One of the best things about Office 365 is that it includes a wide array of tools that can help you increase your productivity. However, just like having a tool box full of everything you could need – and more – the key to productivity is to know when to use certain tools.
Just started to explore and get to know the Office 365 collaboration toolkit? Still in the process of figuring out what tools are suitable for certain jobs? There’s no question it can be an overwhelming process. After all, you will find multiple tools that can all be used for the same job.
Getting started with Office 365 collaboration
One of the first things you should realize is that the right combination of tools is going to significantly depend on the organization and understanding is born from user research.
While this is true, you still need a baseline understanding of which tool is right and when to use it. Armed with this knowledge, you can match up the right tools to the ways of working that you are trying to facilitate or encourage.
With such a large number of productivity and collaboration applications available through Office 365, it’s often challenging to know what tools you should use and when they should be used.
Finding the right tool: How to make a tough job easier
To pick the right and most appropriate tool, you have to get to know what’s available. Here is a brief breakdown of your options.
Outlook
This is essentially offers you email and a calendar feature under the umbrella of Office 365. You can use Outlook within Office 365 to upgrade your distribution lists into a group inbox, offering shared notes and shared files through OneNote. Also, the functionality can be used for pushing updates to certain users in a group through email.
SharePoint
In Office 365, this is your content management platform, digital workspace and intelligent intranet. In today’s modern workplaces, when you use SharePoint, it allows your organization to share key resources and news throughout the bigger business. The functionality will also extend to the customization of Team Sites to help automate share lists and document workflows.
Yammer
This is the Enterprise Social Network that Office 365 offers. It can be used for connecting your employees all across your organization. With Yammer, you can work and collaborate with everyone (with ease) across your entire organization. Additionally, Yammer can help to foster and drive initiatives providing for cross-organization innovation. The most important feature of Yammer is the fact that it actively promotes engagement between your staff and senior management.
Office Apps
This is a feature of Office 365 that provides co-authoring, real-time in any Office document. You can track the changes with version history and everyone working on the document is visible to others.
Microsoft Teams
This is the hub for teamwork in Office 365. It’s a chat-based workspace. This platform is designed to provide better collaboration between your teams, offering a meeting functionality, calls and an instant chat feature. You can integrate Microsoft Teams with your Office 365 apps, along with other third-party applications.
Publisher
This is an app that offers users the tools they need for publishing professional-looking booklets, brochures and newsletters. It can be used for communicating information to a bigger audience with more formal and attractive materials.
PowerApps
This is a solution that can help you create business applications and then share them with all of your team members. Users at all technical levels can both build and publish mobile apps to help with your business processes.
Why is Office 365 so beneficial for modern businesses and organizations?
One of the main advantages of Office 365 for your business or organization is the fact that its cloud-based in nature. What this means is that Microsoft hosts all the storage and applications you use. In turn, that helps you save money on IT costs, along with overhead, while still being able to leverage the enterprise-grade security and platform provided by Microsoft. This allows small businesses to reduce costs and scale their collaboration benefits.
Due to the cloud-based nature of this program, there are several advantageous implications for your business. For example, you don’t have to worry about disasters or crashes like you would if you were using some type of in-house solution. This is because all of your data is on the cloud and Microsoft takes responsibility for backups, maintenance and support.
Are you ready to invest in Microsoft 365?
Once you understand how Office 365 can supercharge the productivity of your business, you might be itching to get started. We get that – that’s why we’re here. We can help your organization deploy and manage Office 365 throughout your operations.
With it, you’ll be more in sync resulting in better productivity, enhanced collaboration, improved data availability, and more. Interested in learning more? Let’s chat whenever you’re ready.
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