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The number of employees working from home, on the road, and other places away from the office continues to skyrocket. Indeed, the global market intelligence firm IDC predicts that by 2013, over one in three workers worldwide will be mobile. In the United States, which has the largest number of mobile workers, three-quarters of the workforce are expected to be mobile by 2013.
A key advantage of Microsoft Office 365 is that it supports this growing trend. By making enterprise-class technology available almost anywhere from almost any device, Office 365 makes it possible for employees to be just as productive working remotely as they are in the office.
By implementing Office 365, the Seattle-based real estate brokerage findwell has been able to increase its responsiveness to clients. Like a lot of real estate agents, findwell employees work from a variety of locations including the office, the homes of their clients, and coffee shops. One of the company’s primary objectives is to make its real estate agents accessible at all times so they don’t miss opportunities. But for a small company, maintaining the IT infrastructure to keep everyone connected was time-consuming.
After joining the beta program to test Office 365, the company decided to transition its productivity software to the cloud and pay for it as a subscription service. Findwell agents use Exchange Online to send and receive email from a variety of devices – wherever they happen to be. They use SharePoint Online to manage home-listing checklists and flyer templates and to submit expense reports. And they use Lync Online to host web conferences and share information with clients. “By using Lync Online, we have a more time-effective way to share complex information such as contracts, market valuations, and home details with our clients,” says findwell CEO Kevin Lisota. “Now we can replace a lengthy email exchange or a long drive with a quick online meeting.”
Adopting Office 365 has given findwell the enterprise-quality communication and collaboration tools it needs at an affordable, small-business price. Company leaders no longer worry about IT infrastructure because Microsoft handles system maintenance. What’s more, they can scale their technology to fully support business growth without adding infrastructure hardware.
Perhaps most importantly, findwell agents have improved their responsiveness to clients. “Clients expect us to be reachable and have the answers that they need at all times,” says Lisota. “Thanks to Office 365, our agents can access the information they need with the tools that they are already familiar with. That is a great advantage.”
To learn more, check out the findwell video. Also, please share your experience. What advantages is Office 365 delivering to your mobile workforce? We’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for the mention Stephen. Still happy we made the move to Office 365. Great for our agents' producivity and great for me not to have to worry about our own servers.
Hey Kevin - Glad Office 365 is allowing you to think more about your business and less about your technology infrastructure. BTW, love the findwell Mini Coopers!
Thanks for the interesting post!
I have managed large, dispersed project teams for many years now. It's a powerful modality when you can engage with the best-of-the-best, no matter where in the world they reside. Comaraderie and collaboration are greatly enhanced with Lync (whether on-prem or online). I actually prefer online meetings now. They are highly effective.
But as far as a predominantly mobile work force by 2013, I don't see that happening until corporate managers and executives shift their thinking around employee effectiveness from time-based to results-based. HR Handbooks will need to be rewritten from the bottom up. What's a 9-5 day for instance? What are "core" hours?
From my perspective, I see the mobile work force as an almost 24/7 work force, which is a HUGE gain for corporations. The 8-hour day is history. We are collaborating online early (in PJs) and still online late into the evening (in PJs again). The line between work and personal life becomes blurred or disappears altogether.
Entrepreneurial types have always worked this way and love it. For others, it may be too stressful. Everyone will have to set boundaries that work for them. Nevertheless, cost savings to workers (keep that car in the garage) and the planet (lower reliance on gas, less office buildings) will be profound. I also suggest that productivity will sky rocket. By 2013? Probably not. But by 2020? Absolutely.
I have been scouring the web on MS365 and Sharepoint for a while now, trying to get an answer to my question. I understand that one of the value of this product is that the information is accessible from anywhere, but what happens if you want to work offline? If you want to use Sharepoint Workspace to modify a document, while you don't have internet access, is that possible,and how does the sync process work when you are back on the Internet? I haven't seen that addressed anywhere.
Hi Eileen - Check out this video and let me know if it addresses your questions.
office.microsoft.com/.../video-work-with-sharepoint-online-content-offline-VA102586163.aspx
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