More changes in features and licensing for Office365 - November Update

Microsoft has been aggressively pushing along new updated to Office365 features - all free - to help it compete against Google and other offerings.  In addition to the license changes in my last article, here are some of the recently announced or released changes:

• Unlimited storage  (Currently 1TB) planned for OneDrive personal and OneDrive for business - soon you will have no limits on how much you can store in your OneDrive in the cloud. This is interesting and potentially useful and valuable.
• Video Channels - To go with unlimited cloud storage, Microsoft has also announced a platform for creating video channels in the cloud to share with your organization (and one assumes eventually with the public).  Again interesting because it means that organizations can create video channels for training, information sharing etc.
• Groups - Microsoft is aggressively integrating their YAMMER social communications platform into Office365.  Users can now create "Groups" of employees that can share a communications platform including persistent chat, files specific to the group, and a calendar. This will I think gradually replace the existing cumbersome SharePoint Sites for most casual group interaction. Think of a group as a shared mailbox, a chat log, a shared calendar and a shared SharePoint document repository - all under a single banner and available from the web.
• Clutter - Microsoft has rolled out a new mail management tool called "Clutter".  It's available now for early adopters and for everyone soon. Clutter can be turned on or off for a particular user. It creates a clutter folder that learns from your activities. Marking an email as "clutter" in the inbox or dragging and dropping it to the clutter folder in outlook will "train" the clutter algorithm what stuff you still want to see (haven't marked as junk) but "clutters" up your inbox. This is similar to tools from Google that try to categorize incoming mail and from Inbox that tries to hide "junky" looking mail in favor of actual communications.  The tool will learn from your behaviors and what things you consider clutter and apply those algorithms as it goes along.
• Delve - Delve allows you to search across documents and emails - organization wide - for information (dependent on permissions).   Delve is in it's early stages but eventually could be key to sorting through tremendous amounts of information that are generated in a typical oneDrive/Yammer/Exchange/SharePoint environment.
• Skype/Lync integration - announced but not yet active Microsoft is going to merge the popular Skype program (and it's ability to make VOIP calls to other Skype users and even to normal cell and POTS telephones) with Lync (a free messaging app included in office365) to provide a more integrated universal messaging platform.  Hopefully they will take the best of both worlds and improve them - merging Skype's ubiquitous and easy to use client with Lync's excellent web conferencing and presentation capabilities and integrate them all into the new Skype for Business.

All of these improvements are FREE and added automatically to your system - they are either there already and just need to be activated or - if you turn on "early adopter" mode will be there.  OS-Cubed is a Silver Cloud Partner in the Microsoft Cloud partner program with several hundred mailboxes under management and dozens of implementations and migrations under their belt. If you're interested in what it would take to migrate to office365, contact us!

Microsoft significantly changes Office365 licensing

Microsoft, as Microsoft is want to do, has again changed the rules for Office365 licensing

This has ramifications for both existing and new clients

In a move that has both advantages and disadvantages for consumers of Office365 products, Microsoft has shuffled the licensing for Office365 significantly, introducing a new product mix, and changing the way existing product mixes work. This has ramifications for both new and existing customers so best to be sure you understand it.

First the good

Increased max count

In the old office365 world there were small business licenses up to 25 users, and midsize business up to 150.  These numbers have fluctuated and changed over time and the result has been very confusing.  They have done away with this distinction now.  All businesses up to 300 licenses can purchase the small business line of products. This makes it much easier for a company to carefully craft a set of licenses that meets their needs, and opens up the market for the less expensive licenses for many midsize businesses who could not utilize them in the past due to cost constraints of the more expensive midsize and enterprise business license.

Mixing and matching

In the old Office365 world you could not mix and match small business, midsize business and enterprise licenses.  This caused untold consternation when you exceeded the max licensing, or needed a product for one or two clients out of your install with more advanced features. This is no longer the case - you can now mix and match both small/midsize business and enterprise licenses. They have removed the Small/Midsize division and made ONE product line called "Small Business" and ONE product line called "Enterprise".   Companies cannot own more than 300 instances of a Small Business license, Enterprise licenses are unlimited in the number you can buy.  So you can now mix and match and choose products from any of the business lines as needed, as long as you don't exceed the max license limit in any one line.  This is a real bonus as they have also changed the way offline office works so that in some cases you may be required to purchase enterprise licenses now.

