It's the same for many companies: Office 365 has been licensed and emails are already being sent from the cloud (Exchange online and Outlook). The integration of the Digital Workplace is often complete. But you will have heard that the O 365 Suite gives you access to a range of applications that can simplify your internal workflows and make them more efficient.
Many of our consultations lead to surprised and, above all, interested faces. The questions that are then asked are typically:
- Which use cases can we continue to solve with Office 365?
- What useful services and apps can you recommend?
Have you ever asked yourself the same question? This blog post provides clear answers. It will provide you with guidance on how to best manage your employees' demands for application innovation.
Realizing potential with Office 365 - top applications for your company
It can be difficult to keep track of everything in the O 365 jungle. You may be confused by the wealth of options, but at the very least you could be overwhelmed. What can you do with SharePoint? What is the best way to use Microsoft Teams? Is OneDrive recommended?
As is so often the case, this depends on the size of your company as well as your needs and goals. That's the beauty and at the same time the difficulty of the digital workplace - the possibilities for individualization know (almost) no limits!
Of course, that is not a satisfactory answer. So I thought hard about it, analyzed it and discussed it with colleagues. The result is the following 7 use cases that are universally recommended.
1. social intranet with SharePoint and Yammer
The latest version of SharePoint with the Modern User Interface offers very interesting functionalities for a modern intranet. Thanks to the new "Home Site" (personalized start page), content from the intranet can be aggregated directly and intelligently: choose from company and department-specific news, events and documents as well as information from project or workspaces based on Microsoft Teams or SharePoint.
The creation of content can be assigned decentrally so that editors from different areas can create and maintain the content themselves. Thanks to good integration with Yammer, your employees can post their feedback or ask questions directly on news or content pages. The new "hub sites" enable open and flexible structuring and reorganization of navigation.
2. collaboration (internal & external) with Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is the central app for promoting collaboration within your company. Take a look at innobit's blog series on Microsoft Teams for comprehensive information on the topic.
Another interesting feature: Microsoft Teams makes it easy to integrate external business partners. This means you always have an overview of conversations and documents and don't have to worry about accidentally assigning more authorizations to external parties than necessary. What also impresses me very positively is the integration of business processes thanks to connectors to 3rd party applications.
3. communities with Yammer
Many of our customers keep asking what they can use Yammer for. The primary use case is the creation of communities and the exchange of experts within them. Each of your departments has subject matter experts. They have special know-how in areas such as IT, business processes, marketing, sales and other important areas for your company.
Thanks to Yammer Communities, it is possible to create and build topic-specific communities and delegate moderation to the subject matter experts. Employees can search and navigate the communities and ask questions as the situation demands. Experts can then answer these questions and everyone has access to this information. This not only promotes the exchange of information, but also avoids 'silos' of unused and unconnected potential.
4. personnel directory / people directory with Delve
Especially in larger companies, employees need the ability to search for people easily, seamlessly and intuitively. Delve offers exactly this functionality and much more.
Thanks to the "artificial intelligence" used, based on Microsoft Graph, personally relevant information and documents are made easily accessible.
5. replacement of personal drive with OneDrive for Business
OneDrive for Business offers excellent functionalities for the management of personal and business files. Compared to a classic file server drive ("home drive"), the files are available from anywhere (seamlessly and without VPN!), whether in the office, at home or on the road.
The information can be accessed and easily shared with all devices (smartphone, tablet, PC, etc.). The option to work online or offline (if there is no internet connection) is very practical. The files are automatically synchronized as soon as the device reconnects to the Internet. Migration from the classic file server to OneDrive for Business is easy thanks to the "Microsoft Migration Tool".
6. replace group drives with SharePoint and MicrosoftTeams
As with personal drives, group drives can be migrated to SharePoint or Microsoft Teams. The aforementioned "Microsoft Migration Tool" helps to analyze, migrate and set up the files, folders and group permissions. SharePoint offers long-term file storage. Microsoft Teams provides the platform for current project, departmental or topic-related collaboration.
7. application innovation management with SharePoint, PowerApps and Power Automate (formerly MS Flow)
It is very likely that you and your employees will have requests: be it a function, the automation of a work process or an individual customization. You should definitely consider and plan for this in order to increase the user experience and acceptance and ensure that everyone can work effectively. The nice thing is that customizations within the O 365 environment are very possible.
When it comes to small applications and changes (i.e. not the complete new development of a tool), we recommend the introduction of simple "Application Innovation Management". The process is as follows:
- Every employee can enter their ideas or suggestions for improvement (SharePoint or PowerApps form).
- These proposals are forwarded to a committee via push notification or e-mail.
- The proposals are regularly evaluated and assessed.
- The best ideas are prioritized, elaborated and planned.
- These ideas receive an internal budget and are implemented.
Many ideas for applications can be implemented quickly and easily using SharePoint, PowerApps forms and workflows (Power Automate). Try it out - it's worth it!
That was just the tip of the iceberg
As you can see, you can do much more with Office 365 than just send emails and edit a Word document. The O 365 Suite is a fascinating world with countless possibilities. I hope I have been able to inspire you.
