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Office 365 is continuing to be implemented within all types of organizations as the days pass. And this week was no different, as headlines were made in regards to the overwhelming amount of benefits companies are seeing by leveraging this cloud-based and highly robust solution.

Kicking off the week, Uppsalahem, an apartment rental company, began to work in conjunction with Swedish IT company Sigma AB, to gain access to Office 365. In line with this agreement, the apartment rental provider will gain access to Exchange Online, Lync Online and Office 365 and will be able to leverage several functions such as e-mail, chat, video conferencing and collaboration.

 "We are very pleased and proud that Uppsalahem has entrusted us to help them introduce Office 365. Sigma will take full responsibility for the implementation", says Stefan Johansson Business Developer, Office 365 at Sigma, in a statement.

With over 1,400 employees dispersed throughout nine countries, the Sigma Group focuses on two business areas including information logistics and IT management, in addition to being highlighted on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Small Cap-list.

In other news, Mimecast, a startup company that provides cloud-based continuity and security, received nearly $62.15 million in Series C funding for its Office 365-based offering. Since opening its doors back in 2003, the company has raked in over 6,000 customers in search of a product that could ramp up efficiency and make it easier to collaborate amongst an entire workforce.

"Today's businesses are as dependent on e-mail as ever but increasingly e-mail struggles to keep up as the way we create, store and share information changes," Peter Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Mimecast, said in a statement. "At Mimecast, we believe e-mail needs to be rewired if it is to continue to deliver real value to businesses. Building on our history of innovation, we are working to make email more collaborative and more interactive to realize the true value of the vast amount of unstructured data in email stores.”

Bauer believes that is highly important for his customer base to realize the various benefits that can be seen when transitioning from Exchange 2003 and 2007 to Office 365 as well as utilizing the firm’s Unified E-mail Management (UEM).

Closing out the week, Microsoft (News - Alert) officials released details in regards to some of the new capabilities available in the 2013 version of Exchange and Office 365 including Exchange Online Protection, which protects inbound and outbound e-mail from viruses, spam, phishing, and other policy violations.

Data loss protection will also be added to the cloud-based offering, a functionality touted as being able to identify, monitor and protect sensitive data. This will prove crucial to companies as continuous cyber attacks against major enterprises are occurring on almost a daily basis as of late.

Be sure to check back each and every week to the Office 365 community for all of the latest news in the space!

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