License office without email

Some businesses wanted the ability to license MS office on an ongoing basis without paying for an email box. They might already have an internal email server, or are using a different product for email.  You can now - through office365 acquire an office license without online storage or email accounts.  This allows companies doing mass deployments of office upgrades, or those that don't need email to take advantage of licensing office through the cloud.  Remember that each of these licenses allows 5 installs!

More office options

In the old world you either got offline office, or you didn't and if you did get it you got the whole shebang - the full office professional with all the bells and whistles. This was different from their normal process of selling office in that they had tiered the product - with a lower end offering that didn't include Access and InfoPath, and a higher end offering that included these products. The good news is that they now offer an office small business and an office enterprise - distinguishing these products from each other. The bad news I will cover in the next section.

1TB of storage in the cloud

Microsoft now offers ALL office365 email users 1TB of offline storage. That's 1000GB of storage in the cloud PER MAILBOX. That's an unprecedented amount of space, which any user uses. At the $5/month $60/year level you can't even buy that much storage from Amazon Web Services or Azure for a year - without the mailbox.  It's a bold move and one that may spell (for professional use) the end of products like Dropbox.

Buy Office365 from a reseller and use a PO rather than a credit card

You can now buy all but the Kiosk licenses (see below) from a reseller as an open office license. These licenses get applied to your online account, and must be re-purchased each year from your reseller - unlike the credit card accounts they will not renew automatically.  Resellers must be Microsoft Cloud Authorized resellers (Like OS-Cubed, Inc.).

The Bad News

Microsoft has made full office more expensive

If you need all office has to offer (including Microsoft Access) you have no choice now but to buy the full enterprise office at $20/month. They have replace the $12.50/month slot with the small business office which does not include MS Access. Now a lot of clients don't need Access so their price won't change they will just lose the ability to run Access on their machines. But for small business or midsize business clients who do need MS Access on their workstations they are looking at a rather hefty $7.50/month additional charge per set of 5 licenses to use this ability.  This amounts to an additional $90/year to get ONE new office app.  For many clients this is no big deal, but for those that use Access it could get quite expensive. If you had the full 25 Office365 pro plus licenses and need them all to have Access you're talking an extra $2250/year.  That's not chump change for a small business.  Note however that even at $240/year it's still an incredible deal.  You are getting full blown Microsoft Office with 5 licenses to install for the price of less than one over-the-counter license.  You are in addition getting the full-blown all access Microsoft sharepoint, 1TB of storage, yammer, lync, etc.  This is still an awesome deal. It's just too bad that they decided to screw the high end of existing small business subscribers to set it up this way.

Microsoft is not honoring their initial commitment to clients

Once your current subscription runs out - you won't be able to just renew it and continue to enjoy it's benefits.  You will have to purchase one of the new licenses and either suffer a downgrade of office without Access or pay more to get an enterprise pro license.  This sucks.  I think Microsoft should have continued to honor their initial sales of office365 pro to small and midsize businesses as long as they continued to use them.  If they want to buy NEW licenses - sure put them in the new pricing scheme. Why does this suck (beyond the obvious additional expense)?  Office365 was sold with the express idea that it would give you a predictable monthly outlay for your needs.  And then they went and removed that benefit by changing the pricing.  If they can just change (upwards) the pricing any time they want - how is that predictable? How are companies to trust them that they won't increase prices again?  I think this was a very bad move on Microsoft's part. We'll see if outcry from customers as their contracts come up for renewal pushes them to modify this policy.  The bad taste left in people's mouths from having to pay more feels a lot like a bait and switch technique.  One even wonders if attorney generals might end up getting involved.

The breakdown:

Here is the new (simplified) table of options available from Microsoft

Office small business (limited to up to 300 users):

Business essentials (no offline office, 50GB mailbox, 1TB storage, online office): $5/month
Office365 business (No mailbox, 1TB of offline storage, Office small business (no Access), no lync): $8.25/month
Business premium (50GB mailbox, 1TB offline storage, Office small business (no Access): $12.50/month

Office Enterprise (unlimited users):

Office Kiosk K1: 2GB mailbox, no offline storage, no access to sharepoint: $2/month
Office Kiosk K2: 2GB mailbox, No offline storage, Access to sharepoint, access to office online: $4/month
Office Enterprise E1: (No offline office, 1TB Storage, sharepoint, Lync, etc): $8/month
Office Enterprise ProPlus: (No mailbox, Office pro subscription with access, no offline storage, no access to sharepoint, no lync) $12/month
Office Enterprise E3: (Full office pro, 50GB mailbox, 1tb storage, access to sharepoint, lync,
yammer): $20/month

When will this affect me?

If you are a current subscriber and your yearly renewal is after October 1, 2015 you will be forced to renew under the new licensing.  Any renewals in this next year will include your old licensing. If you renew after that date you will be forced into the new licensing. If you are a small business expiring just after that date and Microsoft Access is important to your business you may wish to look into renewing early so you get another year out of the license.

If you are a new subscriber you can no longer get the old licensing plans.  You must choose one of these options. 

Summary

As you can see if you need offline Access expect to pay $20/month after your current subscription expires.  I haven't explored it yet, but it's possible if you're a small business you could buy a $5 business essentials account (for up to 300 users) and a $12 Office pro plus account (remember you get 5 installs per account) and get similar functionality for $17/month.  The only downside would be missing some esoteric and infrequently used functions such as voicemail integration, forensics and other high end exchange functions. 

Why is Hewlett Packard already lying to partners?

Hewlett Packard has announced it is splitting it's enterprise/server division off from it's consumer products division.  In this statement from Meg Whitman she claims that it will be business as usual for partners, and that nothing changes.  Unfortunately this is totally a lie.  Within days of announcing the split they also announced the fact that they were creating a set of new requirements to sell ANY HP Printer toner or ink supplies.  Partners now have to sell at least $100,000 a year in HP product to qualify to sell ink or toner supplies.  Small partners like OS-Cubed, Inc. don't do that kind of volume.  So despite a 3 company, 30 year relationship with HP and Compaq for all their products we will no longer be selling or recommending HP printers to our clients.  We won't even be able to buy supplies for the printer we own through our distributor.

Why are they doing this?  The only answer can be to drive up the cost of printer and toner to consumers.  By narrowing the competitive field for supply resale they can more closely control margins and sale prices.  By driving people to big-box stores they can push deeper discounts on the printers (many large stores sell them at a loss) because they know that their customers won't go buy the supplies at another location.

I of course can still sell the printers themselves.  But the margin on those is miniscule because, as I said big box stores sell them at a loss and make up the loss in supply sales.

I cannot fathom why HP is doing this, but it really makes me worried. I like HP, and always have. We EXCLUSIVELY sell their PCs, Laptops and Servers  and . And yet... will they now squeeze me out of sales of those products too because I'm not a high volume purchaser?  Will I be forced to find other vendors? This first move is not promising.  It's not promising for consumers either because let's face it - big box stores just don't offer the service and expertise that a small reseller can provide.

In the next 12 months we will see.  HP absorbed Compaq and there were some pretty serious disruptions when this occurred. I almost cancelled my 15 year relationship with them then, and had to escalate some issues to the vice-presidential level at HP to get them resolved. I will be watching closely and evaluating competing products, vendors and providers over the next few months.  If I see more restrictions or volume requirements on HPs part I will be (sadly) looking to change vendors. This can only hurt HP because small dealers with a lot of expertise like ours are what keep them in front of SMB clients. These clients trust us to recommend a product they can depend on - and to depend on the product we need to be able to depend on our provider - depend on them not to jerk the rug out from under us after we've been selling their product for them for 30 years.

What would you say to $2000 worth of software for $150/year?

Microsoft Office365 will give you $2000 worth of Office licenses for $150/year. 

