Your internal IT team is skilled, but they're stretched thin managing daily operations, leaving little time for strategic projects. You need to find ways to improve operational output without adding headcount. This is where your Microsoft 365 investment can become a true force multiplier. By moving beyond its most basic functions, you can improve your Microsoft 365 efficiency, automate repetitive tasks, and streamline complex workflows. This article provides practical efficiency best practices for Microsoft 365, designed for leaders who want to empower their existing teams and build a more resilient and productive technology ecosystem.
Microsoft 365 (M365) is a reliable tool that can improve business efficiency across an entire organization, and with the right expertise, it can help to streamline your business processes and boost both project management and operational efficiency.
How Microsoft 365 Improves Team Efficiency
As a solutions offering tool designed to promote productivity, Microsoft 365 supports numerous programs and features accessible from a central hub via the Internet. Companies can utilize this to encourage face-to-face work between employees and collaborative projects between departments.
In regards to your business and what may be the most applicable to you, M365's services include:
- Microsoft Teams - a collaborative platform enabling communication through video chat and instant messaging.
- Microsoft OneDrive - cloud-based storage for files and information.
- Microsoft Word - software used to write documents and other text-based publications.
- Microsoft Outlook - an email server that can double as a planner with its interactive, highly-efficient calendar system.
- Microsoft Excel - a program used for creating spreadsheets.
- Microsoft PowerPoint - a program for creating presentations.
With the applications named above, companies can make their employees' lives easier by opening more communication channels which, in the long run, will streamline teamwork-based tasks. According to Zippia's research, as of 2022, 86% of employees in leadership positions cite poor teamwork as the root cause of failed projects in the corporate sphere. Clear communication and hassle-free collaboration are of key importance to push a business forward and boost the efficiency of its staff.
Microsoft 365 vs. Office 365: More Than Just Apps
It’s easy to use the terms Microsoft 365 and Office 365 interchangeably, but they represent different levels of integration for your business. Think of Office 365 as the familiar suite of productivity applications—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook—that your teams use every day. Microsoft 365 includes all of that, but wraps it in a comprehensive security and management framework. It’s a complete solution that bundles the Office apps with Windows Enterprise, advanced security features, and device management tools. This shift from a simple software bundle to a unified platform is crucial for organizations looking to streamline operations while strengthening their security posture. It’s about creating a single, manageable ecosystem rather than juggling separate tools for productivity, endpoint security, and identity management.
The Untapped Potential in Your Subscription
Simply having a Microsoft 365 license doesn’t automatically translate to peak efficiency. Many organizations only scratch the surface, using the core applications while a powerful arsenal of tools like Power BI, Lists, and Planner remains untouched. This is a significant missed opportunity. Experts suggest that by adopting smarter workflows and leveraging the full suite, employees can save at least 20 minutes every day. Unlocking this potential requires more than just a memo encouraging staff to try new apps. It involves strategically integrating these tools into your core business processes and providing the right guidance. Partnering with an expert in managed IT services can help you build a roadmap for adoption, ensuring your investment delivers real, measurable improvements in productivity and collaboration across your entire organization.
Give Your Team the Freedom to Work Anywhere
As the world picks up speed and the workplace morphs to keep up with it, customers expect their needs to be met without delay. Hybrid and fully remote workplaces have increased in popularity and are no longer short-term solutions.
Consequently, employees need their work and data to be readily available to satisfy their employer's business model, no matter their location. The programs Microsoft 365 support are all based in the cloud. In other words, they are fully accessible from anywhere and at any time as long as you have an Internet connection.
The location of your employees is no longer a factor that determines whether or not they can meet your expectations. Microsoft 365's programs effectively widen the scope of a company's network management strategy and aids workers in all single-tasking and group-based operations. As a result, your business may continue to run at full effect, despite not being physically located in one spot.
Centralize Teamwork with SharePoint
Think of SharePoint as your team's central hub for everything project-related. It goes far beyond simple file storage; it’s a powerful platform for creating dedicated team sites where you can manage documents, track versions, and maintain a single source of truth for all project assets. This eliminates the confusion of multiple file versions saved on different local drives and ensures everyone is working from the most current information. For teams looking to solve specific problems without a heavy lift, SharePoint can also be used to build simple, custom apps without needing dedicated developers, empowering your team to create the tools they need to be more efficient.
