I have the pleasure of attending, participating and exhibiting at the SharePoint Symposium again this year in Baltimore. If you’re part of the ILTA community, you’re already aware that Office 365 has been added to this annual event making the official title: SharePoint | Office 365 Symposium. If you’re not a legal professional, there’s still plenty of reasons to understand why Office 365 is gaining so much popularity to warrant this lengthy title.

In prior years, ILTA dedicated the SharePoint Symposium to educating legal professionals on the best business uses for SharePoint to enable law firms to become more collaborative, competitive and technology-driven. While SharePoint has no shortage of new functionality to brag about, Microsoft Office 365 delivers even more value to SharePoint, bringing the two together for this inaugural event.

Office 365 revolutionizes the way business professionals work who are using Office applications. SharePoint Online provides a robust cloud platform giving users the ability to access information anywhere, at any time. SharePoint and the entire Office 365 service continues to be a major focus of advancement for Microsoft and innovation continues to drive even more productivity.

Why is Office 365 so popular?

Storage Space – 1 TB of storage space is included with all subscriptions on Microsoft OneDrive

Inclusive Products – Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, OneDrive, Skype

Ongoing Updates – Provides ease of management and cost savings

Tablet Compatibility – Ease of use and transition between PC and tablets (Windows AND Apple)

Continuous Improvements – Just Monday, Microsoft Planner was added to the Office 365 mix, giving users the ability to visually plan, organize, assign and track tasks in Exchange and SharePoint in one easy-to-use and central location. See the demo here.

The keynote speaker, Richard Harbridge, discussed the practical application of Microsoft’s cloud technology and how to best integrate and leverage existing investments with both SharePoint and Office 365.

Harbridge spoke in depth about the various elements of planning for your firm’s intranet emphasizing the need to build in a way that works in both the cloud and on-premises. When taking the necessary time to build your intranet with intention and including the appropriate key stakeholders, objectives normally evolve and expand, creating new priorities and a richer, more robust platform for the end user. Planning your intranet is a foundational step that takes time, but creates project success*. Harbridge addressed several areas of planning such as adoption, analytics, measurement, social, mobility, training, search and communication etc. He stated, nine of the ten BEST intranets in the world use SharePoint, supporting the healthy future and long-term vision for SharePoint that was recently announced.

With the inclusion of Office 365 this year, I’m encouraged by the direction of the legal industry and its consideration and adoption for cloud platforms. Both SharePoint 2016 and Office 365 are powerful collaboration tools and I’m pleased to be a part of the conversation.

I’ll be participating in the SharePoint Speed Dating and co-presenting with BA Insight for a presentation titled: SharePoint 2016 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Office 365-specific sessions include:

• Office 365 Differences: Their Impact on Your Users’ Experiences and Ways to Embrace or Erase Them
• Is Office 365 Right for My Firm?
• Stories of Innovation: Leveraging Office 365 Tools Today and Tomorrow
• Is Office 365 Secure in the Legal World?

*Stop by our booth (#8) to learn about Envisioning. Envisioning guides your firm through the entire planning process with the necessary stakeholders so your intranet is bound for success.