New book: Working with Microsoft Office 365: Running Your Small Business in the Cloud
We’re excited to announce the availability of Working with Microsoft Office 365: Running Your Small Business in the Cloud (ISBN: 9780735658998; 370 pages), by Brett Hill!
As Brett makes clear in the book, the benefits of moving your business to the cloud are strong ones in terms of increased productivity and decreased operating costs. But small businesses rarely have on-site system administrators to make the move smooth and trouble-free. If that’s the case with your business, this book is a reference you won’t want to do without.
Through extensive walkthroughs, easy-to-follow procedures, and real-world tips, you’ll learn how to implement Office 365 for professionals and small businesses—without having to be an IT expert. You’ll also gain valuable knowledge on configuring, deploying, and maintaining Office 365 no matter which plan you choose.
For a preview, here are the book’s Contents at a Glance and an excerpt from the Introduction. You can get a sampler of the book, which includes the entire first chapter, here:
Contents at a Glance
Introduction xv
Chapter 1 Office 365: A Big Deal for Small Business 1
Chapter 2 Choosing an Office 365 Plan 19
Chapter 3 Signing Up for the Office 365 P1 Plan 31
Chapter 4 The Dual Purpose Office 365 Portal 43
Chapter 5 Working with User Accounts 63
Chapter 6 Working with Custom Domains 85
Chapter 7 Desktop Setup and Migration 123
Chapter 8 Working with Outlook Web App 147
Chapter 9 Working with Mobile Devices 185
Chapter 10 Improving Your Business Image and Productivity with Outlook 201
Chapter 11 Working with SharePoint Online 219
Chapter 12 Working with Lync Online 287
Appendix A Deployment Checklist 333
Index 335
Introduction
Microsoft Office 365 is taking the small business world by storm. According to Microsoft, over 90 percent of the sales of Office 365 are to small businesses. I can’t say I’m surprised. When you look at the capabilities of Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, the offer is compelling.
This book was written for small business owners or consultants to small businesses who want to learn how to:
■ Know whether the Office 365 small business plan is a good fit.
■ Sign up and deploy the service, including domain name configuration.
■ Avoid common problems.
■ Use the best features of Office 365.
This book is designed for small businesses and professionals who are familiar with computers but are not technical professionals. While setting up Office 365 can be quite straightforward, there are technical aspects to deployment, particularly around custom domains. This book describes in a step-by-step fashion how to move a custom domain to Office 365 as well as how to set up your desktop. In fact, providing this guidance to owners of the service is one of the primary objectives of the book.
Overall, the book is a guide to anyone who anticipates implementing Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, from early planning, through deployment, to making use of the key features and capabilities. Office 365 is a frequently updated service. Be sure to check the Service Updates wiki at https://community.office365.com for changes made to the service since this book was published.