The year was 2003. I was fresh out of high school, having matriculated the year before. I was also madly in love with a girl who lived in a different province. At the time I was studying at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Even though the university had a well-organized student center, I was blissfully ignorant about what and how to use a computer properly to do my own work. To my shame, I didn’t even know how to send an email! This resulted in me writing love letters to my girlfriend at the time.
While this written correspondence was romantic and personal at the time, it was not very practical. Who wants to wait 3 weeks to receive a love letter when you can receive it within a few minutes, right? This personal story of mine highlights a plight still evident in our digital world today: Many people know about computers and computer programs, but they are still blissfully ignorant about how to actually use them. Most people may be using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but how many people are using platforms like Microsoft 365? How many are using its benefits to unleash their creativity or to grow their business?
If you’re a “dummy,” I mean someone who is ignorant and out of the loop about Microsoft 365, yet wants to upskill their basic knowledge, then you’ve come to the right place. In this blog series, I hope to educate you about the fundamentals of Microsoft 365 in plain and simple language (without having to go to university). In this blog I’ll begin by answering the question, “What is Microsoft 365?” Much of the information in this blog can be accessed from Microsoft’s official site of fundamental certifications.
I assume that you’ve heard about Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Windows. While most people are using these Office apps, not many know how they all fit together. So, how do they fit together? The answer is Microsoft 365. This platform takes these familiar products and empowers those who use them to drive innovation and to get more done. Microsoft 365 even uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to learn from humans! So, in a nutshell, Microsoft 365 is not Office 365. Microsoft 365 has the tools you need to work anytime, anywhere, on any device. It has the same Microsoft Office apps you've used for years, plus all the benefits of the cloud.
However, we still haven’t directly answered the question, “What is Microsoft 365?” Trying to define Microsoft 365 in one concise sentence is like trying to explain what the Bible is about in 2 minutes. However, I'll attempt to provide you with a short working definition even if I risk oversimplifying the subject. We could think of Microsoft 365 as a trusted platform, which helps people and organizations get more done. In other words, it is the world's productivity cloud that delivers innovative and intelligent experiences.
Microsoft 365 is a trusted platform, which helps people and organizations get more done. It is the world's productivity cloud that delivers innovative and intelligent experiences.
Now that we have a basic working definition of Microsoft 365, let's look at some of its key purposes by briefly discussing some of the reasons why this cloud-productivity platform was developed and designed for businesses and individuals.
Firstly, Microsoft 365 was developed to give businesses access to all the baseline tools they need to run their basic IT infrastructure, secure their business, and get things done. In terms of getting more things done, it was developed to empower businesses to be more productive in their teamwork. Microsoft 365 provides powerful capabilities through AI powered tools to simplify workflow while staying productive on the go.
It uses the power of the cloud to help people and organizations harness their productivity to achieve more and to get more done. It has the ability to help businesses to cut costs, unlock their employee’s potential, drive process automation and top line growth.
On the other hand, it has also been designed to help individuals to unleash their creativity and fuel their innovation. Furthermore, it also has the potential to help individuals to collaborate and communicate more effectively within their teams, stay productive on the go, and have more down time. One of the tools that helps employees within companies to accomplish all these things is Microsoft Teams. So, in next blog I will look at the first capability in more detail by answering the question, “What is Microsoft Teams?”
In conclusion, I hope that you now have a basic understanding of what Microsoft 365 is and why it was created in the first place. At Syntelo we use the latest Microsoft 365 applications to provide other businesses with swift, scalable, and secure solutions that will help them to accelerate their business goals, save them unwanted costs on software and devices, and give them peace of mind regarding cybersecurity all in one unified service and flexible contract.
As always we’d love to hear from you to see how we can help you begin you’re your first steps with Microsoft 365, the world’s productivity cloud platform!
