The quick way for users to understand O365: The Periodic Table of Office 365

[Deleted]

I consider myself a SharePoint geek, but I play more and more in the larger Office 365 (O365) sphere these days. In doing so, I’ve noticed that O365 as a concept is difficult to explain… both to IT folks and the everyday workers who are expected to use it.

So I put together a new infographic that (hopefully) provides a quick intro to O365, its apps, and how they're all related. Good for both the IT crowd and lines of business. Check out my Periodic Table of Office 365 below.

[full-size version] 

[#2]

Glad you posted this here Wade. Being a big fan of both Science and Office 365 I enjoyed and shared this around.

It's so hard to accurately portray everything because a lot of the time the answer is "It depends" but I think you've done a good job of it.

[#3]

Hi, can I make a Japanese translation of this??

[#4]

@Deleted has subsequently updated the graphic to include Forms.  He keeps the graphic up to date at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/everyday-intro-office-365-matt-wade.  He also has an infographic about Office 365 Groups is at http://icansharepoint.com/everyday-guide-office-365-groups/.

The caption for Forms, "code free forms", I feel isn't very explanatory, especially to regular end users.  I think a better caption for it would be "Surveys, Quizes, and Polls".

[#5]

@Michael Blumenthal Yeah, I've considered that and am still debating a change in the upcoming next version. To play devil's advocate, the product is called Microsoft Forms.

[#6]

True, but "code free forms" equally well described PowerApps, does it not? The goal here is to highlight how each one is different.

[#7]

I've considered that. It's a shame they named it Forms, eh? :) I've further addressed this here in more detail if you're interested. I agree that your concerns are valid, but I think they need to be pointed more at Redmond than anywhere else.

I will say that I've been using Forms for sign up and feedback uses (and, actually, only those use cases). I wouldn't call either of those a poll, a quiz, or a survey; I'd refer to them as "sign-up forms" and "feedback forms". Unfortunately, the vernacular 'form' does apply to this product, even if the IT/BPI 'form' definition (or, likely better phrased expectation) may not.

No perfect answer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[#8 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your continued contributions to the community, Matt! Great job; we have referred to this many times in the past few months.

[#9]

Whahoou!!!! Thank's

[#10]

Where does groups fit into this table? or does it?  I am building a governance plan with my team and going through each of the apps with them and I realised that groups was not mentioned on here.  I know it is not an app in its own right (except on mobile devices) but it does need to be considered with the Office 365 eco system.

[#11]

Office 365 Groups are a crucial component of Office 365 underpinning many services as well as a function in their own right and arguably the successor to Exchange Distribution Lists:

You can see how Teams uses Groups for example and more in general here.  Definitely well worth covering groups in your governance plan, for example, looking at who can create groups, how they are managed and whether the capabilities of Azure AD Premium could be beneficial, as that provides a lot of extra features for groups management.

These presentations may be worth checking out as well:

Implement best practices with Office 365 Groups

Governance and compliance with Office 365 Groups

[#12]

I really enjoy reading all the great material you produce Matt, thanks a lot for this!

[#13]

Hi @Deleted, try this infographic I made for Groups. It's a confusing topic for sure and I tried to distill it down to a digestible format. Let me know if that helps. http://icsh.pt/O365groups

[#14]

Glad you find it useful, @Lisa MARTINEZ. :)