You know about Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. However, you may not be as familiar with some of the other gems waiting for you when you migrate from GroupWise to Office 365. Moving to the cloud provides the perfect opportunity to explore some of these powerful Office 365 apps that promote collaboration and productivity.
1. Sway
Microsoft introduced this web-centric alternative to PowerPoint in 2015. While PowerPoint still works best for data-driven presentations, Sway offers an intuitive option for presentations, brochures, newsletters and more. Some exciting features of Sway include:
- Works on multiple platforms – Users can access Sway from any web browser to either edit or view presentations. This makes collaboration and sharing a breeze. For instance, multiple users can edit a presentation simultaneously and then share the final product to social media with two clicks of the mouse.
- Mobility – Presentations automatically scale for mobile viewing.
- Accessibility – Sway includes both an Accessibility Checker and an Accessibility Viewer to help you make your presentations available to users of all abilities.
- Design helps – From professional templates to color and layout suggestions, Sway makes it easy to develop high quality content.
- Image library – Choose from a large library of stock images with Creative Commons licenses. Alternatively, you can add your own images.
2. Yammer
Eighty-five percent of Fortune 500 companies have discovered the benefits Yammer offers. In simple terms, this addition to Office 365 provides an enterprise social network. In many ways, it functions similarly to Facebook but focuses on promoting collaboration and building company culture.
For example, a company with multiple offices can use Yammer to connect employees across the organization. This makes virtual “hallway conversations” possible across distance. An engineer in Ohio, for instance, shares a video of a tricky repair challenge. Engineers across the country post solutions, and those solutions remain available in a searchable archive for later use.
Additionally, Yammer works well for corporate-wide communications. For instance, a team working on a high-profile project can easily keep the entire organization informed about progress. At the same time, team members reserve detailed project communication for a more tight-knit group in Microsoft Teams.
3. Microsoft Teams
While Yammer provides an enterprise-wide forum for connecting employees, Microsoft Teams provides a customizable workspace for smaller teams. Fully integrated with the other Office 365 apps, Teams allows colleagues to collaborate seamlessly. Users can co-edit documents in real time while video conferencing and simultaneously taking notes in OneNote.
For example, a work group can create a team channel providing access to current and past conversations and all shared files. A “wikis” tab acts as a notebook for the team, offering a great space to add important links, document standard procedures and more. Information throughout the channel is searchable and encrypted at all times.
4. OneNote
Why get excited about a notebook? To begin with, OneNote offers more than your average notetaking app. Sure, you can take notes. You can even handwrite those notes with a stylus. But you can also add images and record both audio and video within a note.
Like other Office 365 apps, you can access OneNote from any platform, recording information on the go. You can share a single note or an entire notebook with your team. You can also sync with Outlook and integrate OneNote into your Microsoft Team channel. And to add security, you can add password protection to individual sections.
Move to the Cloud and Discover the Power of Office 365 Apps
The consultants at Messaging Architects take the pain out of cloud migration. With deep experience in both GroupWise and Office 365, we will help you achieve a seamless transition. From email and data migration to security consulting and information governance, we have the tools and the expertise to allow you to tap into the many business benefits of Office 365.
