How to Get The Most From Office 365’s Collaboration Tools
Sometimes it takes a village to get work accomplished. The problem: today’s villages are often spread across different cities, states, and countries (not to mention different departments and organizations). A single project can include someone working from their home office in a New Jersey suburb or a coffee shop in Amsterdam.
Microsoft understands this and has developed a great set of tools across the Office 365 collaboration universe. This article looks at these tools and helps our readers figure out how to optimize their performance.
Microsoft Collaboration Tools That Get the Job Done
Network collective efforts are simply not possible without collaboration tools that span email, instant messaging, conferencing, file sharing, customer service, and project management.
Here’s the lowdown on the Office 365 collaboration package and how you can get the most from each tool:
Email through Microsoft Outlook is the most widely used digital communication tool in the U.S. and around the globe. We don’t need to tell you how to maximize it; most readers have been using this tool for the past decade (at least). In fact, we are increasingly turning to other Microsoft tools because our inboxes are too full.
Skype for Business has been a brilliant addition to the Office 365 collaboration family. That’s because our dispersed teams need a way to see each other through video conferencing where attendees can still whiteboard their ideas in a virtual setting.
OneDrive is a simple, secure place to store files in the cloud. It keeps a desktop uncluttered while creating an accessible paper trail that cannot be destroyed by a spilled cup of coffee on a laptop.
SharePoint takes OneDrive to the next level. It is a Microsoft Collaboration tool that’s most frequently used for team communication and organization. Getting the most from SharePoint can include creating project-specific Intranet sites to store and share documents, setting up calendars that sync with Outlook, instant messaging in real-time during document editing – and more.
Yammer is an instant messaging tool that can pool opinions from a group immediately. For fun, use it to figure out where to go to lunch. Or, talk about a client meeting – or even last nights favorite TV show.
A Connected Universe: Office 365 Collaboration
When Microsoft launched the Office 365 collaboration tools, the entire point was to create an easy-to-access universe of tools where one login could give the user everything they need to make work happen. A few years back, organizations had to use multiple tools with tool-specific sign-on, unique user interfaces – and many of them simply didn’t play well with each other. The result was a lot of busy work between applications involving copy/paste and retyping information that was already entered on one platform.
Microsoft’s collaboration tools were created to provide a seamless and efficient user experience. Each tool is already optimized to get the most from each application under the Office 365 umbrella. To find out how to streamline your communication and collaboration efficiency, contact Red River today to discuss your options.
