Microsoft’s Beta version of Office 2010 boasts many significant additions and improvements to help employees in medium sized businesses work together more effectively. Microsoft UK Office Client Product Manager, Chris Adams talks Paul Curran through some of the exciting collaboration perks to expect when the product goes on sale this May.

Why does collaboration matter to medium sized businesses?

Collaboration between teams, departments, customers and suppliers is what boosts an organisation’s performance and ultimately their contribution to the bottom line. In a competitive economy where time is precious, it’s especially important that employees have the right tools to help them work seamlessly together - by having content at their fingertips and colleagues on hand to help them.

Teamwork can often give you the edge in winning the deal, but it can be difficult when teams are working in different places. Getting the right input on a document and confirming a final version, for instance, can be quite a challenge - not to mention the risk of a customer getting the wrong document or inaccurate information.

How does Office 2010 improve collaboration?

People generally work best in groups because they can brainstorm ideas, produce documents together and meet deadlines faster. Having multiple people work together simultaneously on content opens up some amazing possibilities. Yet with more people working remotely these days, ensuring a smooth workflow between co-workers can be difficult.

Having to constantly request and exchange revisions from colleagues via email is not only time-consuming, but also frustrating. Co-authoring, content locking and much improved version control features built into the 2010 versions of Word, PowerPoint and OneNote overcome this problem by allowing team members work on a document simultaneously - even from different locations.

A small box in the lower left corner of a document keeps everyone in sync and cuts out the hassle when collaborating on presentations and documents by indicating those who are currently editing a file. Whenever a team member saves changes to a document, co-workers can see it, which means revisions, edits and approvals can be made quickly and easily from almost anywhere - without the need to constantly email changes back and forth.

Many companies use SharePoint to manage their Office files and basic workflow. One of the challenges with this is making data available to users when they are not connected to the server. By integrating seamlessly with Office 2010 programs, SharePoint Workspace 2010 makes it easier to store and edit SharePoint documents offline. It synchronises changes to your PC once you’re back online, so your content stays consistent and your team stays up-to-date.

Collaborating in real time

To coordinate changes and meet deadlines on a project, it’s essential to connect team members in real time. OneNote 2010 lets you pull together different strands of information - website URLs, browsing history, ideas and notes - so information is easily accessible. New content is automatically highlighted, so everyone can see the latest changes when they open a document. What’s more, they can see who else is working on the document online and start a conversation with that person in real time.

OneNote also lets you create side notes that stay on your screen as you move between programs, so you can keep your thoughts organised as you multi-task. New search capabilities help you find files and documents quickly and easily - displaying relevant information by typing key phrases in the search navigation pane.

With Quick Filing you can send emails and document content to OneNote, while Linked Notes automatically captures links to the Web URL or source documents they refer to when capturing information in your OneNote notebook. Combined, these tools help you store and retrieve project-related records in a single, easy-to-access location.

Collaborating online and on the move

Nowadays, saving time means saving money. Microsoft Office Web Apps, the online companions to Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, make better use of your time by extending Office 2010 to the Web. By storing files online, then editing and sharing the content via any supported browser, you can now respond to colleagues from anywhere.

Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 extends the boundaries even further by giving you the ability to share, edit, and comment on Office documents via your smartphone using enhanced mobile versions of these programs. You can also use Web Apps through the browser of a smartphone to make edits and view documents without losing any formatting or content. Both technologies enable you to respond more effectively from an airport lounge, hotel room or anywhere else for that matter.

Managing email these days can also be overwhelming. On average, people receive around 1,800 messages per month and delete about 1,500 of them. As this number continues to rise, finding faster and easier ways to help employees manage their email is becoming more of a priority. Office 2010 provides powerful new ways to track, organise and manage email for a more streamlined workflow by policing content and acting as a “mute button” for your inbox.

Conversation View is a massive time saver which combines message threads into logical conversations; Clean Up removes duplicate information (for example reply text); while Ignore lets you delete irrelevant messages with one click. A Quick Steps feature also reduces the number of clicks required to complete common actions for email, calendar and task management.

Outlook 2010 also features powerful security tools like MailTips, which integrates with Exchange Server 2010 to alert you when you’re about to send email messages to out-of-office contacts, accidentally reply to a large distribution list, or inadvertently distribute confidential information outside the company. It adds an extra layer of security by preventing data being exposed to the wrong users through good old fashioned “user error”.

With Outlook 2010, you can now manage your schedule more efficiently, too. When you receive a meeting request in Outlook 2010, you get a preview of your calendar which lets you see how the request affects other calendar items. What’s more, Schedule View, Group Scheduling Tools, and Team Calendar make it easy to see what everyone on the team is scheduled to do.

Give Office 2010 Beta a spin

Last but not least, Office 2010 introduces more social networking features into the enterprise, something business users have been clamouring for as their personal use of sites like Facebook and Twitter spill over into their working lives. A Social Connector feature in Outlook 2010 offers contextual access to business and social networking by providing a people-centric view of a company, including messages, meeting schedules, attachments and status updates. It can be connected to popular social networking sites so your users can get news from customers, prospects, and partners.

All in all, Office 2010 has much to offer businesses whose teams can’t always be in the same place. As well as reducing travel and meeting-related costs, its smart, simple, timesaving tools are already helping companies collaborate more effectively. Just ask auctioneers, Bagshaws. With four people working on the same documents from three separate offices, the firm reports savings of four days per two-week period, allowing them to distribute time-sensitive auction documents much faster.

If you can’t wait till the launch of Office 2010, you’ll be pleased to know that Microsoft is offering an Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program, entitling users who purchase Office 2007 to a free copy of the equivalent version of Office 2010 as soon as it comes out. In the meantime, if you’re considering upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010, why not give the Beta version a spin?

What customers say about Office 2010 Beta

“What’s really amazing about Office 2010 is the way it brings us together as a team and saves us time. Co-authoring, coupled with OneNote, has redefined the way we work. We’re working more closely on projects and getting more done in less time.”
Tim Jones, deputy director, Community Energy Plus

“Before Office 2010, collaboration was difficult. You had to email back and forth. Now, it’s virtually instantaneous. It’s making a massive difference in terms of saving us and our customers’ time.”
Andy Trish, managing director of NCI

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