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Frequently asked questions

Find answers to frequently asked questions about Office Live Small Business (OLSB) and Microsoft Office 365.

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Microsoft Office 365 and Office Live Small Business

What is Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses?

Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses is an easy-to-use set of web-enabled tools that you can use to access your email, important documents, contacts, and calendars from virtually anywhere and on almost any device.

Designed for organizations with one to 25 employees (with a technical limit of 50 users maximum), the service brings together online versions of the best professional-grade communications and collaboration tools from Microsoft at a price that small businesses can afford.

Office 365 for professionals and small businesses gives you many of the features you value in Office Live Small Business and much more. Office 365 is designed to work with the tools you already know, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft PowerPoint. You can:

  • Create websites with familiar easy-to-use tools.
  • Access email, calendars, and contacts across PCs, web, and mobile phones.
  • Share documents and collaborate on the web with colleagues.
  • Connect with people in new ways with instant messaging, audio/video calls, and online meetings.
  • Count on Microsoft, an industry leader in productivity, for reliability and security; Microsoft provides a financially-backed 99.9-percent uptime guarantee

To learn more visit Microsoft Office 365

As an OLSB customer, how am I impacted by Microsoft Office 365?

Microsoft Office 365 replaces OLSB as the comprehensive Microsoft productivity service for small businesses. The OLSB service will continue to run as it does today through April 30, 2012. As a valued OLSB customer, you will be offered 6 months free of Office 365 for professionals and small business and Office Professional Plus service. Please note that the OLSB service will be discontinued on May 1, 2012. All access to the OLSB service and public web sites will end on that date.

For now, OLSB customers can continue to use the service. Around Feb. 1, 2012, we will provide customers with the free promotional offer. If you would like to get a head start, we recommend that you follow the self-transition guide to move your web site, email, contacts, calendar and any documents over to Office 365. Or, you can hire a partner to help facilitate the transition.

Why is Microsoft replacing the Office Live Small Business service with Office 365?

Small businesses have told us that they want a more comprehensive, professional-grade set of small business productivity tools. Microsoft Office 365 does this by bringing together online versions of the best communications and collaboration tools from Microsoft, giving small businesses new capabilities: professional email; simple, public-facing website tools and hosting; easier ways to collaborate; an improved mobile experience; and financially-backed reliability and security—all at a price affordable for most small businesses.

How can I try the new Office 365 service?

You can sign up today for a free 30-day trial of Office 365 for professionals and small businesses. Note that a trial is not in addition to the 6 month free promotional offer.

How can I claim my free promotional offer?

The promotional offer will be available around February 1, 2012 – be sure to watch your email or follow this blog for the announcement. Once the promotional offer is available, you will have until April 30, 2012 to sign into OLSB to access your unique one-time use promotional code for Office 365. Upon sign-up for Office 365, the 6 month promotional offer will begin. We recommend that you follow the self-transition guide to move your web site, email, contacts, calendar and any documents over to Office 365. Or, you can hire a partner to help facilitate the transition.

Please note that the OLSB service will be discontinued on May 1, 2012. All access to the OLSB service and pubic web sites will end on that date.

Where can I find the latest information about the transition?

Visit the Office Live Small Business Community (English-only) for the most recent transition information and help content.

How much will Office 365 cost after the free offer period ends?

Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P1) will cost $6 per user per month after the free promotional period. Custom domain fees are not included in the free offer period. Office Professional Plus will cost $15 per user per month.

How do I transition my Office Live Small Business account to Office 365?

Follow the self-transition guide (English-only*) to walk you through the steps of manually saving your email, contacts, calendar, documents and web site and setting them up in Office 365 once the promotional offer is available.

*The self-transition guide will be available in other languages at a later date.

Can my website be transitioned automatically to Office 365?

You must manually recreate your website in Office 365. To do this, you must copy and paste your text, pictures, and any other website elements you choose to move.

What does Office 365 offer OLSB customers?

Email, Calendar, and Contacts
Powered by Microsoft Exchange Online

Office 365 provides you access to email, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere at any time on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices—while helping to protect against malicious software and spam.

