Office 365 Collaboration Tools: Are They Right for Your Organization?

The cloud has mobilized companies to do what was once impossible. One prime example is the ability to hire skilled experts from around the world without the need for costly infrastructure. Now companies can find their perfect employee in another country and provide access to the resources they need without deploying VPNs and other secure tunneling technologies. In fact, Microsoft’s Office 365 Collaboration Tools allow companies to federate with other organizations and individuals to collaborate on many different projects while keeping their communications secure.

Become More Competitive With Office 365 Collaboration Tools

Expanding your company’s potential employee pool puts more qualified, skilled candidates within reach. But working across time zones isn’t always easy. Fortunately, Microsoft offers many collaboration tools that also ease the process of working remotely.

Even with the most basic Office 365 subscriptions, Microsoft gives users access to the online suite of applications known as Microsoft Web Apps. Microsoft Web Apps are the online equivalent of the Office Suite and work pretty much the same way.

Office 365 provides more collaboration tools online than through its basic desktop applications. The biggest and newest application is Microsoft Teams, which allows organizations to create and manage teams for individual projects or galvanize entire departments. But more on Teams later.

Addressing Security Concerns With Collaboration in Office 365

With so much freedom in the environment of new collaboration tools like Teams, most people would be concerned about security. Teams provides many security options, such as allowing only authenticated users to access the team’s information and data. It’s also built on an integrated compliance framework, helping companies stay industry-compliant.

Office 365 offers endless collaboration tools, so I won’t cover them all. Microsoft actually provides some helpful information and tutorials on ways to use these collaboration tools. Below is just a small list of some current collaboration tools Microsoft has released to help companies work better in Office 365.

• Microsoft Teams****: This chat solution allows you to quickly ping individuals and specific groups for information and see a historical view of conversations. With Teams, group members can create new documents, upload files and share items with other members and groups.
• Microsoft Office Online****: Nearly every company relies on Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and other business tools to stay productive. Office Online enables you to access these platforms and collaborate with employees from anywhere.
• Microsoft Delve Online****: Combining knowledge of your role and how you work across Office 365, Delve surfaces relevant information to keep you in the know.
• Microsoft Yammer****: At Agile IT, we use Yammer to share company news and updates among specific departments (or the entire company) without crowding employees’ inboxes.
• Microsoft Sway: Sway makes information meaningful by enabling you to create and share interactive reports and presentations.
• Microsoft Planner Online App****: Organize projects and tasks with Microsoft Planner. This tool allows you to access your work from anywhere and get a clear view into your weekly workload.

Seamlessly Integrate Office 365 Into Your Daily Productivity Routine

Because Office 365 integrates with many other third-party applications, you can continue to use your current productivity tools and line of business applications without much change to everyday business processes.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to Office 365 collaboration tools. The only thing to do now is implement Office 365 and start incorporating these tools for your organization. With Microsoft resources and the help of qualified Microsoft partners to assist you, getting up and running with Office 365 is simple.

If you’re interested to see what Office 365 collaboration tools look like before moving to Office 365, contact Agile IT to learn more. Tyjon Hunter MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate)