MICROSOFT OFFICE 365
Most organisations have made the move from the traditional Microsoft Office product – that must be purchased, downloaded, managed and upgraded – to a Microsoft 365 software subscription (the name changed from Office 365 in April 2020). Microsoft 365 is always updated, available on any device, and perfect for a mobile workforce. As soon as a new version is released, it can be accessed as part of the service without paying an additional fee.
Microsoft 365 has 258 million active users
There are many reasons the world's most successful organisations choose Microsoft Office 365:
Most companies use Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, which all come with Office 365, including web versions of these applications.
However Microsoft Office 365 also provides Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Planner, Teams, Groups and more, with rich functionality across multiple applications. Then there’s Microsoft Dynamics 365 – a full ERP and CRM – all available through the Office 365 portal. And with integration to Microsoft Azure and even LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft), you can see the breadth of possibilities.
Compare competing products with specific Microsoft 365 features and they can stack up well. But if you look at the full Microsoft 365 capability, there’s no comparison.
Because Microsoft 365 sits in the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere. People working from home or on the road can access the same document versions as their office-bound colleagues without the palaver of emailing local versions. Temporary workers can be allocated company email addresses managed in M365 with unique management policies rather than housed on the Exchange server. Speaking of servers…
Accessing Microsoft 365 and particularly Outlook via the cloud means all updates and security patches are taken care of, freeing up IT resources that would normally be dedicated to mailbox server maintenance, Exchange updates and the inevitable associated downtime and issues.
Software as a service enables costs to be paid from Operational expenses, saving capital reserve for marketing and other worthy purposes. Monthly fees are predictable based on your active users, making forecasts straightforward. On the revenue side of the balance sheet, productivity tools offer significant competitive advantage.
Microsoft had already secured significant market share back when Office was first released, consequently most companies already run Windows, SQL Server,.Net applications and Active Directory. However with a more competitive environment constantly disrupted by start-ups, Microsoft has invested heavily in growing and enhancing their 365 offering and continues to do so.
Microsoft 365 For Remote Work
Download your Guide to remote work using the technology you already haveMicrosoft 365 Tools
Microsoft Office 365 contains dozens of applications and features. Here are a few that can transform your organisation with the right approach.SharePoint
SharePoint is a powerful collection of tools. Straight out of the box, SharePoint provides a perfectly acceptable experience but if you configure it and create a decent user interface, it can deliver serious productivity across your organisation.
You can use SharePoint to create applications with:
- Forms that capture data.
- Document Management to tag, share and control documents.
- Workflows to enable automation, e.g. approving a leave request form.
- Dashboards and reports to present data visually.
- Email integration and notifications.
- Active Directory (AD) integration to assign permissions.
- Websites: intranets, extranets or public-facing websites (public websites on Azure-hosted SharePoint or on-premises SharePoint).
SharePoint offers many unique features plus thousands of third-party add-ons - a far cry from the glorified file server it often becomes. For solutions that require a mix of functionality, SharePoint is perfect.
How to Nail Microsoft Teams
Please complete the form to access a copy of this webinarMicrosoft Teams
Teams is Microsoft’s Swiss army knife and is a revolutionary way of working. You can set up a Team and give them access to content, tools, people and conversations all in your Team workspace, PLUS:
- Link to useful content with a tabbed interface.
- Integrate feeds from different applications.
- Get built-in access to SharePoint, OneNote and Planner.
- Work on documents, hold group chats or calls.
Microsoft are strongly backing Teams and have even introduced a free version to get you started.
Planner
Put down those Post-it notes! Planner allows you to create a task, allocate it to a person and add a due date, then track progress visually. It serves as a hub where team members can organise tasks and allow other members to view and access them.
As well as using the online version, you can use the Planner app on your phone or add it as a tab within Teams for channel-specific tasks. Users can choose to present only their own tasks, comment and add updates and receive reminders for due dates. Finish a task and tick it off – so satisfying.
Groups
Create groups of people with whom to share certain information. For example a project team might want a central location for files and resources relevant to their project. They can share documents, a calendar, an email inbox, a OneNote notebook, a Yammer group and a Planner task board all in one location. New members automatically get the permissions they need without bothering IT.
Flow
Use Flow if you need to create a sequence of actions based on certain criteria. Flow allows you to set up all kinds of actions and can integrate with numerous applications. Want to know when a Twitter contact reaches 100+ followers, and then automatically add them to your Dynamics 365 email list? Flow offers limitless opportunities to automate tasks. It’s easy to use; and most people will be able to create Flows to suit their needs – not just the tech experts.
Power Apps
PowerApps enables you to manage data by running apps – either ones that you’ve created yourself, or that someone else created and shared with you. Those apps can run on Android, iOS, and Windows devices. Alternatively, you can run them in a browser within Dynamics 365. You can create a variety of apps without knowing a single line of code.
Forms
Forms is a lightweight app that allows you to create surveys, quizzes and polls. You might use it to collect feedback, measure employee satisfaction or a host of other uses.
Active Directory
Active Directory is a centralised Microsoft solution to manage user authentication, authorisation, and computer management in your organisation. If not managed properly, you may be plagued with a number of issues including security breaches, duplicate accounts, orphan accounts and more.
Managing Office 365 with a Digital Workplace
While most organisations have Office 365 licences, the fact is that not many are using it effectively.
People are still emailing each other document versions, writing and distributing minutes in meetings and downloading external, unapproved apps to complete their work because they don’t know how to use Office 365 effectively.
A Digital Workplace should be a portal to Office 365, highlighting chat messages, tasks and events that are relevant to the user and allowing them to action these without skipping between 10 different screens. If you can present Microsoft Office 365 services to people in a straightforward way as part of their workday, it will encourage adoption and homogenise the tools that people use for certain tasks, minimising issues with shadow IT.
