How Office 365 Integrates with your Organisation
Many businesses are moving to Office 365 and currently, over 1.3 million companies use the suite. Even though some think of Office 365 and an intranet as separate things, it is possible to integrate O365 apps into your current intranet which can:
- Drive the adoption of Office 365 apps and intranet simultaneously
- Improve user efficiency
- Improve ROI as Microsoft is always updating the Office 365
Read on to find out how it’s possible to integrate Office 365’s apps with the current tech setup in your organisation.
Work on shared intranet information at the same time with Office Online
In Office 365, when you click on an Office document, it will open up a new tab within Office Online so you can work on that document. Office Online includes web versions of Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as Outlook and other less traditional Office apps.
Multiple users can also complete this type of live editing, with each user being able to see the changes being made at the same time. Businesses can take advantage of this by bringing people together to get information from multiple people in the same document, at the same time. You can also create a knowledge base/wiki in Word documents which can be found easily in search.
View recently accessed documents in Delve and Microsoft Graph
Microsoft Graph is a tool that tracks everything people do on Office 365. While this might seem scary at first, it can give you some useful results. Delve uses this data to highlight the most relevant content to users and if you go to portal.office.com, you can see a list of documents that you recently accessed.
Create a learning & development area with Office 365 Video or Stream
Having an area of your intranet that houses training resources is great for professional development. It’s always good to mix up the training resources, as not everybody can learn effectively by just reading training documents.
With Office 365 Video or Stream (Microsoft’s latest video platform), you can create high quality video content quickly and easily. The app even converts and optimises all your videos for you and arranges them into easily searchable channels.
Videos can also be embedded into intranet pages of your choosing, or you can create a dedicated site containing your video content.
Empower communication, collaboration and efficiency with Microsoft Teams
The use of Microsoft Teams has grown as more companies and employees use it. One thing Teams can do is combine conversations with the superb document management capabilities of SharePoint. Every team gets its own email address as well, allowing you to forward emails into your Teams so everything is visible and in one place.
Collaboration is enhanced as Teams brings colleagues together to work on documents in real-time. Because documents are saved in the cloud, every team member knows they are working on the latest version. All users in the document can see changes being made live which can get worked signed off faster, avoiding the need to go through traditional email chains. Learn more about Teams file management here.
Skype for Business has been a staple of office communication for a while now, but by July 2021 this will be phased out in favour of Microsoft Teams. This new integration makes it easy for teams to communicate with each other from one app without having to switch services.
You’ll still be able to text, chat, call and take virtual meetings with individuals and groups of colleagues all in Teams. Meetings can also be arranged with people outside of the company. Everything is possible with just a touch of a button, making Teams an efficient communication tool.
Manage projects using Office 365 Planner
Office 365 Planner is a great tool that allows you to quickly create tasks and organise projects into buckets, which can then be assigned to different team members. This can be used across desktop, tablet and mobile to help your employees stay on top of the projects which are important to your organisation.
ChatBots add extra help for members
ChatBots and intranet may seem like a strange combination, but Microsoft has its own version which can be embedded in SharePoint. Microsoft Luis can be used to help staff find a policy, book a meeting room or simply check the weather forecast.
Use Flow to create an approval workflow
It used to be difficult to build workflows in SharePoint until Flow was created. Creating workflows is simple and even offers integration with apps outside of Office 365 including Dropbox. Flow is fantastic for setting up reminders across the business for certain actions that must take place, ensuring that actions are taken, work is completed and work is signed off in a timely manner.
Use Forms for in-house surveys
For tasks such as booking a training course or requesting stationery, you can encourage your staff to use Forms. This new tool makes it easy for you to build attractive forms that are also usable in the interface.
The forms you make can then be saved in your SharePoint folders. Once the form has been submitted by a user, it can then follow through a business process of your choosing.
Build an app for field workers using Power Apps
In a company that has staff working in the field - recruitment consultants, lawyers, sales reps, etc - it can be difficult to create an intranet that benefits them. These staff members are likely to be using mobiles and tablets rather than laptops.
Power Apps is a tool used in Office 365 that allows you to build apps for staff to use on mobile devices. The apps you build could allow staff to enter information about customers they’ve just visited or even record and save important documents. These apps can then be integrated with SharePoint so this information can be shared to the right people in the business via the intranet.
Use Sway to create better sales materials
Sway in Office 365 is an app that allows you to easily build a web app that presents information using mixed media and an easy-to-use interface. You don’t need to use computer code to create a set of content that is structured and presents beautifully, and you can still use Sway to include content, images, videos, graphs and charts.
Your employees will also be able to take their customers on a journey that is tailored to them, rather than using a typical PowerPoint presentation. With a better overview of how your service works for the client, the more likely it is that they’re going to consider purchasing a product or service with you.
Use Dynamics 365 as your CRM
It’s possible that you already use your own customer relationship management system (CRM), but you should also consider Dynamics 365. This tool does everything you expect from a CRM: it holds customer data, integrates with your website and can be accessed by all relevant members of the team.
With Dynamics 365 placed within Office 365, it works well with other apps in the software. The app uses SharePoint to store documents, making it easy for an intranet search to be made whilst allowing employees to get everything they need from one place.
If you’re looking to bring your organisation over to Office 365 talk to Nasstar today. Our experts can support you through the process to ensure you and your teams have a smooth transition. For more information, get in touch with us today.