When you hear the words ‘Microsoft’ and ‘365’ in the same sentence, your thoughts will most likely turn straight toward Office 365. However, despite some arguably ambiguous branding, Microsoft 365 is a different beast entirely. While Office 365 is an excellent way of accessing programs we all know and love like Word, Excel and Powerpoint in a neat, shareable, cloud-based interface, Microsoft 365 offers more. Much more. If you aren’t aware of what Microsoft 365 is capable of, read on – because your business could seriously stand to benefit.

Microsoft 365 combines productivity tools, business apps, security features, mobile management and IT security in a perfectly arranged package. Its goal is to ensure that your business runs as safely, securely and efficiently as possible, and with new features being added on an almost weekly basis, it’s set to be a real game-changer in 2018. That’s the elevator pitch, but it doesn’t really answer the question. What is Microsoft 365, and how can it benefit your business? Let’s break it down into some key areas to help explain it a little better…

What tools are included in Microsoft 365?

For many businesses a ‘best of breed’ approach is required, cherry-picking the best software on the market to take care of different tasks within the business. You might have a specialised payroll solution to track employee hours and expenses, or a dedicated CRM platform to manage your customer data and set security preferences. You might have a social media suite to help you schedule posts, or a project management tool to track tasks, arrange meetings and send invites. All of these programs can become extremely costly when purchase individually, and gaps in security can easily form if one of the programs happens to go out of date or miss a crucial update. Here’s the thing – Microsoft 365 takes care of all of this and more.

When you buy Microsoft 365 you’re not just investing in a single piece of software for one specific task, you’re investing in an entire suite that can manage just about every aspect of your business, as well as give you access to key productivity tools like Microsoft Office. Here are just some of the things you can achieve with Microsoft 365:

• Have a complete and competitive CRM, Payroll and Email Marketing solution all in one place
• Control and monitor your brand’s online image across services like Google, Bing and Facebook
• Create custom-made, professional invoices for your customers and track pending payments
• Manage employee access to data and create permissions for different tiers of customer/business information
• Manage employee mobile devices and set security parameters, and even remotely wipe the data if the device gets stolen
• Set up appointments with customers and see their profiles from within Outlook to better nurture relationships
• Track staff hours and timetables, and even mileage through automatic drive tracking

…and that’s really only scratching the surface. If you want to make the jump to the cloud and work smarter, safer and more efficiently, Microsoft 365 is worth considering.

Security and Cloud Benefits

It seems like every other week we hear something in the news about a new cyberattack, so it’s little wonder that security is high on the agenda. Businesses want the peace of mind and convenience that comes with operating in the cloud, without having to worry that their data might be at risk. Thankfully, Microsoft 365 deals with this issue head-on – believe us, we’ve done our research. It’s powered by EMS (Enterprise Mobility and Security) which provides automatic and universal enforcement of security policies, dramatically reducing the risk of data breaches. Devices are constantly protected and receive the latest updates, and built-in encryption locks down lost and stolen devices. What’s more, all of this can be monitored and controlled from a single dashboard where you can control all user policies and access rights – not bad, eh?

As for the cloud, it’s a no brainer in 2018. Productivity requires teamwork and teamwork is based on sharing – so it makes sense to make your files instantly shareable. With Office 365, everyone in your business can collaborate on the same document at the same time and all changes are saved instantly. That means that you never have to worry about having outdated versions of files, and the files you need are always accessible from any device. And that just works. Microsoft 365 is entirely cloud-based, meaning that all your customer data and important business information is stored and backed up in secure online servers – always accessible, always secured.

If it’s not blindingly obvious yet, we’re fans of Microsoft 365. We think they’ve cornered the market with something unique, and we’re pleased to be able to offer it to our customers. We don’t want to sell it to you though, we want it to sell itself. That’s why we’re introducing the Value Discovery Workshop and Customer Immersion Experience – so you can see for yourself how Microsoft 365 could make your business better.

Customer Immersion Experience

As Microsoft Partners, we’re pleased to be able to bring this experience to our customers. More than a simple tech demo, this immersion experience allows you to experience the full version of Microsoft 365 with everything it has to offer for a limited period of time. No strings attached, and zero obligation. We want our customers to see for themselves how transformative Microsoft 365 could be for the business, and we’ll be on hand to customise the experience and tailor it to your business – what’s more, it’s all done online so there’s nothing to install and virtually no set up time. What have you got to lose?

If you’d like to find out more about Microsoft 365 and what it can do for your business, feel free to call one of our friendly team on 01442 217 099. You won’t be hit with a sales pitch, just some good old fashioned advice on what we can do to help your business become smarter and more efficient. Ask questions, or go straight for the immersive experience and let us know what you think.