Office 365 Newswire: Google Apps versus Office 365 – 11.21.2011

We’re off to a great start with both editions of the Newswire (Office 365 and Office). It’s hard to believe it, but this week’s edition of the Office 365 Newswire is ready to go!

I’ve heard the comments from the forums and the Interweb. The number one question raised over the last week is:

“How do you decide what makes the Newswire?”

I’ll admit that this was the only question raised. I won’t tell who asked it. Okay, it was my wife…which makes it all the more a relevant question.

No doubt she raised a question that is on everyone’s mind, so I’ll answer it.

Here are the guidelines that determine if an item is “Newswire-worthy”:

• It is relevant to the topic
• It is recent (or fairly recent…I get to determine what is recent)
• I think it is interesting
• I think you might think it is interesting

So…there you have it. Oh, and I get to do some editorializing along the way.

Moving on now….

Google Apps versus Office 365

You read enough news and you start to notice patterns…or trends. Over the past week I think it is fair to say there is a certain “rough and tumble” or “smack-down” going on between Google and Microsoft over their cloud-based Office solutions. I’ve done my best to cull the list down to the best articles:

• Office in the Cloud: A “just-the-facts” breakdown that compares and contrasts the main topics of user interface, system requirements, document creation, & pricing. If I were the author’s editor, I’d ask for more details about the user experience…you know…how good is it? But if you are in a hurry, read this one.
• Google vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds Are Created Equal: If you are not in a hurry, grab some coffee and sit down for a thoughtful read. This article is from Wired. It’s thoughtful…which means its long…but it’s good. The plot is thus…Microsoft’s software is traditionally an on-premise play. Google’s is the opposite. One is evil. One is not. There can be only one!
• Mixed Results as Google Enters Microsoft's Turf: The New York Times weighs in with a profile of a 1,400-2,800 employee company (I couldn’t tell for sure) and their move to Google Docs. This is another article that cares more about the battle than the actual software. However, there are a few good quotes about the software from the profiled company.
• Despite push, Google Apps not gaining on Microsoft Office: Mixed results, or just not gaining ground at all? This plot has more twist and turns than a Stieg Larsson novel. I’ll spoil the plot. Small and medium-sized business adoption is one thing…but the big kahunas are the enterprise-scale businesses. This is where Microsoft wins (but with their on-premise versions) and Google loses. But don’t let me spoil it. This is a good article…but again, it is more about the business of the software and not the actual software.

What do the companies actually using Office 365 or Google Apps have to say about the software’s impact on their business?

• Does the software work?
• Do they like it?
• Do they communicate better?
• Has productivity improved?
• What do they want to see next?

I’ll find out and report back.

Office 365 Recipient Limits

It’s a dirty secret (hidden in fine print) trying to find the light. It turns out Office 365 limits the number of recipients you can send email to per day. If you are a business that markets yourself via email newsletter this might be an important detail that should be made conspicuous! Especially given that internal emails count against the quota!

Here are two articles that discuss the situation. The first is by the great Ed Bott and is a fine piece of journalism. The second is Microsoft’s explanation.

• Small businesses, beware the Office 365 fine print (Ed Bott)
• Understanding Recipient Rate Limits in Office 365 (MSFT)

Let’s take a look at what’s new in the tool shed.

Tools

The following items are this week’s “tools-of-interest” for Office 365. I might, or might not, have any experience with them so use your discerning eye to decide if they will be useful to you. I offer no warranties!

• CKS Office 365 Edition: The SharePoint Community Kit for Office 365. This version is not as full-featured as the version for SharePoint 2010 on-premise…but it is a start and contains tools for an Office 365-based public-facing website.
• Solution Installer for Office 365 SharePoint Online: This utility offers some help uploading custom SharePoint Online solutions to the SharePoint Online Solution Gallery. Once installed, you can call it via a post-build activity in Visual Studio 2010. Sounds useful to me.
• View Storage Usage: A nice utility that shows a graphical view of quota usage within SharePoint Online.

That’s it and that’s all. And it’s only the morning.