History of Software-Microsoft Office 365 

Microsoft was funded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 14, 1975 according to, “Facts About Microsoft,” on Microsoft’s webpage. For many years this technology-based software company has provided the ability to develop, manufacture, license, support, and sell computer software. Microsoft has been capable to develop a diversity of electronics for consumers, private or public; personal computers, such as desktop, laptops, tablets with keyboard attachments, and other related service products. A widely known product used by regular people, students, professors, private or public institutions, and government agencies, is Microsoft Office 365.

Also, known as Office 365.

Office 365 is actually an update to Microsoft’s, at the time, Business Productivity Online Suite, (BPOS). This software provides applications on writing, project based, or hobby tools for a consumer, through Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Each can be catered to the consumers personal preference. For example, Word can be used to write essays, letters, or make flyers, brochures, and resumes. PowerPoint will give the customer the tools to make a computerized presentation in slides, where the consumer can edit and format styles or themes. Excel provides the user the ability to create spreadsheets or divot tables to record information.

This software was created by software engineers and technologists who combined Microsoft products, such as BPOS, Microsoft office Live Small-Business, and Live@edu with Office (Facts About Microsoft, 2018). Office 365 was still under development when the company decided to launch a beta test to private organizations prior to rolling out. Within a year, Microsoft launched the official product to the general population on June 28, 2011 (MackieJun, 2011). This service was provided to the public on either a monthly or yearly subscription-based price, per user.

By 2011, Microsoft’s Office 365 policies were compliant to those of the ISO/IEC 27001 security standards, European Union Data Protection Directive and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Microsoft worked tremendously on making the security changes after varies lawsuits were filed against the company’s software. Through my understanding, ISO is International Organization Standardization; and IEC is International Electrotechnical Committee; that specifies a management system to specialize in bringing security information under management control.

In May 2012, Microsoft Office 365 announced its new client, the U.S. Government; after its policies were now compliant to the Federal Information Security Management Act. Regardless of the European Union Data Protection Directive, Microsoft announced that they would not refrain from releasing data stored in European servers to the United States authorities, under the Patriot Act. With these new changes in policy, came new updates and subsequently higher prices. The prices estimated in 2013 were $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. The current prices vary since Office 365 has been developed into other products such as Office 365 Education, Office 365 Students, Office 365 Home, Office 365 Small Business; Government, Nonprofit, Firstline Workers. For example, Office 365 A1 price is free to students and faculty, but Office 365 A5 will cost $6.00 per user, per month for students and $8.00 per user, per month for faculty and staff.

Office 365 is longstanding product for Microsoft Office by not only catering to private corporate business, but to clients who own Windows or Apple products. Office 365 has given access to its products through Office 2016 and OS X. Office 365 has extended its clientele by providing services to those in enrolled in school, faculty in school districts, personal, and in government.

Component requirements differ from Home, Business, Government, and Education, including type of computer used. An example of these requirements for Office 365 Home needs to meet a computer and processor Windows: 1.6 GHz or faster, 2-core; Memory: 4GB RAM or 2GB RAM (32-bit); Hard Disk: 4.0 GB of available disk space; Display: 1280 x 768 screen resolution; for a 32-bit require a hardware accelerator 4k and higher; Graphics hardware acceleration requires: DirectX 9 or later, with WDDM 2.0 or higher for Windows 10 (or WDDM 1.3 or higher for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update); Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2008 R2; Browser: current version of Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.

As opposed to an Apple computer and processor of macOS: Intel processor; Memory: 4GB RAM; Hard Disk: 10 GB of available space; Display: 1280 x 800 screen resolution; Graphics: No requirements; Operating System: supported by the three most recent version of macOS; Browser: current version of Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, or Firefox.

Even with the capacity to extend a service to other software, i.e. macOS or Android, for combability and availability, consumers still dislike a few areas within Office 365. One of the main issues with customers is the recurring payment of $9.99 per month and if it is not paid, they lose access to anything. Some students do not like the fluctuation of prices between the company and school campuses. In the early days of Office 365 the software lacked in various areas or did not support certain services; for example, message sizes or mailbox sizes were not supported (MackieJun, 2011). However, as technology has advanced updates and installments have been provided. There still is negativity on the subscription base pricing, but Office 365 applications remain in demand to be used for school, work, and projects, customers are willing to pay.

Due to the focus in expanding into different private and public consumers, Office 365 developed categories that resulted in an influx of consumers, creating revenue, and bringing Microsoft’s net worth to $753 billion. Microsoft is leading the #2 spot on the World’s Best Employer list, #3 World’s Most Valuable Brands 2018, U.S. Top 10 World’s Largest Tech Companies 2018, #9 in America’s Largest Public Companies 2018, and many more recognitions.

Overall, Microsoft created, Microsoft Office 365, to allow customers to use applications to create their own content. Content would be produced from either Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, and have Outlook as an email forum. Outlook, supplies an array of applications and uses, such as, Email, Calendar, Task management. In doing so, they have established a complex of different installments for home, personal, educational, or governmental software bundles for sale. Office 365 has accommodated for each single use and essentially for the differing consumer groups. Leading them to become and remain as one of the top leaders in the world’s technological advancements.

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