Are you getting enough value out of your Microsoft 365 subscription?
Whether you subscribe to Microsoft 365 Business Basic or you've opted for the top-tier Enterprise E5 license, your Microsoft 365 licensing is probably a significant component of your overall IT licensing spend. It makes sense to increase your return-on-investment (ROI) by maximizing the number of included features and products you use from those you are paying for. This can also have the added benefit of making your administration and management easier and cheaper, as instead of having to manage products across many different ecosystems, you can gain economies of scale by using Microsoft products with common management and security features.
If you also subscribe to products such as Zoom, Calendly, Trello, Monday.com, Slack, Google Workspace, Dropbox, Zapier, and many others, you may be paying twice as you also have similar capabilities available in your Microsoft 365 packages. Or, if you're wasting time on administrative busy-work and not using the in-built automation tools such as Power Automate or Power Apps, you may be missing out on time and cost savings.
Extend your productivity
There are so many integrated features in Microsoft 365 that it can be a little overwhelming. But this should not put you off finding out more as almost anyone can find at least one hidden tool that saves them a little time every single day. If you're spending a lot of time on booking appointments but you haven't tried Bookings, or you regularly pull you hair out worrying about employee scheduling but you haven't tried Shifts, these are just a couple of scenarios where Microsoft 365 can come to the rescue.
A favorite example is Microsoft Planner which offers new ways for teams to coordinate and plan their work together, but the real power of solutions like this is the deep integration that exists into Microsoft 365. All your users are there, reminders appear in Outlook, you can refer to files in OneDrive or SharePoint, and there's even integration with products like To Do. The richness of integration alone, which can stop you needing to think about moving between products, can be a real time saver.
We love helping organizations to surface the parts of the Microsoft 365 that may have remained hidden until now, giving you a productivity boost without any shrinkage in your wallet.
Automate what you do
The inclusion of Power Platform for Office 365 in every Microsoft 365 license means that getting started with no-code process automation is accessible to everyone. These tools allow anyone to speed up their processes and be more productive by automating repeatable parts of their workflows and deploying common elements of work as apps. Forget AI, this will be the differentiating technology of the 2020s.
While Power Platform is capable of building complex end-to-end solutions (it is essentially what Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is built on) the purpose of these tools for most business users is far more rudimentary. If you can develop a handful of workflows that automate tasks you would otherwise spend an hour a week on, you save yourself a week a year. In a small business with 50 employees, this approach just saved an entire salary. And saving an hour is just the beginning.
For a deeper dive into the benefits of Power Platform, take a look here. This is one of the tools where Bright Ideas Agency specializes to help you get started with your digital transformation.
Ditch costly 3rd-party security tools
Every Microsoft 365 license tier adds security options to make your environment safe and ensure your data is protected. If you use a license like Microsoft 365 Business Premium then you have access to Azure Active Directory Premium P1 which starts to add enterprise level protection features to your subscription.
Many IT vendors and Managed Services Providers (MSPs) focus on niche security products outside of Microsoft's suite, but this can mean you end up paying twice and get a tool that offers no greater benefit for your business (and may even make it harder to change vendors later). If you use services like Okta, Barracuda, or Bitdefender, you may well be paying for a 3rd-party solution for a tool you already have in Microsoft 365.
Bright Ideas Agency can help you review your Microsoft 365 adoption, make plans to transition your use of 3rd-party paid tools to equivalents in Microsoft 365 you're already paying for, and advise on broader digital transformation activities to gain more benefit from the power of technology in processes you are doing every day. Book your next consultation with us today to get started.
