Introduction to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) - 50408

Course Outline

Module 1: Product Overview

Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is a key component in a line of software as a service offerings from Microsoft. Microsoft’s online strategy is to provide essential business software and services on a subscription basis. Companies gain a predictable, stable cost structure along with reliability and availability they could not otherwise afford.

Lessons

• Background on Software as a Service and “Cloud Computing”
  
• Nature and Purpose of BPOS
  
• Estimating Costs, Calculating Return on Investment
  
• Working with a Partner

Lab : Product Overview

• Use BPOS Pricing Calculator
  
• Use BPOS Cost Comparison Tool

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Identify key business drivers for online services
  
• Understand BPOS product options
  
• Estimate costs and savings

Module 2: Administration

Once you have successfully subscribed to Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite, whether on a free trial or the real thing, someone in your company needs to perform a small number of basic administrative duties.  These duties fall into two categories:  “Day One” activities that are typically done once and only periodically reviewed, and on-going tasks that occur more regularly.  If you prefer, you have the option of delegating administrative duties to a Microsoft Partner.

Lessons

• Subscribing to BPOS
  
• Day One - Administrative Duties
  
• Setup Accelerator
  
• Online Services Sign-In Utility
  
• User Management
  
• Technical Support
  
• Subscription Expiration
  
• Over of Service Configuration
  
• The User’s Experience

Lab : Administration

• Administrative Sign-In
  
• Create and Manage a User Account
  
• Configure Sign-In Utility

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand how to get started with BPOS.
  
• Be familiar with “day one” and on-going BPOS administration tasks.
  
• Select between on-premise and hosted versions of BPOS.
  
• Be aware of BPOS administrators can manage services and users.

Module 3: Exchange Online

Exchange Online offers “access from anywhere” to corporate e-mail, contacts, tasks, calendars and conference room scheduling, based on the features and functions of Microsoft’s Exchange Server.

Lessons

• Basic Operations
  
• Administration
  
• Migration
  
• Coexistence

Lab : Exchange Online

• Outlook Web Access Sign-In
  
• Conference Room Scheduling

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand options for configuring Exchange Online and administering hybrid deployments where a local Exchange Server is involved.
  
• Be aware that mailboxes can be migrated both to and from Exchange Online.

Module 4: Office Communicator

Office Communicator is a corporate instant messaging utility that also provides presence awareness and the ability to use one-on-one audio and video.  If you don’t think instant messaging has a place in your company you’re wasting time and missing out on some important efficiency features.

Lessons

• The Importance of Presence Awareness
  
• Use of Instant Messaging instead of Phone or E-mail
  
• Administration
  
• Client Operations

Lab : Office Communicator

• Communicator Sign-In
  
• Set/Check Presence
  
• Send Instant Message

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Use Office Communicator and presence awareness as an alternative to phone calls and e-mail messages.

Module 5: Office Live Meeting

Live Meeting is a hosted web conferencing service that enables communication and collaboration with anyone, anywhere, at any time.  Meetings can be scheduled in advance with careful control over attendance or opened to a general audience.  With optional live audio and video and the capability to display any document or application screen, Live Meeting helps users minimize travel costs and related disruptions and streamline communications with colleagues, customers, and other audiences.

Lessons

• Potential Uses for Live Meeting
  
• Running a Meeting
  
• Administration
  
• Live Meeting Scheduling and Configuration

Lab : Office Live Meeting

• Host a Meeting
  
• Join a Meeting

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Take advantage of LiveMeeting for supporting branch offices, remote sites, home workers, customers, partners, suppliers and others in training, collaboration and sales presentations.

Module 6: SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online is all about connecting people so they can search, create, collaborate, and share information.  SharePoint is arguably the most important and exciting part of the Business Productivity Online Suite in terms of creating value and making your workforce more efficient and effective.  The other components of BPOS focus on a single user and rely on the user keeping track of information and performing self organization tasks.  SharePoint brings all users together where they can contribute to a larger body of information.

Lessons

• •Product Overview
  
• •Administration
  
• •Creating Site Collections and Sites
  
• •Working with Lists and Libraries

Lab : SharePoint Online

• Create a Site Collection
  
• Authorize Users
  
• Create a Sub-Site
  
• Create a List
  
• Create an Alert

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Leverage the SharePoint collaboration, sharing and search features to keep a network of users up to date with the information, relationships, documents and notifications they need to be efficient and productive.

Module 7: SharePoint Workflows

Workflows help encourage the use of best practices and automate or at least streamline repetitive activities that involve documents, tasks or other list items in SharePoint.  Unique among other features of Business Productivity Online Suite which rely on users actively doing something to reach out and communicate, SharePoint workflows can take an active role and initiate communication, make routing decisions, and more.  Workflows can be based on formal company policy, informal processing rules or even just the capture the decision-making process used by more experienced employees.

Lessons

• Workflow Overview
  
• Survey of Actions and Conditions
  
• Getting Started with SharePoint Designer
  
• Advanced Workflows

Lab : SharePoint Workflows

• Run an Out-of-Box Workflow
  
• Create a SharePoint Designer Workflow

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand how to construct SharePoint Workflows to encourage best practices and streamline and automate routine procedures.

Module 8: Putting it All Together

The goal of this course is to create a vision of your organization using Business Productivity Online Suite to become more connected, more efficient and more effective.  This final module summarizes key features and benefits of BPOS in terms of how they help meet these goals.

Lessons

• Implementation and Administration
  
• Communication
  
• Collaboration
  
• Efficiency

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Create a vision for the student’s company where BPOS creates a connected, productive, efficient and effective workforce no matter where they are located.