MSPNetworks Blog

Subscription-based solutions are quite popular these days, and Microsoft Office 365 is perhaps one of the most important ones on the market. However, the services provided by Office 365 are contingent upon successfully renewing the subscription, making it critical that the user understands how this process works. Any user that fails to renew the subscription loses access to it, so we want to make sure you understand what happens when your subscription expires so as to avoid software access issues.

First, it’s important to understand Microsoft’s situation. Retaining a customer costs much less than actively seeking new ones, meaning that they aren’t going to want to lose their existing customers.

Microsoft has implemented a three-step process that is designed to help their customers have as much time as possible to decide whether or not they are serious about letting their subscription go. Here are the three steps.

Step 1: Expired

Following the expiration of your subscription, you have thirty days where Office 365 is still available for use. Any installed applications can still be launched, and you can still access additional solutions as well. Microsoft won’t remove any of your data from its servers. Admins can still add services or applications during this time, as well as back up any data. A global administrator can renew the subscription at any time during these thirty days.

Step 2: Disabled

After the first month has passed, your subscription status changes to Disabled, which remains in place up until the 120th day. This means that only administrators will have access to the admin portal and to back up any data that Microsoft has stored on their servers. Regarding the rest of your users, they might not have access to as many services and solutions. With access to their Office 365 accounts blocked, your users will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, unable to get their work done, access their email, or access OneDrive for Business. Locally installed applications will only offer limited functionality, and you won’t be able to edit or save your files. The global administrator still has access to the option to resume the licensing subscription at this point.

Step 3: Deprovisioned

After 121 days, administrators lose access to any data that remains on the servers. No backups can be taken, and any applications or services rendered will be inaccessible. At this point, Microsoft will start to remove your data from its servers, which you can have sped up through a process called deprovisioning. If your business wants to continue utilizing Office 365, new subscriptions need to be started.

Let Us Help Manage Your Office 365 Subscriptions

To keep lapses in your subscription from preventing your productivity, MSPNetworks can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (516) 403-9001.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a well-known solution - well-known enough that the product has become synonymous with the task, regardless of what program one happens to use. Of course, this doesn’t mean that one necessarily must use it to create a presentation to go with a sales pitch. For this week’s tip, we’ll suggest a few other tasks you could complete with the help of a PowerPoint presentation.

Infographics
One of the nicest parts of Microsoft Powerpoint is how it can almost serve as a very rudimentary vector graphic design software, especially if you’re just trying to add some visual context to a concept - like, for example, in an infographic. Using a single .pptx file, you could create all the infographics your company needs, printing them out or saving them as PDFs as the occasion demands.

Training Quizzes
A big problem with a lot of the training that an employee needs to undergo as a part of their employment is that it can be fairly dull, much of it comprised of note after note cycled past them on a screen. That’s hardly an effective way to go about building a habit. However, with a properly prepared PowerPoint, you can turn your training lecture into an interactive question and answer quiz, with engaging visuals to help hold your staff’s attention.

Onboarding Process
Speaking of your staff, I’m sure we can all remember our first few days on our respective jobs, and the onboarding process that we had to undergo. Chances are, it wasn’t all too dissimilar to the training quizzes we just discussed. Like these trainings, PowerPoint can be used to give these onboarding seminars a little more pizazz, and chances are, this will only help to make these seminars more engaging and impactful.

Company News
This is an easy cheat that you see high schools use all the time for their daily announcements: you can use PowerPoint to create a news banner that scrolls repeatedly throughout the day. Whether you want to make sure everyone remembers the meeting on Tuesday, or you have clients who should know about your upcoming promotion, it is simple to set up your announcement reel and just have them playing on a monitor throughout the day. Think of it as a budget-friendly form of digital signage.

Simple Flyer Creator
Need a quick deliverable? Just like you could a quick infographic, you can whip up a quick flyer on PowerPoint and print them up, ready to go. While it isn’t ideal, it’s an easy way to get the job done.

Whether Microsoft PowerPoint is your go-to solution for these needs, or you prefer to use more “official” solutions, MSPNetworks can help you get your hands on the software tools to get the job done. Reach out to us at (516) 403-9001 to learn more.