Skip to main content

O365: Search and Find Data when you need it

 O365: Search and Find Data when you need it


Pervious posts have illustrated how easy it is to create storage in Office 365 and how you can populate the libraries and lists easily from the office PC or from a mobile or tablet when on the move.

We've also looked at the powerful search and find functions within Office 365 and how users can be enabled to locate items for attention, take necessary action and move the items on in the work flow, while maintaining a full control audit at the highest level.

What Data Do We Need?

Following on from that we should consider -
  1. What data should a business be concerned with
  2. Where that data should be stored
  3. How that data should be stored.

Start with Simple Stuff

To start we can consider a customer name, address and contact details. This is the sort of data that may be captured by a sales person working from the office making cold calls or following warm leads, or maybe at the customers premises using a mobile device.

The sales man/woman will store or update the data in a contacts list and more often than not that list will be a personal list.


Up-to-date customer details are worth their weight in gold, but only to the individuals who have access. A customer record on a sales individual's phone is worth precisely nothing to anyone else.

This can, of course, be improved. The business can
  1. Ensure that the sales individual's phone is synchronised with every on else's contact list. Which means lots of synchronisation activity.
  2. Ensure that everyone keys such data into a CRM. Which means that the CRM must have mobile update capability and must be used faithfully by all users.
    That's great, but if you need that customer data for Sales Order Processing, Invoicing, Sales Analysis or for any other business reason, first you have to extract it from the CRM and import it into another package for processing.
  3. Create a Contacts List in Office 365 SharePoint and generate a mobile app that can be attached to MS Teams. 

Using this all staff, office and field based, can create, access and maintain the same data wherever they may be. This data will also be available for use in any other Office 365 application without the need for synchronisation or replication. 

Now Get More Complex

In a more sophisticated environment, an order placed at a customer site with a sales person, can be immediately available -
  1. To the sales back-office, for print and process.
  2. To production, for the reservation and supply of manufacturing resource.
  3. To purchasing, for the ordering of component parts required.

The above scenario requires little in the way of replication, duplication or synchronisation

Don't be afraid to experiment, make Office 365 work for you.

We can show you how, or we can do it for you.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Electronic Document Storage and Management (EDMS)

EDMS is not just a means of storing computer files. A full EDMS system allows for the process of importing both paper and computer generated documents into a computer system and indexing the files for easy and swift retrieval. In effect you can dispose of your traditional paper filing system. No more gathering letters, invoices and orders into filing groups and no more slotting them into the correct folders. Of course, you only use a paper filing system because you know you may need that document again in the future. Equally, when you do want that document it's invariably missing, either misfiled, or on someone else's desk. With EDMS documents are where you placed them and they are available for you to use where ever you are. All you need is a computer, tablet or smart phone and an Internet connection.As most modern businesses already use the Internet for everyday interaction with banks, Inland Revenue, Companies House, insurance companies, suppliers and customers it no longer ...

Leadership: So you want to be Powerful?

Throughout my life, in both business and personal spheres I have found that individuals seeking answers invariably look for 'silver bullet' solutions.     In a recent post on LinkedIn a n Influencer wrote that she had been asked the question ' Who is the most powerful person you ever met? '     The question was posed by a 17 year old and the author guessed that the answer being sought was the name of some sort of X-Factor figure, This strikes a cord with me. Throughout my life, in both business and personal spheres I have found that individuals seeking answers invariably look for 'silver bullet' solutions. This applies to all generations, 'Boomer, X-Gen and Millennial, it applies to individuals of all levels of intelligence, and to individuals at all levels of authority.     The desire for someo ne to appear, like a genie from a lamp, wit h either ' the answer' to a problem , or ' the power' to solve the problem, or...

Law and Order: The Anonymous Text Tip-Off

The following article came out of an interview conducted with Max Doleh - Law enforcement organisations and Crime Stopper programs are turning to technology which enables text tip-off from the public to facilitate a police response. In September 2007 Master Sergeant Charles Phillips of the Oklahoma City Police Department published an item on the Oklahoma City Crime Stoppers web site (http://www.okccrimetips.com/ ) calling for increased resources to bring this technology to OKC. In November 2007 it was announced that Crime Stoppers of Oklahoma City have engaged technology company ProductiveT to develop an SMS system that is radically different to others in use in the country. Max Doleh, ProductiveT president and CEO answers questions – 1 . What makes the Oklahoma City system so different? The ProductiveT technology differs greatly from other offerings. The police department have their own dedicated number for receiving the messages and unlike most systems there is no need for the sender...