Non-Profit Office 365 Benefits

There are some very cool Office 365 benefits for Non-Profit Organizations. Many NPOs already know about cheap software benefits using TechSoup.org, where any 501(c)(3) can grab Office 2013 for $24 a license, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise for $12. There are several low-cost hardware and software offerings (laptops/desktops/phones/Quickbooks/Exchange, etc). These offers are really great for NPOs to keep their costs down when running their own services, but for small NPOs, running servers on site can be a real pain, and more expensive when taking into consideration the cost of support. Google Apps for NPOs is a good option, but many people are remiss to give up the awesome collaboration benefits of Exchange and Outlook.

There’s a better option. Office 365 is being offered to NPOs for free and low cost options. Let’s look at one TH2 Client to see the benefits up front:
Situation: NPO Client has 2 servers, both are old and need to be replaced. This NPO was running Exchange 2003, Active Directory, and Raiser’s Edge and Financial Edge.
Solution 1: They need at least one server to replace the two, something that can run Active Directory and their financial programs on site. But, do they need a new Exchange server as well? The server alone was quoted out at $3,000, and then there was the install cost, and our $100 a month Exchange management cost.
Solution 2: Now, let’s look at an Office 365 solution for this same NPO. No server to replace Exchange, but there is the cutover project to move them to Office 365. The cost of this project was approximately the same as the setup cost of Exchange 2013 on new hardware. The difference is there is no hardware fee to go along with it. They have 7 users on site, and we change $12 per mailbox to manage Office 365. They are now at $84 dollars per month with more services, a lower initial investment, and lower long term costs. Costs like major updates to Exchange, future hardware updates, power and cooling costs, and of course, they have no offsite backup cost and a SLA from Microsoft guaranteeing 99.9% uptime of their services.

Summary
This is a great example of what NPOs are able to accomplish using the new offerings from Microsoft. Lower costs all around, and honestly, a better setup. If you’re an NPO, and you’re looking for an IT company that puts you, your needs, and your mission first, give us a call. We’d love to work with you, and get you on board with any of the many benefits you rightly deserve. You put the time and effort into getting your NPO status, let us do the rest of the work required to obtain and leverage your benefits.

TH2 Technologies specializes in the following:

Orange County Computer Services, San Diego Networking Services, and Orange County IT Consulting,

TH2 Technologies
23591 El Toro Rd. #255
Lake Forest CA 92630
Phone: 949.235.8742
FAX: 949.215.6051
Email: sales@th2tech.com