THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

Microsoft Office 365 for Business is a business management system comprising of a number of  different productivity tools and apps, including Windows 10, Office 365, together with the  Enterprise Mobility and Security packages. 

Office 365 programs together with the plan’s low monthly fee and advanced security features,  are especially created to allow you to be productive from any point of the world, secure your  business to the highest level, be cost-effective and get your own custom solution for your  business needs. 

That and many more factors are the reason why the software dominates the market and is by far  the most popular among businesses. 

Here are the key benefits of using Office 365 for business and how it can help you and your  team to become more efficient.

THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

Access Your Files Anytime, Anywhere 

With the advancement in technology and current world events, the stigma around remote work  has lifted and it has now become a natural solution for many employers and employees.  

The biggest advantage of Office 365 is the ability to work and collaborate with your  colleagues from anywhere and on any device. The software operates on a cloud based platform, therefore all your valuable data is accessible within seconds, as long as you have  a reliable internet connection. 

Users can read and send emails, share documents, host meetings and much more from multiple  locations both through the mobile apps or a browser by using a mobile phone, tablet, work  or a personal laptop. 

Keep Your Information Safe on a Secure Cloud Storage 

If your job includes the use of a laptop, then it is certain that you need space to store all your  important information. You can stop cluttering your device with old, unnecessary files and forget  about travelling with additional hardware because another key benefit of Office 365 is the secure  cloud storage it provides. 

The Microsoft 365 for business lets you store up to 1 TB per user on the cloud and the  maximum size of a file can reach up to 100 GB

You can back up and protect company information on the cloud for data loss prevention.  The mobile device management system helps you keep your company’s data safe by enabling  you to restrict access to stolen or lost devices

Users have a variety of options for sharing documents and files with other employees. You can  use the so-called “Personal Vault” to store your most sensitive information

Improved Communication 

Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business are the apps from Office 365 that offer the ability to  communicate your ideas effectively with both on-site and remote employees. Numerous options  are available such as conference calls, shared screens, instant messaging, adding comments  to files and many more

A study by Forrester shows that these improvements saved 1 hour per worker per week, which  for a company with 70 employees will potentially turn into 3,500 additional working hours for  just one year.

In addition, Microsoft Outlook and Yammer – Microsoft’s Social Network, also help co-workers  over the world by facilitating the management of schedules, activities and tasks, making  communication easier

THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

Making Your Budget a Predictable Spend 

Another one of the benefits of Office 365 comes from a cash flow perspective. The service is  subscription-based, which means you can get a license for a business plan for up to 300 people  and only pay a monthly fee for the actual users

You don’t have to invest in new software and pay a large lump sum. This is a predictable  expanse and the number is the same every month. In addition, updating to the latest version is  included in the subscription fee and happens automatically. 

This offers relief to your finance department as it will help them make a more accurate yearly  budget.

Business Continuity – Identifying Threats and Avoiding Them 

Business continuity refers to the ability and planning to deal with business disruptions. 

Microsoft 365’s admin centre offers a Business continuity report which relies on a machine  learning model. It helps you identify potential threats to your working process and the  consequences they might have on your activities

Some of the key analytics include adaptation to remote work processes, work-life balance,  working after-hours, meeting length and number of attendees, effective information sharing and  community interactions. 

The report can help you make a plan and prevent employee burnout, improve  communication, promote faster decision-making and give precise feedback. 

In case of on-site disruptions such as a flood or power outage, your work will be able to continue  thanks to the cloud-based software, which prevents the possibility of your work to come to a  halt

As long as you have Internet connectivity you can still make an exchange online and use  software such as Word, Excel, Skype, Outlook and more. This means you will always have  access to your most important documents, contacts, emails as well as the resilience Office  365 has to protect your data. 

Automatic Upgrades and Compatible Files 

The good news is that with the subscription-based model, you automatically get each update  with the latest versions and security measures Microsoft offers. Automatic upgrades come at  no additional cost, validating your predictable spend. 

Furthermore, with automatic updates, you avoid compatibility issues because all users will have  the most current versions of the applications. 

Centralised Collaboration 

Microsoft Teams is the teamwork hub in the package. It brings all apps, calendars, emails,  meetings and chats together. 

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online offer centralized, clean and neat workspace, therefore you can forget about keeping track of multiple copies of the same document. The collaboration 

features enable multiple teams to simultaneously edit and work on a file that is  automatically updated. 

The improved information sharing process makes reviewing documents and working on  common projects much easier.  

THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

Subscription-Based Model for Scalable Business Growth 

As mentioned above, Microsoft uses a subscription-based service for Business Office 365. You  can choose from Basic, Standard or Premium services. This allows businesses that have seasonal  demands to plan ahead and cancel or add more subscriptions to their licenses

Similarly, it is beneficial to quickly growing businesses, which need to add users or expand  storage without facing performance or speed issues. The possibility to mix and match plans is  also a valuable option for expanding organizations. 

