Microsoft BPOS – what the…?

Louise Alderton, 05 February 2011

I have been hearing this term ‘BPOS’ for a while now so I thought I would do a bit of research into what it is all about. ‘BPOS’ stands for Microsoft’s ‘Business Productivity Online Standard Suite’. Unfortunately I missed the bus a bit on this as this year Microsoft has rebranded BPOS to now be called ‘Office 365’. Whichever name you would prefer to associate with – ‘BPOS’ or ‘Office 365’ let’s take a look at what this is and how you can benefit from it.

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So what is BPOS/Office 365? Basically, it is a set of communication tools, based in the cloud, which aims to increase overall productivity in your organisation. The suite includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting. Together these tools arm you with streamlined communication, valuable interactivity and collaboration across the board – including with your Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

Let’s break down these tools to get an idea of what they are all about:

Microsoft Exchange Online

This works via your Microsoft Office Outlook to provide you email services such as spam filtering, anti-virus protection and also synchronises mobile devices. With Outlook Web Access you are able to access your outlook email account including your messages, calendar, contact and task management functions from almost any browser – wherever you might be (Handy!).

Microsoft SharePoint Online

This acts as a central hub for your organisation to work together and maintain documents. You also have the ability to create intranet sites to assist you in managing individual projects. Allowing easy accessibility to documentation your organisation can save a lot of time and effort which can be focused on higher business priorities. In Dynamics CRM 2011 includes automatic integration with SharePoint giving you even more effective document management and sharing.

Microsoft Office Communications Online

This tool is useful for peer to peer audio calls or instant messaging allowing for real-time collaboration and getting things done more efficiently. You can also easily view the presence of your contacts for example whether they are available, away or in a meeting saving you time and improving communication.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Used for online meetings and video conferencing. This tool gives you the ability to hold online meetings with key associates in real time wherever you, or they, may be. With Office Live Meeting all attendees of the meeting can talk to each other, share documents and work on a virtual ‘whiteboard’.

The recently released Dynamics CRM 2011 Online is now considered a part of the Office 365/BPOS family, creating an even more comprehensive cloud-based business environment. Being in the cloud provides numerous benefits including cost and time efficiencies. To read more about these benefits check out my post about cloud computing.

Well that cleared up a few things for me and hopefully provided some extra insight for you too!

* Image from http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx