The software with a range of tools for business
Microsoft 365, formerly known as Office 365, is a collaborative software that allows you to work seamlessly. It will enable you to connect with your team and comes with various tools to help you and your team create and work from anywhere around the globe. This software is the leading office tool to help organisations increase productivity and manage their business well by storing data securely (Microsoft, n.d.).
In this blog, I will provide my DIEP reflection model on the software based on my personal experience.
Describe – How I learned about the software and my first impression of it
How did I get to know about the software?
I stumbled upon the software while doing one of my courses a few years back in 2015 or 2016. I’m always curious about learning new tools, so I explored by reading and learning about some of its cool features that help increase the organisation’s productivity level. Oh, this spins my interest and curiosity even more – Productivity is one of my favorite topics. So, that’s where it all started, and I even signed up for the software and got access to a couple of applications within for myself to work and learn. Unfortunately, I did not manage to collaborate much as I was working as a freelancer at the time and working alone.
Based on what I learned and saw online, the software delivers what it promises. And what I like the most is that it comes with a range of applications you could use to collaborate and create with your team members, like SharePoint, Teams, OneNote, Planner, Tasks, and other office applications. This means you could cut back the time and effort of emailing data and documents back and forth. But instead, share them securely with anyone within your organisation and instantly get an updated copy with a single source of truth.
With this knowledge, I could not wait to start working in a team setting and introduce them to this new tool.
Interpret – My bad experience working as a team with MS 365
My bad experience working as a team with MS 365
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation tremendously (Jaumotte, Oikonomou, Pizzinelli & Tavares, 2023). However, I have had two bad experiences with my previous employment regarding adopting the right tool or software to boost productivity. This means that we will be able to work smarter and faster. But unfortunately, both companies I worked with did not grasp the concept of working smart, nor were they willing to learn.
One of my previous employers argued that they could not afford the software cost to equip each team member with an adequate licence. This is a bit too short-sighted if you consider the outcome and savings you will gain in the long run as a company.
Another company was the opposite case. They are well equipped with the proper tool and paid MS 365 licence to every employee. However, they should have utilised the tool more effectively, defeating its purpose. There is an apparent lack of training; hence, the adoption rate is very low. Everyone used multiple channels or means to communicate, like Google Docs, WhatsApp, Dropbox and emails, to share work files and documents. It has resulted in causing so much confusion among team members.
Even though this has nothing to do with the software itself per se, it was still a learning experience for me – in terms of organisational culture and somewhat related to leadership style.
Evaluate – My bad experience has taught me to be a better leader to be able to cultivate a modern and digital culture
My positive experience working as a team with MS 365
Now, I’m running my own company with remote team members from around the globe. I’m immensely thankful for MS 365 for being the “high-quality software” (Martin, Hauret & Fuhrer, 2022). It has allowed me and my team to collaborate effortlessly regardless of our time zone and location.
As a company, we use the proper office tool, Teams, as the primary channel to communicate and share internal files and documents. Apart from Teams, we also use Tasks to assign tasks to team members with a description of tasks and a dateline. This has eased the follow-up process, and we as a team have the same view and receive the same update when things are updated or amended. We also use shared OneNote as a tool for taking meeting minutes.
We also use SharePoint to collaborate with external vendors like freelancers/third-party contractors for file and document sharing.
Apart from that, we also subscribed to MS Azure cloud for our data management and security. We also plan to use MS Project for our future projects to stay organised and integrate with the MS Power BI (Microsoft, n.d.) tool for data management and visualisation.
Plan – How will this learning be used in my future?
Based on my experiences, change is undoubtedly challenging. It is scary and does not always have a positive effect, as it is natural for humans to fear the unknown (Simon, 2013). Not only that, but leadership also plays a critical role in adapting to change. And based on my experience, it could either make or break the team’s spirit.
Nonetheless, as good human beings, we will only be better if we continue to learn and find ways to do things better than how we did them yesterday. I see that as our true purpose of being one of the surviving species on this planet. I can’t speak for the rest, but I know that learning is a life-long journey, and I will never want to stop doing it until my last breath.
References:
Jaumotte. F., Oikonomou.M., Pizzinelli. C. and Tavares. M. M. (2023, March 23). How pandemic accelerated digital transformation in advanced economies. The Daily Star. Retrieved 25 March, 2023, from https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/opinion/news/how-pandemic-accelerated-digital-transformation-advanced-economies-3278646
Martin. L., Hauret. L. and Fuhrer. C. (2022, March 10). Digitally transformed home office impacts on job satisfaction, job stress and job productivity. COVID-19 findings. PLoS One.;17(3):e0265131. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265131. PMID: 35271671; PMCID: PMC8912217.
Microsoft. (n.d.). Power BI: Turn your data into immediate impact. Microsoft. Retrieved 25 March, 2023, from https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-au/
Microsoft. (n.d.). Microsoft 365: Grow your business with Microsoft 365. Microsoft. Retrieved 25 March, 2023, from https://www.microsoft.com/en-sg/microsoft-365/business
Simon. A. (2013, April 8). Why We’re So Afraid of Change – And Why That Holds Businesses Back. Forbes. Retrieved 25 March, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2013/04/08/why-were-so-afraid-of-change-and-why-that-holds-businesses-back/?sh=787054ed3d6b