In turn, these result in cost-effective solutions for individual business demands.

Streamlined Business Collaboration 

Since remote work becomes more and more popular, people start experiencing troubles with the  absence of face-to-face collaboration. The modern solution offered by Microsoft is called  Microsoft Teams. 

Microsoft Teams includes channels that you can create with different people on various topics or  departments. You can chat, call and video call your colleagues, hold meetings and share files,  which can be edited in real-time by multiple people

All of the above make the application very user-friendly and facilitate work between large  teams. Teams’ easy use of access and its many options provide a stable baseline for streamlined  business collaboration. 

Simplified Virtual Communication 

Microsoft Teams offers businesses the ability to host online meetings and video calls for up to  300 people which puts an end to message explaining. You can chat with team members on the  go and bring together all the chats, shared files, calendars, meetings and apps so you can easily  collaborate. 

Creating virtual events is made easy and includes team meetings, webinars, virtual  conferences, leadership town halls and public broadcasts

Other applications such as Sway, Yammer, SharePoint and Skype for Business were also created  with the primary goal of making easy and effective communication possible. 

Reduced Software Expenses 

Considering Microsoft takes care of the software issues and updates instead of you, you can  direct the IT force towards other tasks that can help the company’s overall productivity. Microsoft 365 allows saving on automation, IT costs, security risks and makes setting up a  new account easy

Statistics indicate that interviewed companies have altogether saved not only on software  expenses related to online conferences, phone apps and support costs but also on on-premises  technology like expensive hardware.

THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

Advanced Security Features 

Microsoft Office meets all the international and related industry security standards. It helps  you defend against cyber threats, secure your devices, secure customer data and manage users  and devices. 

The built-in security features include Exchange Online Protection, custom permissions and  password policies that the user can individually create. In addition to those, there are some  advanced security features for the business premium users. 

The integrated multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires a user’s password additional  verification, such as a text message sent to your mobile, a phone call or The Microsoft  Authenticator smartphone app. 

From the Admin panel, you can control Office 365. You are able to have advanced  security and manage device security policies. Device security policies are created to prevent  unauthorized access to your company information. These can be applied to any of  your employees’ mobile devices.

With Information Rights Management you can control who can copy and forward files and  information from the system to other locations and apps. You can delete data from stolen  devices or remove users

Microsoft Defender uses Exchange Online Protection (EOP) which is a cloud-based filtering  service. It protects you from malicious attachments, emails, viruses, spyware, ransomware  and other malware attempts. Its advanced threat analytics allows you to investigate malicious  links or activities that put your organization at risk. 

With Exchange Online Archiving you can protect all your data which will be stored in an  unlimited cloud archive

Intune and Azure Information Protection systems are included in the Microsoft 365 Premium  subscription. These services provide added security and mobile device management. 

THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

The Top Office 365 Email Benefits 

Office 365 offers you a 50 GB mailbox email hosting with the possibility of using your own  domain name. 

It is available in desktop versions and can also be used on the web. Besides all the options related  to calendars, meetings, schedules and reminders, you can also set up new or restore deleted  accounts and create custom scripts.

What’s more, you can migrate email or files from other providers and create shared  mailboxes so people can send emails from a single account. 

Azure provides an integrated message encryption system so you can confidently send sensitive  information, such as client or employee data, product information, legal contracts and be  sure the content will be viewed only by the intended recipient. Besides the rights  management templates, you can use the Encrypt-Only or the Do Not Forward options. 

Substantial File Storage and Sharing Capabilities 

With the business plan, you will have 1 TB of OneDrive file storage, accessible from all  your mobile devices. You can share your files securely with only those who have  permissions, share direct access or send a guest link. 

In SharePoint, you can create different types of groups, such as team sites (projects,  departments) or communication sites (topics, entire organizations). It provides an online  workplace where you can safely share updates, co-author documents and manage business  processes

THE KEY BENEFITS OF USING OFFICE 365 FOR BUSINESS

Business Intelligence – Analyze and Plan Ahead 

The different programs and tools will help you work intelligently, save time and see progress  quickly

With programs such as Microsoft Lists, Teams, Bookings and Forms you can stay on top of all  your most important work, update schedules and keep track of your daily tasks, increase  customer satisfaction and get their feedback on your services by creating surveys. Business analytics, data mining and visualization are combined in Microsoft 365’s analytics  tools – MyAnalytics and Workplace Analytics. They allow you to track how you and other  employees spend time at work and give you information on factors that impact  engagement, productivity and effectiveness.