Microsoft 365 is a suite of products and services dedicated to different business processes – how do these solutions support hybrid working?
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, business’ approach to working has undergone significant transformations. It started off with remote working, and many organisations found that it can be just as productive (if not more productive). But with many people still preferring to work in offices or other professional workspaces, the trend has shifted towards hybrid working. We spoke with one company that provides IT support for Construction companies, who told us that many of their clients had significant difficulties when social distancing rules were enforced – but now that hybrid working has taken its place, many more of these companies are able to carry on their work.
When we spoke to the IT company, they said that many of their clients are using Microsoft 365 as a means of setting up and managing hybrid teams and workplaces.
What is Included in Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is probably one of the most famous business solutions on the market – and the products and services included in the plan have been in use for several decades. With the help of Microsoft 365 consulting experts, many businesses have leveraged M365 solutions to add agility to their operations, and allow their workforce to operate in a more flexible way, so as to enhance productivity. So, what are some of the products in M365 that help businesses with hybrid working?
SharePoint Online
Firstly, let’s look at SharePoint, as it is probably one of the most important solutions for businesses wanting to work remotely. SharePoint Online is a cloud platform that has many useful capabilities – but it is primarily used for shared storage of files and documents.
OneDrive for Business
Speaking of cloud storage, the next solution to look at should be OneDrive for Business. This is the sibling of SharePoint, and is made to provide personal storage for licensed M365 users. This is the most efficient alternative to using a device’s internal/local storage; it means that users can access their files from anywhere with an internet connection.
Microsoft Teams
Workers in a hybrid business need to be able to communicate with one another, no matter where they are during work hours. Microsoft Teams enables this by combining three critical forms of communication into a single platform – Chat, Video Calling, and Internet Calling. As well as this, it’s system of teams and channels make it easy for teams and departments to manage work and conversations. Having provided small business IT support London companies rely on, the organisation we spoke to were able to confirm that Teams has been an essential product for businesses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Microsoft Outlook
Where Teams provides nearly all communication methods, Outlook comes in to complete the set with enterprise-grade emailing capabilities. As a cloud-based product, Outlook can be used to manage emails anywhere, anytime. It also includes excellent calendar and task management capabilities.
Word, Excel & PowerPoint
Most people in business have used the three original Microsoft Office products: Word, Excel and PowerPoint. These apps cover most of a business’ essential content creation needs – from pitch decks and reports, to data arrays, to all kinds of documents. As cloud-based apps, business never need to worry about their hybrid workforce having access to their documents and files.
OneNote
Another useful app that is typically bundled in with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, OneNote is a cloud-based notebook app. It offers rich note-taking capabilities, including drawings, tables, charts, and lists, hyperlinks, embedded video, audio, and image, and much more. For workers who are frequently on the go, OneNote is a very useful product to have.