The decision of purchasing a Microsoft Office productivity suite for your company depends on many factors. This is why it is recommended that organizations assess their needs and perform some research before selecting a Microsoft Office productivity product, whether it’s Office 365 or Office 2016. You want the product that is best suited to enhance the productivity of your employees.
While there are several options available to choose from when it comes to Microsoft Office products, the choice usually falls between Office 365 and Office 2016 (Microsoft’s latest Office release).
Although, both of these productivity suites are exceptional in terms of performance and features, there are some notable differences. These differences may make one product more preferable or suited than the other in the context of your business operational needs.
Exploring some of these differences to help you evaluate both products in order to determine the best fit for your organization is what this publication is about.
But wait…
Before we proceed, let’s quickly define what the Microsoft Office suite is.
What is Microsoft Office Suite?
It is a set of interrelated productivity applications, servers and services. They are collectively referred to as an Office suite for Windows and Mac operating systems.
A Quick Look At Office 2016
Office 2016, also referred to by its codename, Office 16, was launched sometime in September 2015. This version of Office is the successor of Office 2013 for Windows and Office for Mac 2011. Office 2016 brought several features and changes that further enhanced the productivity of users.
Some highlighting features of Office 2016 include improved editing capabilities. In this version of Office, users can open, create and save files in the cloud straight from their computers.
A new search tool named “Tell Me” was introduced in Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook. Insights, a feature powered by Bing search, was also introduced. It has the ability to provide additional information to users from the web.
Among these features are other notable features such as a designer sidebar in PowerPoint to improve the layout of slides, new templates in Excel and new animations in PowerPoint. Also included, is a data loss prevention feature in Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
Office 2016 brought some exciting features to each application of Microsoft Office that contributes to the overall productivity of the user.
Office 2016 comes in several versions and they are:
- Home – Business Edition
- Home – Student Edition
- Professional Edition
- Standard Edition
- Pro Plus Edition
For questions or to learn about each version, please reach out to us directly.
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription-based productivity suite. Essentially, it is a group of multiple services and software provided by Microsoft that is only available to subscribers.
Office 365 is quickly becoming the preferred productivity suite for organizations. This is because not only do you get all the general features and support for standard Office applications, you also get additional storage space (1 Terabyte or 1000 Gigabytes) on OneDrive, Microsoft’s Cloud storage, as well as sixty free Skype call minutes a month.
The business edition also comes with amazing features like social networking and email services through hosted versions of Skype for business, SharePoint, Exchange Server, Office Online and integration with Yammer, which helps your team with social media.
Much like Office 2016, Office 365 also comes in different editions and they are:
- Office 365 Home Edition (Supports up to five computer systems)
- Office 365 Personal (Supports one computer system)
- Office 365 University (This edition is specifically made for students and supports two computer systems or tablets)
- Office 365 Business (Features a complete set of Office applications and app installation support for mobile devices)
- Office 365 Premium (Supports HD video conferencing and many other attractive features)
The Core Difference Between Office 365 vs Office 2016
Office 2016 provides you with all of Microsoft’s productivity applications like Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and much more. However, these applications won’t get updated once a newer and more stable version is released. Staying up to date with Office versions is important for productivity improvements and ensuring that security remains strong.
However, with Office 365, new releases are automatically added to your Office suite with each update. Apart from other Office applications, you can also use Publisher, which is a desktop publishing software and Access, an information management tool.
Also, worth noting is that there is no additional online storage associated with Office 2016. However, with Office 365, you can easily store your data in the Cloud for easy access to your files from any computer with Internet access.
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