BY: CARLOS FELICIANO-MISLA

Office 365 is the ultimate tool which every business or individual needs to use. It is an integrated experience of various applications and services that have been designed to help anyone pursue their passion and to grow their business.

Office 365 is much more than just Word and PowerPoint as it includes Excel and many more. When you use Office 365, you get to experience the best apps out there which are updated monthly to provide you with the latest features as well as security updates. It uses cloud-powered email to help you reach customers and coworkers like the never before and wherever they may be.

It is more than just an email system. Everything has migrated to Office 365 which means that you get to use a wide range of powerful web applications that have the latest features. When you run the applications on the web, it allows you to access your mail, create videos, edit documents, manage data with Excel, and create web pages using SharePoint, and much more from any of the PCs which is compatible with the web browser.

No more having to download anything on your system as everything is run on the web and uses the cloud storage system for saving files with ease. These files can be accessed on any of the 5 devices which are using the Office 365 system.

Latest Software

The best thing about Office 365 is that the fact that it uses the latest software and is compatible with the majority of devices to help you collaborate in teams and use the software to take your business to the next level. Organize meetings, chat, share files and so much more with Office 365.

Makes Use of OneDrive

Storing important data may prove to be expensive and require the business to spend on the IT department, whereas, if a business uses Office 365, it allows the business to save files on OneDrive with a limit of one terabyte of online storage which is sufficient for a business, especially small businesses which might have limited storage capabilities.

With OneDrive, the business can access the data through various devices and on the go. In the fast-moving world of today, it is vital to have all the important business information accessible anytime and anywhere and with Office 365, businesses get just that.

Various Features Available On Apps

Office 365 allows the business to run their operations using the many Business Apps which are available on the platform such as customer scheduling, referrals, invoicing and much more. Business Apps have many features which allow a business to remain competitive and succeed in the market.

Greater efficiency and effectiveness can be achieved when you use the various Business Apps on Office 365. There is no limit to what a business can do on Office 365. It can be used by businesses in each and every industry.

Why Choose Office 365?

Office 365 is one of the most popular tools which successful businesses use in order to remain competitive and to follow the best standards. An Office 365 plan includes the following:

• The latest online versions of Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• 1 Terabyte per user of storage and sharing available (OneDrive)
• Create Presentations using Saw Presentation Creator.
• 99% of uptime guarantee.
• An active directory integration which makes sure that users have permission and to ensure that unauthorized use is eliminated.

Further, there are other features which one could get in addition to the above-mentioned features such as:

• Office on mobile or tablet (It is Compatible with most phones and tablets regardless of the operating system).
• Complete desktop versions of Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, OneNote, and Publisher) for up to 5 computers.
• Outlook inbox space of 50 GB per user.
• Skype for Business Instant Messenger (Accessible on Smartphones as well)
• SharePoint (customizable intranet)
• Access to Yammer (Corporate Social Network)
• Compliance Protection (Data Loss Prevention, Encrypted Emails and much more).

Get the Latest Features

When you use Office 365, you automatically get access to the newest features the moment they are released. This means that your business will always use the latest features when it uses Office 365. There are also a lot more features which one will have access to.

Another great thing about Office 365 is the fact that users have the ability to switch between different plans in the admin center whenever they want. This allows businesses to save costs and only use those features which are needed by the business.

Affordable

Office 365 offers a subscription plan meaning that you don’t have to pay any costs up front but will have to pay a defined monthly fee per user a month. This helps save cost significantly as the business does not have to pay a huge amount of money straight away and can use the money saved up on other more important things such as marketing or talent acquisition.

You only get to pay as per the features your business intends to use which helps save cost.

Try Out the Other Less Popular Apps

There are many powerful apps which are available for users on the Office 365 software, some of which are very powerful but often overlooked for popular options like Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Some of these powerful apps include Delve, SharePoint, Teams, and Yammer.

Delve

Use the Delve application to manage your Office 365 account and for organizing as well as discovering information which is interesting. A great thing about Delve is that it never changes any of the permissions, allowing you to only see the documents which you have access to. It provides you with privacy as others can’t view your private documents.

In order to use Delve, simply select Delve in the app in Office 365, or just access it in your browser by typing delve.office.com and sign in with your account.

