How do you make your staff happier? How do you get a better return on your IT investments? How do you spark creativity?

In my 23 years in the IT industry, it is clear to me that training on Microsoft 365 is one of the most underrated ways to invest in IT and your staff, yet the results are profound.

Microsoft 365 is an incredibly powerful suite of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services, but it can often present problems in a business that need to be overcome:-

• terminology is regularly muddled up and used inconsistently between colleagues and IT support
• files are not stored consistently and are consequently difficult to find later in time
• communication is often disjointed – chats, posts, e-mails, Teams – what to choose!?
• a mix of users ranging from the technically-confident to technically-nervous
• creativity and innovation is left bottled up
• many IT support tickets are logged due to lack of product knowledge
• frustrated, unhappy and demoralised end users
• end users have no awareness of what products are included in their M365 other than what they’re forced to use in their daily role
• end users do not know how to access their data in the event of hardware failure or a loss of internet connectivity
• change – working in Microsoft 365 and working on an on-premise server are quite different, users are often resistant to any changes in how they work

But all this can change with the right training!

There’s no one size fits all with Microsoft 365 training, it’s what suits you and your business. Here are a few things to think about when it comes to navigating the plethora of training options out there:-

• Who – every M365 user in your business should be including in your training strategy
• What – introduction to Microsoft 365, specific productivity tools, how to, collaboration, file storage, communications, administration, security, tips ‘n’ tricks, automation and more…
• Where – classroom, on-site, at home (virtually or offline)
• How – as a company, as groups or individually on demand
• When – ideally before 365 is rolled out, but it’s also never too late!
• Consider including training costs into your budgets for all future IT projects
• Consider training for all new starters
• Consider training for internal admin users
• Consider training for your own internal trainers

Of course, training (and it’s benefits!) doesn’t just apply to Microsoft 365, but it can benefit other areas of your business IT too such as your accounting software, reporting tools, MRP and ERP, CRM and importantly ‘The Human Firewall’.

Imagine a happier workforce, imagine an increase in creativity, innovation and productivity, imagine an increase in profits!

Speak to me, Chris Lord, The Virtual IT Director today to find out even more about how training can benefit your business.