What is Microsoft 365?

Microsoft (Office) 365 offers so much more than those familiar applications such as Word, Excel, and Outlook; it is a whole ecosystem of *cloud-based applications and services. It is an on-demand service charged per user per month and can easily be scaled up or down depending on your staffing requirements.

_ *Cloud-based means that applications and services are hosted within Microsoft’s secure, resilient infrastructure which is accessible from anywhere on the internet._

Yes, applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook are still there along with a host of new ones. So, your staff won’t have to spend too much time learning new tools.

Microsoft 365 offers reliable business grade email using your own custom domain with additional features such as shared calendars, contacts and shared mailboxes. It can be accessed directly through Outlook online, or through the Outlook app on your Windows, Mac or mobile device.

Each user has their own personal OneDrive file storage and SharePoint offers shared file storage, accessed by multiple users, replacing your traditional file server. Both OneDrive and SharePoint can be accessed directly online or can be synced directly to your Windows, Mac and mobile devices.

Since the pandemic remote working has become essential, and as Microsoft 365 services are cloud based, it is an ideal environment for remote working and works on Windows, Mac, and mobile devices. Users can share and collaborate on documents from anywhere.

Microsoft 365 allows users to collaborate from anywhere and offers tools including Teams for video calls and chats, Planner and Lists to help organize your processes and workflows, and Yammer for your own social network.

As well as using SharePoint for file sharing, it can be used to create feature rich intranet sites. Users can also co-author Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents in real-time, which means they all see each other’s changes as they make them.

Security should be a priority for any business. As well as offering end user security controls such as Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) and encrypted email, Microsoft 365 has a host of backend systems ensuring your data is secured including document and email monitoring, and advanced threat protection and alerting.

Having all your organisation’s data under one ecosystem means you have full governance, control and visibility of your data. Data classification and retention policies can be applied globally across your email and documents, and eDiscovery tasks such as GDPR data subject requests are much easier to perform.

Microsoft 365 is an on-demand service charged per user per month and can easily be scaled up or down depending on your staffing requirements. For further savings licenses can be purchased on an annual term. It offers 3 license levels depending on your requirements and can be mixed and matched. E.g. some staff may only require the Basic license for online services and email and others may require Premium to access all the features of Microsoft 365.

If you are considering moving to Microsoft 365 and would like to discuss the benefits in more detail or are already using Microsoft 365 and would like to use it to its full potential, contact us today.