Although some lawyers are still WordPerfect users and are staunchly refuse to form the switch, most now use Word and are for years now. But as cloud computing proliferates, more and more lawyers are considering transitioning to Microsoft Office 365 so as to require advantage of all the advantages web-based computing offers, including flexibility, 24/7 accessibility, and affordability.
The good news for those puzzling over moving over to Office 365 is that in April at ABA Techshow in Chicago, there was a complete seminar dedicated to this very topic. During a session titled “Developing Microsoft Office 365 in Your practice,” Ben Schorr shared recommendations on Office 365 while Stephanie Crowley took visual notes of this session on behalf of MyCase. The visual notes from that session are found below together with a number of our favorite tips from the session and links to sites that provide further information:
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1. Buy a server.
Ben recommends subscribing to a Microsoft Exchange Server so as to avoid wasting money. It’s cost-effective to do so since a server includes Outlook, has great spam filters, and, as is that the case with most cloud services, provides real-time syncing across multiple devices.
2. Consider the Exchange Only Plan.
in keeping with Ben, this plan offers many benefits. You’ll be able to establish multiple aliases, have as many domain names as you’d like, founded distribution lists, and make shared mailboxes. This plan’s pricing is per mailbox.
3. Link your Exchange server to Skype.
Skype allows you to save lots of transcripts of phone and video conversations. And every one of these interactions occurs in an exceedingly secure, online environment.
4. Choose the correct license for your firm.
For Business Licenses there are 3 options: 1) The Business Plan includes Office only, costs $8.95/user/month and you’ll install it on up to five machines, 2) the Essentials Plan includes everything except Office and costs $4/user/month and you’ll also buy Sharepoint for an extra $5/user/month, or 3) the Premium Plan includes all the features of the Essentials and Business Plans and costs $12.50/user/month. For the Enterprise License there are 2 options: 1) E1 which costs $8/user/month and includes Office only or 2) E3 which is for giant firms and includes Office and Sharepoint.