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The Sales Director’s “Holiday” – Office 365 To The Rescue

He finally made the time to pull away from all those numbers and targets and take out some time for himself… or so he thought.

I always find that whenever I pack my luggage and prepare for my holiday, ‘work’ always has a funny way of sneaking into my suitcase without my knowing. The same was the case for our Sales Director Tim Wilkinson, when he decided to go to the south of France with his family.

Tim was adamant that this time he wasn’t going to check his emails and all would be well, hence he left his laptop at his desk in Richmond and set off for a well-deserved break. Three days into his trip however, his phone rang and it was the Managing Director calling for something that was clearly urgent.

Our MD Terry Doherty had been asked to present to a major client, and he required Tim’s input around the proposal. Terry needed Tim to collaborate on various documents in order to be best prepared for the meeting. Now that’s fine in theory, however the meeting had been set for a day after Tim arrived back from France, which meant it had to be done pretty quickly! With no laptop and no VPN, it was starting to seem like ‘mission impossible’.

Office 365 – Problem Solved  

In a situation like this most of us would have panicked; there would have been no way of accessing files and more than likely, because of the importance of the meeting, the holiday would have been cut short. However, it was the power of cloud technology and Microsoft’s Office 365 platform that prevented all of this.

Using the same credentials that he uses in the office, Tim signed into his Microsoft Office suite via his Android mobile phone. Instantly he was able to access his emails and view the information and links Terry had sent him. The shared document was opened in the mobile version of Microsoft Word where Tim was able to edit the document in real time allowing Terry to see the changes instantly.

With the low battery light flashing on Tim’s phone he knew that this wasn’t going to hinder his workflow as his children had two iPad’s between them. Leaving the kids to watch a film on one iPad Tim was able to log back into Office 365 again using the same credentials and quickly found himself back exactly where he had left off. Using the iPad, Tim was able to have a Skype video call with Terry, edit the documents on Word, and edit the slides on PowerPoint. He amended some tables in Excel, updated his calendar and collaborated on work using SharePoint, all by using two mobile devices!

This is the power of Office 365. It allows you to take your office with you anywhere and on any device. It means you’re no longer bound to a desk, a single work laptop or an intermittent VPN connection. Office 365 gives you multiple licenses to use across multiple devices allowing you full flexibility and control so that you’re in charge of your working environment. Office 365 gives the user unrivalled power which simply didn’t exist before, and is completely changing the business landscape and our ways of working.

This simple real life story highlights what the power of the cloud can do for you and your business.

Want to begin moving your small business into Office 365? Download the checklist below:

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