The Microsoft Office suite of programs has long been a staple of professional life. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the rest have proven track records. Outlook’s combination of email functionality with shareable calendars was a revolution for scheduling in offices across the world.
As time went on, these office apps were folded into Microsoft Office 365—a subscription service that could provide the full suite of programs for one monthly fee. Then, in April 2020, Office 365 became Microsoft 365.
This change came about because of an expansion of products and services. Microsoft 365 software subscriptions include everything from the newest version of the Windows operating system to cloud-based storage to artificial intelligence tools.
So what do you get with a subscription to Microsoft 365? And how can it benefit your organization? Do you need to have a business of a certain size to take advantage of these benefits? What’s the best way to ensure that you optimize your usage of the full suite of applications?
What Do You Get When You Subscribe to Microsoft 365?
The advantages of Microsoft 365 begin with the wide range of programs and apps you gain access to with a subscription. The offerings on the table with Microsoft 365 go so far beyond just Word and Excel.
Microsoft software touches virtually every aspect of an organization. The Windows operating system itself has been a staple of successful companies since the 90s—and has never been more effective and intuitive than with Windows 11.
With what used to be known as Office 365 for business operations, you get a suite of software that touches every part of your organization. Outlook handles email and calendars, Teams allows for quick and organized communication between the people on your team, PowerPoint makes important presentations more dynamic and easily understood, and that’s just the start.
As cloud-based content management and remote access has become a greater and greater part of successfully running an organization, the importance of the platform offered by Microsoft SharePoint has increased dramatically.
Yammer, a social media platform designed to connect team members across the length and breadth of an organization, is a new addition that serves to foster interdepartmental communication and collaboration.
OneDrive cloud storage is also a major component of Microsoft 365. Each user gets an entire terabyte of storage. That storage is available to access by desktop, laptop, or mobile device—allowing your team to access everything they need from anywhere they may be.
When you use Microsoft 365 for business, you get all of these programs and applications as well as Word and Excel.
Microsoft 365 bundles all of these important pieces of software together in a package that can be secured with a per-user subscription structure that ensures that you do not pay for nonexistent users just because you have more team members than one large tier subscription package could cover.
Before we dive into all of the biggest Microsoft 365 benefits, it is important to note that, in your research, you may see Office 365 used here and there. That’s because Microsoft 365 used to be called Office 365. The software was rebranded a few years ago and more apps have been added in the interim, but many people use both names interchangeably—it isn’t a big deal, but it can be a little confusing.
That said, what are the benefits of Office 365 for business?
The Advantages of Microsoft 365
With all of the Office apps that make up Microsoft 365, this is a software suite that brings a wide range of benefits. Those benefits take the form of improved operational efficiency, increased financial benefits, and more.
Microsoft 365 is one of the most useful investments an organization can make—here are some of the biggest reasons why:
Scalable Spending
As previously mentioned, Microsoft 365 pricing operates on a per user, per month model. This allows a company to adjust the number of licenses they purchase alongside their personnel management.
If someone leaves your team and you do not replace them right away, you can cancel that user’s subscription for the months in between their departure and the hiring of their replacement.
The prices of your subscription stay consistent from month to month, making budget planning and adjustments a simple matter of counting the number of users. As you grow, you can adjust your IT spend by the number of new hires—simple and efficient.
You never have to worry about being over-licensed. You can make changes as needed.
Upgrades
Another benefit of the pricing structure of your Microsoft 365 subscription is that the regular upgrades that come down the pike from Microsoft do not come with additional costs. They happen automatically and are covered as part of your licensing fee.
One of the most aggravating things that can happen in an office setting is getting a document or file from an outside collaborator that was created using a more advanced version of an application than the one you can access—your teams won’t have to deal with that when they use Microsoft 365.
Simpler Collaboration and Communication
Between Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Yammer, and Exchange, the ability to collaborate internally and with stakeholders outside your organization has never been easier. Every kind of key communication can be made and organized for future reference.
Teams allows quick file sharing as well as video conferencing and can sync with your other Microsoft software. If you have to schedule a video conference between departments of your organization in different cities, you can use Teams in conjunction with the calendar sharing functionality of Microsoft Outlook to find the perfect window of time for everyone to get together and get on the same page.
Microsoft Exchange allows you to store your inboxes in the cloud so that you can always find the information you need from your emails whether you are in the office or not. And Yammer is a great way to connect and network with other members of your organization that you may not see in person on a daily or even monthly or yearly basis.
No matter how you need to communicate and collaborate with people in your day-to-day work, Microsoft 365 can facilitate your needs.
Remote Operations
If the pandemic of 2020 taught us anything, it is that successful businesses must be flexible enough to continue operations without significant breaks no matter what springs up in the world. Being able to pivot from a centralized, in-office workforce to a hybrid or fully remote workforce at the drop of a hat is essential.
With the 1 TB of OneDrive storage offered to each Microsoft 365 user and the effective, secure use of the cloud facilitated by Microsoft SharePoint, that organizational flexibility is a simple matter.
Your Office 365 work will be there for you whether you access it from your office, your home computer, or your preferred mobile device. You may not be able to predict what will happen in the world around you, but with the right software, you will be able to handle what comes your way.
Improved Searching Functionality
Since your use of Microsoft 365 gives you access to multiple programs and applications that have been built to interact seamlessly, searching for important files and documents becomes much simpler.
With Microsoft SharePoint as your content management platform, you can conduct searches via metadata to pull up all the files you have access to from every program that you make use of. That can mean Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, relevant Excel files, and even key email threads from your Outlook.
With one search, you can gather all the information you need from across your organization to make an informed decision or advance your tasks toward successful completion. And the less time you need to spend digging for information, the more time you can spend putting your information to good use.
Security
No matter how you use your Microsoft 365 licenses, a key priority for your organization must be security. Protecting your information and keeping your confidential materials away from prying eyes is central to protecting your position in any industry.
With security measures like multi-point identification, Microsoft 365 helps you track the people who access information and create audit trails on documents that are created in collaboration between team members to ensure the security and safety of your and your customer’s information.
Ease of Implementation
Because Microsoft is such an important name in the world of software, you can rest assured that installation and implementation of your Microsoft 365 software suite will go smoothly—whether you are upgrading from individual application licenses or changing your enterprise software entirely.
Microsoft 365 obviously works with Windows operating systems, but has also been optimized for use with iOS for Macs and for the mobile operating systems that power Android and Apple mobile devices.
Powerful Software to Power Your Organization
What is Office 365 used for? As it turns out, just about everything. The applications that make up Microsoft 365 run the gamut of essential software for any organization—whether in the public or private sector.
They give your team pathways to better communicate, collaborate, and network with each other, no matter if they are in different departments or even different office locations.
And licensing Microsoft 365 keeps your team’s software up-to-date with automatic upgrades and keeps your data secure, yet searchable and accessible from any supported device, anywhere in the world.
At TEAM IM, our well established partnership with Microsoft has resulted in a group of experts that can help you get the most out of your Microsoft 365 usage. If you have questions about how you can optimize your team’s software utilization, the chances are good that we have the answers for you.
So reach out to us today to find out how TEAM IM can help your team get the most out of each and every part of Microsoft 365.
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