Tech tools help small businesses function. Technological advancements have made it possible to collaborate with team members, make documents and spreadsheets look professional, and save business information. Additionally, technology enables businesses to conduct business by communicating with clients and completing sales. One software company in particular has a suite filled with productivity tools: the Microsoft Suite.
Microsoft has a variety of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to help small businesses run their business. Some of the benefits of using the Microsoft Suite include:
- Work from anywhere at any time.
- Through the web application, users can share and make changes to the same document.
- The extensive capabilities of the Microsoft Suite enhance your business’s professionalism.
- Cloud storage enables centralised, safe data storage
- Low upfront costs for teams
- Multiple Microsoft 365 licenses
Microsoft 365 is available as a subscription service. The brand has a pricing structure for businesses that helps your pocket. For this article, we will look at the Business Basic plan and unpack how businesses can use each of these applications.
Unpacking The Business Basic Plan
The Business Basic plan includes:
- Teams
- OneDrive
- SharePoint
- Exchange
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- Outlook
This plan includes identity and access management for up to 300 users, as well as 1 TB of cloud storage per employee.
The website also indicates that the plan includes additional apps for your business, such as Microsoft Bookings, Planner, and Forms, but it does not elaborate further.
Through these core applications, every business can be flexible in its work arrangements. Small businesses can have employees work from home while still delivering high-quality work.
Conducting Business and Completing Tasks through the Microsoft Suite
The various capabilities of the different software applications can be unpacked as follows.
Teams
Anyone who isn’t familiar with Microsoft Teams must be living under a rock. This application allows teams to converse in text-based chats, calls and video conferencing. It also enables sending and receiving various documents and files. Team members can create channels and groups to communicate with.
The application of Teams in business includes meetings with clients. This means that a sales representative can have a video call with clients where they can share their screen. These meetings can be recorded and saved in-app.
OneDrive
OneDrive is a file hosting service that also gives users the capability to update various folders in the browser, but it also offers document synchronisation in the desktop app. This ensures that all team members have access to the latest version of a file at all times. Office 365 offers 1 TB of storage per user, and managers can have oversight of ongoing work.
This is the ideal space to store files regardless of whether it pertains to client documents, employee files or accounting records. Images, videos and sound clips can also be backed up on OneDrive.
SharePoint
SharePoint is enterprise content and document management software that allows for storage, retrieval, searching, archiving, tracking, management, and reporting on electronic documents and records.
It enhances collaboration with colleagues and promotes secure access to information.
Exchange
Microsoft Exchange is a mailing and calendaring server that enables digital communication and collaboration within a business. Exchange has been redesigned for the cloud. It offers a more cost-effective solution than an on-premises.
Word
A word processing application, Word, allows users to create documents that feature headers, footers or even watermarks on the page. It has a lot of functionality that might not be available in open-source platforms.
Creating personalised letters, adding graphs and images, and creating reference lists are all functions users can do with Word.
Users can expect an AI chat experience with web grounding, writing assistance and data analysis.
Excel
This is the spreadsheet editor from Microsoft. It allows users to create spreadsheets where various calculations and computations are done. The application is able to build graphing tools and pivot tables. Excel-savvy users can also use a macro programming language to complete tasks.
A spreadsheet can easily be used in a business to track expenses, set up invoices or even build a budget.
PowerPoint
This presentation-building application is so popular that its name is synonymous with slideshows. Bespoke presentations for in-house as well as client use can be made with PowerPoint. The tool quickly and efficiently communicates an idea visually to any intended audience.
Outlook
Outlook offers employees a way to manage their e-mails and calendars. It features automatic spam and malware filtering to keep your entire business safe.