The digital dexterity of the workforce will be a significant driver of competitive advantage (or disadvantage, in the case of digital deficiency) for the foreseeable future. So, helping employees productively use new cloud office workloads can be a key element of a digital dexterity plan.
Microsoft applications have become such a fixture in our daily lives that it’s almost trivial to try to understand – let alone measure – the business value they provide. However, based on the number of users and types of licenses, the cost of Microsoft solutions can be substantial, and the benefits can be unclear. For example, a Gartner survey found that 36% of survey respondents indicated that Office 365 reduced the
IT budget, but 22% responded that it increased the IT budget. In the same survey, Microsoft Office 365 (O365) products such as ProPlus (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, and OneNote were in use by over 70% of respondents per Gartner research.
However, digital transformation isn’t going away, and the need for a digitally nimble workforce, combined with the availability of potentially business-enhancing technology solutions like O365, calls for an examination of how O365 solutions are delivering business value.
Microsoft recognizes the need for its applications to help companies on their digital transformation journey. A brief review of Microsoft’s website(s) reveals some key phrases that speak directly to the need for digital dexterity that could be addressed by O365 applications. For example:
- [O365] brings together the best tools for the way people work today
- Achieve more by working together effectively
- Get more done anywhere
- Create better work habits
- Increase organizational loyalty and retention
- Unlock more productivity
- Transform teamwork in your organization
- Make data-driven decisions
- Conduct global training
- Shorten the product – planning cycle
- Collaborate with suppliers in a timely manner
- Understand customer preferences and predict requests
Putting aside the potential technology cost savings (e.g., reduced back-end hardware) associated with transitioning to O365, even a technology novice would recognize that tools that are designed to achieve the above objectives, could and should provide tangible, transformational business value if used widely and optimally.
However, is there a true connection to business value? If so, what exactly is the connection to business value and how is it achieved?
To learn more about how O365 solutions deliver business value, corrects misleading assumptions between the promise and potential of O365, and offers suggestions on how you can achieve high user adoption levels, you can click here or submit the form below.
