Microsoft Apps courses

WHAT IS MICROSOFT 365?

Microsoft 365 is an umbrella term for a number of Microsoft applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. There are multiple versions, for personal and family use; business; enterprise; and education, with the latter two offering a far greater range of application and service options than the former.

Today, Microsoft 365 incorporates what was previously known as Office 365 services. Office 365 was launched in 2011 as a suite of online services aimed primarily at corporate users, and was renamed in March 2020 as Microsoft 365.

According to Microsoft, the name change occurred to “reflect the range of features and benefits in the subscription, to meet the unique needs of individuals and businesses.”

Many organisations wrongly believe that M365 is simply a collection of Microsoft office apps that have been made available online. In reality, M365 offers organisations unprecedented productivity gains and collaborative capabilities, which differ depending on the licence they select.

Today there are three categories of Microsoft 365 services: 4 for home, for business, and for enterprise. The options available under each are as follows:

MICROSOFT 365 HOME
Designed for personal and family use, applications can be used on up to five devices at the same time. The ‘Family’ licence enables up to six users to access applications, while the ‘Personal’ licence allows for a single user. These applications provided are basic in nature, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and Skype. Subscribers also get OneDrive cloud storage (6TB for Family and 1TB for Personal).

MICROSOFT 365 FOR BUSINESS
Ideal for use in small to medium-sized businesses, this service offers three versions: Basic, Standard and Premium, all charged on a per user per month basis. In addition to the offerings in the Home versions, the Business service includes calendaring, Microsoft Teams; access to online versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote; the ability to collaborate on documents and enhanced security features.

MICROSOFT 365 FOR ENTERPRISE
Ideal for use in large organisations, the Enterprise service offers an almost bewildering array of applications. Depending on the subscription chosen, it includes Microsoft Office — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher (PC only), and Access (PC only) on up to five computers, tablets, and mobile devices per person. It also includes access to Outlook and collaboration apps such as Bookings, SharePoint, OneDrive, Stream, Sway, Lists, Forms, To Do and Planner.

Additionally, it includes access to more advanced business applications such as Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Visual Agents, MyAnalytics and Power BI Pro.

Learning Microsoft Office 365 and Becoming Certified

One of the initial questions students ask is how to improve Microsoft Office skills and whether learning to use the tools well is difficult.

Understanding the basics of Microsoft Office is not tricky. The tools are pretty user-friendly and approachable. In beginner Microsoft Office Training, you will be able to cover using the different personal tools for email, presentations, spreadsheets, messaging, documents and notes.

But if you want to become an expert and if you're going to leverage them to make your day-to-day work more efficient truly, you need to learn and practice more. You can take the next step by mastering shortcuts, being able to move data and identifying how to organise your documents.

From there, you can work towards maximising tools for businesses and enterprises. And you can earn a certification that validates your ability to use these tools. To achieve your certification, you will need to pass the exams. Microsoft recommends around 150 hours of instruction and hands-on experience. Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams take 50 minutes.

Popular Office 365 Training

Lumify Work understands that modern office applications are widely used across your organisation to maximise efficiency and productivity. With a large investment in this ubiquitous technology, your people need the skills and knowledge to use the most popular applications to their full potential.

Our range of Microsoft End User courses includes:

• Microsoft Office 365, 2019, 2016, and 2013

• Microsoft Office upgrade courses

• Microsoft 365 courses

• Collaboration tools such as Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Teams

• Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Query

• Microsoft Windows operating systems

• Microsoft Edge browser

Learning Microsoft Office 365 and Becoming Certified

One of the initial questions students ask is how to improve Microsoft Office skills and whether learning to use the tools well is difficult.

Understanding the basics of Microsoft Office is not tricky. The tools are pretty user-friendly and approachable. In beginner Microsoft Office Training, you will be able to cover using the different personal tools for email, presentations, spreadsheets, messaging, documents and notes.

But if you want to become an expert and if you're going to leverage them to make your day-to-day work more efficient truly, you need to learn and practice more. You can take the next step by mastering shortcuts, being able to move data and identifying how to organise your documents.

From there, you can work towards maximising tools for businesses and enterprises. And you can earn a certification that validates your ability to use these tools. To achieve your certification, you will need to pass the exams. Microsoft recommends around 150 hours of instruction and hands-on experience. Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams take 50 minutes.

Flexible solutions for Microsoft Office training

Different team members have different learning styles and different logistic requirements. Choose how you train with Lumify Work.

• Instructor-led training (ILT) – hands-on half or full day core product training in classroom-based sessions for groups of 12 people

• Virtual instructor-led training (VILT) – connect to a virtual classroom and instructor from your own computer

• Lumify Anywhere – mobile classroom for wherever you are

• Seminar-style for larger groups

• Short "Lunch and Learn" sessions

• Webinars

• One-on-one coaching

For more information, check out our End User Applications Training brochure.

Consult with a local expert. You can contact us via the location nearest you. In New Zealand, we offer Microsoft Office training from our campuses in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

FIVE REASONS TO USE LUMIFY WORK FOR YOUR END USER APPLICATIONS TRAINING

Upskill your team or your organisation to benefit from:

• Increased productivity and maximised efficiency

• Fewer knowledge gaps, allowing for more time on required tasks and deliverables

• Less pressure on IT resources as end users are equipped with the right skills

• A cost-effective way to deliver tailored training

• Delivered the way you want it

The world of work has changed for good, with hybrid work arrangements gaining permanence. For most professionals and employers, investing in online collaboration tools has been the way to ride this wave.

But things are not as straightforward as they look. Many are learning that spending time to establish an end user adoption strategy and incorporating productivity training is necessary to finding success with hybrid work and everything that comes with it.

Tasked with addressing these requirements are IT teams, facilities managers and occupational safety and health teams who need to set up secure systems for communicating and collaborating from home while redesigning onsite spaces for activities like concentration, brainstorming, socialising and training.

As companies shifted rapidly from onsite to work from home and then later to hybrid, there has been an uptick in the migration to online collaboration tools like Microsoft 365. But while its end-user applications were easy to navigate, adoption rates have been low because of missed opportunities to rethink how we work.