Increase Collaboration and Productivity with Office 365 and Teams
Office 365 is Microsoft’s productivity suite which includes Word, Exchange, Excel, SharePoint, and Teams. Because Office 365 is cloud-based, the full-featured experience can be accessed from anywhere, on any device.
The tools in Office 365 work together seamlessly, so it’s a must-have for any business that needs to maximize employee productivity.
Here are several benefits to consider:
Access Files Anywhere
Office 365 enables your organization to store all your files in the cloud so they can be accessed on any device, from any location. Remote and mobile file access is essential for today’s organizations.
Secure Cloud Storage
Office 365 is a totally secure environment with robust security measures such as two-factor authentication, which ensures unauthorized people can’t access your files. Threat detection and anti-malware identify security threats are identified and stopped immediately.
Improved Communication
Office 365 gives users the tools to centralize communication such as Skype and Outlook. Skype for Business lets you hold conference calls and meetings with staff and external agencies anywhere in the world, so you can always collaborate and communicate regardless of distance or time difference.
Teams provides an instant messaging function where comments can be added and files uploaded at the same time, which is useful for cross-department collaboration and when co-authoring documents. You can also “@” people, so they receive a notification that a comment is directed to them.
All these features mean you can be in constant and immediate contact with teams and individuals wherever they are located and at any time. Yammer is another feature of Office 365 which acts as a kind of social network for your organization. By posting on your company ‘news feed’ you can instantly message the entire workforce, and staff receive an email notification when there is a new post so messages aren’t missed. Anyone can comment on a post, and you can create different ‘channels’ in Yammer for different purposes, so you don’t always have to post to the entire company.
Predictable Spend
Office 365 is paid for on a per user, per month basis, like a subscription. The cost of your licenses depends on the level of functionality you choose for your business. Different enterprise levels include different applications and products, which dictates the cost of each license. Paying per user, per month gives you a predictable outgoing and helps you budget your IT spend for the year ahead. Upgrades are included in the cost of your licenses, so there are no unexpected or additional costs. If you buy your licenses through Core, you can also change the number of license you have at any time, if you hire or people leave, for example. That way, you are never over-licensed and there is no waste.
Business Continuity
With files stored in the cloud and regularly backed up, your organization continue to operate as normal in the case of a disaster at the office. No matter what happens to your physical devices, your email, files and data are safely stored in the cloud. Exchange also has recovery features which mean individual emails or even entire inboxes can be restored if needed. No matter the situation, it can be business as usual if you’re using Office 365.
Automatic Upgrades
All the essential apps such as Word, Excel and Outlook are included and work online without the need to install any software. Upgrades are performed automatically at predetermined intervals, so you don’t have to worry about being on the latest version; that will happen automatically. The expense of buying new software is also eradicated as updates are included in the subscription for your Office 365 licences.
Centralized Collaboration
Office 365 lets you share mailboxes, calendars, contacts and edit documents in real time through collaborative tools. Sharing calendars in Exchange means you can see who in your organization is available when, so you can schedule meetings that work for everyone, first time round. Shared mailboxes mean multiple people can access the same mailbox, so messages can be filtered to land in the shared mailbox and won’t be missed. SharePoint is another integral tool for enabling collaboration. Documents that are saved here can be accessed and worked on by any staff member and shared as a link in email. Multiple users are also able to edit documents stored in SharePoint in real time, which makes co-authoring easy. You can see who is in the document at any time and even where they’re working thanks to little colored flags which identify each user.
Office 365 offers online versions of the most popular tools such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. For any business, the range of features provided by Office 365 are unmatched. The monthly subscription model offered for Office 365 makes it easier for companies to buy a plan that is suitable for their size and number of users and continue to operate as usual.
Microsoft Teams Benefits
Improved communication is at the heart of Microsoft Teams. This cloud-based platform of integrated Microsoft tools is a game-changer for organizations. Microsoft Teams is an enterprise communication tool which takes the waste out of traditional office collaboration.
The benefits of Microsoft Teams are wide-ranging. Many are related to increased utilization of time and optimisation of team cooperation. Some benefits are related to software safety and security in this new world. Business of any size can take advantage of the many benefits of Microsoft Teams.
