Microsoft 365 Tools Boost Your Workplace Outcomes in All the Key Areas

Novatech developed its Managed Office with the belief that businesses can best compete and succeed when they are supported by technology that helps achieve four essential goals: productivity, availability, reliability and security. Attaining these goals is fundamental to driving superior business outcomes while keeping everything up to speed, so we vet all the solutions we recommend or sell with these ideals in mind.

One of the platforms proven to meet both criteria is Microsoft 365. Offered in a wide array of editions and pricing models, Microsoft 365 provides significant value to firms of all sizes and in all industries. The key lies in selecting the most appropriate edition, which is something our consultants help clients do, every day. Whether a firm is challenged to achieve security and compliance or it seeks to broaden the scope of its communication and collaboration, there is a targeted edition of Microsoft 365 that will support those outcomes, and more.

Due to the breadth of Microsoft 365’s solution set, we will break our discussion into two parts. In this blog, we will discuss how Microsoft 365 helps boost productivity and security. In a subsequent blog, we will delve into the aspects that promote reliability and availability. We will also discuss how these two benefits are intertwined, and yet each should be considered on it own.

Building a Better Office

Launched in 2011, Microsoft 365 was the follow-up to Office 365, which grew out of the classic workplace productivity applications Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Today, available plans cover a broad spectrum of business needs. The “starter” package is Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which includes web and mobile versions of all three classic applications. However, most business owners opt for more powerful versions of Microsoft 365 to gain the productivity benefits they confer.

The most feature and function-rich Microsoft 365 edition is Microsoft 365 Business Premium, which includes the beloved email client platform, Microsoft Outlook, as well as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus Microsoft Access and Publisher (the last two are for the PC only).

It also includes Microsoft Teams (feature-rich team chat and collaboration), Exchange (an enterprise-class email server), OneDrive (secure cloud file storage that enables users to sync, collaborate and share Word, PPT and Excel documents), SharePoint (collaborative document sharing, management and storage), as well as InTune (unified, secure endpoint management of both corporate and BYOD equipment) and Azure Information Protection (extends the functionality of Microsoft 365 by enabling organizations to discover, classify and protect documents and emails through content labeling).

As part of our Microsoft 365 service offering, Novatech’s experts help business leaders identify the optimal edition that will cost-effectively empower workers to be as productive and secure as possible. Our question for today then becomes, how do these solutions help a firm achieve that goal?

 

Productivity

From a fundamental perspective, Microsoft 365 eliminates the need for business professionals to worry about software updates, which ensures users can always be productive with the latest version of

Microsoft 365 on all their devices. By default, updates for Microsoft 365 Apps are downloaded automatically from the Internet and applied in the background, without any user or administrator intervention. (Administrators can override these settings if they choose).

Furthermore, Forrester Research performed an analysis of Microsoft 365 and found that it delivers productivity gains of approximately 30 minutes per day, per worker. These gains are acquired through effective use of Microsoft 365’s tools. Following are just two examples:

· SharePoint enables firms to automate their document workflows, speeding document editing and completion.

· Teams expands collaboration capabilities significantly. With its latest update, organizations can create Teams of up to 10,000 members. Up to 1,000 people can chat or call into a meeting.

Security

Microsoft takes security extremely seriously, automatically applying security updates and patches for every license. It also empowers its licensees with the tools to ensure data security, including always-on security across all devices and streamlined device setup/management from a single IT console.

 

Furthermore, Microsoft 365 incorporates Windows Defender Antivirus and BitLocker encryption and supports Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). More fundamentally, Microsoft has built a Microsoft 365 Risk Management program that is overseen by a specialized Microsoft 365 Trust Team. The Trust Team focuses on integrating the risk management framework with existing Microsoft 365 engineering, service operations, and compliance process to make the Risk Management program more effective and efficient.