In 1990 Microsoft launched a product that is now used by over a billion people worldwide, and that product is Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office is used for personal use as well as business use and most documents sent via email are created in it. Microsoft used to release a new edition of Microsoft Office every three years, but with the advent of the cloud and free services such as Google Docs, Microsoft has had to change how Microsoft Office is installed and used.

Buying Microsoft Office in the past could be costly resulting in businesses not upgrading and having software that could be ten years old and more vulnerable to bugs and possibly ransomware as Microsoft no longer issues patches. That’s why Microsoft decided to rename it as Office 365 and to offer various versions including one that is based in the cloud which can be used for free but with limited functionality. You can also buy various other affordable subscription versions that allow you to pay monthly or yearly and give you the options of installing it on more than one computer and your mobile phone and tablet.

If you are still using older versions of Microsoft Office here are some reasons why you should upgrade:

• Microsoft release patches on a regular basis and the mobile versions are perfect for your sales teams that are out on the road.
• The mobile versions allow you to edit and read any files that are sent to your mobile devices.
• One of the reasons why the worldwide ransomware attacks earlier this month were so successful was because a lot of computers attacked were using older versions of Microsoft Office and by having your software updated on a regular basis your devices and your network is more secure.
• The various subscriptions models that you can avail of means it’s now more affordable than ever to use Office 365.
• When you get various office documents in the past, the version of Office that you were using might not have allowed you to easily open files from newer versions of Office, but you will never have to worry about that ever again.
• As most businesses are using Exchange for their email, you can now get it on Office 365 with 50GB of email storage, plus 1TB of OneDrive for Business cloud storage and you will also get HD video conferencing with Skype for Business too.

So isn’t it time you moved to Office 365?

iPing provides managed services and IT services and we can help provide you with an overview of your Microsoft Office setup and how you can improve it by moving to Office 365.  So, if you need some help with the above please contact us or give us a call on 01 5241350.