Microsoft 365 Business Case – Why Switch to Microsoft 365?

Improving your business’ bottom line without sacrificing customer or employee engagement, successful processes, and value creation is an evolving initiative. When thinking of low-hanging fruit that can help  bring about improvement, business productivity suites are easily within reach 🍎. Specifically, Microsoft 365! A powerful tool no matter your industry, Microsoft presents a low barrier to implementation and leaves opportunity for customization and scalability to suit your business needs while enabling cost savings. Here, we present a Microsoft 365 Business Case.

Business Plan Smorgasbord 🍴

With Microsoft 365, you only pay for what you need from a single vendor. Microsoft allows you to mix and match plans to suit your business needs, which requires upfront time and consideration, but leaves you with a productivity suite that is aligned to your organization and can be reimagined as you grow. Furthermore, free 30-day trials for licenses can often be extended for additional savings. If you’re a nonprofit, these cost savings increase with Microsoft’s Nonprofit Hub. For example, Microsoft 365 Business Premium licensing costs are free to a capped number of users and discounted thereafter.

In adding Microsoft to your company’s plate, the productivity suite has the capability to save you the headache and cost of integrating and managing multiple vendors’ applications. For example, you may no longer require third-party file hosting services or project management software, as Microsoft has OneDrive and SharePoint for file management, and  Planner and Project for project management. Having one vendor creates less friction for end-users in navigating tools and resources due to the robust library of available applications and their ability to integrate with each other, all with single sign-on. Microsoft 365 offers a hardy platform for all business needs to suit all roles.

To learn more about Microsoft Business plans and Microsoft’s Nonprofit Hub, check out Reasons to Choose Microsoft 365 Over Google Workspace | regroove.ca and How to use Microsoft’s Cloud First Grant Program  (regroove.ca).

Anywhere, Anytime 🌎

Brick and mortar no more – Microsoft 365’s hybrid nature (cloud and desktop) gives businesses the opportunity to keep company data securely in the cloud to enable accessibility from anywhere at any time. Cost savings include, but are not limited to:

• Office space – consider a remote or hybrid work environment that no longer requires an office space for all team members all of the time. Hot desking and third-party co-working spaces provide cost savings by downsizing and potentially eliminating your physical office space.
• IT requirements – Microsoft 365’s cloud capabilities can often reduce or retire on-premises infrastructure, such as servers, which lowers your IT administration costs. Server costs such as maintenance and physical storage can be removed or reduced, especially since every Microsoft Business plan starts with 1 TB of storage per user.  SharePoint limits are also generous at 25 TB per site.
• Travel and events – with Microsoft Teams, internal and external engagement can occur from the comfort of your home. Virtual meetings and webinar events can reduce administration, travel, and accommodation costs while removing geographical barriers for attendees.
• Employee attraction – we’ve heard headlines about the “great resignation,” as job seekers expect a flexible environment and open their search outside their current city limits. Your Microsoft 365 cloud environment automatically enables you to re-think what day-to-day work life looks like for your team and potential candidate locations. Offering a hybrid or remote work environment, effective and modern tools for the job, and expanding your geographical search can prove fruitful in attracting a talented pool of candidates.

Collaboration and Process 👯

Microsoft 365 offers a collaborative platform through integrated applications such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and Yammer. Being able to grow your company culture and promote communication and collaboration is an important factor for employee retention which, consequently, can lead to significant savings by reducing turnover (which can cost up to 33% of an employee’s annual salary). You can also be assured that your collaboration is secure, mitigating against cybersecurity risk through various products such as Microsoft Defender, Exchange Online Protection, and Intune.

Lastly, Microsoft 365 can save on automation and process improvements, which again contributes to your team’s ability to collaborate effectively and focus on strategic initiatives. Automated workflows, reporting, and virtual agents can be achieved through Microsoft’s Power Platform, which tackles administrative burdens to enable cost savings.

Microsoft 365’s impact to your business’ processes, people, and bottom line can bring about positive change that continues to evolve as Microsoft grows and expands their technology capabilities. Let your organization focus on its unique value creation and leave technical productivity to a trusted vendor. If you’d like to know more about what Microsoft 365 can do for your business, get in touch with us at regroove.ca!