the time required by our IT staff to manage divergent IT infrastructures and connectivity options found around the world. Q: What criteria did you use to select Microsoft as your vendor for cloud-based business productivity services? Wilkins: We wanted a vendor that demonstrated a real interest in our mission and goals, and that offered online business productivity tools tailored for the enterprise space. The capabilities of the Microsoft Services Consulting team, and the work of Intellinet, the partner Microsoft introduced us to, provided us with that. We migrated our 4,300 staff members around the world from diverse platforms to a Microsoft Offi

www.office.com/setup Blogs: ML Gomes is getting a new PC running Windows 8, and wants to know which version of Microsoft Office is best for her needs Microsoft office - www.office.com/setup Blogs Which version of Microsoft Office is best with Windows 8? Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Which version of Microsoft Office should I use on Windows 8? I am buying a new laptop and need to use Outlook. ML Gomes Microsoft usually brings out new versions of Office to match new versions of Windows, and Windows 8 is no exception. The new Office 2013 is designed to work with Windows 8, and both have a similar modern styling that puts the emphasis on your content rather than Microsoft's software. Also, both are designed to work with cloud (online) services, particularly Microsoft's SkyDrive. However, other things have changed now that Microsoft is not a software company but a cloud-based "devices and services company". As chief executive Steve Ballmer said last year, this "impacts how we run the company, how we develop new experiences, and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses." Under the old system, you could buy a copy of Microsoft Office on DVD, and use it without an internet connection. Under the new system, you buy a Product Key, which is 25 alphanumeric characters long. Entering the code online enables you to download your copy of Office, or activate a free trial version pre-installed on your new PC. FREE OFFICE WEB APPS The good news is that under the new system, most home users don't need to pay anything for Microsoft Office: they can use the free, cloud-based service in the form of Microsoft Office web apps. Sign up for an email address at Outlook.com, and you get free web-based email, a contacts book (People), a calendar, and 7GB of online storage in SkyDrive. (Outlook.com has replaced Hotmail, so you can use a Hotmail address, if you already have one.) Log on, click SkyDrive, and you can create and edit files in the four main Of

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Over the last month, the Office 365 team has continued to introduce new security features and capabilities. Here is a roundup of some key security and compliance news from the last month: Applying intelligence to security and compliance in Office 365-To stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape, companies need the ability to analyze and learn from that data to identify, intercept and respond to threats. Office 365 provides unmatched security intelligence to help customers protect, detect and respond to threats. Read about the new security and compliance capabilities of Office 365 that were announced at the Microsoft Ignite conference. Security engineering evolution in Office 2016 for Mac-Security is a critical component in all our products at Microsoft. To help you get a better idea of how we build security into Office 2016 for Mac, the engineering team discusses how we think about it from a development and testing perspective, including the latest updates. Get updates on Office 365 Security & Compliance Center-The Microsoft Office 365 Security & Compliance Center is the central place to view and manage your data. Find out how the experience is improved by centralized security controls, including the ability to view and manage security and compliance for your cloud services. Accelerate your eDiscovery analysis workflow with one click-Does your legal department often complain about how long it takes to run an analysis for eDiscovery investigations? We released two new features for Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery-Express Analysis and Export with analytics to Excel-to make it easier and faster for organizations to quickly find, analyze and review relevant information related to investigations, legal matters and regulatory requests. How can my organization achieve intelligent compliance with Office 365?-Organizations are facing significant data overload with the amount of electronic data not only exploding but also gettin

When FHI 360 wanted to move to cloud-based business productivity services, the organization decided to implement a Microsoft cloud-based solution. We recently spoke to Douglas Wilkins, Director of IT Infrastructure at FHI 360, to learn how the company is benefiting: FHI360 logoQ: Please tell us about FHI 360. Douglas Wilkins: FHI 360 is a nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. Our staff includes experts in health, education, nutrition, environment, economic development, civil society, gender equality, youth, research, technology, communication, and social marketing-creating a unique mix of capabilities to address today's interrelated development challenges. FHI 360 serves more than 60 countries and all US states and territories. Q: Why did you want to move to cloud-based services for messaging and collaboration? Wilkins: We had a diverse IT infrastructure. Employees in the US had different IT toolsets and Internet access than staff in countries like Mozambique. Subscribing employees to a single, cloud-based solution was the most expedient way to ensure that everyone had the same IT tools, to work efficiently regardless of location. Migrating our communication and collaboration technologies to the cloud reduced much of the time required by our IT staff to manage divergent IT infrastructures and connectivity options found around the world. Q: What criteria did you use to select Microsoft as your vendor for cloud-based business productivity services? Wilkins: We wanted a vendor that demonstrated a real interest in our mission and goals, and that offered online business productivity tools tailored for the enterprise space. The capabilities of the Microsoft Services Consulting team, and the work of Intellinet, the partner Microsoft introduced us to, provided us with that. We migrated our 4,300 staff members around the world from diverse platforms to a Microsoft Offi