Office 365 Beta Sign Up

Okay, so we clicked the link:

• Join the Office 365 Beta (Link to actual site without all the e-mail tracking stuff)

After clicking the JOIN THE BETA button we filled out the form and we were presented with two options:

We chose the Enterprise level Beta so we could look at what was happening there.

Now, probably the number one stopping point for us and Microsoft’s hosted services is the fact that we are not the ones to bill the client _they_ are.

We resell a fair amount of Microsoft licensing as our primary way of licensing Microsoft products at client sites. So, Microsoft gets our client’s names. Thus, this is not the sticking point.

The sticking point is that we have _no control_ over billing, pricing, services, support, and other aspects of the online services. We also have no control over the very _small_ residual that comes to our company as a result of our signing up say a 250 seat customer.

Much of the feedback that we have heard from fellow SMB IT focused providers on Microsoft’s hosted services follows along the same lines. We have no real relationship with the customer/client.

Own Web Now

We stand by our decision to resell OWN’s hosted Exchange and SharePoint services. The service is excellent, the support folks are pretty good about getting things going when there is a need, and we get to be the face behind the product.

On another note, we have signed up for OWN’s SBS 2011 Essentials integration beta with an HP ProLiant MicroServer on its way to be a part of this beta in a small client setting. So, we will see OWN’s hosted Exchange services integrate into Microsoft’s new SBS product!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer