Digital White Papers

8 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER OFFICE 365 Office 365 Solutions Are Changing the Game with several built-in benefits, such as single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication. And, you guessed it, the hosted Exchange platform of Office 365 is also on the evergreen path and will always be current. This is new and places the onus of responsibility of maintaining and upgrading the Exchange environment squarely on Microso. » SharePoint: SharePoint was built for collaboration and co- authoring. It is automatically part of the Office 365 platform and opens doors to business-class solutions to meet the demand for collaboration with internal and external resources to get our work done. OneDrive for Business is one example of an Office 365 component built on SharePoint. This solution allows us to place files in a secured, backed up and web-accessible business-class location that can be shared with and worked on by others inside and outside of our firm. Before OneDrive for Business, people used solutions like their personal Dropbox or Google Docs accounts, which placed the information outside of the firm's control. This is oen referred to as "shadow IT" and is a big problem for firms. The risks of this are clear, so the option to have a business-class solution that's part of your subscription is a game changer. » Skype for Business (soon to be a part of Microso Office 365 Teams): Communication doesn't just happen in email or document collaboration. Instant messaging, screen and file sharing, presence awareness, conversations, video meetings and broadcast web events are all parts of the overall communication picture. Skype for Business (formerly Lync) is the glue that brings all these together and makes them a seamless part of the user experience. It is tightly integrated with the Office applications, accessible via the desktop, laptop, Mac or mobile devices and is changing the way the "day in the life" of a law firm professional looks and feels. » Other Web-Connected Services: In addition to the game- changing products and services listed above, there are other web-connected services on the Office 365 platform. Groups can now work together using Microsoft Teams in Office 365, where chat, content, people and tools come together, giving your teams instant access to everything they need. Yammer brings corporate social networking into the mix, allowing your firm personnel to connect with the right people, share information across teams and organize around projects. Office Online lets you create and edit Word, OneNote, PowerPoint and Excel documents from any modern browser. And there are other components to the Office 365 platform that are available now or coming soon. It is continually evolving and changing the way people work together. Each of the components and services mentioned also allows secure mobile access wherever you are and on whatever device you have. I can access all the firm information via mobile apps on smart devices or via a modern browser on any platform machine. This brings everything I need to anything I can connect to the web. Of course, that brings me to the next game changer topic… Office 365 is changing the way we look at technology solutions in law firms and is moving our vision outside of the walls of our offices while providing essential safety and security.

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