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Office 365 is a cloud-based suite of solutions that typically encompasses Hosted Exchange, Lync and SharePoint, as well as e-mail, instant messaging and Web applications. As part of the “For Dummies” series, Office 365 for Dummies highlights how companies are increasingly migrating to this platform in order to alleviate their IT teams from overwhelming demands that will now be handled by Microsoft (News - Alert), making these firms not dummies at all – but actual smarty pants.

This solution is gaining popularity quicker than Santa filling his sleigh and prepping his reindeers for circumnavigation, and productivity is definitely a key factor that can’t be overlooked as to reasons why. Organizations these days are being required by their customers to offer more functionality all the time, so if employee productivity is lagging, two things will ultimately happen: customer satisfaction will be reduced dramatically, causing a customer base to examine competitors in the space, and these businesses likely won’t stay in business for very long.

Luckily, with a quick and seamless upgrade to Office 365, IT departments can now focus on important business operations, rather than constantly stopping to make sure programs are working as they should.

Further, since this product is hosted via the cloud, employees are no longer forced to only complete time-sensitive tasks within the confines of their office. The offering does just what its names states; it lets you act as if you were in the office 365 days a year, even if you aren’t actually seated there.

“Accessing your enterprise software over the Internet has some big advantages. For one, all you need is your computer — desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone — and an Internet connection or phone coverage. Because the software is running in a Microsoft data center, you simply connect to the Internet to access the software,” a recent piece stated.

In a time when cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated by the minute, security is also a crucial element to any organization looking to stick around for the long term. Office 365 has got you covered in that area as well, and can be customized according to your individual needs.

“For example,” said the article, “you may want everyone in the organization to be able to see a company policy document but only want a select group of individuals to edit the document. In addition, SharePoint takes care of all the versioning and even lets you check out a document to edit so that nobody else can edit it at the same time.”

Now besides continuous access to your important documents, improving communication among an entire workforce and an unparalleled level of security, Office 365 can ramp up efficiency. How you ask? Microsoft grants administrators smart enough to leverage this solution much higher visibility into every action taking place within the network, which in turn assists them in resolving small problems before they become major issues that yield repercussions like downtime.

In conclusion, while the informative guide is titled Office 365 for Dummies, you would be a dummy not to utilize this product within your firm right away.

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