According to some studies, almost 60% of businesses are using Microsoft’s Office 365 services and products and, according to Microsoft, there are presently over 214 million Office 365 subscribers. However, if you have paid careful attention to how most business professionals utilize their Office 365 tools, it is fair to say that most are not taking full advantage of all they have available to them. In this article, we will explore a handful of the ways you can use your business-oriented Office 365 subscriptions to work more efficiently and, in turn, increase your Return-On-Investment (ROI) on the platform.

Mobile Apps

In an era where business professionals carry mobile devices, being able to access and edit data on-the-go is an important consideration. For Office 365 subscribers, Microsoft makes available a mobile suite of apps that allow users to access and work with their data from their mobile devices. Among others, the Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, apps provide you with the ability to access documents stored in SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business. Additionally, with the Skype for Business app, you can conveniently take advantage of the Skype platform to communicate and collaborate with others.

Co-Authoring

Closely related to the mobile apps discussed in the previous paragraph, those with business-oriented Office 365 subscriptions can collaborate with others on a document through a process known as co-authoring. For example, an Office 365 subscriber can store an Excel workbook in SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business and then click Share to allow others to simultaneously access and even edit the same workbook. Each user in the workbook can make changes to the workbook in real-time and other users will be able to see changes instantaneously. If necessary, the author of the workbook can edit others’ privileges and even revoke them, if necessary. This co-authoring environment facilitates quick-and-easy collaboration, without getting involved in the challenges of trying to collaborate via email and then round-up all the “stray” and duplicated copies of the workbook.

Teams

One of the best – and most overlooked – components of Office 365 is Teams. Teams is a relatively new tool that brings together various components of other Office 365 tools and puts them in one location. For example:

• Teams incorporates functionality from Exchange Online for communications and shared calendar functionality.
• Teams utilizes cloud-based storage “borrowed” from SharePoint Online.
• Teams takes advantage of the communication capabilities in Skype for Business.

By incorporating the three tools listed above with other tools and services, Teams creates a single location from which you can launch virtually all of your work efforts, including accessing and working on files, scheduling meetings, messaging with others – both inside and outside your organization, collaborating in real-time on documents, and participating in video conferences.

In addition, you can integrate other apps – from Microsoft and from third-party developers – into Teams for even greater levels of controls, productivity, and efficiency. For example, you can add Microsoft’s free Planner app into Teams so that you can schedule and assign tasks to other members of your team and receive automatic status updates and reports. For many, Teams is quickly becoming the “can’t live without” component of Office 365 and if you have not yet experienced working with this tool, I suggest you try it.

Bookings

Another relatively new service available to many subscribers of business-oriented versions of Office 365 is Bookings. Bookings is a tool that allows customers and clients to “self-schedule” appointments from a cloud-based app that you can incorporate into your website. With Bookings, a company can show available appointment times on the web and customers and clients can then schedule when they would like to book an appointment, meeting, on-site visit, etc. Once the customer completes scheduling the appointment, Bookings adds the appointment to the service-provider’s Exchange Online-based calendar. You can even customize Bookings to have the service send automated reminders to those who choose to book on-line.

Other Tools

While time and space do not allow for a full discussion of all the tools, apps, and services available with your business-oriented Office 365 subscription, some other tools you should consider looking into include:

• Forms, a cloud-based form/survey/testing engine;
• Yammer, a social-networking tool for larger organizations;
• Delve, a tool for providing personal insights and relevant information about the people and data you work with;
• Stream, an organization-based video/presentation delivery engine; and
• Sway, an alternative to PowerPoint for creating compelling and captivating presentations.

Additionally, do not overlook the wide variety of embedded security options available in Office 365, including Data Loss Prevention, Mobile Device Management, Multi-Factor Authentication, and tools to manage and control the flow of email.

Summary

Office 365 has certainly come a long way, and all signs point to continued development of other tools and services within the subscription-based offering. While some users rightfully focus on the “core” products and services – such as Excel, Outlook, and Word – others are beginning to explore the wide-variety of lesser known tools and services that can improve efficiency and teamwork. If you have not yet ventured down this path, I encourage you to consider how these other tools can help you to improve your ROI on Office 365…I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

Tommy Stephens is a shareholder in K2 Enterprises, where he develops and presents continuing professional education programs to accounting, financial and other business professionals across North America. You may reach him at tommy@k2e.com.

Learn more about Office 365 and many other technology topics at the 2019 Technology Conference presented by K2 Enterprises, November 21-22, 2019, at the Lynnwood Convention Center.