Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is designed to help you achieve more with innovative Office apps, intelligent cloud services, and world-class security.
Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft which adds to and includes the Microsoft Office product line. The brand was launched on July 10, 2017, for a superset of Office 365 with Windows 10 Enterprise licenses and other cloud-based security and device management products.
On April 21, 2020, the consumer and small business plans of Office 365 were renamed Microsoft 365 to emphasize their current inclusion of products and services beyond the core Microsoft Office software family (including cloud-based productivity tools and artificial intelligence features). Most products that were called Office 365 were renamed as Microsoft 365 on the same day.
Microsoft 365 encompasses subscription plans that allow use of the Microsoft Office software suite over the life of the subscription, as well as cloud-based software-as-a-service products for business environments, such as hosted Exchange Server, Skype for Business Server, and SharePoint, among others. All Microsoft 365 plans include automatic updates to their respective software at no additional charge, as opposed to conventional licenses for these programs—where new versions require purchase of a new license.
Microsoft Office 365 Applications and Uses
There is a wealth of productivity apps available and each one serves a unique purpose. Most people know the more common apps and their uses. See below for some of those not discussed nearly as often:
Outlook
One of the most used apps in the Microsoft Office 365 suite, Outlook is Microsoft’s email client. This powerful app allows you to customize emails, create templates, flag emails for follow up, schedule meetings, and so much more. With Microsoft 365, IT organizations no longer need to have a Microsoft Exchange server on-premises. Microsoft maintains and operates Exchange Online. Organizations need to configure Outlook clients to access Exchange Online.
Microsoft SharePoint
SharePoint is the main component of Office 365 that makes collaboration possible. In addition to file sharing and organization, it includes SharePoint Workflows, SharePoint PerformancePoint, and SharePoint project sites. Together, these apps facilitate sharing and managing data around the world. As with email, the Microsoft IIS, SharePoint servers and Microsoft SQL database servers needed to provide collaboration services are operated by Microsoft. IT organizations can administer and manage the collaboration services without having to worry about maintaining these servers, patching them at regular intervals, upgrading the software, etc. All these activities are handled by Microsoft as part of their SaaS offering.
Teams
Use Teams to chat with coworkers, collaborate on projects, share files, and provide real-time updates on tasks. Teams has replaced Skype for Business. So, this is where you have virtual meetings with your colleagues and coworkers.
Yammer
Yammer is a unique social networking service designed with enterprise communication in mind. Yammer helps employees get answers fast even when they don’t know whom to ask. Yammer enables organizations—particularly ones with multiple offices—to collaborate across locations. Instead of sending an email asking whom to ask about a topic, you can now just post it on a Yammer Group. Department heads keep an eye on their Yammer groups and respond to questions accordingly. Employees get the answers they need, and work gets done faster.
Microsoft Forms
This app allows you to create questionnaires, quizzes, surveys, and other data collection tools. Once collected, you can transfer the data on to other notable applications, such as Excel. This app is excellent for market research or to collect data among your teammates.
Microsoft OneNote
This app is great for taking notes during meetings and sketching out ideas by hand. These notes are shareable with your whole team, which makes collaboration easy. You can also access your notes across all your devices.
Microsoft Publisher
This app is similar to Word, but the focus is different. Word focuses on the text of the document whereas Publisher focuses more on the layout and overall design. This app is popular among marketers.
MyAnalytics
Use this dashboard to see your Microsoft Office 365 productivity. Track how many hours you spend in meetings, chatting with coworkers, and sending emails. You can even use this app to automatically schedule “focus hours” on your calendar to allow for uninterrupted work.
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