11 surprising apps you get for free with a Microsoft 365 subscription

If we said to you, what does Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) include, you might mention Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and maybe you’d mention OneDrive and OneNote. But there are so many hidden gems that businesses with a Microsoft 365 can make use of! Here are 11 that you probably weren’t aware of – and there are more.

Microsoft Forms

Easily collect better data, more simply, with Microsoft Forms. You can utilise this for gauging opinion on things like ‘where should we hold the Christmas party?’ (pandemic allowing) or ‘How effective do you think our team meetings are?’ or you can gather and visualise more complex information with more in-depth question options. You can even create a poll straight from Outlook, and the recipients can either answer in-email or using a link – so easy!

Microsoft To Do

Manage your daily tasks with Microsoft To Do. Split up your tasks into manageable steps, add due dates and set yourself reminders to keep you on task, even when your mind wanders. You can also access your lists from anywhere, and share easily with colleagues. To Do is totally integrated with your Outlook tasks, to make managing your jobs from one place a breeze.

Microsoft Lists

Lists really comes into its own when used in conjunction with Teams. Especially during a time when working from home is necessary for so many people, being able to work together in real time with lists and conversations running alongside each other is a brilliant feature. With Lists, you can also change the way your list is configured, with options for calendar, grid, gallery, or totally custom views. It has infinite uses, but in just one example, it could be great for marketing teams to create a list of content needed to be written, and then assign each piece of content to the person writing it.

My Analytics

My Analytics is an app which can be used to gain insight into how workers are using their time during the workday, monitoring their Microsoft 365 mailbox for email and meeting statistics, as well as call data from Teams or Skype from Business. The statistics and insights which are created from your data are only for the eyes of the user, but if they’re happy to share their insight report in can be a great way for managers to help workers improve their efficiency during the workday.

Microsoft Editor

Who remembers Clippy, the little paperclip in word who used to give helpful little nuggets of advice at the most annoying moments? Well Microsoft Editor is nothing like that. Editor is there to help you write confidently across documents, email, and even on the web using a browser extension. It has features to help strengthen your grammar, spelling and style – an intelligent writing assistant which will make you want to hug your device, rather than fantasise about launching it out of a window…. sorry Clippy!

Sharepoint

SharePoint is a fantastic tool for teamwork across an organisation. You can create team sites for projects or departments, where users can share files, data, news and resources. It’s also really easy for your IT provider to add security at every level, so users who don’t need access to documents uploaded by the accounts team don’t have access to them, reducing the number of people who have access to sensitive information that they don’t need. There’s even a mobile app, so you can access documents and information wherever work may take you.

Microsoft Stream

Securely share video content from across your organisation, so that everyone has access to the content they need, and can work with it inside all of their favourite apps. This is great for visual training, as well as recording team meetings. You can also use Stream to deliver live and on-demand events for up to 10,000 attendees.

Microsoft Project

From the smallest of projects to great big ones, Microsoft Project is a powerful, easy-to-use app which can turn even the most reluctant project manager into an organisational powerhouse. Easily plan projects and keep team members in the loop and on track. It also seamlessly integrates with teams, so you can get your heads together even when keeping your distance.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

An all-rounder when it comes to threat protection, Defender for Office 365 has been designed to support businesses and organisations through every stage of an attack: prevention sees features in layers (we’ve talked about layering security before) to create a robust defence against cyber-attacks, detection sees AI seeking out suspicious content and can help identify campaigns which were designed to be sneaky and get round protections, investigation sees Defender able to track attacks across Office 365, response sees automation capabilities to help increase your security team’s efficiency when dealing with an attack, and awareness which provides rich simulations which can be utilised for training – phew!

Microsoft Viva

Announced by Microsoft on 4th February 2021, Viva is an Employee Experience Platform (EXP). There are four parts to it, Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics. Viva Topics is especially exciting as Microsoft have created it to solve the problem of time lost due to people spending time looking for, or recreation information from organisations. Microsoft are describing Topics as ‘a Wikipedia with AI superpowers.’ With home working looking like it’s here to stay even post-pandemic, this could be an incredibly valuable and powerful tool for any organisation.

Microsoft Exchange

A smart inbox that makes sure you see the important stuff quickly, organise tasks, and integration with other Microsoft 365 apps making it a powerful hub for all of your email communication.

 

As you can see, there are a whole lot of features. If you find yourself reading through this and feeling a bit overwhelmed – please get in touch – we can talk through what you’re trying to achieve, and help put together a plan of action. Just book a call below:

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