You’ve probably heard of Office 365 before. They have several different products that are encompassed with this brand but the one that a lot of our clients are using is Office 365 mail and software subscription. You might not be aware of just how much its features and capabilities can make it easier for you in your day to day with your email workflow, collaboration, and efficiency in your business?
If you are thinking “What are the benefits of Office 365 for Business,” I have answered that below.
1. The Ability to Work Remotely
In Australia, two-thirds of people have worked from home in the last little while due to COVID and now that we are coming out of COVID a little most modern professionals work remotely at least one day a week, and 53% do at least half of the week—so as more and more businesses adopt remote work policies, it’s important that you’re able to give your virtual teams access to the tools and technologies necessary to work effectively on-the-go.
One of the main advantages of Office 365 is that it allows users to work from anywhere as long as they have internet connectivity. Because Office 365 is entirely cloud-based, emails, files, and popular Office programs (such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel) can be accessed from any location and any device. This is especially beneficial for companies with a lot of employees who work remotely or travel often.
2. Office 365 Email Benefits
With Outlook 365 for Business, your emails, calendars, and contact information are automatically synced so the most up to date versions can be accessed from any device you log into including computers, tablets and phones. You can use your website browser, Outlook program or download the outlook app on your device. Plus, you can customise every email by creating a custom format, including images, and using your own domain name, and store all the emails you need to keep on hand with 50 GB of storage (expandable).
Having every email in the cloud makes your computer redundant. If ever anything happened to it you can access your emails on a new computer or any other device.
With a simplified admin centre, Outlook 365 for Business lets you set up new user emails, restore deleted accounts, create custom scripts, and more from any location.
3. Email Spam and Malware filtering
Industry-leading anti-malware protection and anti-spam filtering can help guard your business and its employees against email threats such as phishing schemes to keep your precious information safe and secure. A lot of our clients have been guilty of clicking links in emails and compromising their computers and business. Office 365 helps to guard against that issue.
4. File Storage and Sharing Capabilities
Another major benefit of Office 365 for Business is its file storage and sharing capabilities. With OneDrive, you’ll be able to access all your files no matter what device you’re logged into, whether it’s a Windows, Mac, or mobile device. You’ll also be able to securely share files both inside and outside your organization, meaning coworkers, customers, and clients alike will be able to access the information they need to keep business moving along. Your Office 365 subscription includes 1TB of file storage space.
Then, with SharePoint, you can share and manage documents, files, and applications through secure portals to enhance teamwork and collaboration. Whether two remote employees are working together on a project or you’re sending content back and forth with a client for edits and approvals, SharePoint through Office 365 makes it simple.
5. Subscription-Based Model for Scalable Business Growth
Office 365 gives you enhanced flexibility and can quickly scale as your business does. For starters, you’ll be able to mix and match business apps to create your own custom solution to meet the exact needs of each user or department. Plus, one of the main benefits of Office 365’s subscription-based model is that you can add or remove users by simply adding or removing licenses.
This way, if an employee leaves, you can stop paying for the software-as-a-service rather than continuing to pay for an account that is no longer being used. If a new employee is hired, you can add a new account without having to change the entire system. Without having to make a permanent commitment to a software license for each employee, your business can scale in a simplified, cost-effective way.
6. Streamlined Business Collaboration
If you have a lot of remote employees in your business, collaboration can suffer when every team member isn’t working from the same location. Without that constant face-to-face interaction, your employees will need access to modern business collaboration tools that make it possible to brainstorm, work together on a project, or go over edits and approvals remotely and in real-time.
Since Office 365 is a subscription-based service that uses online connectivity features, its collaboration features are designed with remote workers in mind. For example, with Office 365 Business Premium, your employees will be able to utilize Microsoft Teams, Microsoft’s all-in-one collaboration hub. Users will be able to work on and edit online documents simultaneously, share notes and go over edits in-real time, and join audio or video conferences to discuss changes or give approvals—even when all the team members involved aren’t physically together.
7. Simplified Virtual Communication
Giving your remote employees the tools they need to communicate with their teams effectively can mean the difference between engaged, successful teams and isolated, unhappy employees.
Many of Office 365’s features and benefits are designed to make effective remote communication possible. With Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Outlook Groups, Sway, Yammer, SharePoint, and other Office 365 apps, users will be able to communicate more effectively than ever before—no matter where they are working from or what device they’re using.
8. Reduced Software Expenses
One of the biggest advantages of Office 365 is that it can help your business save big on software expenses. As a subscription-based software, you only need to pay for the software you’re actually using. Since not every employee will need the same tier of software based on their job role or security clearance, you can mix and match plans as needed.
The Microsoft 365 Business Standard includes 5 software licences so that you can install the latest Microsoft Software on your computer (such as Outlook, Word, Excel etc) This means that you can pay for one licence and use it for up to 5 employees.
9. Advanced Security Features
Keeping data secure should be a priority for every business. One of the major benefits of having subscription-based software like Office 365 is that since it’s continuously updated, you’ll always have the latest security patch without having to make manual updates or purchase add-ons.
Plus, by investing in Office 365, you’ll get data encryption both at rest and in transit, enforced multifactor authentication for users, region-based data residency, and phishing email protection through Outlook. These Office 365 features and benefits can give you peace of mind that your data will stay secure, even with employees accessing it from various locations and devices.
10. 24/7 Support
There have sometimes been problems that we could not fix ourselves but we have found that the Office 365 support has been very quick and helpful in solving all our issues. All tiers of Office 365 for Business come with 24/7 access to Microsoft support both over the phone and online.
If you are interested in talking further about how we could implement Office 365 in your business please contact us to discuss.