Many offices rely heavily on Microsoft Office 365 to get their work done. We use it internally here at Loffler, and we help our clients use it in their workplaces.
More are using it now because almost everyone is working remotely. We’re hearing high praise for its simplicity and convenience. Remote collaboration feels somehow normal, even though so many are remote.
While Office 365 can benefit many workplaces, it's a better fit for some than others. Would Office 365 be a good fit for your workplace?
What Is Microsoft Office 365?
Office 365 is a cloud-based service that supplies access to Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and many more. With Office 365, apps are accessible from anywhere via a web browser or mobile device. You can use it to collaborate on documents with coworkers or to access work at home. Tools like Teams allow you to chat and share documents with coworkers. We have a whole video series dedicated to commons questions about Office 365 if you’d like to learn more.
Who Should Use Office 365?
In general terms, everybody is a good candidate for Office 365 — who wouldn’t benefit from convenient, sharable, linkable access to Word without being tied to a desktop — but that’s not why you’re reading this blog post.
Office 365 is a productive and secure tool to use for business purposes. Beyond that generalization, though, a few good-fit signifiers are worth pointing out that may make you a strong candidate for Office 365.
Four Signs You’re a Good Candidate for Microsoft Office 365
While Office 365 would be a great fit for many offices, there are some factors that could make it even more beneficial where you work:
1. You’re wanting to save on licensing costs by only paying for what you’re using.
When you use Microsoft applications without Office 365, you’re installing software on individual computers and paying for access to that software, whether your employees use it or not. Office 365 gives you access to the same Microsoft applications with the added power to turn up or turn down the subscription for individual users based on what they use. This helps you customize your payment to fit what you’re using.
2. You’d prefer less hassle in maintaining on-premise servers.
Office 365 is in the cloud, which is an advantage in many ways. Microsoft takes care of the heavy lifting of maintaining servers, which means you can depend on the reliability of the tools without having to spend time on maintenance issues and patching. Instead, you can focus that energy on making the best use of the product and helping to train users.
3. Your workplace has a strong, high-speed internet connection.
Because Office 365 is a cloud-based tool, and not stored on your computer, you need the internet to access it. Your employees must be able to work somewhere with a good, high-speed internet connection to make the most of their Office 365 subscription. Without a strong internet connection, the quality of your Office 365 experience will diminish. Read more about how Loffler helps clients improve internet connectivity.
4. You’re looking to increase efficiency, collaboration and remote abilities for your employees.
A solid candidate for Office 365 is an organization wanting to focus on evolving their way of working. Office 365 allows you to take advantage of collaboration methods that will increase the efficiency of work. Instead of emailing attachments, you can both have access to the same document and work on it together. Video conferencing can take the place of having so many face-to-face meetings. These are just two examples of opportunities to use Office 365 to be a productive workplace.
Microsoft Office 365 brings the benefits of cloud computing to many workplaces. If you’re interested in improving collaboration at your organization, or need help getting started with a migration to Office 365, Loffler can help.
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Mike Gray is an IT Services Engineer III at Loffler Companies where he manages networking infrastructure for clients, migrates existing server resources to Office 365, works with end-users for general IT troubleshooting and more. Mike enjoys training users how to use tools more efficiently and make the transition to more modern, cloud-based approaches to their everyday work. In his free time, Mike is an active adult volunteer with the Boy Scouts of America, serving in leadership roles both locally and nationally. Mike has also enjoyed spending the past 10 summers working with camp staff to help provide fun outdoor experiences for young people.
