Office 365 Newswire: The benefits of CRM integration with Office 365 – 2.17.2012
When I attended elementary school, we would have a short little Valentine’s party each Valentine’s day. I was required to give everyone in my class a Valentine. These were typically somewhat lame cards that included a terrible but benign joke. I assume this was so that 1) everyone was included and 2) no feelings were hurt.
The valentines were exchanged at the end-of-the day during a 
short party. Sometimes we received candy at the party. We all went home happy and life moved on.
Fast forward what seems like a couple of lifetimes and the rules have changed. Sure, the basics are the same. Everyone receives a card from everyone else. The cards have lame jokes that you try very hard not to laugh at but fail.
What’s different is the loot!
My kids arrived home from school on 2.14 and each had more candy than all of three of them combined could haul-in during Halloween. Holy cow!
I’m not complaining as I’m all the better for it. I’ve had M&Ms & Butterfingers for breakfast the last couple of days. Today, I’m enjoying some sugar cookies with coffee. It’s the breakfast of champions. I’m okay with myself. I hope you’re okay with yourself too.
Now for today’s Office 365 Newswire
I’ll admit that each of these articles have some informative information. Actually, that’s what information is… informative. It’s useful. Each of these articles are useful in their own way. For today’s newswire, these articles also allow me to riff and offer my own thoughts and opinions without requiring me to write 15 or more articles. The way this works is I use the headline to make my own comments. It’s a good system as it allows me to work out some of my early morning grumpiness.
Office 365 news!
- The benefits of CRM integration with Office 365 :: Well I think if you took the time to write a list of these benefits they would match nicely with the points made here. But if it’s too early in the morning to make a list or event to think, just read this article. Be sure and check the links embedded in the article… especially the one to this video. The only bad news is you need the enterprise plan for this to work.
- Why small businesses should dump Exchange for Office 365 :: I didn’t read this article. I list it here so I can very quickly offer my own answer. Dump it so you don’t have to mess with it! You mean it only costs something like $6 per user and I don’t have to worry about spam filters, hardware, service packs, hot fixes, et. al.? Microsoft… you got yourself a deal!
- How the cloud helps small businesses :: I think the item above clears this up nicely. Especially so when add my comments about the above item. This isn’t rocket surgery. If you take away only the time spent trying to keep internal infrastructure running and figured the cost associated with it, then it is obvious how the cloud benefits small businesses. But if you want some nice stats and an infographic (and, c’mon, who doesn’t?) then read this article.
- The total economic impact of MSFT Office 365 :: I’m sensing a theme today already. “The Small Biz benefits of the Cloud” or “The Cloud lifts Small Business” or “Small Business Owners put their head in the Cloud… and the like it!”. And if the numbers don’t lie and the 321 % ROI with a payback period of 2 months is true… well Shazam! This cloud stuff is turning into a no-brainer.
Right… sure it is. But what do we do with our existing infrastructure and how do we migrate? Well that’s not a no-brainer but the next item provides some insight into a key component. - Microsoft’s Windows Azure active directory plans takes shape :: Active Directory in the cloud? You mean I can dump my Windows Servers and maintain all our accounts in the (unfortunately acronymed) WAAD? Microsoft… you got yourself a deal? No word if that is exactly how it will work but I hope it does.
Office 365 tips, tricks & tools
- Customize SharePoint Online with SharePoint Designer :: From MSDN,this is a long article but it is thorough. Master Pages, Custom Page layouts, no-code solutions, custom branding, and more. Read this and you will know what is possible and how to do most of it.
- Use Lync to record your online meetings :: Hit this button and you can keep playing solitaire and pay attention when ou are ready to pay attention.
- Create a simple workflow for SharePoint Online, Office 365 :: In the future, we will all be replaced by robots. Until then, at least we have workflow.
- 15 considerations for SharePoint Online Office 365 :: Some good points to think through if you trying to decide if you should or shouldn’t adopt SharePoint Online.
- Switching to Office 365’s Outlook Web App :: I use Office 365 and don’t think using the Outlook Web App is much different from using Outlook. But if you are new to Outlook, this is a nice nuts & bolts article. And the comments are interesting. Always fun to learn how others use software.
Office 365 developer & IT admin items of note
Not many in this section but I believe the second item makes up for it.
- Configuring My Sites to route to on-premise SharePoint :: From the forums, a very good question. The conversation is ongoing so keep checking to see how this turns out.
- Custom web services with SharePoint Online for Office 365 :: Code! Yes sirree we have a solid code article today from CodeProject.com. I like this article because the author shows how to over come the limitation that prevents us from deploying an old-school web service with Sandbox Solutions. Love that… take that limitations!