Is Office 365 Worth it for Your Business? How Small Businesses can get BIG Benefits from Office 365. appliedtech.us 1 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

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1 Is Office 365 Worth it for Your Business? How Small Businesses can get BIG Benefits from Office 365 appliedtech.us 1 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

2 Business Benefits of Diving in to Office 365 As an executive or business owner, one of your primary objectives is to increase efficiency and streamline internal processes to improve profitability. At the center of increased efficiency and streamlined processes lies one thing your technology. Your company requires technology to conduct business, which you may often purchase for each independent need. This leads to disparate technologies and data that can t be correlated. The result is confusion, technology avoidance and inefficiencies that cost time and money. There is one technology and data platform that can deliver increased efficiency and streamlined organizational processes a tool you may already have in place. Office 365. In this Ebook we will explore how to better utilize Office 365 to improve business operations and achieve tangible, even remarkable results. Learn how to: Identify what you re missing with Office 365 Begin your strategic Office 365 adoption Pick the apps most critical for your company and which you can skip for now In the pages to follow we will give you the information needed to embrace all that Office 365 has to offer. CONTENTS Intro: Top 3 Business Benefits of Diving in to Office Test: How well are you using Office 365?...2 Office 365 Essential Applications to Check Out (and what they replace)...3 Top 12 Office 365 Add-ins to Incorporate...5 Office 365 Integrations that Bring the ROI...6 Manual Updates are a Thing of the Past...7 Training for and Mastering One Technology Application...8 Applied Tech Managed Services for Office 365 (and more)...9 appliedtech.us 2 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

3 Test How Well You re Using Office Are you currently using Office 365? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 2. How many of the features are you utilizing? a. We use at least 50% of the features b. We only use the basic features like Outlook and the Office Suite c. We don t yet have it but know we need to invest 3. How comfortable do you feel with the platform? a. Pretty comfortable but know we can use more tools b. I ve only glanced at my browser-based dashboard and head straight to Mail or Calendar c. There s a dashboard? 4. Have you researched tools you want to begin using? a. Yes, and we ve started using some of them, but I m worried I m doing it wrong b. Not really, but I feel anxious when I see all the tools I know I m not using c. There are tools? 5. How would you describe Office 365? a. A powerful cloud-based software bundle that can drive most of my company s operations b. As an platform, oh and it also has Word and Excel, right? c. It s from Microsoft, I know that much Mostly A s: If you answered with mostly A s then you re likely on the right path to getting maximum ROI out of your Office 365. However, you would benefit from guidance on application selection criteria, implementation and training. Mostly B s: If you answered mostly B s then you ve at least made the initial step of investing in Office 365, but you re leaving many valuable tools on the table. It s time to dive in, with the guidance of a trusted technology partner, and start using Office 365 as it was meant to be used. Mostly C s: If you answered mostly C s then you are behind the curve on investing in high-powered, user friendly technology. You need to meet with an IT provider immediately to see if moving to Office 365 is right for your business. appliedtech.us 3 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

4 Office 365 Essential Applications to Check Out (and what they replace) 1. SharePoint Fuels your cloud SharePoint is one of the most important tools in Office 365. It is the technical infrastructure that gives all of Office 365 its power. A collaborative document management and application storage system, it is currently used by more than 200,000 organizations for intranets, team sites and content management. By anchoring your Office infrastructure through SharePoint, you open your business to streamlined collaboration, enhanced operational workflows, and cutting-edge file exploration. What does SharePoint replace? Physical Network File Server SAN or NAS storage Intranet Platform DropBox Google Docs Source: products.office.com 2. OneDrive Organizes your work files in the cloud OneDrive is the filing system element that allows your staff to sync their files from SharePoint to any device regardless of where you are working, and work online or offline, in a secure capacity. By utilizing this enhanced file storage tool, your staff are no longer required to be connected to your physical server to access, share or collaborate on important business documents all with the feel of a personal hard drive. What does OneDrive replace or eliminate the need for? Your VPN DropBox Google Docs My Documents Source: onedrive.live.com appliedtech.us 4 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