With their Small business Microsoft Office 365 premium plan you pay no upfront licensing costs, $150/year and get 5 copies of Office 2013 pro (or whatever the current version of Office is).  You also get 1TB of storage for files, and a 50GB mailbox with full calendaring, web mail, mobile mail and outlook support.  You get the equivalent of GoToMeeting in a professional web meeting format, with audio, video, screen sharing and session recordings (Lync).  You get secure instant messaging.  You get online web versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote.  It works in IE, in Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox.  It works with your full Outlook, or with third party email clients.  For $150.   You get your OWN email domain with your own domain name. You get sharepoint online for internal communications. You get a website in the cloud if you don't already have one.  All bundled into ONE product at a ridiculously low price.  To put this in perspective for the full retail cost of 5 copies of office professional 2013 you could instead get all of this for the next 13 years and 4 months.  And that's not even counting the mailbox and mail, the web enabled versions, the 1TB of storage or the 50GB mailbox.  Did I mention all your mail will be virus and spam filtered?  No? Well it will be.

Seriously if you use Office AT ALL this is a no brainer deployment.  Don't need more than the 5 copies of office?  You can mix and match with $60/year mailbox and web only accounts.  Over 25 mailboxes - the same thing is $15/month/mailbox for midsize businesses (though midsize business doesn't have a mix and match option).. 

Need even more flexibility for licensing and email options for $20/month/mailbox you can mix and match enterprise plans that range from $2/month for limited email only to the full $20/month for Office365 Premium.

Contact OS-Cubed today to learn about how to get Office365.  I seriously want to save you tons of money, and we are experts at deployment/conversion.

Microsoft License Compliance....

If you are like many small business customers you probably have wondered - am I in license compliance with Microsoft?  Do I legally own all the software I am using?  If you are NOT wondering these things - you should.  One of my clients got an audit notice the other day from Microsoft requesting that they update them on Microsoft licensing status.  Fortunately this client was good to go - they'd been aggressively being sure that all their machines were compliant, and all we had to do was document some OEM licenses and send a report on to Microsoft for the rest.  But not everyone is in that boat.  One company came to me after they'd received that audit notice in the mail - they had 6 licenses for Microsoft office - and 26 installs.  Not good. Turned out 5 of them were OEM, so that was ok - but the other 16 licenses were illegal.  Bringing them into compliance represented a one time purchase of 16 licenses for Office Professional.  Not an inexpensive day for them at nearly $8000.  The problem with post-install compliance is that you have to retroactively buy the licenses for the most current version of the software (Because you typically can't buy say office 2010 once office 2013 has been released) and you must buy the downgradeable Software Assurance licenses - the most expensive way of upgrading Microsoft has.  There are lots of options but it's almost always better to assess and upgrade or become compliant BEFORE Microsoft Audits you.

So how do you assess your risk?  Fortunately Microsoft has a standalone tool (That's right it does NOT phone home and tattle on you about your licenses) that will assess your Windows Active Directory network and tell you exactly what licenses you have, and which machines or operating systems can be upgraded. It also helps you plan out several scenarios for virtualizing or moving to a private or public cloud install for your existing infrastructure.  The product is called MAPS - Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit and you can download it here.

We use MAPS when planning out office365 migrations to assess the number of office licenses a client might need, versions we're migrating from, etc. 

MAPS is self installing and self contained - you can run it on any server or workstation in your network.  If you need help planning a migration, assistance with becoming compliant, or help in assessing your systems for upgrades or licensing, please give us a call.

It's that time of year again - FIRST Robotics in St. Louis - Penfield Robotics

FIRST Robotics Team 1511 is again competing in St. Louis.  This year the local news caught one of our drive team members as they were entering the field:



(Look for the Red Camo).

You can watch the team compete on the the NASA TV channel on the Newton field.

OS-Cubed, Inc. Announces Microsoft Silver Partner and Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Status

Rochester, NY, USA— February 24, 2014 — OS-Cubed, Inc., today announced it has qualified as a member of the Microsoft Cloud Accelerate program by demonstrating its ability to meet Microsoft’s customers evolving needs in today’s dynamic cloud marketplace. To qualify for the Cloud Accelerate program, partners must successfully demonstrate their cloud services expertise through rigorous sales and technical assessments; and ensure the highest quality of services, Microsoft requires customer references to demonstrate successful customer implementations and satisfaction.  OS-Cubed, Inc. is also a Microsoft Silver Competency qualified partner.

OS-Cubed, Inc. formed in 2006, is a development and managed support services company specializing in Microsoft technology based software and infrastructure.  The company provides services to a wide variety of clients across the region and the country.  With dozens of company’s email and cloud services under management – Microsoft has recognized OS-Cubed’s expertise as one of a select few who provide services at the highest level.  Approximately 1000 resellers in the entire world qualify as Cloud Accelerate partners.