Strategies for Personal and Team Productivity
Simply having a Microsoft 365 subscription doesn't automatically make your organization more productive. The real value comes from strategically using its integrated tools to streamline how your teams work, both individually and together. When employees can collaborate seamlessly, communicate effectively, and access the right tools for the job, they can accomplish tasks faster and produce higher-quality work. Making the most of Microsoft 365 helps businesses run better and more efficiently by creating an environment where productivity isn't an accident, but a core part of the workflow. This involves moving beyond basic usage and cultivating habits that leverage the full power of the suite.
The key is to build a framework where employees understand which tool to use for which task and how those tools connect. For example, a project might start with a brainstorming session in a Teams channel, lead to a detailed plan in a shared Excel workbook stored on SharePoint, and result in a final presentation built collaboratively in PowerPoint. This integrated approach prevents information silos and reduces the friction of switching between disconnected applications. A well-defined strategy ensures that your investment in M365 translates directly into measurable improvements in operational efficiency and project outcomes, freeing up your internal teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Cultivating an "Efficient Mindset"
Often, the biggest barrier to productivity isn't the technology itself, but the habits we've formed around it. Most people are inefficient with Microsoft 365 because they learn one way to do something—often through trial and error—and stick to it without ever looking for better, faster methods. Cultivating an "efficient mindset" means encouraging a culture of continuous improvement where team members are curious about finding smarter ways to work. It’s about shifting from "this is how we've always done it" to "is there a better way to do this?" This small change in perspective can reveal countless opportunities to save time and reduce manual effort across your organization.
How to Spot Inefficient Work Habits
You can start identifying areas for improvement by looking for common signs of inefficiency. Pay attention to useless repetition, like manually copying and pasting the same data into multiple reports each week. Another sign is what you might call "hands versus brain," which is when someone spends significant time on a manual task that a formula or automation could handle in seconds. Finally, ask, "Who is helping whom?" If your software is creating more work instead of reducing it, it’s a clear signal that your team isn't using the tool to its full potential and a more efficient workflow is needed.
Actionable Tips for Daily Work
Adopting an efficient mindset is the first step, but putting it into practice requires concrete actions. You don't need to overhaul your entire workflow overnight. Instead, focus on incorporating small, high-impact changes into your daily routines. Mastering a few key features in the applications you use most can save you minutes every day, which quickly adds up to hours of reclaimed time across your team. The following tips are simple to implement but can make a significant difference in how you handle common tasks in Excel and PowerPoint, turning frustrating processes into quick, simple actions.
Using Excel Tables for Dynamic Data
If you work with data in Excel, you should always use tables. When you format your data as a table (a simple one-click process), formulas automatically update and expand when you add new rows or columns. This simple habit saves time and dramatically improves accuracy by eliminating the need to manually drag formulas down and risk missing new data. It’s a foundational feature that ensures your spreadsheets are robust, scalable, and far less prone to human error, making your data analysis more reliable and efficient.
Simplifying Edits with the PowerPoint Selection Pane
When working on complex PowerPoint slides with many overlapping shapes, images, and text boxes, it can be incredibly frustrating to select the exact object you need to edit. A simple but powerful tip is to keep the Selection Pane open (found under the Home or Shape Format tab). This pane lists every object on the slide, allowing you to select, hide, or reorder items with a single click. It makes it much easier and faster to edit layered graphics, saving you from the tedious process of moving objects around just to get to the one you need.
A Framework for Finding the Right Solution
Instead of trying to learn every feature of every M365 application, it's more effective to approach the suite with a problem-solving mindset. Understand that every feature in Microsoft 365 exists to solve a specific user need. When you encounter a repetitive or frustrating task, frame it as a problem to be solved. For example, "How can I get automatic notifications when a critical file is updated?" By starting with your need, you can then search for the M365 feature that addresses it—in this case, setting up an alert in SharePoint. This approach ensures you're learning relevant skills that have an immediate impact on your workflow.
Automating Workflows with Power Automate
Power Automate is one of the most powerful tools in the M365 suite for eliminating manual, repetitive work. This tool helps you create automatic workflows, or "flows," for tasks you do over and over, without needing to write any code. For instance, you can automatically save email attachments from a specific sender to a OneDrive folder, post a message in a Teams channel when a new task is assigned in Planner, or collect data from a Microsoft Form and save it to a SharePoint list. By automating these routine processes, you can free up valuable time for more strategic work and reduce the risk of human error.
