Office 365 (now known as Microsoft 365) is one of the most popular software suites in the world, providing fast, intuitive solutions for many of your day-to-day tasks. It includes access to all of your important programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as Outlook and Publisher. You also receive online cloud based storage in OneDrive plus access to collaboration tools such as Teams and SharePoint.
humanIT specialise in helping businesses and not for profit organisations get set up with Office 365 – we cover the installation, transition, set-up and training as well as on-going support and troubleshooting. Please get in touch with us if you would like more information about how Office 365 can help you operate more efficiently and provide flexibility for remote working.
humanIT have developed a whitepaper to assist not for profit organisations and businesses decide which cloud platform to use to collaborate and share information within their organisation. Click below to download your copy.

What is Office 365?
Office 365 is a cloud-based software suite designed to fill every productivity gap in your non-profit organisation. It allows you to consolidate all your most commonly used software into one simple-to-use, always up-to-date piece of kit that your whole organisation can rely on. Your team gets the most up-to-date version of Office software, plus much, much more. With the heavily discounted prices available for non-profit organisations, you’ll see a near-instant return of investment.
Office 365 Tools
Your organisation can rely on Office 365 as much, or as little as it requires. All Office 365 tools are designed to work with each other seamlessly. To illustrate, here’s a real-world example of how you might use Office 365 tools on a daily basis.
- You organise a Microsoft Teams meeting within SharePoint’s shared calendar system.
- During that meeting, you collaborate with other attendees on a Microsoft OneNote, Word or Excel document, illustrating your unique ideas in real time.
- Once the meeting is over, you share the draft document to meeting attendees using SharePoint.
- You all edit the document to develop a final working solution, before emailing it to a client or supervisor via Outlook, powered by your organisation’s Exchange email system.
- They open it up in Outlook, with a Microsoft Office preview in their web browser. They love it.
With its seamless inter-connectivity with all its tools, using Office 365 will easily become second nature.
Office 365 has an increased focus on remote accessibility. With our remote managed services, humanIT can resolve problems and adjust your IT infrastructure in a flash, with no need to attend to your offices, spare for major issues and initial setup.
SharePoint
As the name suggests, SharePoint is all about collaboration. SharePoint is a central collaboration hub that allows organisations like yours to communicate efficiently, share work, train new staff, and much more. Shared calendars, files, discussion boards, task lists and internal webpages allow your organisation and the teams within it to stay up to date on current events and tasks, without a complex slew of forwarded emails (that someone forgot to send last week!) and miscommunication. SharePoint provides a great system for onboarding new volunteers and staff, too; structured training content can be made with an internal organisation wiki using SharePoint’s private intranet portals. The inbuilt file sharing system allows teams to set access permissions and allows for collaborative work on Microsoft Office documents. SharePoint aims to consolidate nearly everything your organisation needs to work together.
Exchange
Microsoft Exchange is the pinnacle of business email software solutions. Exchange centralises your organisation’s emails on a hosted exchange, backing them up securely. For increased collaboration, you can set up a shared or group inbox, plus set mailing lists with a plethora of customisation options. Exchange also provides a healthy defence system against malware threats before they even end up in your inbox. For the average user, using Exchange is no different than Outlook. All the neat storage and security stuff is taken care of in the backend. It can be set up locally on a server of your own, or with Office 365, you can have Exchange all taken care of on Microsoft’s cloud.
OneDrive
OneDrive is a cloud-based storage system, allowing your organisation to save files and folders within permission-given folders. If you know how to use Dropbox or Google Drive, you know how to use OneDrive. It’s especially great if you’ve got shared office equipment, as you can ensure data is stored locally only temporarily, i.e. until the user logs off. You can also wipe or remove access to data if any of your equipment is lost or stolen.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams fills in the blanks for SharePoint. You can have group video or voice communications with up to 250 people simultaneously, or just call or chat to fellow employees one-on-one. It’s a professional communications suite that allows for easy, convenient messaging without resorting to Facebook. Like everything else in the Office 365 suite, it integrates with all the other products, and with paid extensions, you can have it integrate with non-Microsoft products.
Reasons your Organisation will love
Office 365 Nonprofit
Collaboration that knows no bounds
With 1TB of synced, manageable cloud storage across your devices on OneDrive and video calls with up to 250 people in Microsoft Teams, your team will be able to kick goals from any corner of the globe.
Simple Device Management
Configure the security and accessibility settings of all Windows 10 devices in your fleet with the click of a button. Organise scheduled updates, automatically install Office programs and more, without the bother of running around to each computer.
Advanced Organisation Security
In addition to sophisticated email threat detection and malware software, you can remotely wipe data from lost and stolen devices, plus restrict the copying of selected documents on your organisation’s devices.

Install Office on Five Devices
Those who opt for the Business Premium plan can install the full desktop versions of Office programs on up to five devices per user. Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote all included, with Access and Publisher also available for PC users.
Use Microsoft Office Anywhere
With even the most barebones plan, your team members all get access to web and mobile versions of Microsoft Office programs. View detailed previews of Microsoft Office files in your emails and collaborate with other team members in real-time with an easy-to-use platform that you can access anywhere.
Office 365
FAQs
Are Office 365 and Office 2019 the same?
No. Office 365 is a subscription service for individuals and businesses that has the most up-to-date version of Office programs, plus a host of productivity and security features for your convenience. Office 2019 provides a ready-to-use suite of products that comes with updates, but no substantial upgrades. If you’d like to have the most up-to-date version of Office applications but don’t want the extra productivity features, Office 365 is available with just the Office programs and 1TB of OneDrive storage for a discounted price.
Are Office 365 emails encrypted?
Office 365 provides three optional encryption methods: Office Message Encryption (OME), Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) and Information Rights Management (IRM). These three methods allow for either peer to peer email encryption, restrictions on forwarding and copying, or a single-use passcode for access. All three options can be used for individual emails, but encryption settings can be configured for use across your entire organisation.
Can I use my domain name email with Office 365?
Your organisation’s domain name can be added to Office 365 with ease so your team can keep domain-based email addresses and maintain that professional look.
Can Office 365 be used on a Mac or mobile?
Yes, Office 365 has compatibility with all common devices and operating systems, including Mac, Android, iOS, Chrome OS and Windows.
Which Office 365 is best for me?
There’s a host of different plans available for non-profits, small businesses and enterprises that come with a variety of different features. Microsoft provides significantly discounted Office 365 packages for non-profits recognised as charities in their countries. humanIT can assist you in selecting the best option for you and your business or organisation.