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Microsoft Office 365 has made the business-friendly application available universally to the user. It is more than Word or Excel, as MS Office Suite consists of applications like Access, PowerPoint, Teams, OneNote, OneDrive, Microsoft Copilot, Outlook, etc., which can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet. Microsoft consistently develops and launches new software in the Office 365 Business and Enterprise plans. There are mainly three Office 365 subscription plans which offer different benefits to users. It has not only increased the productivity of a business but other aspects like communication and collaboration.
With the recent update of Office 365, some new features have been added to this web-based toolkit such as advanced generative AI, intelligent collaboration workspaces, and seamless cloud storage that allows users to share documents and connect easily with colleagues in real-time. So, here we will talk about some of the most effective features of Office 365 that enhance productivity in an organization.
Features of Microsoft 365 to Increase Business Productivity
Microsoft 365 features a full productivity system that kills busywork, cuts meeting times, and keeps teams moving without drowning in email. Following are the features that actually saves hours of every business:
AI Powered Features
- Assistance with Microsoft Copilot: Microsoft Copilot automates routine tasks, streamlines team collaboration, and offers instant data-driven insights. It accelerates content creation and empowers teams by quickly drafting client proposals, campaign briefs, transcribing and summarizing meetings, generating data reports, etc.
- Video Creation with Clipchamp: Clipchamp is a beginner friendly video editing tool developed by Microsoft, designed to make professional videos easily for everyone without prior editing experience. It is available for both web browser and desktop applications (Windows 10 and Windows 11). It can be used to quickly record team presentations, auto-generating captions to produce high-quality training content, or marketing videos.
Remote Connectivity
There are multiple benefits of Microsoft 365 as it allows easy accessibility from anywhere, and any-device. You can access your documents saved on the office desktop from your home or from anywhere with an active internet connection. You can even work on files locally, and they will automatically be synced to cloud the moment you reconnect.
Simplified Automation with Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate is a no-code or low-code workflow platform used to integrate different business applications, eliminating repetitive manual tasks and automating complex business processes.
It reduces human errors and speeds up administrative cycles, plus it uses Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which mimics human clicks and keystroke. It allows modern cloud applications to communicate with older software that lacks advanced APIs, drastically boosting the productivity of businesses.
Real-Time Co-Authoring
What’s better than a feature that allows you to collaborate online, create documents online, and see each other’s changes? The real-time co-authoring features of Office 365 allow you to create online presentations, documents, and spreadsheets using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
You can save these files and documents in the OneDrive so that other users can review and make any changes if required. Also, you can share it directly from the application with the integrated sidebar.
Unified Project Management with Microsoft Planner
There is always a need for team-based task management tools in an organization to improve productivity. Microsoft Planner is one such tool that is more powerful than Outlook’s Tasks. Also, being a part of the Office 365 toolkit, it is simple and easy to use. This tool helps in bringing accountability and transparency in task execution.
With Microsoft Planner, you can create, assign, reassign, and attach group files to tasks. Also, you can track the task progress with status updates and comments features. This tool is available for most OS, including Windows, iOS, and Android.
Central Hub for Groups
One functionality that many users want in their organization is to share and access documents within a specific group, and Office 365 Groups provides them this functionality. Office 365 allows you and your team to work together with more efficiency. You can create groups for a small project or for a team for long-term goals.
With Office 365 Groups, you not only get a distribution list but also create a shared group calendar and a cloud location for Group/Team files that can be accessed from any device.
Centralized Collaborative Space
If there is one tool that makes Office 365 stand out from other online tools, it is Microsoft Teams, a collaboration tool that offers a hub for teamwork. The powerful features of Microsoft Teams can enhance productivity to an extended level. With Microsoft Teams, users can communicate with their colleagues via chats and conduct online meetings both inside and outside their office environment.
Also, it puts together many collaborative tools of Office 365 in one place. You can even access your team files and Planner tasks within Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams also provides the ability to access third-party tools within the Team Hub. For instance, you can get data from the tools that your team uses, such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Jira, GitHub, SurveyMonkey, or Zendesk. It is available in both browser and desktop versions.
SharePoint Team Site
When SharePoint Team Site, Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams work together, they can be very effective in enhancing the productivity of your employees. SharePoint Team Site is much suitable for teams with long-term projects.
With a Team Site, you can easily access files and check what’s trending with other users and documents that are part of your Group. You can post news, videos, or information, and even add connectors for GitHub, and Google Analytics with the help of a SharePoint Site. Also, if you want to automate some processes and workflow in SharePoint Libraries, then it can be achieved with Microsoft Flow.
Conclusion
We have covered all the features of Microsoft 365 that improve business communication, collaboration, and productivity functions. Further, to save your data from being lost or accidental deletion, it is always recommended to back up your data to your local system using a reliable Office 365 backup software.
