Part 5: Its not about software, its about Business Processes

When most people think about the Microsoft platform, they just think about the Office Software suite. You have Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to write reports, make spreadsheets, and create Slide Decks. But the power of Microsoft’s tools come from the ecosystem that they are a part of and the streamlined business processes they enable.

The documents you are creating are automatically backed up into OneDrive. SharePoint makes distributing files to coworkers a breeze. When you create calendar events in Outlook, not only does your schedule update in Teams, it also updates your availability in Microsoft Booking.  Here’s the fun part: You can also build custom workflows that touch multiple applications! 

F1 will help you conquer the mountain that is your business

Consider this current process: You have an employee making new marketing materials. They make sales slide decks for different products. To verify the accuracy of the slide decks, the product manager must review and approve the slide deck. If they reject it, they need to record their reason why and kick it back to the marketing employee. If approved, they then upload the slide deck to a file share, where sales reps will be able to use these pre-made slide decks in their pitches. You might already be doing something similar, perhaps keeping track of your materials in an excel spreadsheet, emailing copies of slide decks back and forth in emails, and then uploading them to a SharePoint. The glue pulling all of the creative pieces together can be tedious and uninspiring.

Lets visualize this workflow and all the manual steps -  - where the process could go wrong:

Manual processes are cumbersome and leave opportunity for human error

Now let’s see what this can look like if largely automated with a combination of Microsoft Forms, Power Automate, Approvals, and SharePoint, which you already pay for! 

Automated processes streamline your workflows and maximize efficiency

The example above illustrates just a microcosm of what is possible!  With Microsoft Entra and Single Sign On, you can also easily integrate external tools into the Microsoft ecosystem, removing even more roadblocks to delivering on your true value.

It’s not just about using the industry standard tools, it’s about using them in a business process that is streamlined and ready to help you win business.

What most businesses don’t realize is that if you already use Microsoft 365, you already have the tools you need to build an IT foundation that can help your business win. What you need is the expertise to implement Microsoft’s ecosystem to make your business processes stronger and more efficient. Many of these automated workflows are difficult to setup. In some cases, you need custom code, or need to use process automation tools like Power Automate or Salesforce Flows to make these workflows a reality, but you don’t have staff who can dedicate their time to learn to learn to code or use these platforms. That’s where an MSP focused on solutions-architecture like F1 can help you. If you need help taking your business to the next level, we are ready to help.