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Microsoft 365: Understanding the Benefits and Busting the Myths - Guidance from NJSBA's PracticeHQ

By NJSBA Staff posted 07-02-2020 11:16 AM

  

By Jennifer Ramovs

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is from the NJSBA's PracticeHQ archives. PracticeHQ is a free benefit available to all NJSBA members and provides articles, comparison charts, videos and more with the sole purpose of helping you manage your law practice more efficiently and effectively. Find out more about PracticeHQ resources here.

Learn why Microsoft 365 might be the right choice for you and your firm.

The applications included in Microsoft Office - Word, Outlook, Excel, even PowerPoint - are must-haves for a law firm. Historically, people bought these programs when they bought a computer and often bundled the purchase of the software with the purchase of the computer. More recently, firms have been uncovering the option to instead subscribe to "Microsoft 365."

Microsoft 365 refers to a suite of subscription plans that include access to Office applications that are enabled over the internet (i.e., cloud services). Microsoft 365 plans for business also include additional productivity services such as: (1) Skype for Business, which provides web conferencing; (2) Exchange Online, which provides hosted email; and (3) additional online storage with OneDrive for Business.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that by using Microsoft 365, everything is in the "cloud." The truth is, many Microsoft 365 plans also include the desktop version of the latest Office applications, which users can install across multiple computers and devices. When you have an active Microsoft 365 subscription that includes the desktop version of Office, you always have the most up-to-date version of the applications. This is superior to the more traditional way of purchasing, where you must pay for the updates as they are released. The problem is, firms often find that different users installed the Office software at different times, and by the end of a 5-year time period, for instance, they could have people running three different versions of the products they rely on every day to produce work and serve their clients. This is a recipe for incompatibility, unforeseen technology costs, and user frustration.

Building on the "that means I am in the cloud" misconception, people often think that with Microsoft 365, they can't access their programs or their documents without an internet connection. But you can use Microsoft 365 offline (without internet access) if you download and install the desktop version of Office with your plan. You have to connect to the internet every 30 days to maintain your subscription and Microsoft 365 tells you when it's time to connect.

In addition to always having the most recent versions of the software you use to run your law firm world, Microsoft Exchange is included in some of the Microsoft 365 plans. This feature alone is worth the price of admission. Microsoft Exchange is a program that, among other things, allows Outlook users to back up their data (email, contacts, calendars, tasks, etc.) on a server. However, there are much bigger benefits:

Share data. Exchange allows users to share information in Outlook - most notably, calendar and contacts.

Smartphone and tablet sync. Exchange will wirelessly sync with any smartphone or tablet running Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, or Windows Phone.

Anywhere email access. Exchange also allows users to gain access to office email while out of the office. Outlook Web Access gives you browser-based access to email no matter what device you are using, as long as you have access to an internet connection

Full back up. Everything in Outlook is backed up in Exchange (email, contacts, calendar, and tasks).

Operating system agnostic. Exchange and Outlook will work with both Windows and Mac computers.

For a great comparison chart of Microsoft 365's features that we put together for Practice HQ, visit https://accellis.com/microsoft-office-365-comparison/.

Jennifer Ramovs
Jennifer Ramovs, ESQ., is director of practice management for Affinity Consulting Group.
[email protected]

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