Gone are the days of being restricted to your cubicle: Microsoft has built a platform that is changing the way you work and collaborate.
With so many changes, I don’t blame you if you’ve got questions.
Let’s unpack Office 365 for business and look at what you get.
1. Office applications
Office 365 comes with online versions of all your favourite applications:
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft PowerPoint
You’ll also have access to download the installed versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher and OneNote.
2. Email and calendar
Office 365 comes with business-class email.Exchange online is a hosted service that powers your organisation’s mailboxes.
The beauty of email in Office 365 is that you can access it anywhere, on any device. Office 365 syncs email, calendars and contact information across your devices in real time.
It integrates seamlessly with SharePoint and Lync to create a state-of-the-art collaborative workspace. You can work with colleagues on documents inside your email browser.
3. Online meetings
Teamwork is easy when you have the right tools. Office 365 comes with Lync (Skype for Business), a powerful tool that enables high-definition video conferencing, one-click screen sharing and real-time note taking.
Send instant messages to colleagues and anybody with a Skype account. See who’s online with inbuilt presence functionality that links up with your calendar.
4. File sharing
Collaborate on files from anywhere, on any device. Work with colleagues to edit documents together at the same time. This means no more emailing attachments and working on incorrect document versions. Your files are always up to date.
Office 365 comes with plenty of storage: each user gets 1TB of personal document storage. Users can store files online and access them via multiple devices (similar to Dropbox).
You can share your documents internally and externally. Control who inside your organisation has access and share documents with people outside your organisation with a secure, sharable URL.
5. Video management
Office 365 video makes it easy to discover, consume and share video within your organisation. Keep your employees informed and in unison by making it easy for them to find and watch videos about important topics and ideas.
Video syncs with Yammer and email. Extend the conversation and ask questions about video content directly inside your favourite applications.
Instead of using an unsecure YouTube channel, Office 365 can host and share your videos in a secure and easy-to-manage environment. It’s easy for admins to manage permissions, add or remove channels and spotlight key content - and it’s all backed by Office 365’s encrypted, secure platform.
6. Search and discovery
Powered by Office Graph, Delve shows you information based on what you are working on and who you are collaborating with.
You can jump into Delve and discover new information tailored to you so you can quickly find what you are looking for.
Easily find documents you’ve been working on without having to remember the document title, who wrote it or where it is stored.
7. Collaboration
Office 365 is a platform built for the modern mobile workspace.
You are now collaborating with colleagues in different locations, across all sorts of devices. Keeping everyone on the same page and working productively is the purpose of Office 365.
Office 365 has collaboration built in with Office 365 Groups - a new feature that makes it easy to connect with the colleagues, information and applications you’re working with. You can quickly set up a group, invite colleagues and collaborate directly inside Outlook, Word and more!
Extending collaboration even further, Office 365 syncs with SharePoint and Yammer. The seamless integration makes it easy for you to create robust collaborative workspaces to keep all your important documents secure, easily findable and accessible anytime.
8. Business intelligence
Power BI is a product extension that lets you access, collaborate on and share your Excel reports anywhere and from on any device.
Power BI lets you do more with Excel. You can create reports that help you visualise your data.
Connect Power BI with your other applications so you can pull all your data sources into one reporting platform. Slice and dice your data to make better-informed business decisions.
Share and collaborate with colleagues on the reports so you can work together to better understand the data behind your business.
9. Security
Office 365 offers built-in security that brings together the best practices from two decades of building enterprise software and managing online services.
Microsoft takes a proactive approach to data privacy and compliance to ensure you are meeting industry standards.
The security you get from Office 365 is often far better than what you could afford if you managed the security yourself.
Learn more about Office 365 security:
The future is here - unpack Office 365 today and prepare for the mobile workplace
The workplace is evolving. Your employees need access to their work while at home and on the road. Office 365 for business provides the platform to help your organisation work more productivity and collaboratively.
Instead of holding back productively by sticking to legacy systems, embrace the mobile workplace revolution and give your team the tools they need to succeed.