Research shows when it comes to cloud-based productivity suites, Microsoft Office 365 (aka Microsoft 365 or Office 365) is more people than ever. Gartner reveals that one in five employees use an Office 365 cloud service. In fact, when it comes to the number of users, Office 365 is the most commonly used cloud service.

Similarly, an EMEA Cloud Report found that 43% of enterprises use Office 365. So, what has made Office 365 such a favorite among employees throughout the world? Here are some of the top benefits of Office 365.

1.  Wide Variety of Tools

What productivity tools do you use?

With Office 365, you get your hands on a comprehensive suite of business tools to enable your organization to function efficiently and meet its growth goals. These include the following:

• PowerBI is a business intelligence (BI) tool that you can customize as per your needs and collect useful insights to drive better decision-making.
• OneDrive is a cloud-based file storage solution where you can store your data reliably without breaking the bank.
• Yammer is a one-stop shop for corporate social networks.
• SharePoint is an online website portal for your organization to store, share, and collaborate on documents across the organization.
• Exchange Online includes a host of calendar and email functionalities.
• Office Suite compiles some of the leading Microsoft applications, including OneNote, Skype for Business, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.

2.  Robust Security and Reliability

How confident are you about your digital hygiene?

Many small business owners have a misconception about the cloud; they believe it poses a security risk to their data. On the contrary, Microsoft takes on all the responsibility for security and reliability. Regardless of how sensitive your data is, store your data freely on the cloud via Office 365 as it eliminates the expense of buying costly hardware for your server rooms. Besides, it also eliminates the resources spent on full-time employees who manage your server rooms.

Office 365 takes your disaster recovery to the next level by introducing excellent backup functionalities, so you can avoid downtime at the time of crisis. This means that your IT support team can focus their time and efforts on more critical areas, such as resolving your employees’ IT issues.

Office 365 comes with plenty of built-in security features. These include:

• Advanced Threat Analytics: This feature assesses your systems to identify and notify users about any suspicious activity or behavior occurring on your network.
• Data Loss Prevention: Microsoft’s DLP policy ensures that sensitive corporate information cannot leave your organization via effective monitoring and protection capabilities.
• Encrypted email: Apply encryption to prevent malicious third parties from reading your emails.
• Exchange online protection: Offers next-level security and reliability to fight against malware and spam.
• Mobile device management: Oversee your team’s mobile devices to protect corporate information. If a device gets stolen or misplaced, managers can delete sensitive data remotely.
• Multi-factor authentication: Add another layer of security by adding two or more verifications for data access.
• Threat management: Detect data tampering and prevent it through security monitoring.

3.  Centralized Collaboration

Is your team familiar with a co-authoring tool?

Office 365 boasts collaborative tools that allow you to share contacts, calendars, and mailboxes and edit documents in real time.

Share calendars in Exchange to find out who is available at the moment, scheduling meetings that are convenient for everyone. Similarly, shared mailboxes allow team members to access the same box, so they can remain on the same page.

SharePoint is another essential tool that allows multiple users to work on the same document and share them as a link via email. You can monitor who is accessing or working on the document at any point. These co-authoring capabilities take productivity to the next level.

4.  User-Friendly Virtual Communication

What tools are your employees using for remote communication?

According to Buffer’s study, 17% of remote workers find collaboration and communication as the biggest pain point of remote work. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees are required to work remotely, and even if the pandemic ends, this mode of work is expected to receive mainstream adoption. Therefore, you must look for tools that can help them communicate better. This is your chance to turn your isolated employees into an engaged and unified team.

Office 365 comes with several remote communication tools – SharePoint, Yammer, Sway, Outlook Groups, Skype for Business, and the incredibly useful Microsoft Teams. This way, they can communicate more effectively than ever, regardless of what device they are using or where they are located.

5.  Business Continuity

How does your IT infrastructure protect against power outages and cyberattacks? What if a ransomware attack infects your systems and locks out the files?

Office 365 lets you back up your data regularly, so your company continues to run as normal even when an unexpected disaster strikes. Regardless of what happens to your physical devices, your data, files, and email remain secure in the cloud. The exchange contains recovery features that can be used to restore complete inboxes or individual emails. Hence, Office 365 ensures that your business is not hit by downtime, no matter what the issue is.

Final Thoughts

These are only the top benefits of Office 365. There are many more that didn’t make the list but provide plenty of value. For instance, it offers an email storage capacity of 50 GB per user – ideal for employees who send and receive many emails. Additionally, large attachments and files can be sent easily.

Have you made up your mind to use Office 365 in your organization? If you are looking for a reliable Office 365 service provider, reach out to us today. To learn more about Office 365, send us a query.