The ability to leverage basic office automation is key benefit of Office 365, but most organizations forget that the next generation cloud service goes well beyond basic automation. If you're currently managing time-off requests, service requests, expense reimbursements, and other core business processes manually, you could be missing out on Office 365 money saving opportunities for your organization. One 2011 Forrester study of the Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Office 365 was fairly blunt in the tool's savings potential:

"Office 365 delivered a 315% return on investment with a four month payback period for the composite enterprise organization. Office 365 has a lower TCO, and greatly reduces implementation times compared to a similar on premises solution."

The robustness of Office 365 allows for a great deal of creativity when finding ways to save your organization money. But there are five major ways that small to mid-sized businesses frequently save money by switching to the cloud.

Office 365 Software Savings

• Eliminate Third-Party Software: Many organizations naturally build up a large library of periodically-billed software to assist daily business operations, software that Office 365 may eliminate. Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, for example, eliminate the need for additional email anti-spam and antivirus software.
• Reduce Web Conferencing Costs: Microsoft Lync Online is a robust web conferencing platform included with Office 365. Using one system company-wide can cut downtime when running meetings and altogether reduce the need for additional software costs.

Productivity Savings

• Cut Travel Costs: Organizations that regularly visit clients for face-to-face meetings can use Office 365's collaboration and productivity tools to seamlessly run remote meetings. Savings in expenses like gas and restaurant bills for client meetings can be dramatic.
• Eliminate Hard IT Costs: Office 365 cuts IT costs in several ways. As a cloud-based solution, hardware no longer needs to be installed or managed on-premise. Microsoft's Help Desk service can be a huge boon for organizations with packed tech requests. You can reassign IT support and help desk resources accordingly.
• Enjoy General Productivity Gains: The combination of Exchange Online, Office Professional Plus, Lync Online, and SharePoint Online cooperate to offer improved communication between employees and better knowledge sharing. When employees work remotely, Office 365 gives them the ability to access all documents and IT resources as if they were on-premises.

Your IT department shouldn't be bogged down by general day-to-day requests like simply keeping software and hardware running properly. Office 365 improves workplace productivity while freeing up key personnel to improve your top and bottom line. As the world's workforce continues to evolve towards remote opportunities, Office 365 gives you the tools to stay competitive.