Improving Focus with Microsoft Viva Insights
Productivity isn't just about doing more; it's also about working smarter and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Microsoft Viva Insights provides personalized, data-driven recommendations to help you and your team build better work habits. It can analyze your calendar and suggest booking "focus time" to ensure you have uninterrupted blocks for deep work. It also provides insights into your meeting culture, after-hours work patterns, and collaboration network. These personal tips help you protect your time, reduce burnout, and ultimately improve both your well-being and your effectiveness at work.
Optimizing M365 for Cost and Performance
Getting the most out of Microsoft 365 goes beyond user productivity; it also means ensuring your subscription is cost-effective and your environment is secure and high-performing. This requires active management of licenses, security settings, and configurations. For example, many organizations overspend on licenses by assigning high-tier plans to users who only need basic functionality. Regularly auditing usage and reassigning licenses can lead to significant cost savings. As experts note, optimizing licenses isn't a one-time job; it needs to be an ongoing process to adapt to changing roles and needs within your company.
Beyond cost, proper configuration is critical for security and performance. A poorly configured M365 environment can leave you vulnerable to data breaches and other cyber threats. This is where partnering with an expert in managed IT services can provide immense value. At BCS365, we help organizations continuously monitor their M365 environment, implement security best practices, and manage licenses to ensure you're only paying for what you need. This strategic oversight ensures your M365 investment is not only driving productivity but is also secure, compliant, and financially optimized.
Find the Right Plan for Your Budget
The beauty of M365 is its financial efficiency. It offers a variety of plans - each with its own set of programs and features - that you can subscribe to based on your business's current needs and budget.
For businesses, these plans are as follows:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Microsoft 365 Apps for business
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Each subscription supports productivity applications with which most people are familiar. For example, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are available to all users. Unsurprisingly, the Business Standard and Business Premium plans offer more advanced services better suited for larger corporations.
With that being said, a business can choose to upgrade to another plan to support growing workloads and employee needs when necessary. Rather than forcing companies to pay for irrelevant tools, M365's subscription model presents several options, ultimately allowing businesses to choose the plans that best serve their workers and enhance their output.
Beyond the Initial Plan: Active License Management
Choosing the right M365 plan is a great start, but the real financial efficiency comes from active license management. Many organizations overlook this, leading to significant budget waste over time. The primary goal is to reduce your Microsoft 365 renewal costs by identifying and cutting unnecessary spending on licenses that aren't being fully used. This isn't just about deactivating licenses for former employees; it's about ensuring every active user has the right license for their actual needs. A proactive approach to license management turns a recurring expense into a strategic asset, ensuring you only pay for the tools your team genuinely needs to be productive.
Identifying and Eliminating License Waste
The most common source of license waste isn't just inactive accounts; it's over-provisioning. Many companies assign high-tier licenses, like E5 or E3, to employees who only use basic features like email and document editing. According to research from Syskit, downgrading an oversized license from E5 to E3 can reduce license-specific costs by as much as 40%. By analyzing usage data, you can pinpoint which users are underutilizing their premium features and move them to a more appropriate, cost-effective plan. This requires a detailed look into how your team interacts with the M365 suite, a task where an experienced IT partner can provide invaluable insight and analytics.
Creating a Sustainable License Downgrade Process
A one-time cleanup is good, but a sustainable process is better. To keep costs in check long-term, you should make license review a regular part of your IT operations. This is especially critical during role changes or when an employee leaves the company. By integrating license reclamation and reassignment into your standard offboarding and internal mobility procedures, you prevent license bloat from creeping back in. This creates a continuous cycle of optimization, ensuring your M365 investment remains aligned with your evolving business needs. Establishing this rhythm helps maintain a lean and efficient licensing model without requiring a massive overhaul each year.
Troubleshooting and Improving Technical Performance
Even with the perfect licensing strategy, technical performance issues can grind productivity to a halt. Slowdowns, lags, and hangs within M365 services like SharePoint, OneDrive, or Exchange Online can frustrate users and disrupt workflows. Addressing these problems requires a structured troubleshooting plan to pinpoint the root cause, which often lies within your network configuration rather than with Microsoft's services. By methodically diagnosing these issues, you can restore the seamless experience your team expects. For complex environments, having dedicated IT support can make the difference between a quick fix and prolonged downtime.
