Daniel O’Neill, Head of Managed Service at Paradyn, provides five tips for businesses to maximise the value of their Microsoft Office 365 licence.
According to Microsoft’s latest results, Office 365 now has 200 million monthly active users. The suite of business products is the most used business process app in the world and its continual growth is thanks to the diverse range of tools it offers commercial users. However, not every business is utilising Office 365 to its full potential. There are many more features outside of just sending emails and creating documents that are readily available to users.
Here are 5 top tips to get maximum benefits out of your Office 365 subscription
1. Take advantage of anywhere, anytime access
With remote working more common place than ever before, Microsoft’s cloud-based products have become more increasingly helpful. Office 365 online is perfect for all business scenarios – whether working from home, in the office, or on the move – employees can seamlessly access the full suite of Office apps and services. By simply signing into Office 365 online from any device, users can access all features including opening, using and sharing company files, data and emails.
2. Collaborate easily with colleagues
The ability to efficiently collaborate with colleagues – no matter where they are located – is especially important during these times. Businesses should ensure they are utilising all of the features and tools that Office 365 makes available for them. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, daily users of Microsoft Teams are up by 70% and it’s easy to see why. Create groups and conversations, schedule meetings, share files seamlessly and work effectively on group projects – all within a structured hub. By using other apps like OneDrive and SharePoint, you can avoid confusion and multiple versions of documents in circulation by making use of co-authorship features with colleagues to ensure changes are tracked in a productive and easily managed way. These advantages of Office 365 have a daily impact on productivity making it a winning business process app.
3. Securely store sensitive data
While providing emerging tools and technology to aid employee collaboration and productivity is important, it’s also imperative that your organisation’s security isn’t compromised. Microsoft weaves in security measures across its product suite to help safeguard data, devices, apps and users. As the platform is cloud based, many of these features will be updated automatically. However, it’s important to take time to review your security settings and enable features such as multi-factor authentication, identity and access management, and endpoint protection to improve security on remote devices.
4.Analyse business performance
Across our personal and professional lives, we are producing more data than ever before. With the right tools and capability to analyse large volumes of data, businesses can make far more informed decisions. Microsoft Power BI and Workplace Analytics are examples of powerful analytic tools available to Office 365 users. These applications allow for a data-driven culture that enable businesses to see the bigger picture, monitor and track performance over time, and have more confidence in their decision making. Not only does this benefit end users as well as stakeholders it can actually save businesses and organisations money.
5. Create a home for everything important
One of the biggest benefits of Office 365 is its ability to help improve productivity through clever and efficient applications. OneNote is an excellent organisational tool that helps you to keep pace in a world of information overload. Employees can take notes, build lists, access content from anywhere at any time, seamlessly integrate notes with other application and share information easily with co-workers. 74% of Companies Plan to Permanently Shift to More Remote Work Post COVID-19, so the features and advantages of Office 365 as an organisational and project management tool are essential.
From collaboration to security to analytics and organisation, Office 365 allows you to do more, from anywhere securely, in less time. We’ve only touched on some of the hidden and less well-known features which all add up to significant gains in user experience, productivity and performance. A dedicated technology partner can help implement these tools, onboard employees and manage continued software innovations to help you to maximise the value of your Microsoft 365 licence. Contact Paradyn today to learn more about what we can do to help.
 | Daniel O’Neill Head of MSP, Paradyn Daniel provides the expertise in the development and management of LANs, WANs, corporate storage, Operating Systems, public/private cloud and security systems. Skilled in designing infrastructure and implementing technology to support businesses in core and edge site topography. Adept at translating business needs into technology requirements to enable the achievement of business objectives and in managing all phases of technical & business projects. Cluster and Storage expertise across numerous designs/technologies to enable business productivity achieving high grade SLA’s. |
