Sunday, February 2, 2014

Office 365 One Year Anniversary

This week I was reading an article at Computerworld; "Office 365 turns one, but success is tough to tally" and since I am a user (and have been for some time) I thought I might respond.


Although I can't talk about the overall success of Office 365, I can talk about mine and those I have pushed toward it; it's  a great deal and bargain. For the $100 ($99.99) a year (or $9.99/month) cost you get the complete Office 2013 Professional Suite and you can download that onto 5 computers - this I have done.

That in and of itself is interesting because you get Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher, not to mention 20 GB of free storage on OneDrive (the recently old SkyDrive) plus some free time on Skype. 

The single user cost of the Office Professional 2013 Office Suite $400. Hmmm....4 years at $99.99 a year means that I have; 1) an interest free purchase, and 2) it will get updated before that 4 years is up to whatever the next Office Suite will be. It is being updated as we go and there have already been updates. 

The BIG benefit is that I have the current best software (think Excel in many ways) in my hands for work benefit and I will stay up-to-date for as long as I keep the subscription going. 
With today's constant change in technology and software, in order to stay current, this is the best of all worlds. Keeping up-to-date in software for analysis and productivity is essential.  
I push this in all my classes. The business world is changing and we all need to stay ahead of the game.


I grew up the son of a Tool and Die Maker and have always believed in having my own tools so that I could do the best work. I did learn that from my Dad. If you know a GOOD mechanic you will find that most buy their own tools. Why? So they can do the best work. Today the office environment is the same. You want to be the best at your job? Don't wait for the company to fund your tools, you will always be behind the rest of the world. 

Take Excel; In today's world of data each version of Excel from 2007 on has added features to allow you do better analysis of the data you have. Excel 2013 is no different. I can do things in Excel 2013 that you either cannot do in prior version and if you can it is generally more difficult. 

So now it is not just BYOD it is also BYOS - Bring Your Own Software (or BYOS - Bring Your Own Stuff to cover it all).

You will be able to stay ahead of the curve and, in some cases, produce better results. Being the best at what you do is important to you and your future. At $9.99 a month all you have to do is cut out two Latte's or one glass of wine - I know the wine is important. 

Oh yes, by all means use it at home. 

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