It is a data visualization and discovery tool which incorporates certain elements of both machine learning and social networking. It is a cloud-based service which is powered by Office Graph that allows the users to discover and find important information across the various Microsoft integrated products by bringing together the user content from OneDrive, Yammer, SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange. It isn’t like a traditional search tool as it has a discover function that provides relevant information for the users as the data is based on the relationships as well as past activities of other users.

Delve only presents, users with the content they have permission to view. It became available for Officer 365 users in March 2015 and is the ultimate collaboration tool which helps colleagues to create, edit and share documents.

Users of Delve have a personalized profile page that includes displays of all the recently assessed documents, a suggested content feed, and colleague profiles. The system uses machine learning to help determine all the topics which would be of interest to the user.

SharePoint

SharePoint is used by an organization to create websites. It is a secure place for storing, organizing, sharing and accessing information from any of the 5 devices which are using Office 365. All one needs is a web browser such as Google Chrome in order to use the app.

It is the premier collaborative server environment of Microsoft that provides users with tools to share documents and data across the various levels of the organization. It is typically deployed on the company’s network through a series of intranet sites.

SharePoint enables the various departments within an organization to control their personal documents, data, security, and workgroups. It is accessible through a URL, or through an individual page within the SharePoint Site. It is commonly used for storing of version-controlled documents like Excel worksheets and Word documents. Normally, in most business environments email is used to pass documents back and forth within the organization and this leads to different versions of the same document being considered.

Further, saving multiple copies of one document will take up a lot of space on the disk which is why it is important for businesses to find a way to save space and SharePoint is a great way businesses can save space. It provides a single source for viewing, storing and updating documents which eliminate any of the previous issues. It also easily handles all types of documents as it is used to consolidate and store different types of documents (videos, photographs, project drawings, workbooks, and schematics) which are normally needed for large projects that have multiple teams working on the project.

Teams

Microsoft Teams is cloud-based team collaboration software which is included in the Office 365 package. It is one of the most useful apps on the system. It is used for business messaging, video meetings, calling and files sharing. Every type of business, no matter the size can use Teams.

The app allows multiple teams to work together and keep in touch to solve problems and work on new projects together effectively and efficiently. Teams allow communication with an organization to effectively and smoothly convey. All messages are saved on OneDrive allowing users to check the information when needed.

The app is a great way for employees to feel motivated and to enjoy working together. It is usually difficult for teams to work together within an organization and so there is a need to use an app for breaking down any barriers to communication and that is what Microsoft Teams does. It is perfect for teams who are working from different geographical locations to work together. All the features of the app allow the employees to easily communicate with one another and share ideas which help them solve problems and find unique solutions which give the business organization a competitive edge towards other businesses.

It is difficult for communication to be smoothly passed within an organization, thus making it necessary for the organization to use a tool like Microsoft Teams which eliminate any barriers in the communication process. Teams need to be able to instantly communicate with one another and that is exactly what Microsoft Teams does for users.

Yammer

We all use various social media platforms for sharing information and speaking with one another such as Facebook for sharing personal information, LinkedIn for connecting with professionals from around the world, Instagram for sharing pictures of your recent trip to France and now, Yammer for interacting within the organization.

Yammer is an ESN or Enterprise Social network which is a part of the Office 365 package. It provides users with Facebook-style conversations for users within the organization or even outside. There has always been a need for employees to get connected with one another within the organization and that is why Yammer is perfect for bringing together employees to connect with each other.

Now, employees and teams will be able to chat with one another and stay up to date about what is happening in the organization. A great thing about the app is that it eliminates any possible feeling of alienation which employees might have felt prior to using Yammer but once they use the app, they will feel like they are a part of the organization.

Employees can wish each other happy birthday or tell coworkers about their wedding with the help of Yammer. It might have been hard for employees to make conversation with employees face to face due to everyone else being present but now they will feel comfortable chatting with one another.

Use Office 365

There is a reason why businesses use Office 365 for work. Office 365 has simplified many of the tasks for the business such as protection of data and accessibility of information from just about anywhere. As work becomes more on the go, it will become even more important for businesses to use Office 365. Use Office 365 to take your business to the next with the various tools that the apps provide your business.