Some people ask us what makes Workspace 365 better than Office 365? While both product names indicate that it’s available 365 days a year, the origin and goals of both products differ. With Workspace 365 we set ourselves the goal to build a complete webbased workspace to simplify the way people work. In this workspace we integrate the products IT providers are already offering, in which Office 365 takes part. Here are five key differentiators today and this list will grow far longer.
“In a world with hybrid clouds it’s essential to not only focus on all the new stuff. To build complete workspaces we need to focus on what’s new (web-based) and combine it with legacy Windows applications.”
1. Office 365 versus Workspace 365
We all know the 80/20 rule and this applies to Microsoft’s productivity suite as well. Office 365 offers a wide range of functionalities but 80% only need the Office features. We chose to simplify these essentials, the 80% in Workspace 365. If users want more, they can use single sign-on to continue in Office 365 for the remaining 20%.
While Office 365 focusses on their productivity suite, customers have other business processes. That is why Workspace 365 allows users to open both Windows and web applications from the workspace. This saves users time and brings all their applications together in one central starting point. To reach this we use the techniques our partners have chosen to work with e.g. Citrix, VMware, RDWebapps, etc. Furthermore, we have integrated Windows Azure Active Directory to enable Single Sign-On. This way users can log in to the workspace only once and access over 3.000 web apps with a single click.
2. Simplification on Office 365
Document Management and Email are critical applications for almost every business. Within Office 365 they are using the Exchange API and SharePoint API to get the data. But with all the features of Outlook and SharePoint many employees are overwhelmed and get lost with all the features and options.
That’s why we developed two beautiful apps to integrate with Exchange and SharePoint providing a very simplistic interface, using the Office 365 technology, but making it far more easy to work with. It’s our approach on simplicity. For example, by simplifying SharePoint and showing users all their documents at once, without having to search in all their team sites or OneDrive. Another feature which shows our simplicity on Office 365 is our two click philosophy as explained in this blog.
3. Group management in Workspace 365 compared to Office 365
Many partners / IT departments have completely automated the way they provision and adjust (remote) Windows Desktops, with group policies and access to applications.
We do exactly the same with Workspace 365. Meaning that this browser based workspace does not only simplify work for users, but it also solves the problems with all the different configurations in multiple portals with extra technology. Again, following the partner in the decisions he already made in the selection of their product portfolio.
More about this: Set up groups in Workspace 365 to automatically assign all the applications users need to their workspace. Assign new apps to either individual users or to groups. When new users signs in, everything they need will be available within one click, on any device using their browser-based workspace.
4. Tailorable Business Apps combined with Office 365
As we simplify the essentials of Office 365 we believe that we can also do this with any other business application. With our Business App builder you can build business apps for any business process. These can either replace the legacy application, or just integrate on an API level to get the data from that application and present this in simple to use business apps. Stop users from having to search through dropdowns to retrieve or enter the appropriate data, gather it right within your workspace.
Our list of available apps and integrations is growing daily. But what if your customer has different requirements? We can build this together in a matter of days / weeks. Not only to simplify the way people work, but also with a direct impact on the license cost per employee. We learned that while the requirements for SMB customers differ from large enterprises, the objective to simplify what we do and how we do it, is equally true for any business. It only takes courage to take the first step. In addition, it becomes possible to link your emails and files to Business Apps. For example, you can link emails to projects within Project Management to create overview and to bring all the information together. Read more about Workspace 365 Business Apps.
5. Fully white label
Our goal with Workspace 365 is to share our knowledge and platform with our partners. Allowing you to build your own proposition and service your market while realizing the things you held impossible for a long time. This is how we approach our partnerships with our partners. We simplify tomorrows workspace together.
In closing
Long story short. The work of employees is far more than just Office and hopefully you see the opportunity to help your customers in their digital transformation from desktops to a simplified hybrid or cloud workspace. We believe that partnerships are essential for your and our business. Together we can realize the ideas you may have to reach your customer’s requirements.
If you have ideas to improve Workspace 365 you are welcome to contact me, because together we can shape the future of workspaces.
Kind regards,
Mark Grasmayer
Product Evangelist
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Questions or suggestions? I’ll be glad to help! |
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