Did you know that Microsoft 365 and its apps and file-sharing tools improve mobile worker productivity and save them 2.5 hours per week? Not only can it lead to increased team collaboration efficiency, but small businesses with Microsoft accounts and access to 365 can also help employees optimize their output.
Office 365 is especially relevant for modern workplaces and remote workers who want to streamline their tasks and improve communication. It’s a suite of Microsoft Office programs that can make a range of tasks seamless. So, which features of Office 365 can help you achieve this?
In our article, our managed IT services professionals will explore those key features in detail. We will also explore the additional advantages of Microsoft Office 365 features that can really revolutionize your workday.
Smooth Collaboration with Microsoft Teams
One of the programs included in the Microsoft Office 365 suite is Microsoft Teams. Providing chat and video meetings as well as file-sharing features, it’s a go-to program that employees can benefit from in many ways.
One benefit of Microsoft Teams is that it can greatly facilitate smooth collaboration, not just between in-office teams, but also between remote workers. Specifically, its real-time collaboration features – video meetings – mean that remote employees can share information without delays since they can use this program even when on the move.
Beyond this, additional features such as document co-editing during team meetings can help take your collaboration to the next level. This feature enables employees to open and edit Word documents in Teams, making real-time changes to a file as opposed to revisiting documents after a meeting. It means that any changes are fresh in your employees’ minds and ensures they won’t forget the updates they need to make.
Enhanced Productivity with To-Do and Microsoft Planner
If you’ve been looking for ways to simplify task management and organization, that is what To-Do and Microsoft Planner can help with. Their key benefit is to help you create, assign, and monitor tasks to aid with a smoother workflow.
One specific use case of Microsoft Planner is the option to view charts of your team’s progress. The Kanban board allows you to visualize the tasks and identify any issues with the workflow.
For example, if your team needs to work on a new application as a software development team, you can use Planner to establish sprints for each part of the project and assign each task within the sprints to your developers. You can avoid bottlenecks by checking the capacity of each team member through Planner and assigning tasks according to their availability.
One key tip that we recommend at Tech Masters when trying to boost your productivity is to integrate Microsoft Planner with Microsoft Teams. This type of program integration can aid with improved project management within a single program; it just requires you to select the View More Apps tab, type ‘Planner’ into the search bar, and select Add.
Anytime Access with OneDrive - Anywhere
The OneDrive program in the suite of Microsoft Office 365 programs is web- and cloud-based. It offers cloud storage, comes with auto-save and file versioning features, and automatically synchronizes files between your computer and the cloud. These features are ideal for hybrid workers for a couple of reasons.
Not only does file synchronization mean that hybrid workers can access files on-site and when on the move, but it also ensures that no data is lost when files are stored thanks to the data backup feature.
So, you might want to update a sales and marketing plan, ensure no data is lost, and share the updates with a team. OneDrive can facilitate this, helping you always sync the most recent changes; each copy of the file will show the latest changes.
Streamlined Email and Calendar Management with Outlook
Microsoft Outlook offers handy email, calendar, and scheduling tools that make streamlined email and calendar management possible. This program offers a couple of advantages; it simplifies communication and makes organizing meetings more convenient.
With its pre-sorting features offered through the Focused Inbox, Outlook helps you save time when trying to find the most important emails. The pre-sorting feature places those important emails into the Focused Inbox and any unimportant emails in the Other Inbox.
Beyond this, Outlook on Microsoft Office 365 offers a scheduling assistant that helps you view your attendees’ availability. To use this feature, you just need to select New Meeting in the calendar, add the attendees, select the scheduling assistant, and check to see the times your attendees are busy (as indicated in dark blue). If you notice that there is a green icon above the time, the attendees are available.
Effortless Document Creation - Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Beyond these specific brand-new features, Office 365 retains its classic Office apps and has made them more convenient with additional advanced features. Our IT management service professionals advise that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Office 365 are ideal for powerful, effortless document creation, thanks to each program’s features:
- Word: With a new Smart Editor and AI-powered suggestions, the Word program in 365 offers intelligent writing assistance and advanced editing suggestions. These tools help your employees check their grammar, spelling, and stylistic issues in a document, taking the editing process to the next level.
- Excel: Thanks to its advanced data visualization with charts and the pivot tables it offers, Excel makes it possible to gather and visualize data seamlessly. Your employees can create Visio diagrams using the Visualizer add-in without having to install Visio, which gives users the option to refresh the diagram from the latest data. Your employees can also share the diagram with the Visio program for the web,
- PowerPoint: The unparalleled AI-generated slide suggestions that come with PowerPoint in Office 365 automatically generate design ideas. With this feature, employees can save time when they need to create visually engaging and polished slides. They can also get corporate templates, which the AI will create based on your existing themes.
Advanced Data Protection and Security
Now, during the workday, cyber threats are a key issue that can hinder your business’s ability to comply with regulations. Threats such as phishing attacks can mean that sensitive data can be exposed, meaning your company may breach the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and lose your clients’ trust. Yet Office 365 can even make a difference here. It features a couple of key built-in security tools.
Multi-factor authentication tools and data encryption offered by Office 365 can keep sensitive business data safe. It adds an extra layer of protection during the login process and minimizes the chances of credential theft. This feature means that only authorized users can use the account and access the data stored there.
Using multi-factor authentication for Office 365 just requires a few steps. You’ll need to become a Global admin by adjusting the admin roles, switching off the legacy per-user multi-factor authentication and setting up the server for the Azure multi-factor.
After taking these actions, you can sign into the Entra admin centre, navigate to properties under the identity tab, and set the security defaults to enabled under the Manage Security Defaults tab.
Additionally, with Office 365 security and other compliance tools, users can further protect against cyber threats. The security information and event management (SIEM) feature, which detects threats to the system, makes this easy to handle, helping you view those breaches in real-time and respond to incidents promptly.
Integrations and Automations - Power Automate
To optimize your business processes, Power Automate is available in Office 365. This service, combined with Microsoft 365 Copilot, can streamline repetitive tasks and help you automate workflows. For instance, if you need to get instant alerts for important emails or save email attachments to SharePoint or OneDrive, you can do this using Power Automate.
Its email management automation features and email attachment automation can save you time and minimize the chances of human error when completing these tasks. It also means that if you are waiting for a crucial update on a task, you will not miss an email related to the task with Power Automate’s features. Its push notifications are compatible with your smartphone, so you’ll receive them when you’re not at your desk.
Explore and Incorporate the Advanced Features of Office 365 into Your Systems with Tech Masters
A Microsoft 365 subscription provides access to a suite of programs that offers transformative features that can really make a difference to you and your employees’ day to day tasks. From streamlined planning and task scheduling, to file update synchronization and calendar management, to seamless document creation and data protection, this suite of programs benefits businesses in so many ways.
If you are not currently using Office 365, our team at Tech Masters encourages you to take a look at these features and try them out. Incorporating this suite of programs can be an easy process, too.
Tech Masters can support your business with the installation process and help ensure the program is regularly updated with the most recent security patches. Arrange your free consultation with Tech Masters today. Let our IT services company in Edmonton and Western Canada help you reap the benefits of Office 365.