  • Easily manage your email with 25-gigabyte (GB) mailboxes and send emails up to 25 megabytes (MB) in size
  • Work from almost anywhere with automatically updated email, calendar, and contacts across devices* you use most, including PCs, Macintosh computers, iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry smartphones,** Microsoft Windows Mobile®, and Windows® Phones
  • Connect with Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Office Outlook 2007 and use all of the rich Outlook functionality you already know and use, whether you are connected to the Internet at home, or in the office, or you are working offline
  • Access your email, calendar, and contacts from nearly any web browser while enjoying a rich, familiar Outlook experience with Outlook Web App
  • Use your existing domain name to create professional email addresses powered by Exchange Online (for example, mark@contoso.com)
  • Easily schedule meetings by sharing calendars and viewing them side by side, seeing your colleagues’ availability, and suggested meeting times from your calendar
  • Help protect your organization from spam and viruses with Microsoft Forefront® Online Protection for Exchange, which includes multiple filters and virus-scanning engines

* Users of Blackberry Internet Service get push email and can add calendar and contacts to their Blackberry device through a wired sync with Outlook on the PC
** Access from mobile devices depends on carrier network availability

Team Sites and Public Websites
Powered by Microsoft SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online helps you create sites to share documents and information with colleagues and customers. It lets you:

  • Work together effectively by sharing team documents and tracking project milestones to keep everyone in sync
  • Keep your team’s important documents online so the latest versions are always at hand
  • Provide all team members with online access to critical business information whenever and wherever they need it
  • Easily protect critical business information by controlling who can access, read, and share documents and information
  • Market your small business using a simple public-facing website with a custom domain name (for example, www.contoso.com)
  • Publish, share, and edit Access database applications on your Team Site

Office Web Apps
Hosted on Microsoft SharePoint Online

Office Web Apps are convenient online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote that offer you an easy way to access, view, and edit documents directly from your web browser.

  • Work with others simultaneously in Excel spreadsheets and in OneNote notebooks while seeing who is editing what parts of the document
  • Access and view Office documents from your mobile device
  • Ensure that viewers experience great fidelity between documents viewed with the Office Web Apps and those viewed in the desktop Office applications

Instant Messaging and Online Meetings
Powered by Microsoft Lync Online

Microsoft Lync™ Online helps you find and quickly connect with the right person from within the Office applications you already use.

  • Find and connect with colleagues and customers from virtually anywhere via rich presence, instant messaging (IM), audio/video calls, and online meetings
  • Use the Presence indicator to see when coworkers and partners are online and available
  • Make PC-to-PC audio and video calls with colleagues and customers
  • Conduct rich online meetings—including audio, video, and web conferencing—with people both inside and outside your organization
  • Share your desktop, online whiteboards, and presentations with colleagues and partners inside and outside of your organization
  • Click-to-Communicate with other users of Office 365, Microsoft Windows Live™, and MSN® Messenger

What if I don’t want to transition to Office 365?

The OLSB service will be discontinued on May 1, 2012. All access to the OLSB service, email and public web sites will end on that date. You do not need to take any action at this time and can continue using the Office Live Small Business service until April 30, 2012. – Additionally, Windows Live Essentials includes free programs on the PC for documents, email, photos, videos, IM, and more.

How long can I continue to use Office Live Small Business?

The OLSB service will continue to run as it does today through April 30, 2012. As a valued OLSB customer, you will be offered six months free of Office 365 for professionals and small business and Office Professional Plus. Please note that the OLSB service will be discontinued on May 1, 2012. All access to the OLSB service, public web sites and email will end on that date.

Can I still sign-up for Office Live Small Business?

We are no longer taking new sign-up for Office Live Small Business. We invite you to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Office 365 for professionals and small businesses , the new, comprehensive productivity service from Microsoft.

Where can I find more information about the new Office 365 service?

Please see the Office 365 website.

Does Microsoft have any free options for small businesses?

Windows Live Essentials includes free programs on the PC for email, photos, videos, IM, and more.

What happens to my custom domain name?

You will continue to own any custom domain name that you have purchased either through Office Live or through another domain registrar. Once you transition your web site to Office 365 or another service, you will need to update your domain DNS records to your new hosting provider.

Signing in

With the upcoming transition to Microsoft Office 365, how do I access my existing Office Live Small Business account?

There is no change in the sign-in process. You can continue to access your account and website tools as before.


Just go to Office Live Small Business and click the Sign in icon in the upper-right area of the page. You will be prompted for your Windows Live ID and password. Your Windows Live ID is the email address that you used to sign up for Office Live Small Business. Once you have correctly entered these, your Office Live Home displays. From here you can access all the features in your account.

