The workforce is incredibly diverse in preferences for how they get stuff done, and that dramatically impacts the IT landscape.

Employees expect “always-on” access, scalable solutions and 24/7 IT support. For the CIO office, meeting those demands while ensuring the security of enterprise data can be daunting. Multiple products are expected to seamlessly thread together for the perfect digital workplace experience, but that can involve multiple vendors, teams and solutions that might not always integrate easily.

Yes, the role of today’s CIO is complex, to say the least.

Survey says what technology employees want

My understanding is that complexity is part of what Microsoft set out to help address with the introduction of Microsoft 365.

Five reasons I’m a fan of Microsoft 365:

1) Security
Microsoft 365 includes Advanced Threat Analytics for proactive threat mitigation, Defender for end point security, information protection for data security, Microsoft Identity Manager, two-factor authentication and several other features. This eliminates the need for multiple products and/or platforms to support these security requirements in organizations.

2) Infrastructure
All products included with Microsoft 365 are hosted on Azure, eliminating the need for extensive on-premises infrastructure and right in line with companies’ cloud imperatives.

3) Collaboration
Features built in to Microsoft 365 enable reduction—if not outright elimination—of many external communication and collaboration solution costs. Solution areas that can either be eliminated or reduced include private branch exchange (PBX), web conferencing, long-distance and mobile phone charges, and telecom support costs.

4) Software provisioning
As an industry standard, each user on an average makes about three software provisioning requests per year, which results in about 2.5 hours of deployment time. Using Intune, included with Microsoft 365, organizations can provision software dynamically and on demand. End users can choose the right apps and schedule downloads without hindering their work schedules.

5) Self-service
Speaking of self-service, enabling users to solve many of their common IT related requests, rather than depending on the service desk to do so, can cut up to 75 percent of service desk calls. Enterprise mobility and security included in Microsoft 365 help make this possible.

Still not convinced?

Working with a managed services provider to drive maximum value out of Microsoft 365 may be a strong start.