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Small businesses need to stay competitive and flexible while producing results from a small and often times scattered workforce. Whether your businesses establishes workflows, meetings, or other methods to improve the work output from the team as a whole, technology can provide a significant boost.
Some of the best practices in small business efficiency come from business productivity and collaboration software, such as those available from Microsoft Online Services. Unite the workforce and make an impact on organization effectiveness through services such as SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Office Communications, and Life Meeting.
Saving money and cutting costs is a key necessity for all business sizes. Some of the ways that small businesses with workforces from 5-250 employees can save is through eliminating licensing costs and opting for a monthly subscription model to use communication and collaboration services. For businesses already utilizing technologies such as SharePoint and Exchange with on-premise or virtualized hosting services, the Microsoft cloud-hosted environment can help to decrease the cost of both servers and admin time.
Microsoft Online Services offers transparent 99.9% uptime with SQL-powered servers. The servers that host Microsoft Online Services offer the latest updates and technologies available, which are higher quality machines than most small to mid-size businesses have on-premise or even virtualized. The free upgrades to future editions of Microsoft cloud-hosted software also has been turning heads of cost-minded business leaders.
Small Business Solutions |
How it improves business |
Cost per month |
Office Live Meeting |
Whether uniting a scattered workforce on team projects or presenting to clients, Office Live Meeting Standard offers online meeting solutions vital to business. Microsoft cloud-hosted meetings from the Standard Edition offer up to 250 attendees per meeting and come with robust meeting tools, including a whiteboard, online handouts, interactive poll, shared desktops, and much more. |
Per user: $4.50 |
Office Communications |
IM and presence let's everyone know who's busy, who's in the office, and what is the best way to reach them. Quickly and easily share files, images, presentations, and unify telephone communications with IM and e-mail. Interruptions have been proven to significantly slow productivity, which lowers focus and concentration while increasing the cost to finish projects on time. Optimize your business resources by keeping everyone in communication without the interruptions. |
Per user: $2 |
SharePoint Online |
Seamlessly collaborate online with Web 2.0 tools and document management. SharePoint productivity solutions allow businesses to create project or team workspaces that help to improve project results and increase the ability for employees to get to key information, when and where it is needed. Keep new recruits in-the-know with a company wiki that is updated by the whole organization as well as a homepage for each employee unique to their specific tasks and assignments. |
Per user: $5.25 |
Exchange Online |
Powerful unified communication tools allow businesses to not waste time through lack of communication about key information. Exchange offers enterprise mobility solutions for businesses seeking fast and easy access to calendaring, e-mail, and voicemail. |
Per user: $5 | |