 “Joining the Cloud Accelerate Program showcases our expertise in today’s cloud technology market and demonstrates our knowledge of Microsoft’s Cloud solutions,” said Lee Drake, CEO.  “Our clients expect the best support, and the smoothest migration when they move their email infrastructure to the cloud, and OS-Cubed, Inc. has provided that from the very inception of the program – even participating in the beta release of Microsoft Cloud Technologies”.

“Converting to Office365 and cloud technology from our old e-mail platform was one of the smartest decisions we’ve made as a medical practice.” said Laurie Amico, office manager for AAIR, PC. - an OS-Cubed customer.  “We rely heavily on e-mail communication for our growing practice of 5 offices, 10 providers and 70 staff members.  We have close to 100 e-mail accounts and I needed a more efficient, cost effective way to be able to manage that and add new accounts quickly.   The transition went smoothly and the platform is everything OS-Cubed said and more!”
Microsoft Silver Competency partner OS-Cubed, Inc, located at 274 N. Goodman St, Suite A401 in Rochester, NY provides development and technical support services for clients across the US.  In addition, they are experts at development for DotNetNuke, an open source, Microsoft technology based web content management platform.  Among the hundreds of sites under development by OS-Cubed are www.thompsonhealth.com, www.lasermax.com, www.spectracomcorp.com and www.frameofchoice.com. OS-Cubed recently completed major migrations of email  and files for companies such as Allergy, Asthma, Immunology of Rochester (AAIR), and ATD Precision.

Why estimates aren't free - A Prezi presentation

Access Apps in Office365 - this is huge!

For years migrating applications from desktop databases like Microsoft Access to the web has been an expensive and time consuming process.  Typically these apps need to be ported to SQL Server, custom forms and reports developed, and tons of translating between "stuff you can do on a desktop database" and "stuff you can do on the web".

Microsoft has now released, free to all Microsoft Office365 users, the ability to port an Access application, complete with forms, database tables, reports, etc. directly to the web.  This lets them begin using a shared web-based database almost instantly, without coding.  It lowers the threshhold for office-accessible secure web based databases.

This series of videos shows how simple it is to create tables, add reports, and port the entire thing to the web in a matter of minutes.  You can create Access apps directly on the web, or in Access offline and move them to the web.

There are limitations to the online version of Access, especially when it comes to imports.  This chart from the Microsoft Learning center shows what you can do with online and offline access:

External data operations available in apps and desktop databases

This table gives you a quick reference of which kinds of files you can import or link to Access apps or desktop databases.

	ACCESS APPS CAN IMPORT…	ACCESS APPS CAN LINK TO…	DESKTOP DATABASES CAN IMPORT…	DESKTOP DATABASES CAN LINK TO…
Microsoft Excel				(read-only)
Microsoft Access
ODBC Databases
Text or comma-separated value (CSV) files				(add new records only)
SharePoint List		(read-only)
XML
Data Services				(read-only)
HTML Document
Outlook folder

These databases aren't suitable for everyone - you need to figure out the best solution for your needs.  But this is a new, surprising development, offered free to Office365 pro users, that will push your database requirements online faster.

OS-Cubed is a Microsoft Cloud Accelerate partner, and are experts at Office 365 database development and design.  Contact us to chat about your requirements.

One easy test to see if the website development company you are hiring is a professional

Would you believe there is one easy test to tell if a website development company you are working with is a professional or not?  And it takes just a couple minutes of your time.  I'm assuming if you're reading this that you might be shopping for a website developer - someone to take your site to the next level.  I'm also assuming you want to hire someone professional - someone who has your company's best interests at heart and wants to create for you the very best website to accomplish your goals.

A website development company should be all about YOU - the customer.  Not about them, or their aggrandizement - and thus we come to the one thing you can easily check about a website development company to determine if they are the kind of company you want to work with:

Do they insist on, or automatically, put their own link on your website?

