Top 5 Benefits of Microsoft Office 365 for Teams Working Remotely

Published in

NIFTIT SharePoint Blog

3 min readMay 15, 2018

The NIFTIT team is international and boasts members located from the U.S. to Vietnam and everywhere between. The adoption of Microsoft Office 365 facilitated our process for remote work by offering an effective and efficient digital collaboration tool.

1. Cloud-Based Readiness

Although it may sound obvious, the fact that our core system for operations does not depend on physical servers or a single point of entry is key; emails, documents, and productivity tools offered in the Office 365 package are accessible from virtually anywhere. For example, our Accounts & Sales team can quickly sync needed documents from any device since the majority of our documents are managed on SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. This is a simple enough process, yet we still see organizations that depend on file share systems only accessible through VPNs.

2. Communication Tools

As part of Office 365 Business, you get access to Skype for Business, Yammer, and Teams. Skype for Business accommodates remote meetings on-the-go. It also natively integrates with Outlook, making scheduling appointments fast and simple.

While you can chat with your colleagues on Skype for Business, I personally would recommend Teams. The interface is much more intuitive, while the channel structure allows you to easily target the intended audience and instantly get the needed feedback.

3. Management Made Easy

Microsoft Office 365 provides an admin portal to support the management of users. The configuration is highly intuitive and makes the user control simple. From the portal, an administrator can manage the following:

User creation/deletion
User Roles
Passwords
Licenses
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Distribution lists
Security groups
Shared mailboxes
Access to a specific user’s OneDrive

4. Maintaining and Growing Organization Culture

Not being able to see some members face-to-face can be challenging for company culture; thankfully, the fact that O365 allows you to see the latest activity, posts, and document uploads within a common platform significantly help with this issue. Seeing posts from colleagues, pictures of outings or congratulations for someone’s latest success provides visibility and enriches company values.

5. It’s Inexpensive

This is perhaps the best point. For us to run a business with 20+ individuals who have access to all of the O365 features at less than $300 USD per month is a steal. If you were to connect the bits and pieces of other SaaS applications or amortize alternative one-time cost solutions, O365 could not be more cost-effective. Remember, with Microsoft Office 365, you’re getting:

Enterprise-class email for all employees through Outlook
Meeting scheduling and online presence through Skype for Business
Internal communication tools using Microsoft Teams
Processes and Automation using Microsoft Flow
A reporting solution with Power BI
A Document Management System and an intranet site with SharePoint Online
Productivity tools using Office Suite Online

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Office 365 migration can increase productivity, improve user accessibility to documents and important communications, keep data safe, and save you money. With the right strategy in place and a well-executed application of Office 365 to your database, you’ll quickly begin reaping the benefits of being at the forefront of such innovative platform tech.

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