Microsoft Office 365- expert advice please...

[jon h]

Any Office 365 experts out there?

I am looking at the option of an Office 365 Midsized Business subscription at £9.80 per month for a 16 user setup. What I am actually after is the desktop versions of Word, Excel, Outlook and Powerpoint (so old school Office Standard). This subscription option comes with desktop versions of these applications, plus more, is payable monthly, and is cheaper than the £149 per annum per user OVS “rental” price for office (payable annually).
I am not really after all the Cloud functionality, although, once we have it, we may start exploring the options we have with all the extra knobs and whistles. The big issue is will the desktop version of Outlook which comes with this work with our existing SBS2011 server running Exchange? Once this comes to end of life, we may consider moving to a cloud based exchange, but I do not want to re-invent the wheel right now. All I want to do is put the current version of Office on a load of desktops as cost effectively as possible, and with a monthly subscription to eliminate a lump sum outlay, and, in the short term, slot them into our existing infrastructure.
I am talking to someone who has been quoting me, but I think that they may have a vested interest in steering me away from 365, so hopefully some impartial advice can be found here...

Thanks in Advance

[P-Jay]

It'll work just fine - we've done this a few times now for various clients, BUT I'm the sales guy / consultant, the techies actually do the work.

The 365 product is confusing, so many versions offering so many individual products and a million ways to skin the same cat, but the one universal we've found so far is that the office suite element is basically Office Home and Business 2013, giving you the choice to run it via SBS'11 or via Microsoft Exchange.

Personally, given exchange will always use all the available capacity of your server once you're familiar with it, I'd switch to exchange (everything else being equal) and free up your server as it's a no-cost option, but that's up to you.

If you want a more definitive answer, get yourself onto a Microsoft 365 webinar, they're run weekly - we got on them via our supplier, but I don't think they're too fussy who gets on them - they're very sales-y but do cover most things.

[jon h]

Thanks P-Jay. That answers my question perfectly.

jon

[Randomthoughts]

SBS2011?

Get on 365's infrastructure as soon as possible. Hateful product.

However, as has been mentioned, you can connect to your SBS box with an Office 365-licenced copy of Microsoft Office.

[lestag]

buy (office cd) or lease (office 365)
if you intend to upgrade your version of office in less that 3 years, lease. if greater than 3 years buy
its simple math