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Online Collaboration is Good. Well-Managed Collaboration is Better.

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Smartphones in business meeting

(Rawpixel, Pixabay)

1 May 2018. Rarely do small companies or organizations succeed on their own. They often need the help of partners and collaborators to succeed in their work. Collaborations can range from one-on-one partnerships for solving specific tasks to large-scale networks undertaking complex projects over a period of years. Fortunately, enterprises have software tools available make these collaborations happen.

Microsoft’s Office 365 is becoming a favorite solution for small companies and organizations in collaborations needing the full features of office productivity applications without a high initial out-of-pocket cost. But whether collaborators use Microsoft Office as a package or with a 365 subscription, the software still requires careful management to keep it running smoothly and stay accessible to all users.

Office 365 contains favorite and familiar applications in use for decades — such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint — but also more specialized apps, such as Outlook for e-mail, OneNote for brain storming, and Publisher for publication layouts. A key management tool available with Office 365 is Exchange Online for collaborations, useful for tracking messages among collaborators, but it provides only limited usage reporting for partners responsible for managing the project.

More detailed reporting on critical collaborating functions are available from third-party software providers. Among those providers is Promodag, based in Paris, that provides more comprehensive reports on Office 365 use. Promodag says its reporting software for Office 365 is based on feedback from thousands of organizations, small to large, with experience on Exchange servers going back 20 years. Learn more about Office 365 reporting with Promodag Office 365 report.

One type of Promodag report provides Office 365 user traffic. Among these reporting features are identification of system users and non-users, compliance with regulatory and organizational policies, responses to requests using keyword and content searches, and identification of unused distribution groups. Reports can be tailored to answer specific questions, such as conference room use per working hours.

Another type of report provides mailbox statistics among users. Data offered in these reports include number of items stored in mailboxes, absolute size of mailboxes and compared to quotas, change in mailbox size over time, and reports on public folders showing their size, items contained, date and time of creation and last updates. These reports also highlight anomalies, which may require immediate action. Here’s more about usage reports for Office 365.

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