Business is better with Office 365: Introducing Office 2016 Webcast Q/A

imageGood afternoon everyone!  Tim, Rob and I had the chance to answer questions on a customer facing webcast: Business is better with Office 365.  Everyone had great questions and I think we typed non-stop for the entire webcast.   I believe the Q/A list provides some insights into the types of solutions and technologies our customers are interested in when it comes to Office 365.   Here are some the questions from the Q/A log…enjoy:

Q: I do not see Office 2016 in the Office 365 portal, how can I selectively provide it before full release?
A: This should help: Prepare to update Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version   You will also want to checkout How do I update Office to Office 2016 using Office 365 for business?  This article addresses Office 365 Business which is a slightly different upgrade path than Office 365 ProPlus.

Q: Our business is highly mobile. Is there a way to have a shared drive that acts as a live network drive on a laptop and is also accessible via a web browser when needed?
A: Yes, via SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business you can have shared files that are accessible via the cloud from anywhere and then you can sync this locally to use locally like you would a network drive.

Q: Is it now possible to selectively choose to download files to OneDrive (keeping a link on the computer but the main file on OneDrive's cloud.
A: We announced the next version of the OneDrive Sync client that will give you capabilities like this.  You can learn more here: https://blog.onedrive.com/i-sync-therefore-i-am/  You can sign up for the preview here: https://preview.onedrive.com/sync 

Q: Is there SharePoint Folder Synchronization on Macintosh?
A: You can find out all the specific features of Office for Mac here: https://products.office.com/en-us/mac/microsoft-office-for-mac .  The preview also supports both PC and Mac, take a look here to sign up: https://blog.onedrive.com/i-sync-therefore-i-am/

Q: Where can I find general/specific information about deployment of Office 365?
A: Here are two great articles: Prepare to update Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version and Getting started guide for deploying Office 365 ProPlus

Q: We currently are using E2 plan, does this include the office 2016 web and desktop?
A: The Office 2016 desktop apps are only included in E3/E4 or in standalone Office 365 ProPlus. For the Business Plans it is included in Office 365 Business and Office 365 Business Premium. E2 is no longer available. The Enterprise line-up includes E1, E3, E4. For a nice comparison take a look here: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/compare-more-office-365-for-business-plans

Q: How is Skype integrated in office365?
A: 'Skype for Business' is a component of Office 365 and is integrated nicely with Office SharePoint etc. You can see presence and kick off IM and audio/ video from with Office apps and SharePoint.

Q: When I recommend to my team that we collaborate with Office 365 should I recommend to them to collaborate in an Office 365 Group and use the new Outlook Groups app or should I recommend to them we collaborate in a Yammer Group with the Yammer mobile app? Which should I choose and why?
A: This answer should go either way. I leverage both Outlook and Yammer. I prefer Yammer for collaboration where I want to go back and look at prior discussions. Yammer will keep the history of the discussions in a more manageable way than managing your Inbox. My old method of collaboration with Outlook was to archive my discussions for search later. Yammer has that built in so I no longer have to archive the discussions on my own.

Q: We use Dropbox and we are looking to move to Office 365 and incorporate One Drive for File sharing. Can we use it for Teams and also as a personal Level?
A: Yes - with One Drive for Business you can securely share files or folders from your personal account with your team.

Q: How usable is Office 365 and Office 2016 for Mac Users?
A: We have a great Mac experience for Office 2016 and Office 365. Our goal is providing a very good experience across all of our supported platforms. If you haven't tried Office 2016 on the Mac yet please give it a try I believe you will be very pleased with the capabilities provided.

Q: What changes are there in Access 2016?
A: This is a good overview: What's new in Access 2016

Q: Does Outlook 2016 offer keyword or key phrase search capabilities for compliance requirements?
A: Yes, we recently announced this: Introducing Compliance Search in Office 365

Q: How do we know which Office 365 plan to choose?
A: Take a look here: Office 365 Service Comparison Web Site

Q: Is Microsoft planning to offer dial-in capabilities for Skype for Business?
A: We do have this on our roadmap soon but there is no ETA to share.

Q: How many versions of a document are retained in OneDrive for business? (version history) Is it unlimited versions?
A: I am not sure how many versions are kept but here is a good blog talking about multiple prior versions. OneDrive Saved me with cloud Document Version History

Q: What changes are there in Excel 2016?
A: This is a good overview: What's new in Excel 2016 for Windows

Q: Where can I find the HIPAA compliance statement for Office 365?
A: Here is a page that will have info on HIPAA and compliance: Office 365 for Health.  You will also want to check out this great resource as well: Office 365 & Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online HIPAA/HITECH frequently asked questions

Q: Since Office 365 can be utilized on all employee devices what is the security provided that when an employee leaves we can swipe anything that was accessed from their hand held devices and access?
A: We have a great answer but it extends beyond just Office 365. When you add the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) with O365 you have the granularity to classify documents so when an employee leaves the company, the company data can be selectively wiped from their devices. You can learn more about EMS here: Enterprise Mobility overview | Microsoft

Q: Can SharePoint and OneDrive be used concurrently or is it recommended to use one or the other for business/office environments?
A: Yes, they can be used concurrently and meant to be used together. OneDrive for Business is user's personal document library and SharePoint Online is intended for teams allowing keeping teams in sync. In a nutshell OneDrive for Business is for storing and sharing personal files and docs. SharePoint Online for storing and sharing files and docs across teams.

Q: Is there a need to keep an on-premises file server and use the one drive sync tool so performance is not affected? How are mapped drives replaced with this solution?
A: Many customers find that keeping an on-premises file server together with OneDrive and SharePoint. OneDrive and SharePoint are primarily aimed at documents you want to share and collaborate on. You are also able to map network drives to SharePoint take a look here to learn more: How to configure and to troubleshoot mapped network drives that connect to SharePoint Online sites in Office 365

Hester_Matt-5330

Matt Hester
Sr. Partner Technology Strategist