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SMB’s Leverage Cost/Benefit of Office 365 with an MSP Partnership
The Microsoft Office 365 Suite are among the pre-eminent productivity tools in existence. Nearly everyone uses Microsoft Word in some form, and 56% of companies have adopted Office 365 online since the platform made its transition to the Cloud.
Since becoming the default word processing and productivity platform, the team at Microsoft has striven mightily to make Office 365 user-friendly – both for the end users and for the administrators who have to set it up. As such, you might be wondering why you would need the expertise of an MSP when it comes to Office 365. Isn’t it simple enough for an organization to manage on its own?
Now, take a moment to ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I using the features of Office 365 to their fullest and/or getting what I’m paying for?
- How much time do my IT administrators and business leaders spend wrangling Office 365?
- How do I keep track of my employees’ output in Office 365, especially when it comes to complicated projects?
- Am I using the security features of Office 365 at the most optimal level?
- Am I signed up for the right licenses or am I paying too much?
Working with a managed IT services provider (MSP) on Office 365 can help you save time, increase your productivity, and maximize ROI (return on investment) when it comes to the most widely-used business productivity platform.
More than just a word processor
Many people think of Microsoft Word when they think of Office 365, but Office is a lot more than a word processor. It is a database management, document sharing, employee collaboration, and videoconferencing platform – to name just a few of its features. You pay for these features whether you use them or not – and if you’re not utilizing all that Office has to offer, you’re more than likely paying for other applications that can do the same thing.
Here’s one example: File Sharing – when it comes to sharing files, many companies use third-party tools like Dropbox – according to figures from the company, 56% of the Fortune 500 [1]are paying for Dropbox. But if those companies also pay for Office 365, then they’re already paying for SharePoint – a much more fully-featured file-sharing solution. If you use Dropbox instead of Sharepoint, a videoconferencing solution other than Skype, or a database management solution other than Access – all while paying for Office 365 – then you may be wasting money.
This is where an MSP can help.
Increase IT productivity while lowering costs
One of the reasons that you may be using Dropbox instead of Sharepoint is that Dropbox is a consumer-grade app designed to be installed and run without any administrative skills. SharePoint, on the other hand, is a robust software with capabilities that are almost limitless.
This is where it helps to have an MSP partner. An MSP partner can help you by focusing entirely on Office 365 administration. This means three things:
- Your core IT department will have more time to focus on innovation, as opposed to spending time maintaining the Office 365 implementation.
- The MSP partner will configure aspects of your Office 365 suite to maximize your organization’s adoption and productivity.
- As a result, you will be able to get rid of the redundant applications and save money.
Save yourself from potential downtime
Have you ever known the stress of losing a day’s worth of work (or a month) because of a hiccup in your word processor?
Data backup is a very real need for companies of every size. Yes, data loss still exists even in an era of cloud storage. Data centers still have power outages, ransomware actively goes after and destroys data in a backup environment, and people sometimes just click the wrong button.
Additionally, not all data backup strategies are created equal. It’s one thing to have data backups in place. It’s another thing to have data backups restored within minutes or seconds of a disastrous event. It’s the difference between moving on with your day and losing hours of productivity (missing deadlines and damaging customer relationships in the process).
Working with an MSP can give you the quick backup and restore capabilities you need. You will be able to replicate your data offsite at any location and protect it against loss, accidental deletion, or malicious encryption. An experienced MSP partner records and documents all activities and configurations implemented to meet your compliance needs related to data storage.. Basically, working with an MSP on your backup strategy should remove the risk of data loss as an entire category of concern.
Ensure employee buy-in when you work with NexusTek
When you work with NexusTek, we configure your Office 365 to be user-friendly. With fast deployment, easy management, and simple access control, your IT employees will love using Office 365 mainly because it was designed for their productivity needs. In the meantime, your end-users will find that Office 365 solves huge problems in terms of version control, project management, and cloud access. When deployed correctly, Office 365 is better and easier to use than any other consumer-grade app.
If you feel like you’re spending too much time on Office 365 for too little return, there are ways to maximize your ROI. Contact NexusTek today and learn how we can make Office 365 even better and easier to use.