Google Apps or Office 365?

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KapsZ28

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So we already have a domain name with a website. Right now email is hosted through Network Solutions, and are also using Google calendars for scheduling jobs. We are just looking for an all inclusive solution for hosting email, shared calendar, storing documents, pictures, pdf files, etc.

Why would I choose one over the other. Price really doesn't matter since Google is $5 per person and Microsoft is $6 per person. I like the idea of having Exchange. Not sure how great Google handles email in Outlook. I am guessing Google at least offers IMAP.
 
Although, what is the deal with the domain name for Office 365. It wants me to enter something.onmicrosoft.com. Does that mean I couldn't just use www.domain.com? I want my domain name to stay the same and also the email addresses.
 
They are both decent at this point, as far as I can tell. Microsoft has better support, better email, and the better price for small places (when you include the discount on desktop office). Google has better web apps and a much better 3rd party application platform. Their phone integreation more likely to be useful if you already have phone service. Strangely, their active directory sync is much more customizable/flexible. Outlook is used w/the google sync client. However, it's not any faster than IMAP. Neither is MS Exchange (on a remote server), for that matter.

My suggestion is that you buy a $5 .info domain and sign up for free trials w/both. They both "basically work," so testing is not an involved process.
 
The P plans can give you web hosting- basically a public facing sharepoint site. E-plans do not include a public-facing website.
Exchange functionality beats g-mail hands-down. There is a reason why the top 3 mobile OSes all support Exchange. Outlook and Exchange just flat-out work. Super simple configuration, administration, sync, extensability.
Another advantage is access to all your documents and e-mail across devices- desktop, phone, web. OWA is very similar in look and feel to Outlook 2010. Google does a good job with web access to your data, but not so hot on desktop clients. Phone/mobile- depends on if they support your platform and where they are at in dev cycle.
Best advice has already been given- try them both out. If you need help, PM me and I can set you up on a free 30-day trial for Office365
 
RocketTech said:
The P plans can give you web hosting- basically a public facing sharepoint site. E-plans do not include a public-facing website.
Exchange functionality beats g-mail hands-down. There is a reason why the top 3 mobile OSes all support Exchange. Outlook and Exchange just flat-out work. Super simple configuration, administration, sync, extensability.
Another advantage is access to all your documents and e-mail across devices- desktop, phone, web. OWA is very similar in look and feel to Outlook 2010. Google does a good job with web access to your data, but not so hot on desktop clients. Phone/mobile- depends on if they support your platform and where they are at in dev cycle.
Best advice has already been given- try them both out. If you need help, PM me and I can set you up on a free 30-day trial for Office365
Click to expand...

Ah, I did not know the difference between P and E. I did an E3 plan trial, which expired, but I never got to test it much. Now I know why I didn't see a way to host a website. Then again, I could care less about the web hosting. Email, Business Contact Manager, and SharePoint would be mostly used.
 
We've been using Office 365 for a partner office of ours. It's been a couple of months but it's been faultless tbh.

I've needed support a couple of times, no technical just billing queries, but both times I couldn't fault the time taken to respond to the query.

My personal view is that if you want the whole "groupware" experience, Microsoft have it sewn up.
 
I hope Microsoft does. I would rather have all my apps integrated into one system. Using Office then Google apps isn't great to me.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
We only resell the "E3" plan....
24 bucks per user
Unlimited storage
Latest Office Pro license per user, basically the upgrade assurance plan..latest version of Office whenever new one comes out. This right here justifies the price.
Immediate direct phone support, none of that "community forum" stuff waiting for volunteer support to reply.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise-solutions/enterprise-plans.aspx#fbid=Notg7yzwShx
Click to expand...

The E3 plan is pretty compelling for larger organizations- I wish they would provide some bundles with InTune as well. I work mostly with Small Business and they hem and haw over the P1 plan as it is. Another important note is moving between levels of the same letter is no problem- mix and match as well. Going from a 'P' plan to 'E' plan requires a complete new sign-up and external migration. I'm not sure if you can mix/match E and P- I doubt it.
I sell K plans (Kiosk) as a cheap way to connect all employees, including the ones they don't want to spend money for a full Office version. A nice little add-on to get accounts for all the maintenance/board/infrequent users.
 
We were looking to move from our own exchange environment to MS or Google. We tried both and ended up going with MS.

I've had a couple of issues in which I needed to call support. Both were resolved fairly quickly. It's easy to manager and make changes, etc.

We are still on the Hosted Exchange Online and haven't done the transition yet to Office 365, but the documentation looks painless.

Overall, we like the Office 365 stuff.
 
If you need any advice/help with Google Apps post 'em. I managed the migration for our mid-sized healthcare org and maintain it.

In general we are very happy with it. It solved a bunch of problems for us - I can elaborate if needed. One nice thing was that it was a natural move for all of our users - although we did teach them a lot about things they didn't know Gmail could do. They also eventually have grown reliant on Docs (surprisingly). We thought most wouldn't use it because it wasn't as advanced as Office but what we've found is that users find it easier to use and far easier to share documents. Unfortunately many of our users couldn't grasp the concept of a shared network drive - but they get "share this doc with sally".

At the time that we moved to Google Office365 didn't exist but we would not consider moving given the chance.

Also support has gotten MUCH better with time. It used to be a "you gotta submit a ticket online" period sort of thing (but they did follow up with a phone call for urgent issues inside of 10 minutes). Now you can call or submit a ticket online - both go to the same people, always in america and always extremely knowledgeable.
 
RocketTech said:
The E3 plan is pretty compelling for larger organizations- I wish they would provide some bundles with InTune as well. I work mostly with Small Business and they hem and haw over the P1 plan as it is. Another important note is moving between levels of the same letter is no problem- mix and match as well. Going from a 'P' plan to 'E' plan requires a complete new sign-up and external migration. I'm not sure if you can mix/match E and P- I doubt it.
I sell K plans (Kiosk) as a cheap way to connect all employees, including the ones they don't want to spend money for a full Office version. A nice little add-on to get accounts for all the maintenance/board/infrequent users.
Click to expand...

At first...I thought the E plan would be hard to sell....as many people see that "6 bucks/user" entry level plan and I figured they'd balk at the 24 bucks.

But I drill home a few points....and after they think about it for a minute..it's usually a no brainer.
*Full Office suite is included! How much is Office Pro? $499? Over 3 years..that's 14 bucks per user per month right there. So right now you're at 20 bucks. Even if they just need Office Home/Biz OEM...you're looking at 275....still fairly worth it.
*Unlimited storage
*Direct support...can call up. I don't resell anything that I cannot directly call a support number for and get help if I need it.
 
With Office 365, does anyone use Business Contact Manager? BCM seems like a decent app for managing your contacts, projects, marketing, etc..
 
Just to clarify, I'm not saying the $6/user plan is a good fit for most office workers- I agree 100% E3 is a no-brainer. I recommend the $6 plan to get 'the leftovers' after you've sold the E3 plan.
 
The wife and I are considering moving to E2/E3 plan for home. There is just too much benefit in their system. The unlimited storage is what might bump us up.
 
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