Cloud services have modernized the way companies work and allow for collaboration in any place, with any device. At Five Nines, we’re big fans of Office 365 applications, but there are so many features within the platform, that it can get confusing to understand which ones you should use and how they integrate. Let’s break down some of our favorite applications and how you could leverage them to improve your workplace communication and collaboration.

OneDrive

OneDrive for Business is a cloud service that allows you to store and protect business files specific to you, and access them on any device. OneDrive also offers the ability to share documents and choose permission levels, such as read-only or editing access. You can also sync files back to the cloud easily when you’re connected to the internet.

SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online, on the other hand, is a more collaborative space to store documents. SharePoint allows for cross-team collaboration and supports company-wide employee interaction. Everything saved to SharePoint can be automatically accessed by anyone that has permissions to the drive. Team members also can work on Office documents with other individuals simultaneously, and the changes are updated in real-time.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workplace to facilitate projects, communication, and meetings. The chat function on Microsoft Teams allows you to have threaded conversations, helping you store brainstorming sessions, conference calls, and other meetings into one convenient place. You won’t have to go through pages of notes or thousands of emails looking for a certain conversation – with Microsoft Teams, you have it all at your fingertips. The feature allows you to choose between team and private discussions, as well as audio and video chats with colleagues both inside and outside of your organization if you have external access turned on. Documents that are worked on in Teams automatically sync up to SharePoint Online.

Flow

Flow allows you to automate business processes by building workflows that are based on specific actions or triggers. For example, this could be as simple as getting an email alert when someone modifies a file or as complex as a multi-step workflow with approvals, alerts, and notifications based on an analysis of real-time data. You can create different types of “flows” that are either triggered by an event, a button or are pre-scheduled. Microsoft provides a plethora of templates you can pick from, some of them designed for specific situations (productivity, sales, software development, etc.) to get started.

No two businesses are the same, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to collaboration, but with Office 365 there are many tools available to help make working with your teams more successful, whether you’re sitting in the same office or working from home. Interested in learning more about these applications and how we can help implement them? Contact us today.