5 3. Teams Organizes departmental structures Where Planner focuses on project management, Teams provides much needed structure to all departments within your organization Finance, Marketing, IT, Operations, Sales, and on. Teams can also be used to organize teams that are composed of internal staff and external team members. Beyond simply offering a structure to managing and securing team member access, Teams provides a place to share files internally, instant message across department members, and log all messaging, conference calls and chat discussions for review by anyone on the team at a later date. And because all department efforts are managed in one central location, metrics and analytics on team success are available to review and improve operations. What does Teams replace? Collaboration Tools Basecamp, DropBox Slack Source: partner.microsoft.com Six steps to successfully use Teams: 1. Start small. Pick a small well-defined concept that can be spun up quickly. 2. Define your goals for success 3. Train the right team members 4. Operationalize your plan 5. Review success and failures and adjust as needed 6. Promote your team success and allow the organization to develop other uses 4. Planner Removes the chaos from teamwork When it comes to improving your operational efficiency, the management of team project work is critical to achieving full-scale productivity enhancement. Without proper project management, details fall through the cracks, and those tiny cracks add up into big breakdowns in time. Planner allows teams including both internal and external team members to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share project files within a project infrastructure, and chat about project progress through the Planner portal. What does Planner replace? Project Management Tools Basecamp, Asana, Trello Source: products.office.com appliedtech.us 5 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

6 Top 12 Office 365 Add-ins to Incorporate Another great feature of Office 365 that business owners and executives find very compelling are the add-ins available through the software package. 12 Office 365 Add-ins that people are talking about Office 365 Add-ins are like miniature applications that have specific business purposes. Some of the most popular add-ins available are: 1. Infographic Designer Have your Power BI data tell a story through auto-populated infographics 2. Send Anywhere Increases the size send capability within attachments up to 10GB 3. DocuSign for Outlook Lets you or a recipient securely sign documents and saves them in OneDrive 4. Smarter Biz Manager Use Excel as a mobile CRM; creating, distributing and updating appointments in real time directly through Excel application 5. DocSend Track, control and update documents sent through Outlook, with document engagement analytics, as well 6. Employee Directory Configure team groupings, with search and filter capabilities 7. Translator Translates text easily from 50 languages 8. Search the Web Opens a Google search box inside your Office 365 software, i.e Word or Excel, instead of opening a web browser 9. Find Time Lets you easily schedule meetings in multiple time zones 10. Pexels Professional stock photos available to dress up any report or presentation 11. Grammarly A proofreading tool with more than 250 grammar and spell checks, vocabulary suggestions, writing style suggestions, and plagiarism detection 12. Office Tabs Similar to tabs in a web browser, brings the tab interface into Word, PowerPoint and Excel Add-ins can be found in your Office 365 admin center, deployed for specific users in your organization, or shared with your entire workforce through Centralized Deployment. appliedtech.us 6 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

7 Office 365 Integrations that Bring the ROI Office 365 integrations are extremely helpful with integrating one set of data with another. Flow One example is Flow, a work flow tool that will take data from one Office 365 application and integrate it with another application for example, Microsoft Outlook passing along attachments to a SharePoint document library. PowerApps Office 365 PowerApps allows companies to build their own company specific applications that fit their exact business needs, integrating with the power of Office 365. One example would be an application built to present your company s CRM in a format suitable for on-the-go business activities. For instance, if a sales rep is out in the field and needs to store information quickly in their CRM, this app would create a simpler form that interacts with your CRM but doesn t require going into the full, complicated CRM software. PowerBI PowerBI is a suite of business analytics tools that pull together information from disparate systems and data throughout your organization. It can connect to hundreds of data sources and simplify your data collection and streamline analysis across the company for powerful insights. Sources: flow.microsoft.com forms.microsoft.com powerbi.microsoft.com appliedtech.us 7 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

