10 Reasons to

Consider Office 365

over Google Apps

The Ultimate Resource for Small to Medium-Sized

Businesses Looking to Implement a Web-Hosted

Office Solution

In today’s economic climate, independent businesses are looking for any edge they can get over the

competition – and often that means getting more done faster. Limited human resources means that

you can’t always add more man hours to a task, and although we may wish we could sometimes, it’s

not (yet) possible to add more hours to a day.

So, what has to change?

The answer is the productivity tools we are using. Although we can work so much more efficiently

than we could 20 years ago, thanks to the rise of the PC, the internet and software suites like

Microsoft Office, these tools need to keep getting smarter in terms of features and capability. But

also - and perhaps more importantly - they need to adapt to the new way of working that the vast

majority of us have adopted. That means allowing us to get as much possible done while out of the

office, either due to telecommuting or traveling for business. In short, we want to be as productive

sitting in a train, plane, coffee shop, lobby, hotel room, beach or home office as we would be sitting

at our desk in the office.

Microsoft understands this paradigm shift

Not only in the way that we work but also in how we communicate. As a result it has incorporated

the most important aspects of any professional’s digital life into one integrated package called Office

365. The name says it all- we can now truly work every day of the year (if we really have to!) from

virtually anywhere in the world at any time, even if we do not have access to the internet. And

because our time and your employee’s time is precious, there’s no need to re-learn any new of the

software – it’s the same intuitive interface that anyone who has used Microsoft Office before will be

familiar with.

Keep reading to learn more about Office 365’s advanced feature set, and why it is clearly the

better choice for your organisation when compared directly to Google Apps.

1. Your business information is private - keep it that way

Microsoft is a leader in enterprise –grade security and Office 365 certainly benefits from this by being

able to provide its users with enhanced security. Because Google is so well-known, you may be

forgiven for thinking that its security is also water-tight, but when we compare the two solutions side-

by-side, you will see this is not the case.

With Office 365 you never need to worry about version fidelity, as both on and offline

versions look the same, and are formatted exactly the same – so if

you are unable to connect to the internet for any reason, you can

Office 365 Google Apps

Enhanced security by design with

state-of-the-art data centres

Single Privacy policy shared across

business and consumer applications

Premium anti-spam and anti-virus

protection

States that Google may use

customer information they collect

to improve services (including

advertising)

No ambiguity in privacy policy

about how your data is used

Google offers basic group policies

in Google Apps, but not to as

granular as that what Office 365

provides

Separate architecture for business

and consumer services

Encrypted access to data

You maintain control over your

business information and data

2. Take Your Office with you Wherever You Go

Being out of the office is now no longer a reason for you or your employees to be any less productive

than being in the office. Office 365 allows you to work on documents collaboratively, join

conference calls, share desktops, and more from any PC, smartphone or tablet. Office 365 also excels

over Google Apps in its ability to avoid conflict issues between on and offline versions of files, as the

below screenshot illustrates.

still continue with what you’re doing with no hassle.

3. Less Time Switching Between Apps Means More Time Getting

Stuff Done

Do you ever get the feeling that you are spending more time switching between applications

on your desktop and phone than you are actually getting stuff done? Microsoft understands

that frustration, and as such, has created a fully integrated solution meaning you can video

conference, enter a meeting, or collaborate on a document in real time, all within the Office

365 application. Google Apps offers nowhere near the same rich, integrated functionality as

Office 365 and must rely on third-party solutions for core services and features such as video

conferencing and single sign on.

With Office 365 it’s possible to co-author a Word document in real-time making

collaboration with colleagues a more seamless, less awkward experience.

4. Familiarity Breeds Contempt. Actually, Familiarity Often

Makes Life Much Easier

With Office 365 you get the applications you are used to, plus the added benefit of

integrated online applications such as presence, instant messaging, video conferencing,

calendar exchange, and Outlook email. Minimal ramp up time means you and your staff will

be taking advantage of this powerful suite of tools instantly. With Google Apps, your users

will have to deal with learning a new interface, browser and plug-ins and will no doubt be

disappointed when they discover the suite lacks their favourite features.

