On 21 April 2020, Office 365 will become Microsoft 365 Apps. According to Microsoft’s announcement, it will mean the same software at the same price but with more benefits.
Some of the benefits include:
- Seamlessly connect your financial accounts using Money in Excel to view, manage, and gain insights about your personal finances—all in one place.
- Get intelligent writing assistance in your documents, emails, websites, and more with Microsoft Editor.
- Access a growing catalogue of premium templates, fonts, and photos to create high-quality personalized content.
What is the difference between Office 365 and Office 2019?
Historically Microsoft Office was sold as a software package that was bought and installed with every new computer. The big challenge in companies was the compatibility of files between the different versions of Office as users shared them. In 2013, Microsoft released Office 365 as a subscription-based model, also known as software as a service (SaaS).
It is my personal experience that there are still many IT users in business that do not understand the difference between the two models. Here are the differences:
Microsoft promotes Office 365 as the primary means of purchasing Microsoft Office. There are still major releases roughly every three years (last one in 2019). Office 365 revenue overtook traditional license sales for Office in 2017.
What is Onedrive?
Microsoft OneDrive is the Microsoft App that allows you to save files in the cloud. It is online file storage that compares with DropBox and Google Drive. OneDrive comes with Office 365 (soon to be Microsoft 365 Apps) and allows for 1 TB of storage included in the subscription price.
What is Sharepoint and how does it compare to OneDrive?
Microsoft SharePoint is also online file storage that can be used as a secure place to store, organize, share, and access information from any device. It comes with the Business Premium and Business Essentials subscriptions.
The following description to compare OneDrive and SharePoint which I have read before makes the most sense to me: OneDrive is like having a file cabinet in your office. People can come in and look at the files in the cabinet when you allow them to, but it remains your filing cabinet. SharePoint is like having a walk-in safe with filing cabinets where everybody in the business can access them – they may still need keys to the safe and perhaps keys to specific cabinets, but it’s central.
The above was just some of the issues that I had to get grips on on my journey to get more tech savvy. I hope it helps someone else who are still struggling with the different concepts.
Useful links:
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