Learn More About Office 365 Management Tools
Who Uses Office 365 Management Tools?
IT industry: IT teams of various enterprises can boost their productivity with tools like Word, Excel, Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, and more. Since Office 365 is cloud-based, it is accessible from location and on any device, as long as there’s a stable internet connection. However, solving visibility and reporting problems can be a recurring challenge. Office 365 management software provides an easy way to completely manage Microsoft 365 tools, tightening security and compliance, thereby assisting end users to get the most out of all Microsoft 365 applications.
Healthcare industry: Office 365 tools assist the healthcare sector by facilitating effective patient care and lowering operational costs by enhancing collaboration between healthcare staff and independent specialties, health teams, and healthcare professionals in hospitals. However, without implementing Office 365 management software, hospitals may lose millions of dollars in unwanted licensing fees, face security vulnerabilities, and fail to maximize their ROI in office 365 productivity tools.
Financial services industry: Using Office 365 tools helps the banking, finance, and insurance industry optimize their productivity. Implementing the software to manage them assists in addressing various issues relating to governance like visibility, license management, adoption, provisioning and de-provisioning, and more.
Retail industry: Office 365 has helped retail outlets to streamline processes, facilitate effective communication among the staff, deliver excellent customer experience, and secure their business. Deploying an Office 365 management tool provides feature-based governance to gain visibility and monitor Microsoft 365 components. It helps to identify who has access to what environment to tackle security issues arising due to different user accesses on mailboxes, OneDrive, and other tools.
How to Buy Office 365 Management Tools
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Office 365 Management Software
If a company is just starting and looking to purchase its first Office 365 Management tool, or maybe an organization needs to update legacy office management solutions--wherever a business is in its buying process, g2.com can help select the best Office 365 management solution for the business.
Organizations all over the world have adopted Microsoft 365 as a communication and workflow solution for their staff. However, managing a large Microsoft 365 tenant isn’t a cakewalk. With so many O365 management service providers available, it has become more complex for businesses to select a provider that suits their organizational goals and strategy.
Taking a comprehensive overview of the business—which tools are being used to conduct business and identify pain points can help the team to produce an RFI, a one-page list with precise bullet points describing what is needed from the Office 365 management solution.
This checklist serves as a guide that helps in determining both necessary and nice-to-have features including budget features, number of users, integrations, security requirements, and more.
Compare Office 365 Management Software Products
Create a long list
An initial list of potential Office 365 management software providers is created by eliminating the options that are not in line with the organization’s business strategy. Vendor evaluation also depends on the Microsoft Office 365 tools implemented and the kind of management functionality that the organization is looking for. Vendor evaluation helps to prepare a consistent list of questions regarding specific needs and concerns to ask each vendor.
Create a short list
After a long list has been created, it’s realistic to look at each product in more detail to determine if it will meet the needs of the organization to narrow down the list. This should include evaluating additional and more sophisticated features of each product, beyond the ones identified as essential to determine if that additional functionality would make the management of the Microsoft 365 environment effortless.
Conduct demos
Demos provide an opportunity to buyers to see how an Office 365 management solution is effective in monitoring and resolving a host of issues within Office 365 tools. While pre-recorded demonstrations are available on the vendor’s website, it is useful to request the vendor for a live demonstration to see how the software will help in providing insights on the organization’s Office 365 stack and manage the tools.
Selection of Office 365 Management Software
Choose a selection team
When choosing an Office 365 management software, it is important to involve any relevant stakeholders who might be using the product to ensure that the software will meet everyone’s needs. This likely includes the management and the IT team who will be responsible for weighing in on the technical concerns with the products.
Negotiation
After narrowing in on a preferred product, it’s time to negotiate a pricing package. Buyers must consider the licensing fee and pricing model of the software, such as whether the seller charges a flat monthly or annual fee or, more commonly, charges a fee based on how many users would be utilizing the product. Also, the buyer can consider negotiating a discount in exchange for multi-year contracts.
Final decision
The parties involved in decision-making should consider whether the software is easy to implement, improves operational efficiency, and allows for better monitoring of the O365 environment. It is pragmatic to scrutinize the terms and conditions of the product support and licensing agreements or SLAs to achieve organizational goals within the defined budget. It is essential to capture and monitor deployment and operational risks and improvement opportunities early so that it is possible to modify plans when needed. Whenever a new technology is implemented, it is good to devise back-out plans or alternatives when assumptions and outcomes change. It must be ensured that the solution selected will be adaptable to the company’s future requirements.
