As businesses begin to re-open and the world is slowly returning to normal, remote working appears to stick a little while longer with us. It has been estimated that 25-30% of the workforce will be remote working multiple days a week by the end of 2021 (1). During the pandemic and several lockdowns, remote working was a convenient solution to businesses continuing to keep working and providing services.
Remote working has come with several challenges such as face-to-face meetings becoming a thing of the past. Many collaborative tools like Microsoft Teams, Office 365 & SharePoint have helped businesses to stay connected between their workforce and clients.
Office 365
What is Office 365?
Microsoft 365 helps you to continue working no matter where you are as long as you are connected to the internet.
What is Office 365 used for?
Office 365 allows everyone to have access to the relevant information and tools needed for remote working. You will have access to emails and a wide range of productivity tools which enable you to put together high quality content for meetings, agendas, notes and presentations. A great feature of Microsoft 365 is that it also has a built-in advanced security feature which means that you can rest assured that your work will be kept secure whilst working from home. It also promotes document collaboration through collaborative tools such as Office Sharepoint or Microsoft Teams.
Collaboration is crucial to all businesses when it comes to working from home, Microsoft 365 enables your business to continue growing and developing through keeping your workforce connected despite face-to-face contact not being an option.
Microsoft collaborative tools:
- Office Suite
- Microsoft Teams
- OneDrive
- SharePoint Online
Microsoft Teams
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a tool that enables organisations to stay connected whilst they are remote working through its collaborative tools. Microsoft Team features include the ability to: chat, meet, learn, call & collaborate with your colleagues in one place (2).
What is Microsoft Teams used for?
Whether you need to discuss a job quickly with your colleague or conduct a board meeting with several participants, Microsoft Teams allows for you to invite users wherever they may be working and interact with them on a video call conference. Not everyone is able to attend a meeting which is why Microsoft Teams is so beneficial in terms of collaboration as it has the option for you to record your meeting which enables team members to watch back the meeting & catch-up on all of the important information that they would’ve normally missed.
Microsoft teams also features desktop sharing which enables you to share your screen online. This feature helps you clearly illustrate your point to other participants which can be otherwise difficult while working from home.
SharePoint Online
What is SharePoint Online?
Office SharePoint Online is one of the key tools to provide an efficient remote working environment. In fact, SharePoint appears to be one of the most widely used systems for document management by businesses worldwide (3). A great benefit of it is that it is hosted by the cloud and available to be accessed through your browser. It makes it much easier and quicker to access files by simply opening a browser and logging in.
What is Sharepoint Online used for?
Office SharePoint Online is used as a secure storage system to store, access, organise and share documents online from anywhere. With remote working keeping a track of your progress becomes hard especially when you have a huge workforce. SharePoint Online removes this problem as all files are updated and shared in one space so you no longer have to email back and forth files which may get lost or confused particularly when many versions of it exist.
Are you still working from home? Despite the huge benefits of the collaborative tools that we have mentioned in this blog, it is still important to stay safe when using them. Speak to our IT experts by calling on 0121 289 4477 to see how we can help you stay safe whilst you are remote working.