You've probably seen it before.  Embedded somewhere at the bottom of someone's site in tiny print "Website designed by XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", with a link back to the website company.  I guarantee you that a website development or design company that insists on their own branding on a site that they developed for YOU for YOUR branding does not have your best interests at heart.  They are thinking of themselves - not you - when they add that tagline.  They should be confident enough in the results of their development effort that they KNOW you will talk about your positive experience with them and tell others.  They should be confident enough in their own website, and marketing efforts that they don't have to resort to virally spreading their reputation by embedding it in their customer's sites - frequently without their permission or knowledge.

The only exception I can think of to this rule would be if the website development company is specifically offering a trade, which frequently happens on not-for-profit sites.  We will do a development effort for you at a significant discount, if we can advertise our effort on the site.  But other than that - there is really no good reason to have someone else's name and branding on your site.

So go look at your own site - does it have your web developer's link on it?  Might be time to shop for a new developer.  Looking for a developer? Check other sites they've done and/or do a google search for their site name - if other companies have their signature at the bottom, move on.  Look more until you find a company confident enough to develop sites without putting their own stamp on them.

Why Wearable Tech is Here to Stay

Lately the news has been buzzing with the latest in wearable devices.  Devices such as Google Glass, integrated watches by Samsung, Apple and other vendors, Vuzix Goggles (a Rochester, NY company) and Oculus Rift are starting to enter mainstream vocabulary.  Prototypes and beta software are starting to roll out and consumers and developers are getting to start to play with these devices hands on.  Some companies are even looking at creating heads up contact lenses!

This has all happened before of course - we've seen everything from surround vision helmets to heads up displays.  But never before has the actual technology really met the expectations of potential users -  whether it's limited use scenarios, bulky or cumbersome form factors, or poor integration and adoption by other platforms - many such ventures have started and fizzled.

So why is this time different?  Well there are a few reasons:

• Between advances in optics, small screen and flat panel displays, and miniaturization of essential components the visual aspect of the interfaces have gotten smaller, more useable, and more convenient.
• The ubiquity of extremely powerful cell phone devices means that processing and communications can be offloaded to that device, rather than needing to be integrated into the wearable platform.
• The improvement in wireless communications reduces  the size, and increases the range of components.
• People's addiction to ever-present ever-accessible media, through the use of always on and always connected internet devices has increased to the point where people crave the convenience of making that as quickly accessible as possible.
• Current interface methods through products like phones require hands-on interaction and attention distracting form factors.
• Voice recognition - by uploading to the cloud and analyzing in real time - has improved dramatically.
• Battery technology is improving dramatically making use of such devices more convenient.
• Movie media has started to prepare people for this reality.  We see fanciful interfaces in movies that mimic the interfaces that these devices give us - and we want them.

So are the new wearable devices perfect yet?  Not by any means.  While the hardware is starting to catch up there are software and social aspects that must be overcome.  How will having an always on and available camera change the way people interact?  If anything you say might be recorded and uploaded to the internet in real time - how will that change society?  There is significant social resistance to people using products like Glass and those issues will need to be addressed if it's to succeed.  And there are still plenty of technological issues to overcome.

I say to you though - these advances are inevitable.  Rather than railing against them your time might be better spent determining how to make best of use of them. Outside the personal use of such devices - the business uses are outstanding.  Imagine a tech having all his manuals and instructions available at will, and having both their hands free.  Imagine being able to shop or price compare by just looking at the bar code on a product.  Record a meeting for playback later rather than taking notes.  Video your professor in class.  Imagine your UPS or FEDEX person abandoning their scanner and just snapping a photo of the package barcode, and recording the GPS coordinates of the delivery.  These are all very real and very doable scenarios without any significant improvement in existing technology.

The advent of prescription wearable tech from Rochester Optical (another Rochester Company) for heads up display is particularly exciting - since the wearers of that tech are already used to having glasses, adding a heads up display is no leap for them - they are used to the idea.  Fashion designers have been pushing glasses as fashion accessories rather than for vision correction - paving the way for the addition of Google Glass and other displays into the world of non-prescription glass wearers.

So with wearable tech being inevitable - how are you planning to leverage that with your new products?  Is there a way you can enhance the use of your product with wearable tech?  Provide an alternate interface or display screen?  Integrate heads up vision?  Are you ready for this revolution and tapping it's potential fully?  OS-Cubed is - ask us how!