Office 365 vs. Sharepoint

Office 365 vs. Sharepoint

microsoft office 365
Like many business, when it comes to choosing an employee collaboration platform many deciding factors play a part in a company’s IT strategy choosing budget, compatibility, and utilization rates Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Sharepoint are the two of the collaboration platforms that business seem to choose but which one is the best fit or you and your company? Upgrading to either program, always comes with pros and cons that can help determine if the program will be beneficial and the right fit for the company. 

Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 is like many of those programs that been out and around in development for years. Excel, Word, PowerPoint are some of the typical programs employers or employees will use in day-to-day tasks but did you know that Microsoft added OneDrive? What is OneDrive? Should your business migrate to Office 365? OneDrive allows easier collaboration on projects and tasks to happen in one place by sharing files without taking up computer storage, downloading, or emailing large files.  Microsoft Office 365, has similar features to Apple’s ICloud, however, provides accompanying programs for employees and employers to complete tasks rolled into one program. 

Pros of Microsoft Office 365

Now that you have a general synopsis on what Office 365 is. How can is be beneficial to you and your company? Although Office 365 has Excel, Word, PowerPoint as well as a ton of other programs. With Office 365, Microsoft offers a budget friendly monthly subscription for services which include Microsoft program support. With  Microsoft’s per-user fee subscription model for businesses makes their option budget-friendly one designed to scale with your business. With this typically companies usually experience lower licensing costs when purchasing Office 365, so there’s never a need to buy all-new software every time there a new update as its included with your purchased subscription.  On top of having a budget friendly subscription, Microsoft Office 365 will allow access to work from just about anywhere with internet access. Employee brainstorm at 2:00am? Office 365 is there! It’s hard to know exactly when inspiration will strike but having a program like Word at your fingertips might just be the solution for all those late-night scribbled notes at your bedside. Same thing with presentations and spreadsheets, Microsoft Office 365 has a program for that. Let employees collaborate at Starbucks down the street. Having the power to work anywhere with internet access not only allows you to access the great programs in Office 365 but OneDrive as well.

Cons of Microsoft Office 365

Like any product out on the technology market, there is always a downside. With your subscription it includes the latest updates to all of Office 365 programs. However, those versions have been linked to sometimes not be compatible with your computer operating system even if they previously were. By checking your compatibility can prevent a problem before upgrading to Office 365. 

Sharepoint

Microsoft Sharepoint is like many of those programs that been out and around in development for years. Sharepoint provides a secure place  to manage documents as well as store, organize, share and access password protected information from any device. Unlike Office 365 with accompanying programs, Share point has some helpful deciding factors of its own to continue to help you decide which is beneficial for your company. 

Pros of Microsoft Sharepoint

One of the best pros of Sharepoint is having integration with Office 365. Although Sharepoint is advertised as a separate product outside of Office 365 there are some features that still integrate Office 365. Other apps too! Being able to integrate with the office programs allows collaborating on projects in multiple departments much easier.  On top of having integration with Microsoft Office 365, Sharepoint is customizable to fit your company needs. Sharepoint is a platform not a product, which means you can build all sorts of things on top of it to be beneficial to your company. You can have a basic platform or custom development to store, organize, share and access information and documents. 

Cons of Microsoft Sharepoint

There is always a downside to any product/platform of the market. Although many think like Office 365, you can download, do a few setup steps and get started, however that’s now always the case with Sharepoint.  Many of it feature require you to work with a developer to continue setting up and every occasion you update your Sharepoint package. To get the most out of it, you’ll need someone who’s well-versed in SharePoint development. And that’s rare. It’s also more expensive, so budget-friendly is not an option.

Verdict on Microsoft Office 365 vs Sharepoint

Office 365 and Sharepoint can have many beneficial pros and some downside cans to them but determining which is better for your company is the ultimate choice. Looking at budget, compatibility and ease of use are some factors that can be taken into consideration when picking the right platform.