In March 2020, employees across the world were asked to begin working from home due to the coronavirus becoming a worldwide pandemic. This drastic change to work culture happened overnight for most companies. Businesses had to acclimatize to the new norm of working from home and collaborating as if everyone were still in the office. With no respite from the pandemic in view, businesses had to come up with a long-term solution to enable easier collaboration when employees work remotely. Microsoft 365 is an easy to use SaaS (software as a service) application that enables businesses to carry out the work from home without having their IT professional stress over the nuances of setting up secure remote work collaboration servers by themselves. Here we discuss why exactly Microsoft 365 is a quintessential example of a cloud based collaboration platform perfect for your small and medium-sized enterprise (SME).
One Drive
One of the features that come along with the Microsoft Office 365 business subscription, is One drive. One drive is similar to your own computer's hard drive and storage, however, it's on an online cloud. With Microsoft's One Drive, you can view your files no matter where you are even if you are in another country. If your device crashes, whether it be a mobile or a PC, you have the peace of mind of knowing that your files are safe and secure on the One drive. This is great for people who work from home and use unreliable devices or a spotty Wi-Fi connection to get their work done. One drive is easily accessible from your website browser through your Microsoft Office 365 login, a standalone desktop version for your PC and even a mobile application so you can access files quickly on the go. When working with your team, One drive enables easy, real-time collaboration. One drive enables you to share documents with any of your colleagues, and even an option to share documents with people who are not in your organisation. There's even a feature to set permissions that allow only temporary access to certain files for anyone who needs to be extra secure. Additionally, One drive uses Azure services to ensure the data on the cloud is extra secure. Azure services provide top notch cyber security protection for data stored in the One drive, so business owners don't have to stress about the vulnerability of their company data stored on the cloud.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft other innovative collaboration feature is Microsoft teams. Microsoft teams enables employees to have team meetings, individual one on one talks, host presentations and even set up video conferencing in a breeze. Microsoft teams enables video conferencing for more than 1000 people which allows companies to hold virtual events for clients and external participants as well. Microsoft teams also allows employees to add in other Microsoft apps. This means that employees can video conference and collaborate on a word, excel or PowerPoint document at the same time. This removes the tedious task of emailing colleagues back and forth making small amendments to the document each time.
Microsoft Outlook and Sharepoint
Microsoft SharePoint is an app that allows employers to share and collaborate open files and documents in real time no matter if they're at home or the office. Employees upload videos, best practices or even simple to do lists for the team to get done for the day. On the other hand, Microsoft Outlook is an emailing application that lets employees stay organised at all times. Microsoft Outlook also allows employees to schedule calendar appointments, meetings with clients and even hourly reminders to take a quick break to help boost productivity no matter whether the employee works from.
Microsoft Office 365 stays on top of the market for SaaS applications that are the best for remote work. Remote work is not a temporary fix anymore. Most companies have learned to embrace it and have most of their employees continue their work remotely. With numerous features that come with Microsoft Office 365 subscription, it simply the best option for small businesses to commit to as the pricing is affordable and the software is easy to use.
