For too many of us these days, work has become email.
From early until late, even during meetings. (Don’t tell anyone, even though they are doing the same). Half of the emails are not even relevant to you (those “reply-to-all” threads that go on forever). And then when you are looking for that specific version of a file between all the back and forth, you spend an hour to find it.
There is a better way.
It is as simple as making the most out of your Microsoft Office365 licence.
Office365 gives you access to Microsoft’s suite of tools on all your devices through one login – all for a very low monthly fee per user. It is very affordable, easy to implement and scale, and all the tools you know and love (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) look and work basically the same as it always has. In fact, your company might have switched to Office365 without you even knowing.
Office365 is hosted in the cloud, which is why you have access to all those tools on any device that has an internet connection. It also means that your IT department or IT service provider no longer needs to manage and maintain onsite servers – a huge time and cost saver.
(Hint: if your company is not yet on Office365, the switch really is a no brainer.)
However, Office365 is about much more than Word and Excel on your phone.
For your private working files, OneDrive stores it all securely in the cloud. No need for manual backups anymore. Access all your files anywhere that you log into your Office365 profile. Synced folders on your devices allow you to work when you are offline too.
For company documents, SharePoint can be used as your company’s intranet, as a document library, to manage processes, and much more. It is a very powerful tool for companies with a growing headcount, or for companies of any size with confidential documents that must be handled securely by all users.
In terms of communication and collaboration, Office365 offers two tools: Exchange (advanced mail functionality) for communication and Teams for collaboration.
First: Office365 Exchange. The big win here is that your email, calendar and contacts are available on all your devices and that it syncs across devices instantaneously. No more hassles with a meeting that you accepted on your desktop but that somehow never reached the calendar on your phone.
But communication is not limited to email with Office365. Teams let you communicate and collaborate with all the right people in the right ways. It functions as a hub – all the other Office365 tools and many third-party tools integrate with it so that all your work is in one place.
In Teams, you can have conversations, collaborate on documents (with version control), tag people, follow relevant topics, manage tasks, and, in fact, use it in any way that enables your team to get work done. It takes you out of your inbox and allows you to communicate while getting real work done.
We know that these days, work does not wait for you to go to the office. It is on the road, before or after client meetings, while you wait for your tyre to be fixed. With Office365, you don’t have to be stuck in emails on your phone to get work done.
