Microsoft Office 2016 launched with key focus on cloud collaboration

Microsoft launches Office 2016 with focus on cloud collaboration and built-in Skype communication

Microsoft launches the new Office 2016 in India with a focus on cloud collaboration

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Despite being the most widely used productivity tool, Microsoft Office has been under pressure from cloud based services like Google Docs lately. Office 2016 with key focus on cloud collaboration aims to tackle this crisis.

Office has been the ‘go to platform’ for many and Office 2016 brings subtle changes. Here are the four prominent changes:

Real-time co-authoring: Real-time authoring allows two or more people to collaborate in real-time on a Microsoft Word document and complete their work. While this thing existed on Office online for sometime, Microsoft bringing the feature to desktop apps for the first time with the new release. The best use case scenario would be a project or research work where two or more people can author their individual parts at the same time without requiring a person to edit and send back the document.

Tell Me: In general, Office is a giant productivity tool with some features one may not discover at all but what if you want to do something and don’t know from where to start. Tell Me is at your disposal. In simple words, Tell Me is an intelligent assistant (not Cortana) to help you quickly find the right Office feature or command within the app. Power users, Alt+Q is the new shortcut to remember.

The new Office 2016 integrates Skype to communicate with collaborators in real-time (Source: Microsoft)
 
Smart Lookup: Say you are reading a book on Kindle and are stuck at a new word, just selecting the word brings up the dictionary. Microsoft built a web right into Office. Smart Lookup brings insights from the web right into your documents.

Skype built-in: We live in a digital age where communication is the key to everything and now Microsoft is bringing Skype directly to Office in order to help users communicate with collaborators right within the app. While Skype is the default service right now, Microsoft will be handing out APIs to help other communication platforms to extend their service to Office users.

Other changes worth mentioning:
Excel 2016 introduces six new charts with Treemap and Sunburst charts being the key new addition. Treemap chart visualizes large datasets with innate groupings while Sunburst shows the full hierarchy of the groups to provide deeper analysis. Excel now also includes integrated publishing to Power BI (free business intelligence tool from Microsoft).

Microsoft is bring treemap chart to Excel 2016 which visualizes large datasets with innate groupings (Source: Microsoft)
With Office 2016, your documents can travel with you across devices and the most recently used documents list allows users to pick up right where they left.

For the enterprise, there is built-in Data Loss Prevention tool across Office apps that significantly reduces the risk of leaking sensitive data with management tools designed for IT administrators.

“We live in a world where infinite devices and data are vying for our finite time and attention. That’s why Microsoft has set a bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business process in this mobile-first, cloud-first world. Today with the launch of Office 2016 we endeavor to provide our users with a connected set of apps and services designed for modern working and collaboration which they can access easily and across devices,” said Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Microsoft India.

“Office 2016 focuses on mobility, scalability and fidelity. The new Office will offer monthly update to consumers and SMEs while updates to enterprise will be delivered three times a year. With new add-ins coming later, Office 2016 will offer smart user experience and cloud collaboration,” said Alok Lall, Digital and social media marketing, Microsoft India to IndianExpress.com

Future Updates:

Cortana Integration: With Cortana designed specifically for Indian users already in the pipeline, Microsoft is preparing to bring its digital voice assistant to Office apps that help users with tasks such as meeting preparation and further integration with Microsoft’s email app, Outlook.

GigJam: With Windows now turned into Saas (Software-as-a-Service), Microsoft is bring a new tool called GigJam to accomplish tasks and transform business processes. This new tool is now available in private preview starting today.

Pricing:
Office 2016 Perpetual starts at Rs 5,999 for Home and Students version while the Home and Business costs Rs 18,499. Office 2016 for Business Standard version costs Rs 24,844 and the Professional Plus will be available at Rs 33,911.

Microsoft Office 365 Personal edition is a one user service now available at Rs 3,299 per annum letting you access Office on one PC, one tablet and one phone. Microsoft Office 365 Home gives Office access to five users across five PCs, tablets and phones and is priced at Rs 4,199 per annum.