10 Ways to Do More with Less via Modern Workplace Tools 

Investing in Microsoft 365 as an organization isn’t a small investment, and we love helping our customers take advantage of the hundreds, if not thousands, of features that come inside of the core services included with your subscription. Here are the 10 most popular ones that we shared with our customers in 2022 on a regular basis! 

#1. Improve your Verbal Communication 

Leverage AI to help you improve your presentation skills. While you’re on Microsoft Teams calls, enabling Speaker Coach when you start a meeting recording /transcript gives you feedback on pitch, pace, use of filler words, use of sensitive words, and more. After each meeting, you receive a summary report showing your own personalized recommendations. 

#2. Share Links, not Files 

The era of sending files and documents through email attachments is over. As you store your files in Microsoft OneDrive directly (and indirectly through a Known Folder Redirection of your My Documents, Desktop, My Pictures, etc.) you can easily get a shareable link that you can send to anyone. Sharing is made easy, allowing you to edit [Microsoft Office] documents and track all changes in real-time without sending files back and forth. 

#3. Tell Stories instead of slides 

Want something more than static slides in a traditional PowerPoint? Try Microsoft Sway – it’s a digital storytelling app that offers unique and interactive ways to express your ideas, reports, and projects. It includes a drag-and-drop editor makes it easy for anyone to use. 

#4. Manage your work more effectively 

More than a documentation platform, Microsoft 365 has some tools to help you manage your daily workflow. One such tool is Microsoft Planner – a project management tool to manage your workflow and that of your team’s. You can assign tasks to others on your team, create to-dos, set due dates, organize collaborations, and track the progress of the projects in real-time. You can do all this through an intuitive dashboard showing your team’s progress through colorful charts. 

#5. Any Device, One PC 

Easily provision PCs for your workforce and cut down on hardware costs, no matter if they are onsite or remote. When using the Windows 365 Cloud PC, Windows stores all Office apps, settings, and work data in a PC running Microsoft’s cloud. Save storage space, automatically back up data, and access your Windows PC from anywhere on any device via windows365.microsoft.com or natively within Windows 11. 

#6. Lock down Windows using native features 

Your organization’s attack surface includes all the places where an attacker could compromise your organization’s devices or networks. Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules leverage Windows built-in capabilities and the cloud-based features that Windows 10 offers as part of your Windows 10 Enterprise E3 license (which is part of Microsoft 365 E3) to reduce your attack surface by protecting your organization’s devices and network, which leaves attackers with fewer ways to perform attacks. 

#7. Understand gaps in your apps before they’re threats 

Do you know what applications are outdates or have active threats that can jeopardize your PCs and in return your organization? Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM) helps you address weaknesses and take actions on them before you get attacked. The goal for a TVM solution is to increase your security posture and reduce risk so you’re well prepared to prevent bad things from happening. It’s included with your Windows 10 Enterprise E3 license (which is part of Microsoft 365 E3) and is a perfect complement to Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules. 

#8. Track your notes effective in Teams 

When you send a Loop component, everyone in your chat will be able to edit it inline—and see changes instantly. You can choose a paragraph, table, checklist, or other component to help focus your team on tasks like co-authoring content, compiling data, or tracking next steps. You’ll be able to collaborate right inside your messages, minimizing the need for long chat threads.  

#9. Fix end user issues before you get support calls 

Need to fix or ensure that certain settings are in place across your workforce’s PCs? Proactive remediations are script packages that can detect and fix common support issues on a user’s device before they even realize there’s a problem, reducing your support calls. You can create your own script package, or deploy one of the pre-build script packages Microsoft has written and used in their own environment for reducing support tickets, and it’s included in your Windows 10 Enterprise E3 license (which is part of Microsoft 365 E3) for your Intune-managed machines 

#10. Understand the pain points of your PC fleet 

Receiving too many support calls from your end users about slow machines or applications crashing? Need insights to help measure how your organization is working and the quality of the experience you’re delivering to your users? Endpoint analytics can help identify policies or hardware issues that may be slowing down devices. Proactively make improvements before end-users generate a help desk ticket, and it’s included in your Windows 10 Enterprise E3 license (which is part of Microsoft 365 E3) for your Intune-managed machines.