Super-charged communication
One of the main benefits of Microsoft Teams is that it fosters incredibly targeted communication among teams. There is almost no wasted time or discussion. They key is that it allows real-time chat among selected team players within topic channels. Microsoft Teams removes the time lag between team members not able to read emails. It keeps only those involved in a certain task involved.
Increased Productivity
Think of the time lost between email threads. Think of the time lost in trying to schedule meetings amongst remote workers. Task allocation during post-meeting follow ups is notoriously time-consuming. Document collation and version tracking is also problematic. One big benefit of Microsoft Teams is to heighten productivity by keeping the right people at the table in highly-focused collaborations with document retrieval built into the system.
Hardware and Software Independent
Since Teams can be accessed anywhere, anytime, on any device, there’s no hardware or software requirements saving you time and money on support and updates. Windows, Mac, iOS and Android are all supported. All you need is an internet connection.
Tightly Integrated with Microsoft (Office) 365
Teams functionality is available across the entire Office suite of products which helps streamline processes and save time.
Meeting and scheduling tools
So much time is lost in team collaborations while trying to sync calendars. With Microsoft Teams you can have your existing appointments synced with other team members. Once your meeting is set up, you can talk about the meeting in a separate chat thread. You can agree on agendas and upload relevant documents, all within Microsoft Teams.
A Digital Transformation Kickstarter
If your organization is not digitally transformed, you will likely have many different data storage locations. This can cause delays when documents need to be accessed. One of the benefits of Microsoft Teams is that it takes you along a digital transformation journey. As it is a cloud-based system, you can access information from anywhere, on any device, at any time.
Voice calling in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has beefed up its telephony offering. Up to 250 of your employees can make high quality voice calls at any time, even to external numbers. These ring on a desktop and mobile device simultaneously. This alleviates the need for expensive handsets as you can use a headset or the built-in audio on your desktop, laptop or mobile devices instead.
Includes Helper Bots
Using artificial intelligence, these next generation bots will help you automate everyday tasks to save you time. One of the best benefits of Microsoft Teams is to have a bot appear just like any other team member to offer its help. Some examples of bots are T-Bot for frequently asked questions. Polly Bot can help with voting among colleagues. Hipmunk can help arrange your travel plans. Learn more about bots here.
Microsoft Teams Developer Platform
If you need to integrate an external business process, Teams Developer Platform can help. Some examples of this are social media applications. These can be implemented easily. This allows outside applications to feel accessible within the world of Teams
Real-time document collaboration
One of the most productive benefits of Microsoft Teams is that staff can collaborate and edit documents seamlessly. This can be done at the same time as other users in the organization. Documents are auto saved within Teams. This way no information is lost.
Notifications
With Microsoft Teams your email inbox will never be overloaded and there is no risk of you missing out on important emails with tasks attached. This is because all your likes and mentions are highlighted on the Activity and Chat panes. This cuts out a large number of potential emails that you would otherwise have received.
Enhanced Security
Using multi-factor authentication and secure guest access, Microsoft Teams is very secure. The system offers built-in information protection for large enterprises to the high level that these organizations expect.
Customizable workspace.
One of the main benefits of Microsoft Teams is that you can always import your preferences for applications outside of the Microsoft family. Your workspace can be customised to take into account social media platforms such as twitter. You can also enable news alerts pertinent to your geography. You can even integrate other cloud storage solutions like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Instant company-wide updates
Nobody is left behind. As many as 10,000 attendees can dial into to important company announcements on video call. Company leaders can also send an email to everyone on the call with the push of a button. This ensures a single meeting as opposed to many different meetings to cascade the same information.
No additional cost for most Microsoft 365 users
If your company already has a Microsoft 365 license, there is no additional cost for basic Microsoft Teams feature. There are premium options available that may incur some additional minimal cost. But other competitors, such as Slack have to be purchased separately and are not tightly integrated with the Office products.
Take the Next Step
The numerous benefits of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams offers an indispensable modern work tool for your team. Schedule a complimentary call with us to learn more about what an Office/Teams implementation would look like including timeline, training and cost.