A Plan for Diagnosing Slowdowns
Effective troubleshooting starts with a clear, repeatable plan. Instead of guessing, begin by isolating the issue. As recommended by Microsoft, use a single computer that consistently experiences the performance problem and carefully document the exact steps that trigger the slowdown. Is it slow when opening a specific SharePoint site? Does Outlook hang when attaching a large file? This detailed information is crucial for diagnosis, whether you're handling it internally or escalating it to a support partner. Capturing this data systematically eliminates variables and helps you focus your efforts on the actual source of the problem, saving time and resources.
Common Causes of Latency and How to Fix Them
In many cases, poor M365 performance boils down to high network latency. Latency is the delay it takes for data to travel from your computer to Microsoft's servers and back. Even a small delay can make applications feel sluggish. You can measure latency using tools like Ping, PsPing, Netmon, or Wireshark to see if your network is the bottleneck. Common causes include inefficient routing, congested internet circuits, or misconfigured network hardware. Identifying and resolving these underlying network issues is key to improving the speed and reliability of your M365 services, ensuring your team can work without interruption.
Keep Your Company Data Safe and Secure
Whether they are a managed IT services provider or a small-town accounting firm, businesses today are treasure troves of data that cybercriminals may find appealing. Microsoft 365 supports services used for detecting potential cyberthreats and securing your programs:
- Microsoft Sentinel - gathers intelligence and analyzes threats.
- Microsoft Purview - monitors the security and movement of data.
- Advanced Threat Protection - offers all-purpose cyber protection for networks.
- Microsoft Defender - antivirus software built into devices utilizing Windows 10 and 11.
- Information Protection - encrypts data and allows you to restrict users' access to critical information.
- Identity and Access Management - gives the ability to designate levels of access to users. This determines how they can use your network and what they can see.
At the same time, data and information implemented into, or created within, M365 programs are stored inside highly-secure data centers. These buildings house the physical hardware that supports cloud storage.
While this doesn't give you the luxury of believing cybersecurity services and safe practices do not apply to your business, it can provide you with peace of mind knowing that built-in security features in Microsoft's software, and the organization's external precautions, allow your employees to focus on satisfying customer requests, rather than worrying about the safety of their documents.
Managing and Securing Endpoints with Microsoft Intune
As your team works from various locations and on different devices, your organization's attack surface naturally expands. Securing every endpoint—from company laptops to personal mobile phones—is a critical, yet complex, part of any modern security strategy. Microsoft Intune simplifies this by providing a unified endpoint management platform. It gives your IT team a central console to manage devices, applications, and data, helping to streamline operations. This approach ensures you can apply consistent security policies across your entire digital estate, giving you back the visibility and control needed to protect your organization no matter where your employees are working.
Intune allows you to move beyond basic device management and enforce specific security controls that protect corporate data. You can configure policies to manage application access, require device encryption, and separate personal data from company data on employee-owned devices. This capability is essential for maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture while supporting a flexible work environment. By using Intune, you can ensure that every device accessing your network meets your organization's security and compliance standards, which is crucial for meeting regulatory requirements and effectively protecting your endpoint environment from potential threats.
One of Intune’s most powerful features is its seamless integration with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. This combination creates a comprehensive security solution that connects device management with advanced threat protection. The integration allows your security team to manage endpoint security policies directly from the Defender portal, even for devices not fully enrolled in Intune. This unified approach reduces tool complexity and provides better visibility, helping your team detect, investigate, and respond to threats more effectively across all your endpoints without juggling multiple, disconnected platforms.
Future-Proof Your Business Operations
M365 offers easy-to-use, time-tested tools that businesses and their employees can use to cope with the increasing demands of customers and evolving industries. Any hardware and software may serve as the basic skeleton to build your company's IT infrastructure around.
However, managing and maintaining those specific programs and solutions can be monumental for any corporation, and your projects should never be prioritized second.
The Microsoft strategy consultants at BCS365 have the technical expertise that can help empower your workers and boost your profit margins. Speak with them today to see how your company can use M365 to become more efficient.
