Today Microsoft is announcing several new features that will allow Office 365 users to become even more productive in communication services such as voice, video and online meeting experiences. Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate VP of MS Office, writes in an article today that Microsoft will allow organizations the ability to replace their legacy meeting and phone systems with innovative services built on the familiar Skype for Business experience, all naturally integrated within Microsoft Office 365.
Use Office 365's new Communication Powered Productivity Tools
Voice, video and content sharing are becoming the heart of true productivity within organizations today. The ability to have a productive conversation via IM, telephone call, or advance planned online meeting give employees the flexibility to find what works for them. The new Skype for Business is built on the familiar Skype platform and makes connecting with colleagues as easy and intuitive as using the all familiar Skype version. A few features of this new platform include:
- PSTN Conferencing - use either a typical telephone line, your PC or a smart device to access and join meetings
- Skype Meeting Broadcasts - on a much LARGER scale you can now do a "broadcast" meeting to over 10,000 virtual attendees. This can be accessed on most computers, smartdevices and browsers.
- Cloud PBX and PTSN Calling - allow companies to transition to the cloud with Office 365 as its central for managing users' communication and allows companies to subscribe to Microsoft managed calling plans and phone numbers. This will start in the United States and spread to other markets as 2016 progresses.
If you would like a quick preview of the services and benefits offered via Skype for Business, then watch the following video: Skype for Business - Simplifying Communications in the Cloud
Empower your employees and lower costs with a more simple infrastructure
Have you noticed that your organization may be paying for utilizing MULTIPLE conferencing systems? Why use legacy PBX systems with outdated online software systems when you can simplify your infrastructure into one solution with Office 365. Microsoft's VP of Office Solutions states:
"Microsoft is the only company that has built this combination of capabilities — a cloud business phone system including dial tone, and a complete meetings solution including audio, video, content sharing and messaging service — as a core part of a complete productivity and collaboration suite, available across mobile platforms and at a global scale."
Statistics say that 1/3 of employees spend their time in work related meetings, but only 18% of information workers are using rich media content sharing tools! Making the move to modern communication techniques can have a massive positive impact on how your people communicate and work. Below is a screenshot of Skype for Business during a typical meeting:
Improved Security and analytics -
Along with adding the incredible Skype for Business platform - Office 365 has made some strides in improving security and analytic capabilities. Here are a few of the major improvements:
- Advanced Threat Protection - improved malware and virus protection using behavioral analysis.
- Delve Analytics - utilizes dashboards that allow people to manage their time effectively and see how they are spending it.
- Customer Lockbox - gain new control and security setting over your cloud data
- Advanced eDiscovery - integrates Equivio machine learning, predictive coding and text analysis to reduce costs that come with sorting large amounts of data for eDiscovery.
- Power BI - analytics that enables information workers to visualize data with greater efficiency through live dashboards, reports and visualizations.
So, if you are an enterprise customer with need of an enhanced yet centralized communications platform, then you should definitely be looking into Office 365 and Skype for Business. Contact Custom Information Services for more information about Microsoft solutions, Azure cloud services and Dynamics GP implementations and consulting.
by Custom Information Services