Other downsides to Google Apps are:

Limited formatting options

File fidelity losses may occur even when using Cloud Conenct

Third-party tools such as OffiSync and Memeo are recommended for functionality

that Google Apps cannot provide, but Office 365 can

5. Make Sure Documents and Presentations Stay Beautiful

Don’t let the time you spend on the aesthetics of your documents and presentations go to

waste by having the recipient open and print them from Google Apps. Often this destroys

the integrity of the document by deleting or breaking advanced formatting features available

to you in Word and PowerPoint, such as Watermarks,

Tables of Contents, Headers and Footers, Page numbers, Bullet Points, Tables, and even

certain fonts and alignment formatting. The below screenshot shows the extent to which

documents can look differently when viewed in Office 365 versus Google Apps.

With Office 365, the document remains its integrity and therefore meaning. In the Google

Docs version, it is rendered virtually useless.

6. Advanced IT Functionality without the Clunky

With Office 365 you can easily manage users from day one, and scale up to meet advanced

IT needs as you grow. It is designed to be easy to administer, even if you don’t have a

dedicated IT staff. You can also get a professional-looking website at no extra cost, and host

it for free. You also benefit from seamless integration with the leading authentication

systems, and grant different levels of permissions to staff at the click of a button.

With Google Apps, you may find the functionality limiting – especially if you have advanced

IT needs. You also lack the ability to manage hybrid deployments, and may find yourself

needing to resort to third-party or DIY solutions. Furthermore Google provides limited site

management capability, and exposes you to unwanted security and compliance risks.

Definitely not the best way to rest easy at night!

7. Get a Solution that is both Cost-Effective and Flexible

Office 365 is the only solution that offers a hybrid for those aspects of your business that are

not yet ready for the cloud. Google’s “good enough” approach is simple, but that may not

satisfy all of your business needs, and you may have to end up looking elsewhere to find an

appropriate third-party solution. And even then, Google’s partner ecosystem is

understandably less developed than Microsoft’s Partner Network given the length of time it

has been making business applications (6 years versus Microsoft’s nearly 30 years’

experience).

8. Have Peace of Mind with a Financially-Backed 99.9% Service

Level Agreement

Microsoft is one of the very few cloud service providers that offers a financially-backed

service level agreement (SLA). This means your services are free when any Office 365 service

drops below 99.9% availability. This means that you can have total

confidence in your business-critical productivity services, unlike with Google who boost their

uptime figures by lumping together consumer and business services. They also test their

beta products with Google Apps users, but these are not covered by their SLA. And they

only offer service credits for any downtime at the end of your contract. Office 365’s SLA

covers every user and every component of the suite every day of the year.

The above dashboard gives total transparency for the health of the Office 365 service

9. Make Budgeting Easy with All-Inclusive Pricing

Office 365 has 4 pricing options to choose from depending on your business needs. Pricing

is on a monthly subscription basis, and you can easily scale up to other options, after trialing

them free for a month long period. With Google, you really don’t know what your total costs

are going to be as it isn’t an end-to-end solution, so you may find yourself shopping around

for add-on solutions that cost more than you bargained for. Here is the pricing chart for

Office 365:

10. Round-the-Clock Support from a Local Certified Microsoft

Partner

At Mustard IT, we pride ourselves on responding to our customer’s support request within

minutes. And we know our customers appreciate it as they repeatedly tell us that we are

faster at responding than other, often more expensive, IT support agencies. We are based in

Central London and Hertfordshire, so if in-person support is required, we can easily get to

you. But most of the time we can figure it out over the phone, and we are here 24/7, 365

days a year to help you when you need it.

Still Need More Convincing?

If you’re still not convinced, we suggest you get in touch for an initial consultation around

your particular IT needs and we can give you a more in-depth analysis of how Office 365 and

how it will help to make your company even more awesome.

Simply complete the short form on our website today, and we’ll get back to you right away.

Mustard IT - No-Nonsense IT Support

London Soho Office

Mustard IT 33 Glasshouse Street London W1B 5DG

Hertfordshire Office

Mustard IT 108 Ware Road Hoddesdon Hertfordshire EN11 9ET

Tel: 020 7043 4382 Fax: 0207 900 1747 info@mustardit.co.uk