A unified suite of business solutions has many different benefits for businesses – especially in the small- to medium-sized category.
Small to medium sized businesses have many advantages in the market, but also have different challenges compared to their larger competitors. SMBs need to be much more mindful about budgets and efficiency. This is why using a business productivity suite can be very useful for smaller organisations. We discussed this with a number of IT companies with experience working with SMBs; the overwhelming consensus is that a suite of business solutions makes many areas of business easier – from security and IT support, to budgets, onboarding, and much more.
What are Business Productivity Suites?
A business productivity suite is any suite of applications and/or services whose main purpose is to make the everyday operations of a business more efficient and more productive. Some of the most popular examples include Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365), and Google Workspace. Many of these suites are now available as Software as a Service – this means that it is cloud based, and available on a subscription basis (typically meaning that updates are received automatically and at no extra cost). There are many good benefits to this model for business solutions.
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Standardised Systems (Great for Compatibility)
Productivity suites such as Microsoft 365 are designed to provide all of the key functionality that a business needs on a daily basis. This includes communications (email, instant messaging, video conferencing, etc.); storage, file-sharing and management, content creation, task management, and more. In the case of M365, all of the apps and services are standardised across all platforms – i.e. desktop, web browser and mobile applications. All users will get the same experience from using the apps and services.
So, why is this a good thing for businesses? A recent example would be remote working – a business productivity suite that is standardised across all platforms ensures that all users (whether in the office or working from home) have the same working experience. We spoke with one company that provides IT support for Schools – they pointed out that the productivity apps that schools use are used by teachers, students, and administrative staff alike, and it guarantees communications and interactions are never complicated.
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Easier IT Administration
Another great benefit of business productivity suites (and one which ties in with the previous point) is that they are much easier to administer and manage from an IT perspective. These types of software services are designed to be relied on by businesses for a lot of things, so it is important that they work consistently all the time. Some businesses use software from lots of different vendors in a mix-and-match infrastructure – these types of setups are much harder to administer. On the other hand, a suite of apps and services that are all integrated into the same platform will be much easier to administer. For example, Microsoft 365 features single sign-on (SSO) for all its apps; and all the apps can be updated by IT admins remotely (and automatically). According to one company that spoke to us that provides IT support Croydon and London based SMBs work with, there is no comparison for the ease of management with a unified suite of apps and services that are designed to work together.
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Better Cybersecurity
A benefit that every SMB should be happy to see is that business productivity suites generally offer much better cybersecurity than using multiple differently branded products and services. As mentioned in earlier, suites that feature multiple apps and services usually also include single sign-on, which means there are fewer entry points into apps (because there are fewer login credentials to be cracked); productivity suites typically add additional security to this by providing multi-factor authentication. One company we spoke to, who has been an Office 365 company for over a decade, stated that the Microsoft branded suite has many security features that are built into the foundations of all of the apps and services – and this is true for most brands of productivity suites.
