Is Microsoft Office 365 for you?

If you rely on Microsoft technology in your business to some extent, I'm sure you've heard something about Office 365 (O365) by now, says Simon Hepburn, owner of bSOLVe.

Microsoft has been putting a lot of weight behind Office 365, for good reason. Having easy access to all the latest productivity software Microsoft has to offer at a good price with no real hardware hassle is pretty compelling, in my opinion.

Although many businesses have started the move to O365 by migrating their e-mail and instant messaging to Exchange and Lync Online respectively, this is often where things start to slow down. When they look at SharePoint, Yammer, OneDrive, Delve and other similar O365 technologies, things start to get a bit hazy. Although these technologies in the cloud sound great in principle, people are hesitant when it comes to migrating from their on-premises environments.

In my experience, businesses seem to be struggling with adopting these technologies on O365 due to some broad issues which are affecting them in the specific South African context:

* For years we've all been doing our best to optimise environments for predominantly on-premises scenarios. This is the most obvious challenge and has meant all investments in this regard are not necessarily well suited to cloud architecture and it will take a while for businesses to adapt.
* Although the situation is improving, most businesses in South Africa still have limitations around the amount of bandwidth obtainable at a reasonable price, so cloud may in fact make a user's experience worse when it comes to workloads such as SharePoint Online.
* With some elements of cloud solutions being usage-based, there is often uncertainty regarding costs of implementing these solutions.
* Cloud-based delivery enables much faster technology changes, with monthly, weekly or even daily updates to functionality being a reality. This fast pace often makes people nervous and confuses them in terms of what their next steps should be.
* With the actual O365 data centre sitting in Europe, there are concerns related to data sovereignty, security and the privacy of personal data stored in the cloud.

Fortunately, there is still value in approaching this new wave of uncertainty in the same way as always by looking at business needs and then evaluating the potential solution(s) accordingly. This means not trying to solve all the problems at once but by aiming for the low-hanging fruit as a start. Cloud services - much like on-premises software - have pros and cons that need to be weighed up to determine when and how one should proceed. Importantly, however, cloud now moves faster than ever before, which in my opinion makes it vital to obtain advice from a partner who specialises in the space and can keep you up to date with new developments. Having a defined plan and process is also important to ensure you effectively manage your progress in this fluid, fast-changing world.

If you're interested in finding out more about what elements of Office 365 have worked for South African clients and how they have overcome some of the challenges listed above, please join me at the Share 2015 conference (www.shareconference.com/za) for my talk "Microsoft Office 365's African Safari". I'll explore what South African businesses have used on Office 365 and how things have turned out for them as well as the lessons they've learnt.

Share is taking place from 22 to 24 June 2015 and is a conference where non-technical SharePoint conversations happen. It is designed to help delegates pinpoint new and different ways to use SharePoint as an important enabler of great business performance.

bSOLVe is a sponsoring partner at the conference again in 2015 and I'll be on hand to discuss SharePoint business topics as well as showcase some new, innovative bSOLVe business solutions.