Four ways Office 2016 can help your business compete with bigger companies

By: Rami Azzi - Applications & Services Group Lead, West, East and Central Africa & Indian Ocean Islands

One in seven people on the planet use Microsoft Office and more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies use the cloud based version, Office 365.

Our latest version of Office apps, Office 2016, are built for mobile and the cloud, giving all businesses the tools to be more productive. Smaller companies can now easily compete with larger companies, and larger companies gain more flexibility and mobility than before.
The idea of working in the cloud may seem daunting, but here’s why you should embrace it.

1. The apps you know, but better
Office 2016 still has all the apps you’re used to – Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Project, Visio and Access. However, all these apps have been enhanced by being connected to a continually growing set of cloud services.
We’re most excited about co-authoring in Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. It lets you see what others are typing in real time and allows you to collaborate on one document at the same time. Then there’s Skype for Business in-app integration, which allows you to send instant messages, screen share, talk or video chat right in your document. Ensuring that your team stays on top of deliverables and deadlines, Office 365 Groups gives shared workspaces for email, conversations, files and calendar events.

2. More storage
We’ve improved sync reliability of OneDrive for Business, and increased file size and volume limits. This means more space to store work and important documents without investing as much for on premises storage.

3. Don’t be tied down by infrastructure
That’s one of the biggest benefits to using Office 2016 – working wherever you are, on any device - means you can save on the infrastructure costs associated with working in an office. Tools like Continuum and Office apps make it even easier to work anywhere allowing you to use your phone like a PC to view, edit, create and present content.

4. More secure than ever before
Office 2016 is the most secure Office ever. Built-in Data Loss Prevention across Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook significantly reduces the risk of leaking sensitive data by equipping your IT administrators with tools to manage content authoring and document sharing policies. On top of that, Multi-factor authentication ensures secure access to content when you’re away from the corporate network. Enterprise data Protection will also soon be available for Office apps, enabling you to share content securely within corporate identities.

Find out more about how to get Office 2016 here.