7 Microsoft 365 Features Your Team Is Probably Not Using
Most small businesses pay for Microsoft 365 and use it primarily as an email system. Here are seven features already included in your subscription that can save your team real time and improve your security posture, without any additional cost.
1. Microsoft Teams
If your team is still coordinating by email thread, Teams changes that. Channels keep conversations organized by project or topic. File sharing, video calls, and task tracking all happen in one place.
Many 365 subscribers are paying for Teams and still using a separate tool for chat or video. Check whether Teams is available in your plan and start using it for internal communication.
2. SharePoint for Internal File Storage
If your team sends files back and forth by email, you are creating multiple versions of the same document with no clear record of what changed. SharePoint gives everyone a single place to store, share, and track changes to files.
It integrates directly with Teams, so you can access shared documents from inside a conversation. This replaces the need for a shared network drive in most small businesses.
3. OneDrive Automatic Sync
Every file saved only on a local work computer is one hard drive failure away from being lost. OneDrive automatically syncs your desktop and documents folder to the cloud.
Turn it on for every employee. It takes about ten minutes to configure and protects against data loss from hardware failure or theft.
4. Microsoft Bookings for Scheduling
Microsoft Bookings is a scheduling tool included in most 365 business plans. Clients can book a meeting directly from a link you send them, without any back-and-forth email.
It connects to your calendar, sends automatic reminders, and handles rescheduling. If you spend more than thirty minutes a week coordinating meeting times, this pays for itself quickly.
5. Multi-Factor Authentication
MFA is free, included in every 365 plan, and prevents the majority of account takeover attacks. It takes about thirty minutes to enable across your whole organization.
If your 365 tenant does not have MFA turned on for every user, that is the most important item on this list. Everything else assumes your accounts are not already compromised.
6. Microsoft Defender for Business
Depending on your 365 plan, you may already have access to Microsoft Defender for Business. This includes endpoint protection, threat detection, and security alerts across your devices.
Many small businesses with the right plan never activate it because they do not realize it is available. Check your plan and turn it on if you have it.
7. Shared Mailboxes
If your business has a generic email address like info@ or support@ that multiple people need to monitor, a shared mailbox handles that cleanly. No shared passwords. No forwarding chains. Everyone sees the same inbox and can see who has already responded.
This is built into 365 at no extra cost and takes about fifteen minutes to set up. It also works well for role-based email addresses like billing@ or hr@.
You are already paying for all of this. The question is whether it is configured and in use. We do Microsoft 365 tenant reviews for businesses in the Chicagoland area. If you want to know what you have, what you are missing, and what to set up first, get in touch.
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