8 Manual Updates are a Thing of the Past Administering updates across disparate software can be extremely time consuming for an internal IT department or staff person. On premise application updates require managing complicated software licensing schedules for all applications used across your organization. Oftentimes, updates are put off, overlooked, forgotten about, or done incorrectly. Out-of-date software creates security risks, potential data loss, reduced software functionality, and general operational pain that often goes undiagnosed. With Office 365, all software is updated automatically by Microsoft, behind the scenes. These updates happen on a monthly basis. This minimizes the amount of change users need to adapt to, reducing downtime for training that happens in the traditional on premise model. Here s an example of how this comparison looks in real time. Disparate systems Function Application Update Method License Schedule system Gmail Admin update December 15th Document Management Templafy Call support March 20th Screen Sharing Platform WebEx Admin update September 8th Office 365 Function Application Update Method License Schedule system O365 Outlook Automatic Automatic Document Management O365 ShareFile/ Automatic Automatic OneDrive Screen Sharing Platform O365 Skype for Automatic Automatic Business appliedtech.us 8 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

9 Training for and Mastering One Technology Application Software training is one of the most critical and unfortunately one of the most underutilized productivity enhancers available. Part of why it s so universally avoided, though, is that training is required for each disparate technology solution. When viewed through that lens, training adds up, takes time away from core business tasks, and doesn t seem to stick. At Applied Tech, we offer QuickHelp from Brainstorm to all of our Managed Service clients. QuickHelp is an easily consumable, on-demand learning management system that allows you to customize learning for specific people or teams within your organization and track their progress. It includes: Up to 3-minute videos focused on specific Office 365 features Handouts to augment video training Quizzes individuals can take to test their retention of the information Links to outside resources Tracking the completion of courses Support for any learning development program you may have Access to live web events for topical training Software training is especially critical if you are an organization that needs to stay compliant with security regulations like HIPAA, SOX, PCI, GLBA and many others. As part of this learning environment, there is a security awareness module that is tailored to meet these compliance regulations and allows you to prove training compliance to your auditors. Whether your organization is regulated or not, the security module is a fantastic way to reduce your risk of users falling prey to common security issues and help them understand how to protect themselves and the organization going forward. appliedtech.us 9 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech

10 Applied Tech Managed Services for Office 365 (and more) The most beneficial decision a company can make when considering how to maximize their technology investment is to partner with a trustworthy, Cloud Certified Microsoft Partner as your Managed IT Services Provider. Even with robust, full-scale technology infrastructures like Office 365, it can be difficult to properly prioritize, implement, and manage even one system across their entire organization. We make Office 365 a competitive advantage for you by: Assessing your business objectives and needs first Determining and prioritizing which technology meet your needs (even within Office 365) Implementing and deploying each software solution across your organization Applying add-ins and integrations to optimize your technology experience Building any needed applications specific to your organization Training and maintaining ongoing education of your entire staff Reviewing the robust analytics available through Office 365 Making recommendations and deployments of new or different software within Office 365 Managing and maintaining your Office 365 experience The value of Applied Tech s full scale Managed Services Our Managed Services go far beyond Office 365 with a certified team of experts in managed IT services. We can complement or even replace your internal IT team. If your current IT staff is overburdened with the maintenance of your business technology systems, we can help them offload the work of day-to-day management and allow them to refocus their efforts on big-picture strategic initiatives. At Applied Tech, we are best known for: Cloud Certified Microsoft Partner status Outstanding customer service experience Streamlined IT management that is customized to meet our client s every need Client comfort and confidence in the reliability of their IT Flexible strategic CIO services Extensive staffing and manpower Extensive expertise in a broad range of technical subjects Rapid response times Expert-level threat detection Ready to make more of Office 365 for your business? Contact the experts at Applied Tech. appliedtech.us 10 Copyright 2018 by Applied Tech