Maximizing Your Investment with Ongoing Training
The Importance of Continuous Employee Education
Simply subscribing to Microsoft 365 is only the first step. To truly get the most out of your investment, your team needs to understand how to use these powerful tools effectively. Investing in ongoing training is essential for maximizing the platform's potential, as it helps employees move beyond the basics and adapt to new features as they roll out. When your team is proficient, they can streamline workflows, collaborate more seamlessly, and contribute to a more efficient and productive workplace. This continuous education ensures that the powerful suite of tools you're paying for doesn't just sit on the shelf, but becomes an integral part of your daily operations.
Microsoft 365 is not a static platform; it's constantly evolving with updates, new applications, and enhanced features. Without a plan for continuous learning, your team can quickly fall behind, missing out on new efficiencies that could save time and reduce friction. A culture of ongoing education encourages employees to think critically about their processes and discover better ways to work. Providing consistent support and resources ensures everyone can leverage the full power of the software as it changes. This proactive approach to training keeps your team's skills sharp and ensures your organization is always using the most current and effective methods available within the M365 ecosystem.
Effective training goes beyond productivity; it's a critical component of your overall cybersecurity strategy. When employees understand the full capabilities of tools like SharePoint and OneDrive for secure file sharing, they are less likely to resort to riskier, unsecured methods. Proper training reinforces best practices for data handling, access management, and collaboration, which helps protect sensitive company information and reduces your attack surface. By teaching your team how to use M365's built-in security features correctly, you empower them to become the first line of defense, turning a potential liability into a strong security asset for the entire organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
We already have Office 365. Is upgrading to Microsoft 365 really worth it for efficiency and security? Think of it this way: Office 365 gives your team the tools to do their work, like Word and Excel. Microsoft 365 gives them those same tools but within a secure, managed framework. The upgrade is worth it when you want to stop juggling separate systems for productivity, device management, and security. It brings everything into one ecosystem, which simplifies management for your IT team and provides advanced security features that protect your data no matter where your employees are working.
My team is already stretched thin. How can we realistically manage M365 licenses without it becoming a huge time sink? You're right, it can't be another massive project. The key is to build license management into your existing processes. Start by integrating a license review into your employee offboarding and role-change procedures. This prevents inactive licenses from piling up. For a deeper analysis, partnering with a managed services provider can give you the data you need to reassign oversized licenses without burdening your internal team with the manual analysis.
We want to start automating tasks, but where's the best place to begin without a major development project? The best place to start is with small, repetitive tasks that drain your team's time. Think about simple workflows, like automatically saving email attachments from a specific client to a designated SharePoint folder or getting a Teams notification when a critical document is updated. Power Automate has many pre-built templates for these kinds of tasks, allowing your team to see immediate benefits without needing to write any code.
You mention an "efficient mindset," but how do I actually encourage this change in my team's culture? This change starts with you. Encourage your team to question their processes by asking, "Is there a faster way to do this?" during team meetings. You can also highlight and share small efficiency wins, for example, when someone discovers a useful Excel formula or a time-saving PowerPoint trick. Making it a regular conversation, rather than a one-time mandate, helps build a culture where everyone is looking for smarter ways to work.
Our M365 applications sometimes feel slow. Is this a Microsoft issue, or is it something we can control? While service-wide issues can happen, performance problems are very often linked to your own network. The delay, or latency, between your office and Microsoft's servers can make even the fastest cloud application feel sluggish. Before assuming it's a Microsoft problem, it's a good idea to investigate your internal network configuration and internet connection. A structured troubleshooting plan can help you identify if the bottleneck is on your end.
Key Takeaways
- Go beyond the basics of M365: Encourage your team to use the entire suite of tools, not just the familiar apps. Integrating platforms like SharePoint for document management and Power Automate for repetitive tasks creates a more unified and efficient workflow for everyone.
- Treat your subscription like a strategic asset: Proactively manage your M365 environment to control costs and improve performance. Regular license audits prevent unnecessary spending, while consistent network troubleshooting ensures your team can work without frustrating delays.
- Use built-in tools to secure endpoints and automate tasks: Leverage features like Microsoft Intune to simplify device security and management. Automating routine processes frees your internal IT team from manual work, allowing them to concentrate on more strategic, high-impact projects.
