Office 365 – making the most of the tools in front of you

For those organisations looking to optimise business productivity, Office 365 offers the perfect solution.
In exchange for a monthly fee, subscribers have access to a suite of apps designed to improve collaboration, from the most basic Microsoft software like Word and PowerPoint to the more sophisticated business intelligence tools.

When used to their full potential, the services contained in Office 365 can help businesses become more productive, allowing people to seamlessly share information and communicate throughout all levels of the business.

Although the benefits of using Office 365 have been well-documented, some users still find the selection confusing, and have difficulty understanding the purpose of each app.

With Microsoft currently in a transition period with their products, this blog will help you navigate around the suite, showing you how to get the most out of all the available tools.

Microsoft Teams

One of the more advanced apps is Microsoft Teams, which is widely recognised as one of the most manageable, secure and cost-effective collaborative chat apps, with many IT experts predicting it will soon eclipse Skype for Business as the most used business chat app.

Allowing users to communicate and share information freely within close-knit groups, Teams gives users a platform to communicate through voice or video calls, integrating with other Office 365 services to improve collaboration.

This real-time communication and ability to share information with a select group of people makes it the perfect tool for individuals who work remotely and need to relay information to their team quickly.

Yammer

Sometimes referred to as ‘Facebook for your business’, Yammer allows users to send ideas and communications that don’t necessarily require an immediate response.

This makes it ideal for sharing news or discussing wider business ideas with people in your network, helping individuals build transparency, create stronger communities and crowdsource ideas to drive initiatives forward with enterprise social networking.

Yammer allows you to keep people informed at all levels of your business, bringing people together around shared topics, interests or areas of practice, which empowers employees with a new voice to create and inspire.

SharePoint

Helping you become better organised, SharePoint is a key tool for businesses who require support with the management of their information, data and documents.

Building intranet portals to search through your internal communications, the app helps you share and manage content, allowing team members to collaborate across all levels of the organisation and access information within one place.

Empowering teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites, team members can share files, data, news and resources efficiently, streamlining important functions and transforming entire processes by harnessing collective knowledge.

Power BI

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you will have seen our posts regarding Power BI’s monthly update cycles.

As a suite of Microsoft business intelligence and analytics tools, Power BI helps you transform large quantities of data into important business insights that allow you to spot trends and analyse overall company performance.

The business analytics service provides interactive visualisations, where end users can create reports and dashboards without having to depend on information technology staff or database administrators – it’s a must-have for those organisations who handle large quantities of data.

Finding the right tool for the job

While Office 365 may cause confusion during the initial stages, like most things, once you have given yourself enough time to understand the different apps and services you will begin to realise the true potential of the tools in front of you.

The apps provided within the suite are all designed to improve business productivity and enhance collaboration by allowing team members to seamlessly share information and communicate in real-time.

It’s not just Power BI that benefits from monthly updates either, with the entire Office 365 toolset regularly updated to address issues, add new functionality and make apps easier to use.

Whether you have a small team of people who like to work remotely or a large organisation with over 100 employees, there are Office 365 apps designed to meet your specific requirements, enabling efficient and effective working.

While this blog has focussed on four of the more advanced apps, there are a range of other exciting Office 365 tools that are waiting to be explored and utilised for the benefit of your business.

For more information, contact our team of in-house specialists and discover the true potential of Office 365.