Office 365 Matters

TERRY O’BRIEN Netbase Solutions

On the 30th July 2015, the Sunshine Coast held its inaugural Connect 2015 event. Some say this event ‘rocked’ and during the opening addresses the ‘earth moved’. We thought it was the vibe at the event but no, it was a simultaneous earthquake!

The speakers were brilliant giving inspirational insight in business success today. Out of all the ‘gems’ from the speakers, the one that stuck with me the most was ‘Collaboration is the secret to success in business today’.

Collaboration Collaboration is the ability to work together to achieve a common business goal. Past technology inhibited the way we collaborated.

Take for example document reviews! How often do we email a document for review by another member of staff meanwhile making changes to the original document? The amended document is returned by email with changes and you now have two documents to be merged into one. A real nightmare!

Office 365 addresses this by maintaining one document accessible by the team with all versions tracked automatically ensuring there is one version of truth. Collaboration is achieved using SharePoint Online, a true document management system, and a whole lot more like a Client Relationship Management system (CRM) or Job Management System as well.

Management of YOUR Data About six weeks ago I had a real life scenario occur where my laptop died (it had a good innings of five years) and I dreaded the thought of reinstalling all my data. This ‘crash’ highlighted to me the value of cloud computing.

I switched on the new computer, connected to the internet and to my surprise it asked ‘Do you want to set this computer up the same as your old one?’ Of course I do! It set my favourites, web history, start screens, log ins, the lot. Now what about all my data? I entered OneDrive for Business, selected ‘sync’ and instantly all my data started downloading. In one hour I was up and running as normal and have not opened my old computer since it crashed six weeks ago.

Remember Instant Messaging Ever had a quick question for staff or a customer but it’s not worth a phone call or email? Why not just send a message! Skype for Business is similar to Skype but integrated with the rest of the Office 365 family. Having a conversation with another staff member or even a customer from within a document you are editing is instant and is an ideal way to connect staff across Queensland or the globe.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Terry O’Brien has been working with ITC and business application for the past 28 years. He now specialises in Office 365, particularly working with small to medium sized businesses. Terry is a Microsoft cloud partner and Telstra partner and works assisting businesses with both set up and maintenance of all things Office 365.

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