The Future of Productivity has come to Indiana!

Pinnacle, An Advanced Imaging Solutions Company is taking business productivity to the next level - and business leaders are invited to experience the difference. The certified Microsoft partner has recently opened a Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience Center in their Mishawaka office.

The Microsoft Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) allows businesses to test-drive Microsoft's cloud productivity suite in a hands-on environment. These sessions enable you to explore the full potential of Microsoft's best-in-class technologies, including Office 365, SharePoint Server, Skype for Business, and Dynamics CRM.

News Release

South Bend, IN — 3/18/2015: Pinnacle, An Advanced Imaging Solutions Company is taking business productivity to the next level - and business leaders are invited to experience the difference. The certified Microsoft partner has recently opened a Microsoft Experience Center (MEC) in their Mishawaka office.

The Microsoft Experience Center allows businesses to test Microsoft office applications in a hands-on environment. Pinnacle has not one, but two certified MEC facilitators. “It isn’t like a traditional presentation or demo, businesses are invited to explore Microsoft’s productivity tools in a simulated true-to-life work environment. It’s very collaborative and allows participants to see how Microsoft devices and solutions can provide real-life advantages for their business,” Eric Huggins, MEC facilitator and DevOps Manager for Pinnacle tells us.

A tremendous amount of change is happening in Information Technology right now. As predicted, 2014 has in many ways been the "Year of the Cloud"; here at Pinnacle, it has certainly been the year of Office 365. As of December, we have been involved in or have directed the migration of over 3000 seats of Exchange to Office 365. The range of customers ran from small businesses to Financial Services, from 10 seats to 400+, and locally owned to International operations.

In some circles, 3000 seats of Office 365 would be small potatoes - but to our customers, the decision to move core IT infrastructure to Office 365 was significant. Most of the discussions around Office 365 involved email - but most purchases also included Lync for instant messaging; SharePoint for file sharing and collaboration; and Yammer for community updates.

There have been changes to certifications recently and with that new challenges and requirements. In the past, we had MCTS and MCITP or MCPD on a specific product and that was it, now the story is somewhat different. You will need to not only know the product (yes, I am one that still focuses on knowing a product not the test), but also the environment on which it sits or lives (therefore Windows Server and supporting services).

A simple question many clients have asked me is 'How much does SharePoint cost?' Unfortunately, the answer doesn't always seem so simple. The goal of this article is to help. Below are some pricing and licensing details to help you put together some budgetary ideas. In addition, there are some licensing details around SharePoint that everyone should know. They can be very helpful before buying and that might help you save money.