Intranets and Microsoft Office 365 For Better Productivity

Jun 29, 2017 | 2 comments

Microsoft Office is the most common form of software used in the world. Its reach is incredible with 1.2 billion users worldwide and 60 million using the cloud version called Office 365. As a platform for businesses to share and collaborate on information it’s almost without parallel and now you can leverage the investment your company has made in Office 365 by embedding it in your company intranet. Combining both powerful tools in a single cloud-based platform will lead to efficiency savings and enhanced productivity with anytime, anywhere access. Interested in finding out more? In this post, we look at some of the advantages of using Microsoft Office 365 with your company intranet.

Microsoft Office 365 And The Intranet – Advantages

Open All Hours

Office 365 IntranetThe single most important advantage of embedding Office 365 in your intranet is that staff members no longer need to be in the office to get work done. This enhanced mobility is a great boost to productivity as employees can be working for you whether they are visiting a client in a different city, attending a conference in a different country, working remotely or telecommuting. The intranet and Office 365 will work in harmony so that, for example, a field technician that is out on a job can simply log on to the intranet and update the Excel spreadsheet directly once a job has been completed. The update takes place in real time and the great beauty is that another field technician or head office administrator can be simultaneously working on the spreadsheet at the same time. Whenever the spreadsheet is altered by any user the data is automatically updated in the cloud. In addition, the embedded spreadsheet gives you the ability to create management dashboards and graphs or reports. And so the data in that field technician Excel spreadsheet can be used to create a graph at the end of the day which reports on all the jobs that have been completed on time.

Better Collaboration And Joint Working

The intranet and Office 365 working together creates more opportunities for staff to collaborate. Word documents for example, or indeed any MS Office program, can be directly embedded in the relevant intranet page so that there’s no need to physically open the document. You simply start working on it directly. The document is automatically updated on the intranet page which, therefore, always has the latest version.

lots of emailIt may be that you are you currently working on a company-wide document – a recruitment and retention policy say for example? How many versions of the draft document have you had to email around the office for comments and amendments? How often have colleagues sent you comments on the wrong version of the document? How much time have you wasted sifting through your email inbox making sure that you’ve collated all the feedback from your colleagues? Chances are the whole process has taken multiple emails and many minutes of your time.

Well, Office 365 working with the company intranet will do away with this labour-intensive process.  The draft recruitment and retention policy can be embedded directly in the relevant business intranet page. The intranet will provide a very useful context with information on the aims and objectives for the revised policy so that all contributors have a common understanding. Using a series of page permissions set through the intranet, contributors can simultaneously create content, edit or comment on the draft policy with all updates saved in real time. The organizational efficiency gains to be had in terms of saving time and the duplication of effort are obvious. What’s more, it will be a much easier and smoother process for the users to actually get their work done.

Improved Search Capability

intranet searchBeing able to quickly and easily locate information is, of course, a priority in any business. And the combination of Office 365 and the intranet will allow for just that in your company. You see, the intranet will provide that all-important context, making the search results more visual and meaningful for users. Most file management systems search by file or folder names only. Searching on an intranet with embedded Office 365 will present results that provide images as well as context. It’s a much more intuitive way to organize documents and is a far a more engaging experience for users.

Easy To Manage

An integrated platform with no ongoing maintenance of hardware, no downtime, enhanced security, and no need to upgrade or back up, sounds too good to be true? Well, that’s the very real offering available with a cloud intranet and Office 365.

Contrary to what you might think, the security of your data is probably stronger with the cloud option. Both Microsoft and the cloud intranet provider will utilize the very latest, best practice security features including two-way SSL encryption and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliant applications such as Amazon Web Servers. Keeping on top of online security trends is part and parcel of the day job for Microsoft and your intranet provider and so your data really is in safe hands.

cloud securityWhat’s more, with this option you no longer need to worry about upgrading and updating individual MS Office programs or the functionality of your intranet. All of this is automatically done for you in the cloud.

Had enough of the system going down? Then cloud computing is definitely the way to go. With typically 99.9 percent up time, why not do away with annoying company servers and email exchanges forever? And without expensive company servers to house, maintain and upgrade, think of how much more money will be available in your IT budget to deploy on other priorities.

Free Intranet Demo And Trial Offer

At the end of the day the choice is a relatively simple one. There’s no doubt that cloud computing is the future for businesses, especially small to medium-sized enterprises. The open-all-hours nature of the modern marketplace means that you have to be able to access your documents and business tools 24/7. And in order to stay competitive and one step ahead of the others, you need to take advantage of every opportunity. Think about how productive and streamlined your operation could be with an intranet and Microsoft Office 365 working in partnership. Enhanced opportunities for collaboration, rationalized automated business processes and increased productivity are all within your reach. Contact us at MyHub today for a free demo and consultancy session showing how simple it is to embed Microsoft Office 365 documents into your intranet.

Create A Better Workplace

See How In 5 Simple Steps

Related Posts

Intranet Content Ideas: 25 Ways To Improve Your Intranet

Intranet Content Ideas: 25 Ways To Improve Your Intranet

Your company intranet launched with a hiss and a roar several years ago. Adoption rates started high but have now dwindled. According to employee feedback, the intranet content has become tired and stale. It doesn’t engage employees in the way it used to. If that...

Finance Intranet: Benefits, Features, And User Examples

Finance Intranet: Benefits, Features, And User Examples

The financial industry faces a unique set of challenges. Sure, employee engagement, knowledge management, and internal communications are up there, just like any other industry. However, financial institutions are also some of the most heavily regulated. Data...

Healthcare Intranet: Streamline Processes & Enhance Patient Care

Healthcare Intranet: Streamline Processes & Enhance Patient Care

A healthcare intranet is one tool health companies can use to achieve the aims of better patient care and streamlined business processes. One of the great benefits of streamlined processes is that it frees up healthcare workers’ time and resources to focus instead on...

Social Intranet Software: Top 10 Solution Providers Reviewed

Social Intranet Software: Top 10 Solution Providers Reviewed

Here is our round-up of the current top ten best social intranets. Ready to take the next step but unsure where to start? Our top ten list of social intranet software has got you covered. We compare key features, social networking capabilities, and much more. Use our...

2 Comments

  1. “Most document management systems search by file or folder names only.”

    Your absolutely wrong there. Most document management systems search by everything in the profile and keywords within the documents.

    Reply
    • You are quite right, not sure how that got through our editorial process, I’ve updated it so that it now reads “Most file management systems search by file or folder names only.” Thank you for pointing that out to us, great and much-appreciated feedback.

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

How To Set Up An Intranet Fast

 

5 Simple Steps

Why Do So Many Businesses Choose MyHub?

Select Your Own Intranet Solution By Business Challenge, Industry or Category

A Beginner's Guide To Creating An Intranet

Receive MyHub Original Content To Your Inbox Once A Month

popup-subscribe