In today’s IT landscape there are a number of products that have become the default standards, in the past it was Lotus 123, Word Perfect and Novell, these in general have long gone and there is a new Sherriff in town!!! Microsoft’s Office 365 product has all but taken over the business desktop information market, with its standard packages becoming synonymous with Word Processing (Word) Email (Outlook) and Spreadsheets (Excel).

There are few other players in that market who are making an impression, but as we all know it, it has become an overhead as opposed to a capital expense with a monthly fee coming out the bank for as few or many users as you require, enabling a business to micro manage its licencing as required.

Along with Excel, Word and Outlook, we at Cloud Cover IT find our users have been utilising PowerPoint, occasionally One note and Skype but in-reality, few are aware of the power and flexibility that their office 365 licence brings them. I have outlined below some of the products that we are helping our client base with to help them manage their data and develop their company communications, all within the licencing they have already purchased.

Here are a few that we have been working with customers recently but there are more than 20 applications now included in your office 365 subscription, that with some tuition and training you can utilise in your company to improve productivity.

SharePoint

Many companies and IT professionals see SharePoint as a great cloud storage facility. Which they are correct in believing. SharePoint can manage all files and folders in the same manner an on-premise server can. Recycle bin, folder & file permissions, etc.

Cloud Cover IT don’t just see SharePoint as a document storage facility, it is so much more. A full business suite of CRM, HR, IT Support, Training, Facility Management, Project Management, and many more solutions can and are being built in SharePoint by Cloud cover IT. With clients around the world running their businesses using the SharePoint solutions we have developed.

To a name only a few of the key benefits of utilising SharePoint for your business solutions: – 99% Customisable to your specification, your logo, company name, company colours. Turn your current paper forms which employees fill out into digital forms which are on SharePoint and easy to access from an ‘End User Portal’, submit time sheets, Holiday requests, purchase requests. Most forms which are being manually written on paper can be digitally created upon SharePoint. Automation allows SharePoint to handle the dirty work instead of you, automated time off requests, approval processes, with our consultancy whole roles within the business can be automated. Reporting upon all the information you have in SharePoint is also a key benefit, You are already putting the data into a system why not start gaining business intelligence (BI) from that data.

PowerApps

With the business world becoming very mobile Microsoft have released PowerApps. A mobile application development tool. Say goodbye to extremely costly Android/iOS development invoices to get a mobile app for your business.

As with all of Microsoft licensing models this is no different, you are already paying for an office 365 license therefore all that is required is the development time required to make an application which fits your needs and looks perfect for your business.

PowerApps is also integrated with SharePoint out-of-the-box! Making the CRM, Training… or any solution your business creates in SharePoint for that matter, capable of having a mobile app with a little development time!

Power BI

Companies are collecting sales data, client data, Asset data, sales figures, and much more daily. How many businesses are using that data to generate useful reports with 1-click of a mouse. Microsoft have Introduced Power BI to help businesses generate useful, easy-on-the-eye dashboards which can be used on big screens in offices to your mobile device when in a meeting.

When your business is collecting this data through users carrying out their day to day jobs in a system like SharePoint you gain the ability to manipulate that data to show facts and figures easily.

Cloud Cover IT are Microsoft Gold Partners and as such specialise in helping Microsoft’s clients get the most out of their packages. We can help optimise your office 365 or build Business Intelligence Dashboards so people can see how the business is performing on TV screens in the office at an instant. We have been developing both small and large SharePoint solutions either to hold data or to form fully functioning HR systems, Helpdesk systems, Facilities management and Asset management automated systems from within SharePoint.