ROI of Microsoft Office 365 for SMBs (Important Benefits)

When you’re operating a small-to-midsize business, you’ve got to manage a slew of high priority demands with very little time. In an ideal world, you’d be able to do all of it effortlessly and on an unlimited budget. But for companies operating in a competitive market where the pitfalls are real, it’s vital to select the best options with the highest ROI, financial and otherwise, for your needs. For many SMBs, Microsoft Office 365 is just such a tool.

Here's How Your Business Can Benefit from Office 365:

Optimize IT Spend with Microsoft 365

According to a recent study by research firm Forrester, Office 365 “lowers total cost of ownership while improving mobile and IT worker productivity.” In fact, the study concluded that in an organization of one to 250 users, an ROI of 154% could be expected, with payback in 5.1 months. This staggering conclusion isn’t a total surprise, however, when you consider the wealth of convenient, powerful features that make it an ideal solution for serving and growing with SMBs. When debating whether to start using Office 365 for your business, factor in the following benefits toward your ROI. 

Mobility and Productivity

As a cloud-based service through one of the world’s most respected and widespread technological brands, you can enjoy the same experience with Office 365 on your laptop, smartphone, or tablet (up to five devices per user) from anywhere without a drop-off in speed or capability. Everyone in your organization can access data, conduct meetings and collaborate with other team members spread out across the city, country, or globe with seamless ease of use. When your people can work together toward their project goals more effectively, you gain at every level of your business. 

One of the most shocking numbers to come out of the Forrester study was that Office 365 increased mobile worker productivity by $76,000 over three years. Simply put: Office 365 makes the mobile worker more efficient, allowing them to save about 15 minutes a day when accessing their synced files away from the office. Mobility is now a fact of business life for any company that is looking to keep its employees productive and keep up with its competitors.

Functionality

Office 365 allows you to use the Microsoft Office mainstays you’re already familiar with like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but also provides a suite of new programs that take your business to a new level of business functionality. Outlook and Microsoft Teams provide fast-paced, effortless communication and storage. OneDrive and SharePoint allow for cloud-based storage and data backup of your personal and team's data and files, as well as real-time document sharing and versioning.

Many growing companies are used to dealing with a hodge-podge of different software and programs they've installed over the years that provide this functionality - while Office 365 provides it in one suite. The Forrester study estimates that Office 365 eliminates $8,100 of third party software and services annually, meaning your workload is better streamlined and supported. Your people are able to complete high impact workflows and daily tasks though one inclusive subscription package.

Control and Compliance

As an SMB, you might be catching onto the fact that cyber criminals see you as a prime target. But when you hear about these data breaches daily, you may wonder how to keep your business both protected and compliant without exhausting your IT budget. With Office 365, businesses have access to affordable, enterprise-level security and reliability of the Microsoft brand, which is constantly upping its already-robust security standards and privacy features. Forrester's composite organization in its TEI study was able to reduce security, risks and compliance costs by $4,929 over three years. 

Predictability

You don’t want to spend more on solutions that you don’t need when your IT budget can be put to better uses and initiatives geared toward building your business. A service like Microsoft Office 365 offers stability for future spending, as the pricing will always be predictable. The money you save on purchasing, upgrades, and installation can then be kept for future IT services expansion or used to fund projects that will lead to greater innovation and growth.

Inefficiency is as much an enemy to your productivity and profitability as wastefulness. Why keep supporting a range of different tools that can’t scale reliably and will only require more work to maintain and oversee? You can reduce your IT costs while helping to optimize your productivity by implementing smart solutions that save you both effort and money. iCorps has decades of experience in providing managed IT services to companies in need of support for their existing and future technological needs. We can help you get started with Office 365 and provide a technical assessment to determine how you can reach your goals.