Communication is Key to Success

As many business owners are aware, their ability to communicate is critical to their business' success. They are also mindful that the current business environment has made it more challenging to communicate effectively as they did pre-coronavirus. As face-to-face and word of mouth communication have been significantly reduced, business communication has been transferred to the cloud, particularly when it comes to sharing information.

What’s the Difference?

The biggest difference between the two services is how they are delivered. Microsoft Office 2019 is the productivity suite in its traditional sense. You download the software solutions, like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which you can then access on your desktop. Since the programs are stored locally on your computer, you don’t need an Internet connection to access them.

On the other hand, you have Microsoft Office 365, which is the cloud-based variant that Microsoft is pushing these days. Office 365 has all of the software solutions that you expect from a productivity suite, but the primary difference comes from how they’re accessed. Office 365 can be delivered through the Internet rather than being found locally on the computer, meaning that it requires a solid Internet connection in order to work as intended. Furthermore, since the solution is found in the cloud, it can be accessed on any device through a web browser, meaning that it’s more accessible than it’s ever been.

What’s Best for You?

As we mentioned before, the solution you’ll want to invest in will vary depending on various factors. If your Internet connection isn’t reliable, for example, your capacity to get work done might be limited with Microsoft Office 365. For a full list of what you should consider when planning out your productivity suite infrastructure, be sure to contact professional IT technicians who can run you through scenarios that you might not even foresee initially.

Coleman Technologies can provide your organization with a free consultation to determine which Microsoft Office solution works best for your specific needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

The following apps are included in Office 2019:

• Outlook
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint

Here are some changes that have been brought to these applications.

Outlook

Most people use Outlook for email, but it’s more of a personal information manager, since it can be used as a calendar, task manager, and contact manager. Changes to Outlook 2019 include:

• One-click fixes for accessibility issues - Enhanced accessibility options are updated to new international standards.
• Focused inbox - Outlook now features more options to keep you focused on the information you need and less on the glut of email that you may get. 
• Outlook reads your emails to you - Outlook now offers a text to voice option that will read your emails to you. 

Word

Microsoft Word is the Office suite’s word processor, and Word 2019 is looking to be a great upgrade from Word 2016. Here are some of the best changes:

• Real time collaboration - Work side-by-side with others to collaborate on documents in real time.  
• Integrated translation - Microsoft translator gives workers the ability to translate words, phrases, and sentences in many languages.
• Enhanced reading options - Instead of straining your eyes, choose options to help make it easier on them, including page color, column width, text spacing, or have Word read your document to you.
• Easier navigation - You can now flip through documents quickly with side-by-side view.

Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet software that comes bundled with Microsoft Office. The latest version gives users plenty of opportunities to take advantage of new and interesting features, several of which give Excel the ability to act as a database. Here are just a few of the new features:

• New Charts - Users can now create a series of new charts, including map charts, funnel charts, and more. 
• Precision selecting - Now users can deselect cells that aren’t relevant to their query without having to frustratingly start over.  
• New and improved connectors - Now there are integrations that allow Excel to be front and center on any of your organization’s analytics initiatives.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint is Microsoft’s presentation-creator app. The software has hundreds of other functions, of course, and PowerPoint 2019 expands PowerPoint’s effectiveness in the long run. Some functions include:

• Zoom for PowerPoint - Provides custom navigation inside a presentation for more presenter-friendly interaction.
• SVG image compatibility - You can now insert and edit scalable vector graphics (SVG) images for clearer, more defined imagery. 
• Export to 4K - Now you can export your presentation to 4K format, slightly better than Ultra High Definition. 

Other software

Office 2019 is also built with a much-improved Microsoft Teams collaboration app--and SharePoint--the industry standard in project management and coordination. Additionally, the ever-popular Microsoft Office 365 now uses Office 2019 as a base for their cloud-delivered products. 

Microsoft lists OneNote as a part of their Microsoft Office platform, but the software giant is starting to move away from OneNote as a part of the productivity suite, building it instead as a part of Windows 10. 

If you would like to talk about what Microsoft products are right for your business and/or personal computing needs, the IT professionals at Coleman Technologies are available to answer your questions and give you suggestions. To speak to one of our certified consultants call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Why You Want An MOS (Or Any Other) Certification
The more your internal staff can handle, the less they have to lean on others for assistance.

Chances are, these “others” would be the members of your internal IT team (assuming that you have more than one person in the first place). Otherwise, they’ll likely spend a bunch of valuable time trying to Google the answer to their question.

Therefore, it only makes sense to have your staff be capable of as much as possible independently, without the need to turn to someone else or an Internet search. That way, everyone’s time is used more efficiently, maintaining productivity and allowing everyone to focus on what needs to be done.

When a solution is as commonly used as Microsoft Office is, this only becomes even more evident.

Certifications are effectively seals of approval from an authority. If someone was to be certified as a Microsoft Office Specialist, it more or less is just proof provided by Microsoft that this someone does indeed know their stuff when it comes to the Office software suite. Having certified people on staff means that a business is able to handle more advanced situations.

The Operational Benefits Of A Microsoft Office Specialist
Microsoft’s productivity software titles are among the most commonly used in the business world, to the point where many of their applications’ names are now synonymous with the documents they produce - how often have you heard someone call a presentation a “Powerpoint” instead of a “slideshow?”

As a result, chances are fairly high that your business is one that uses at least one of the applications included in the “Microsoft Office” suite.

Like we said before, a lot of time can easily be wasted trying to do something in an Office program, especially if the person is having difficulty remembering how to perform a task that they do not need very often, or have never encountered before.

However, if your team has a few Microsoft Office Specialists on it, they would be able to assist with a quick message, reducing the stress put on your IT staff and allowing them to continue their other duties without interruptions coming in (at least, interruptions from Microsoft Office requests).

How to Become Certified
To learn more about this certification, visit Microsoft’s official page describing it. The official test is exclusively administered by Certiport testing centers, who provide a useful test center locator to help you figure out where and when your next testing opportunity is.

To otherwise assist your staff with their technology issues, and take some more of the workload from your internal IT staff’s shoulders, Coleman Technologies is here to help. Reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 to discuss our solutions with one of our professionals.