Microsoft BPOS Suite: Getting started with the 30-day Evaluation

Assuming you know about Microsoft BPOS Suite, it's time to get started with the 30-day Evaluation. You can read my previous post Here in case you want an overview of it. Following are the requirements for getting started with the 30-day evaluation:

• A Windows Live ID (can be created if you don’t have one)

• An internet domain with full access to administration panel (mandatory)

Now let’s get started with the registration process.

Step 1

Login into the Microsoft BPOS portal Here. Another way of viewing this page:

•  Login into Microsoft Online Services portal over
  http://www.Microsoft.com/Online/

•  Check out BPOS Suite under Products menu

Step 2

Clicking the Free Trial »» link will open up a modal dialog suggesting the three steps to followed for the entire process. Read them carefully. You can click on ‘Get Started Now >’ to proceed.

Step 3

Clicking on the button will take you to the Microsoft Online Services Sign up portal.

As depicted in the above image, you can you can click on 'Sign Up' to create a Windows Live ID and then register or click on 'Sign In' to register using an existing Live ID.

Step 4

On successful registration, you will be redirected to the Microsoft Online Services Customer portal.

You will be asked for the following two fields:

•  Promotion code (not required)

•  Company Name (make sure the name/alias is available and is named appropriately)

By default, you will be the Administrator of the Microsoft Online Services account and will also have access to the Microsoft Online Services Administration center. In future, you can create more users and elevate them to be administrators.

A point to note, by default the Administrator of the Microsoft Online Services account will have his username –
admin@CompanyName.microsoftonline.com

In future, the subsequent users added will have their usernames - @CompanyName.microsoftonline.com.

The users will have access to their allotted MOS services via the MOS Customer portal Here.

On completion, of all the fields and before clicking I agree image button you will see the following screen.

Step 5

We are almost done with the Microsoft Online Services 30-day Evaluation. You will see the following page which means you will receive a confirmation E-Mail with login credentials and Administration center link from msonlineservicesteam@microsoftonline.com. Make sure you check your junk/spam folder in case you don’t see the E-Mail in your Inbox in 15 minutes.

You need to Login into the MOS Administration Center with your login credentials as provided in the confirmation mail and then get started with verifying your domain.

Note:

In case, you don’t see any E-mails in your Inbox and Spam folder, you can send a request for the same at -
msonlineservicesteam@microsoftonline.com

Step 6

The confirmation Mail will of the following format with Login credentials and Administration center link.

Now you can sign into the MOS Administration Center and start with the following:

•  Verifying your domain for Microsoft Online Services.

Stay tuned for a post on the same on my blog.

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Microsoft BPOS Suite: An overview

What is it?

Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) is Microsoft’s SaaS (Software as a Service) offering which offers day-to-day messaging via E-Mail, peer-to-peer audio calls, video conferencing, team collaboration via portals, presence availability via Communicator in the form of tools like Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting Online. So its four software services bundled together for your daily business and collaboration requirements for large, medium or budding enterprises. These software services are hosted by an array of data-centers at Microsoft's privy sites.

Check out the comprehensive visual demo of BPOS below.

Why enterprises should look forward to it?

• Large, medium or budding enterprises who don’t want to invest in having on-premise infrastructure for their day-to-day messaging via E-Mail, peer-to-peer audio calls, video conferencing, team collaboration via portals, presence availability via Communicator, etc.

• Enterprises can leverage business rich capabilities without the need to deploy and maintain software and hardware on-premise. These services can meet your needs for user productivity, high availability (Microsoft assures 99.5% and above up-time), security (read here) and 24/7 reliability.

• It’s a subscription or pay-per-use based service which means you can back out from using it as per your own discretion. All your data can be backed up on-premise in that case.

• Having said that, even enterprises having their infrastructure present on-premise can look forward to BPOS when they intend to scale up their hosted applications without investing in infrastructure (including floor space, H/W and S/W), reducing expenditure on maintenance and administration, renewing software licenses, etc.

How should I upgrade to BPOS?

• Don’t have an on-premise infrastructure ready: If you are an enterprise or a start-up firm who doesn’t have an on-premise infrastructure, it’s going to be a fast adoption and a learning curve to look forward. All you have to do is:

• Pen down your requirements from the BPOS suite of tools with the no. of users you wish to have. In future, it won’t be difficult to scale up your requirements/users coz it’s a subscription based service and you pay-per-use.

• Go through the buying options carefully Here and select the right plan.

• Register for the service Here and get familiar with the Administration and User center.

• Register your company domain(mandatory) and get it approved via an E-Mail confirmation.

• Check the Administration center, start and configure all the services you need. Make the necessary settings like adding users, giving the requisite permissions to the user, etc.

• For connecting Microsoft Outlook to your Exchange Online Inbox and other configurations you’ll need Microsoft Online Migration Toolkit.

• On the user side, the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In client can be used which acts as a front-end for BPOS services.

• Have an on-premise infrastructure ready: This case deserves a separate blog post from me as there needs to be a clear strategy which an Architect has to design considering existing infrastructure and its tolerable capacity, critical data, security, co-existence expenditure, etc. A lot of case-studies and best practices exist for this case but one of the best amongst those which I found and which all experts recommend - co-existing your on-premise infrastructure with your cloud based service.

Stay tuned on this blog post as I'll be putting up some relevant links here later.

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Try a 30-day evaluation of BPOS Here.

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About the pricing?

There exists a separate offering for both new and existing customers and both of them are quite attractive. At the same time, it’s important that you think twice before you enroll your users coz its per-user-per-service pricing per month and not all features which we had in our on-premise set-up are there in BPOS. Check the image below for an idea.

Services preferred	Price
• Entire BPOS Suite which includes:    - Exchange Online    - Sharepoint Online    - OCS Online    - Live Meeting Online	10$ user/month
• Exchange Online	5$ user/ month
• Sharerepoint Online	5.25$ user/month
• Office Comunications Online	2$ user/month
• Office Live Meeting Online	4.5$ user/month

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Check this calculator for BPOS cost calculation: 

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BPOS Success story (over Google Apps in a way)

Some of the biggest names in the Fortune 500 list have started taking to SaaS platform and many more are following.

Check out some customer experiences on BPOS Here.

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A wild thought I get while writing this – Microsoft just unleashed a wave which it is set to conquer.

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