Why? Well, it’s common sense really. Your email system at home is probably with a service provider like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo – you’ve never had a problem with it – it just works.

The business email system is an entirely different story. You need a server onsite, someone to manage the server, take backups and make sure it’s secure, working and a stable internet connection.

There’s a lot of overhead in the on-premise email server (hidden costs) as well as a lot of risks built into the system.

Fortunately, most IT support services have seen the light and email in the cloud is the new normal, anything else is either a risk to your business or an additional cost if you look closely enough.

Antispam, email security, and backups are all taken care of by Microsoft Exchange online to boot.

What’s the most beautiful part of this service? The beauty of the system is its ease of use and management for your IT support company or department. Because of this, it reduces time spent managing the system which affects the bottom line of your business.

Simple? Yeah well, let’s get onto something a bit more complicated within the mix.

There are even companies that exist who only deal with SharePoint, but this is an overview so we’ll stick to the basics and what you should be thinking of using it for and how to get the most value out of it without employing a Sharepoint specialist.

Sharepoint Online allows you to create private websites to assist with the “sharing of information” in the business.

Sharepoint sites are hosted within the Microsoft cloud there’s no need for a server or maintenance – just like Exchange Online, it’s super simple to get things started. But what do we start?

Well getting the basics right, asking the correct questions – like:

What information would you like to share within your company that can be accessed from anywhere? Sharepoint is not a replacement for an existing file server that might store your files centrally.

It’s an addition and should be thought of as such otherwise you run the risk of confusing staff and paying for something you don’t need.

Sharepoint makes it easy to communicate and share critical information within the company but if it’s only two files that your sharing between two staff members as email attachments – SharePoint is not going make anything more efficient for you.

Where SharePoint works best:

• Central communication area for staff and company information Internal communications channel
• Repository for company policies & procedures
• Workflow management for business processes
• Document management, store, track, audit, and trace
• Team sites & project work
• Extranet sites and client portals

This is by no means a definitive list, as mentioned Sharepoint is like a blank canvas, it’s all about getting the basics right.

The old school way or purchasing Microsoft Office required an actual physical CD/DVD or download copy of Office 2007, Office 2010, Office 2013. You get the idea basically the version you purchased is the version you were stuck with.

As part of the Office 365 (Microsoft 365), license subscription you’re entitled to the latest version of Office 365 (Microsoft 365).

Why is this good for your business?

Well, it means your staff are always on the latest version across the whole company – no legacy problems with 13 year-old excel documents that hold the company account formulas and can only be opened by a select few computers.

The OneDrive application sits in your desktop tray and integrates with all Office applications and Microsoft Windows. OneDrive acts as a personal storage area where you can save files to.

The OneDrive application syncs these files to your OneDrive account up in the cloud. Because the files are synced to the cloud, it gives you the ability to access and save files no matter where you are and on what device.

It’s also a handy tool in the office for instant messaging between colleagues or clients.

You can get an instant reply to a question you might have without the need to send an email which can result in a series of internal emails.

Once your colleagues and yourself get into the habit of using this application, you can reduce the number of internal email communications within the business.