Your Quick Guide to Microsoft 365 Technologies for the Modern Workplace
Welcome to the final part of our three-part mini-series on technologies for the Modern Workplace, where we share how to solve common business headaches with Microsoft 365.
Here are parts one and two if you missed them. Here, we show you how to:
11. keep everyone in your business on the same page
12. be productive in a world of constant distractions
13. see the bigger picture and identify what matters
14. maintain security while embracing new technologies
So, grab something to refuel and dive in.
Challenge no. 11: How to Keep Everyone on the Same Page
How are your people spending their time? Are their activities aligned with the goals of your business? When they are devoting their energies to what counts, how do you ensure they stay on track?
The Solution
KPIs build a shared sense of purpose; bring them to life with dashboards and enable your to people view business metrics in real-time. Dashboards can be accessed from the web or a mobile device and employees will see how their actions are contributing to your company’s performance. Build a dashboard to track revenue growth, gross margin and customer satisfaction. And keep your team informed with top-line data, which they can drill down to investigate trends by geography, product line or customer segment.
Useful Resources
- Getting started with dashboards
- Microsoft Power BI – monitor the health of your business with live dashboards
- What is Power BI Desktop?
- Business Intelligence capabilities in Excel and Office 365
- Using the Analytics pane in Power BI Desktop
- Microsoft Power BI Guided Learning
- Create a Pivot Table to analyse worksheet data
Challenge no. 12: How to be Productive in a World of Distractions
So much of what you do in your personal life is measured. From the steps you walk, the calories you consume, to your sleep patterns - all with your wellbeing in mind. Given most of us spend nearly half our waking hours at work, wouldn’t it be intriguing to have professional insights too?
The Solution
MyAnalytics is your personal productivity dashboard. It helps build better work habits by giving you a clearer understanding of how you're spending your time. For example, after one email or chat, did you know that research shows it can take up to 23 minutes to refocus? According to Microsoft, MyAnalytics users typically recover 4-5 hours a week by running more efficient meetings, writing more concise emails, and proactively blocking focus time in advance. And you needn't worry about compromising your privacy: only you can see the data in your dashboard.
Useful Resources
- Microsoft MyAnalytics – your personal productivity analytics in Office 365
- MyAnalytics Outlook add-in
- MyAnalytics for admins
And because sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference, here’s a bonus tip:
Challenge No. 13 How to See the Big Picture and Identify What Matters
Sometimes big issues, like inefficiencies your people are tolerating or working around, are hiding in plain sight. Is your workspace an aid or obstacle to collaboration? How are your people managing their time? What’s tripping up sales or productivity? Is morale dipping?
The Solution
Workplace Analytics is MyAnalytics big cousin. It anonymises the information in Office 365 – such as aggregated email and meeting data - to deliver customised insights about how your organisation functions. Measure the health of your business and monitor the impact of change programmes over time.
Useful Resources
- Workplace Analytics – powerful insights from everyday work in Office 365
Challenge no 14: How to Maintain Security While Embracing New Technologies
Before adopting new software, you need confidence that it's secure and – in the face of a rapidly evolving threat landscape – remains so. Compliance with European or international regulations – such as the GDPR or ISO/IEC 27001 is crucial, as well as industry specific regulations. What you don’t want however is security at the cost of frustrating your user-base or burdening your IT team.
The Solution
Security seamlessly weaves through every element of Microsoft. M365 safeguards your data, devices, apps and users. And as the technology is in the cloud, it's continuously and automatically updated. For example, as the result of threat intelligence - such as a zero day attack, in the global Microsoft community.
Depending on your security posture and risk strategy, you can add extra cyber measures with ease. The elegance of Microsoft 365 is that you can pick and choose solutions in the knowledge that compatibility and ease of integration are standard. For example, benefit from having your Identity and Access Management controls in one ecosystem. Make conditional access easy on your user-base with Azure Active Directory for your multi-factor authentication.
Useful Resources
- Securing the modern workplace with Microsoft 365 threat protection
- Advanced security with Intelligent Security Graph
- Start using Microsoft 365 to accelerate modern compliance
- Microsoft Azure Active Directory
- Advancing security and empowering a modern workplace
Where to from Here?
The Microsoft Modern Workplace meets the needs of your user-base and your business. It's the ultimate secure, integrated ecosystem.
