Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based package of services, including email, web communications, file storage and file sharing. Microsoft maintains and supports the infrastructure, and continually makes enhancements to features. With Microsoft 365 we are able to provide enterprise-level cloud services, while saving costs to the university.
Components of Microsoft 365
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Download and install up to 5 full copies of Office Pro* (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote, Access) on up to 5 devices, including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. Available to students, faculty and staff. * Not all Office components are available for each device/platform. |
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1 TB of personal file storage space is available to all students, faculty, and staff on OneDrive for Business. Access files from anywhere, on desktop, laptop or mobile devices; file sharing, version control. |
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Exchange Online is a cloud-based email and calendar app, which gives you 50 GB of storage for email messages and attachments. Features include anti-spam filtering and antivirus protection. All McGill student, alumni, faculty, staff and retired faculty & staff mailboxes use Exchange Online. |
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Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive online collaboration platform that includes capabilities for managing multiple channels for group chats, web conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing and file sharing. All McGill students, faculty, and staff can use Teams. |
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Office Delve helps you discover information available to you throughout your Office 365 applications -- OneDrive for Business files, email and McGill organizational charts. It "learns" what's most relevant to you based on the documents you access over time and searches you perform. |
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Yammer is a private social network, similar to Facebook for organizations. McGill's Yammer site is accessible to all students, faculty and staff. It currently hosts a number of public and private groups on topics ranging from workplace productivity to photography. Find out more... |
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Stream allows faculty, staff and students to upload video content and manage their own groups on McGill's Office 365 platform. Video access can be restricted to specific groups or made public for all McGill students, faculty and staff. Think of it as a YouTube site for the McGill community. Note: At present video sharing is restricted to the McGIll community. There are plans to expand access to external audiences in the future. For videos targeting external audiences, such as promotional videos for prospective students or faculty, McGill's YouTube channel is a more appropriate choice. To find out how to have your content posted there, contact info.communications [at] mcgill.ca |
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Online surveys, quizzes and forms in Office 365 - Microsoft forms is an easy to use tool to create simple online questionnaires. Feedback can be provided for each answer, and simple statistics are available. |
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Sway is a web-based presentation tool, used to create dynamic and engaging reports, newsletters, portfolios and other communications. Sway provides a variety of themes, styles and transitions, so you can focus on your content -- text, images and other media such as YouTube video, embedded code, etc. |
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Power BI is a data visualization solution, used to create and publish interactive reports, dashboards and a multitude of visual data representations, to analyze data and make informed decisions. |
Privacy, security, reliability
Microsoft is a leader in providing enterprise solutions. Our contract with Microsoft upholds the importance of privacy and security, with the following commitments:
- Privacy - compliant with both Canadian and Quebec privacy laws
- Intellectual property rights are fully protected – not the case with other web offerings like Dropbox
- User credentials verified at McGill – username and password authentication is done at McGill; these credentials are not stored on Microsoft servers.
- No data mining – they will not mine email or other documents
- No advertising – there will be no advertising within the Office 365 applications
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime
Cloud Directive
McGill's Cloud Directive regulates what types of data can be stored/transmitted through cloud services, including Microsoft 365. See Cloud Services at McGill for a link to the Cloud Directive and supporting resources.
