MS Office 365 for Business is Microsoft’s Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that provides a custom business software subscription for organizations of all sizes. By providing an online version of MS Office Suite (Office Web Apps) along with SharePoint Server, Exchange Server and Lync Server MS 365 has become one of the most efficient online business tools to date.

The cloud-based solutions include MS platform applications such as Exchange Online (hosted email for business) in addition to Skype, OneNote, Outlook Calendar, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to name the familiar faces of the Microsoft brand. As a consumer and business user you have used most of these, if not all, for quite some time. But are you taking full advantage of MS 365 as a business management tool?

Today, MAKE IT delivers the key reasons as to why your business, brand, or organization should consider migrating to Microsoft 365 for Business for your day to day needs, along with the other millions of businesses who have recently done so and joined the total of 60 million strong.

5 Reasons Why MS 365 for Businesses is Good for Your Business

1. Corporate Email Simplified

Studies have shown that mismanaged email in the workplace can be bad for the psychological health of staff and can reduce productivity. However, email remains the most important form of day to day communication for a business and is essential to operations. While a breakdown in corporate culture plays an important part in email-related stress, using an inefficient tool compounds the problem. Your business should do all that it can from a technical perspective to ensure that its email system is optimized for user experience. When the Wall Street Journal announced that Facebook is migrating to MS Office 365, they took it as a clear sign of the times in regards to corporate email:

Facebook Inc. is adopting Microsoft Corp.‘s cloud-based Office 365, a sign that email remains a critical business communication tool, even among the most forward-thinking pioneers of collaboration platforms” (Wall Street Journal - July 12, 2016)

With MS 365’s Office 365 Business Essentials and Office Premium alike users get 50GB of mailbox storage, compared to Google Apps for Work’s cloud storage capacity of 30GB. You and your staff will never need for email storage.

MS Office 365’s email offering is also one of the safest (more on cyber security below). Due to the evolving nature of cyber threats, Microsoft offers threat protection for Exchange Online, a service that goes beyond protection against spam, viruses and malware. Their email security measures include (but are not exclusive to) protection against unknown malware courtesy of their Safe Attachments feature, real time protection against malicious URLs, robust reporting URL tracking, and Office 365 Message Encryption.

Exchange Online allows management and staff seamless syncing with the Outlook Calendar and Outlook Contacts. With Google Apps (one of the cloud productivity alternatives) you can also sync your email with calendar events and contacts, but guess what? They use Microsoft ActiveSync technology to do this. As a business, you may as well go directly to the source.

The product also allows custom email set-up to match your domain and you may create as many group mailing lists as you need. Once you add your custom business domain in Office 365 for Business, you can send and receive email using your domain extension right within the Office 365 portal. When you change your email to Office 365, by updating your domain’s MX record, all email sent to that domain will begin arriving via Office 365. It’s as easy as it sounds. Factor in MS Office 365’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees 99.9% uptime and you’ll know that all corporate communications, be they within the company or to and from customers/clients, will continue without disruption. Download the most recent (July 2016) SLA here.

2. Cross Application (and Team) Integration

Once you’ve integrated with MS Office 365 for Business all work that occurs within the suite is saved to OneDrive which offers 1TB of storage space in the cloud. From there you can access your data safely and efficiently on the fly. Small business users will never want for more. If your business has team project needs, you can set up an Office 365 team site on the SharePoint server where team project-related documents can be synced, shared, and edited with ease.

Because work files (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and the like) can be edited and saved (with recoverable revisions) in OneDrive, assigned users can access them from any device and share them instantly with workgroups. The time-consuming days of sending attachments and merging varying document versions are gone once your business has migrated to MS Office 365 for Business. In addition, MS 365’s Outlook Calendar functionality will help everyone on the team coordinate schedules without a misstep, relegating missed appointments and double-bookings as a thing of the past.

3. Enhanced Engagement

While email and instant messaging drive most day to day corporate communications more engaging options are needed for brainstorming sessions, especially when key team members work remotely.

MS Office 365 for Business’ Skype allows you to make and receive audio/video calls and hold web conference meetings. The process is as simple as setting up an online meeting in advance with Outlook integration. While Google Apps for Work’s Hangouts allow up to 25 people per meeting, Skype web conferencing HD video can put you and up to 250 members at the table at the same time. Factor in one-click screen sharing and real-time note taking complete with profile pictures and videos of all meeting participants, you always know who’s online, engaging, and contributing. Participants can connect from their laptop, tablet or smartphone while in the office or on a plane, train, or automobile, as long as they’re not driving, of course.

Office 365’s Skype also serves as a great way to meet with current and prospective customers/clients in a more engaging manner. That face to face communication where subtle cues and body language can be gauged can make a big difference when it comes to closing (or maintaining) a deal. Experts certainly agree:

If you’re looking to make a video call for that important face-to-face conversation, schedule an online meeting or share documents online securely, then Microsoft Skype is perfect for business users. (TechTimes - Facebook Work Chat vs. Microsoft Skype vs. Google Hangouts)

4. Cyber Security

The MS Office 365 admin console allows managers the ability to instantaneously adjust security settings and privacy on a case by case basis. This is essential for keeping your company data centralized and safe from disruptions that include but are not exclusive to misplaced hardware and employee turnover.

With the wave of cyber security risk growing in 2016-17, Office 365 remains extremely conscious of cooperate security concerns. MS 365 has built-in security and continuous compliance with numerous independent third-party audits in place. In addition, you can immediately and remotely wipe data if anyone on your staff loses their laptop or mobile device with sensitive data on it. Because this data is stored safely in the cloud, with 1TB of OneDrive online storage, you can retrieve the wiped data at a moment’s notice. Download the full Office 365 Security and Compliance white paper here. If safety of corporate data is important to you, it makes good sense to switch to MS Office 365 as one of your core security measures.

5. Cost Effectiveness

MS Office 365’s perceived competitor Google Apps for Work has two plans for businesses. Office 365 offers seven, recognizing that there is no cookie-cutter solution (or two) for your unique brand. Both (MS and Google) SaaS solutions have options that start as low as $5 per month but while every Office 365 user gets at minimum 1TB of cloud storage, Google’s entry-level plan provides considerably less space at 30GB. Right out of the gates you get the biggest bang for your buck with MS Office 365. Creating a Microsoft package may take a little more time but when it comes to a suite of business tools so essential to your company’s day to day efficiency the extra effort pays for itself after day-one of usage. As a Software as a Service solution Microsoft Office 365 for Business works for SMBs and big businesses alike.

Ready to make the switch? If you have any additional questions and require assistance with your corporate migration to MS Office 365 contact MAKE IT toll free at 1.866.684.2541 or here.