6 Benefits Of Microsoft Office 365 For Rhode Island Businesses

6 Benefits Of Microsoft Office 365 For Rhode Island Businesses

As an organization, you have no doubt considered adding Microsoft Office 365 to the list of solutions you use to make your work easier. However, just like with any other business solution available in the market, you have to weigh the pros and cons of the tool before you decide on a course of action. Below are some benefits you can expect once you subscribe to the Office 365 apps.

1.    You Get Multiple Productivity Apps

Some standard apps that might be in the package are:

• Outlook
• Teams
• OneDrive
• Access
• Excel
• Publisher
• Word
• SharePoint
• PowerPoint

Chances are that most of the people in your organization have already used the tools aforementioned as standalone apps. Whether it’s Word, Publisher, Excel, or any of the other apps, your employees should already know how to use most of them. This reduces the time needed to onboard the apps and teaches your workers about them. There are, of course, a few apps that your employees may not be familiar with.

Also, while these are the primary apps, there are various add-ons that can help increase the productivity of Microsoft Office 365 in Rhode Island. Examples include Pexels, Office Tabs, FindTime, Translator, DocuSign, and more. FindTime, for instance, is a tool that can scan through your employees’ varying schedules and find the most suitable time to hold a meeting.

DocuSign, on the other hand, allows recipients to sign for documents, which helps ensure your documents never leak. Similarly, all these other tools have unique functions and capabilities that should make your work easier.

2.    You Are Not Limited in Terms of Where You Can Work

Notably, the apps will be installed on almost all of your devices once you have confirmed your subscription. Of course, this includes your desktop at the office, your laptop at home, and the tablet and smartphone that you carry with you everywhere.

Office 365 is cloud-based, and thus all your files and emails are available online. As such, you can work on the same file on multiple devices at once. This gives you leeway to start a project in the office then finish it up at home without having to share files manually. You can even work on the train as you commute.

In some cases, this enhances productivity since employees don’t have to be at the office to finish their work.

3.    Microsoft Office 365 is Secure

Despite being cloud-based, the security measures put in place by Microsoft are quite impressive and will likely keep your data safe and secure. One of these measures is encrypted email. This, of course, means that no one other than the sender and the recipient will get access to your organizational emails.

Second is mobile device management. Your employee’s mobile devices, including their laptops, tablets, and smartphones, may be stolen, but that doesn’t mean organizational data should be stolen with them. Microsoft Office 365 allows you to delete data remotely. All the employees have to do is notify you of their stolen devices on time.

Third is Microsoft’s data loss prevention policy, which will all but guarantee that sensitive data doesn’t leave your organization. Additionally, there are advanced threat analytics and threat management teams. The former continually checks for suspicious behavior on the network, while the latter prevents malicious access.

There are other security measures included, such as multi-factor authentication and exchange online protection. That said, you can opt to take some additional steps to boost your security against new and upcoming threats. Some of these may include organizational policies that keep employees from downloading apps, not from the official office store.

4.    Collaboration is Easy

A while ago, collaboration meant having individuals in the same conference room sharing ideas as they work. However, the COVID-19 world is one in which remote work is the norm. This makes working together a little trickier, but not impossible.

Some of the apps in the Microsoft Office 365 suite of solutions are made for this. The Microsoft Teams app, for example, allows you to determine which group of employees will be working together on a particular project. Notably, Microsoft Teams will include a shared workspace that incorporates other Microsoft applications such as Excel, Planner, Word, OneNote, and PowerPoint.

On top of that, the platform allows subsections of teams, chat capabilities, audio and video conferencing as well as the sharing of files. There is even a calendar function so you can keep up with deadlines. Consequently, as long as there is a stable internet connection, people could be working on the same project from different ends of the world.

5.    A Variety of Plans Are Available for Different Organizational Sizes

With Office 365, there is no one-size-fits-all subscription plan. Instead, you can choose a plan depending on the number of employees, the size of your institution, and your needs. There are up to seven different plans, all with varying benefits. However, once you pay for any one of them, you’ll have access ­­­­­­­­­­to the latest productivity apps.

6.    You Get Access to Robust Web Apps

Despite most of the aforementioned apps installed on your desktop, you can also access them online. This might be handy whenever you don’t have your devices close by. That said, the functionality will remain the same as long as your employees have their login credentials.

Other Benefits

With Office 365 you can work with what you know. Though you get everything Office on one platform, you can still work with what you know. Also, it is a platform that grows with you as your business grow, and it reduces costs.

Can You Get Additional Functionality Out of Microsoft Office 365?

Notably, your Microsoft Office 365 suite of applications may be relatively limited by the type of devices you and your employees use. Opting to purchase the Surface line of computers by Microsoft may help you unlock some additional benefits, such as audio transcription in Word.

If you want more data on how Office 365 is potentially beneficial to your organization, you can contact us today. ­­­­­­­­