In a previous article, I discussed 4 basic benefits of moving your business to Office 365’s subscription-based platform. These include: Providing you with the most up-to-date and secure version of the software; Giving you 1TB of storage space in OneDrive so you can begin moving away from your in-house server and backup solution; The ability to install the software on up to 5 devices per user; and Allowing you true collaboration and sharing of your documents not only within your organization, but with people outside your company as well.
Today I’m going to discuss some additional features and tools that you may not be aware of. One of the things to realize is that Microsoft is constantly trying to compete with Google and it’s Google for Business offering.
Google beat Microsoft to the Cloud by almost 4 years, with Microsoft launching Office 365 in 2011. This means that Microsoft has been working hard to play catch up in many respects. If you had asked me even 3 or 4 years ago which online platform was better, I would have had to concede to Google. However, Microsoft has, in my opinion, finally caught up, and even exceeded Google in many ways. And, it continues to improve and add features to Office 365 at a rapid pace.
One of the big benefits that Microsoft has for your business is acceptance and compatibility. Microsoft Office has been the defector business productivity suite for years and has wide acceptance in the business community. From a compatibility standpoint, using Microsoft office products, instead of trying to let Google or some other application attempt to convert them without losing formatting or data, just makes more sense from a productivity and return on investment standpoint.
Further, while Office 365’s scaled down online versions of their software are quite functional, Office 365 for Business includes the full-blown, significantly more robust and powerful applications we’ve all been accustomed to using for years. There’s no learning curve, and you’re not spending time trying to figure out how to work around the shortcomings found in other products, such as Google Apps.
Office 365 has some hidden gems that you may want to consider for your business. Skype, an instant messaging and screen-sharing tool; Teams, a (soon to be) replacement for Skype includes all the features of Skype and adds additional tools that make collaborating with others (whether in the next room or next continent) quick and easy; Sway, a new and exciting way to create presentations, documents, and mini web pages is one I believe everyone should look into; Forms allows you to create surveys and fillable forms and share them with others to collect feedback and data; and, of course, old friends such as PowerPoint and Publisher are included in the mix as well.
While not everyone needs all the features in Office 365, you cannot deny the value that Microsoft is including in your subscription.