How do I sign in to my account?
When you signed up for Office Live Small Business, you either had an existing Windows Live ID or you created one during the sign-up process. The Windows Live ID service is designed to manage identity and trust among various Microsoft sites. Office Live Small Business is one of these.
Help; I've forgotten my password. Where do I find it?
To reset your password, go to Windows Live Account and on the summary page, under your user ID, you will see Password reset information . Follow the instructions to reset your password and your security question and answer.
I accidentally entered the wrong year for my birthday and now I can't create a site for my business. How do I fix that?
To change any of your registration information (correct a birthday, or change your marital status, for example), go to Windows Live Account and on the summary page, under your user ID, click Registered information . To change personal information, such as your phone number, click Billing information . After you have finished editing your information, click Save.

Email

Can I use Microsoft Office Outlook to manage email, calendar, contacts, and tasks?
Yes, the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector enables two-way synchronization of email messages, calendar items (available when you purchase the Premium Email service), contacts, tasks, and notes between Outlook and Office Live Small business Mail. Read more information or download the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.
What are the benefits of having my own business email address?
Having a personalized address that matches your business domain name (for example, jsmith@northwindtraders.com) gives your company a much more professional image when you communicate with customers and colleagues.
Can I access my email from the road or a remote location?
Yes. You can easily access your email and update your calendar, contacts, and tasks from your own computer or almost any Internet-connected computer that uses Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.
Can I access my email and other business information when I am not connected to the Internet (offline)?
With the Microsoft Outlook Connector customers can access and manage email, contacts, calendar, and tasks using their own copy of Microsoft Office Outlook.

Security and privacy

How do I protect myself against computer viruses?
  • Know where your email is coming from. Be especially careful of email from unknown sources.
  • Be careful of attachments to your email. Be especially careful of executable attachments that end in .exe, .pif, or .vbs, among others, and never open attachments that you aren't completely sure about.
  • Make sure your email software is NOT set up to automatically download or install email attachments.
  • Email addresses can be spoofed, which means they can appear to be sent from a different address than they really came from. Don't automatically trust email from any address you recognize.
  • Install virus scanning software on your computer, and keep it updated.
  • Make sure your computer's operating system is up to date with the latest security upgrades.
  • And in case the worst happens and your computer is infected, make sure you have backups of your data files.
Are my credit card information and password safe?
When highly confidential information (such as a credit card number or password) is transmitted over the Internet, Microsoft protects it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. Encryption is the process of encoding data to prevent unauthorized access, especially during transmission. Encryption is usually based on one or more keys, or codes, that are essential for decoding, or returning the data to readable form.
What kinds of security measures has Microsoft taken to protect my company's confidential information on Office Live Small Business?
Microsoft follows the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) when developing software. The process entails a series of security-focused activities and deliverables during each phase of Microsoft's software development process, including the development of threat models during software design, the use of code-scanning tools during implementation, conducting code reviews, and testing security during a focused "security push". Before software can be released, it must undergo a final security review by an independent development team. Software that has undergone the SDL experiences a significantly reduced rate of security vulnerabilities being discovered.
How does Office Live Small Business maintain the security of the data in my workspaces and business applications? How do I know someone won't steal my company's information?
The data you maintain on Office Live Small Business is stored in computer systems with limited access that are located in controlled facilities. Additionally, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), a worldwide security response system, was created to protect Microsoft customers from vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. The MSRC seeks information about software vulnerabilities, monitors for evidence of security incidents, and then responds quickly and aggressively to help protect customers from security threats when they emerge.
How can I control access to confidential areas of my workspaces and business applications?
Access to workspaces and business applications can be controlled by the administrator of the site, that is, the person who subscribes to the Office Live Small Business account. Administrators can grant access to users through specific levels of permission, such as Reader, Editor, and Administrator. These permission levels are set through the Account Settings area. The Administrator has full access to set user permissions and to add, modify, and delete information; Editors have full access to add, modify, and delete information; Readers have read-only access to information.

Administration and support

What kind of support is included with Office Live Small Business?

Here’s a summary of our support options:

Support:
Office Live Small Business 		U.S.
Email Yes
Online Help Yes
FAQ Yes
Community forums Yes

All Office Live Small Business accounts include online help, email support, and communities.

How are my data and website protected against system failures?
Microsoft uses redundant hardware and software systems to protect against system failures. Redundancy means that Microsoft uses one or more servers on a website to perform the same tasks. If one of the servers crashes, another server takes its place. Redundancy ensures that the website continues to function and you experience no loss of data if one of the servers stops working.

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