What are the benefits of Microsoft 365 for small businesses?
Though Office 365 was also a tool built to support businesses, Microsoft 365 is a more comprehensive tool that offers end-to-end service to easily help with projects, data storage, configuring IT infrastructure, and so on. It is also one of the best email providers in Microsoft Outlook.
I have written this article to shed some light on the top ten features of Microsoft 365 that make it ideal for small businesses. I’m not trying to force it on you, just go ahead, read this article and you can decide it all by yourself. But I’m sure that you will find Microsoft 365 a productive tool for your small business.
Top benefits of Microsoft Office 365 for small business deals
As Microsoft has modernized the old Office 365 into Microsoft 365, this modern solution is indeed very useful in solving modern problems of the modern age. Wondering how? Then let us get into the details.
1. Secure data storage
Now you can store 1TB of data very safely and securely with the help of Microsoft’s OneDrive that comes in-built in your Microsoft 365 package. Microsoft has made a very high investment to make OneDrive as secure as possible.
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The Microsoft team has gone to great lengths to maintain OneDrive and include a zero-standing policy to ensure the tool against any security breach. The accounts can only be accessed through specific modes of requests.
Small businesses can also use OneDrive as a platform for collaboration. It allows you to collaborate on Microsoft applications and share data in real-time from anywhere and on any device compatible with Microsoft systems. Also, the data between various Office 365 Apps can be easily synched and copied by synching dynamic 365 with SharePoint Online. It does not only store your data but also secures it by taking backups of your files at a regular interval of time.
2. Company-wide licensing
Licensing process can be a headache for business owners, especially small ones. Not only there are many different kinds of licenses only regarding software but they are extremely hard to navigate. Not to mention that they all are very expensive to get. And within a small business, you will find yourself in a situation where only a few people from your staff will need the software to use and you won’t be able to justify the expenses in any case.
But when you use Microsoft 365, you will be covering all the licensing expenses in a single fee for the software solution provided by the platform. The one-time payment will not affect your budget negatively and will provide a solution to manage your business easily. And there won’t be any problem even if not all of your staff will be using the software because these products are included as standards.
3. Top word processor in the market
At some point in the business operation, most of your staff will need a word processing platform. Microsoft Word is one of the well-known and widely used word processing software platforms.
There is a high possibility that your staff will be aware of the software and its usage. Hence, it makes much more sense in choosing this software over other traditional platforms. And if you look at it from a business perspective then the functionalities like shareability and comments would be very useful.
With Microsoft Word, it’s easy to collaborate and share your work in documents, and with the help of comments, the employees can get feedback on their work. Also, if changes are needed, it isn't necessary to create a new document every time. One can make necessary changes to an existing document also.
4. Ideal for dispersed office employees
The current pandemic of Covid-19 had boosted the practice of remote working. And now, most of the companies are considering continuing it for the foreseeable future. To initiate remote working, people must collaborate to work on an efficient platform.
Microsoft Word is not the only collaboration platform in Microsoft 365, Microsoft teams are the major collaboration platform in the market that comes with the Microsoft 365 business package. Small businesses can host online conferences, video calls and can collaborate on the work files in real-time using Microsoft teams.
This tool also gathers all your Microsoft apps in one place so your team can work on complex tasks effortlessly and collaboratively.
5. Excellent email services for business
Microsoft 365 offers one of the popular email services for clients named Microsoft Outlook in their standard business package. Small business owners can also integrate it with Microsoft Exchange which is a business-focused email server that renders protection to your email deliveries, prioritized mails, and automated as well as synced calendars.
Some advantages that come with Microsoft Outlook include a 50GB mailbox, custom domain name, a cloud-based management system, and many more.
6. Top-notch cybersecurity
Microsoft is aware of the increasing amount of cyber threats. Therefore, they ensure the protection of their products with the help of a tool named Microsoft defender. It can offer high-level security to the emails against every possible cyberattack like phishing, general spam, viruses, malware, ransomware, and more.
You can also lock your business-sensitive information using integrated password protection for your files. Small businesses can also guide their users within their network to upgrade their security credentials at a regular period. You can also restrict third-party apps from saving or copying business-specific data and can delete the compromised data files or databases remotely.
7. Simplified Financial and Office management
HR and finance teams of every business use Microsoft Excel to create and manage spreadsheets that monitor the incoming and outgoing assets of the company. It is one of the well-known and widely used tools. The latest version of this MS Excel comes with advanced reporting and data visualization features which can be used to present the stats very easily.
Microsoft 365 also offers another app called Microsoft Planner that allows you to easily manage various business operations of your organization. Regardless of the IT literacy, any member of your team can use the Microsoft planner and its data visualization tools.
8. Mobile and web accessibility for Office 365 Online services
Although there are many unique features in Microsoft 365, there is one feature that stands apart from all and it is its accessibility. Microsoft 365 has web and mobile versions for all their core apps, a luxury not availed for every software.
It means that your small business or any related work can be operated from anywhere, there is no need to be present in the office. Microsoft 365 allows each user to connect with up to five Android or ios mobile devices.
9. Building an Intranet for your Business
Developers haven’t limited the team collaboration up to tools like Word, OneDrive, or Teams. They have created Microsoft SharePoint which takes the business collaboration one step further where users can craft their intranet sites where they can share and showcase their work internally.
Sharepoint is used by all types of businesses ranging from start-ups to large enterprises as a platform to create a team-specific or a project-specific site. On this platform, your team can visit, collaborate and share the news, updates, field, and other media.
Small businesses can also use the SharePoint platform at an organizational level to build an Intranet system so that their team can interact inside and outside of their office environment.
10. Business plans Presentation tools
Do you remember which tool you were using in your school and college days when you were tasked with certain presentations? Yes, we are talking about none other than Microsoft PowerPoint itself.
This is a presentation software also used by professionals for business presentations. Professionals can easily use its interactive elements and can share it too. However, the latest version of the MS PowerPoint comes with a speech-to-text feature and 3D animations. It is also blended with an AI-powered presenter coach that helps the professionals to perfect their business presentation skills.
Final words - why use the Microsoft Office package for your Business?
Microsoft 365 is a complete package that offers everything a business would need to plan future strategies, communicate with teams and customers, present new ideas in an interactive manner, manage and maintain business assets, and so on.
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Some of the Microsoft applications like Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Word provided in this package are leading services in the market on their own. So think what would be the outcome when you use all such powerful tools and apps blended in a single service package for your business?
