How Businesses Can Simplify Software Management

From office productivity suites to industry-specific programs, software powers how businesses operate today. Nevertheless, managing many applications and licenses gets complex for both IT teams and end users. Things like license renewals, security updates, access controls, and training on new tools consume time and resources. Working with a provider of Microsoft 365 license managed services like Opkalla means companies can simplify software management. This lifts administrative burdens while providing smoother access to the software employees need to be productive.

Consolidate Applications

The average business uses up to 160 different software programs, but relies on just a handful for core operations. Streamlining and consolidating simplifies things drastically. Evaluate all niche applications and redundant programs currently in use and identify opportunities to standardize on a single solution across departments versus making standalone purchases. Build a case for employees to use one centralized ecosystem like Microsoft 365 instead of various productivity and collaboration apps. Reducing the total number of applications and vendors to manage cuts complexity for IT and employees alike.

Centralize Provisioning and Access

With a range of software in use, providing access and permissions gets challenging. Employees join and leave while consultants and seasonal workers require temporary access. Keeping all identities and access privileges updated takes extensive effort. Through license managed services, businesses centralize identity management. Settings, policies, and permissions integrate across Microsoft apps, which relieves IT teams from continually provisioning access one-off. Automated account setup, group assignments, and de-provisioning simplify core tasks.

Streamline License Management

Tracking software licenses represents a massive administrative headache for businesses. Microsoft 365 license managed services provide robust tracking and management of licenses. Dashboards deliver visibility into usage and renewals for budgeting. Automated alerts notify administrators of non-compliant deployments.

Stay Current with Latest Version

Letting software versions get out of date opens security risks and performance issues, but testing patches and upgrades at scale is prohibitive for IT teams. Managed services for Microsoft 365 remove this burden through regular updates aligned to company policies. The service handles assessments, testing, and deployment in the background. Employees gain continuous access to the latest functionality and fixes. For programs like Windows and Office, major version updates bring new capabilities to boost productivity. Managed services smooth access to innovations so businesses can fully leverage their investments.

Reduce End User Friction

One of the biggest sources of software complexity comes from end users. When forced to navigate lots of separate applications, pieces of functionality get missed or under-used. Confusion and lack of training causes frustration, which drags down productivity instead of unlocking it. Microsoft managed services arrangement provides self-service access to apps and capabilities under one portal, simplifying onboarding and keeps tools front of mind once live. Built-in training resources, chatbots, and support reduce friction getting up to speed.

Customize to Needs

While streamlining software, companies still require customization around their needs. Managed services enable this through cloud-based management portals. For example, if specific devices or user groups need access restrictions, that gets configured in one spot. Unique app deployment and authentication policies also simplify accommodating business requirements. Options to integrate single sign-on and provisioning with existing directory services are available.

Conclusion

Microsoft 365 empowers employees through its suite of productivity and business process applications. But without the right management strategy in place, software creates headaches for IT and end users. Moving to a managed services arrangement helps companies streamline access, simplify licensing, apply policies, and keep tools updated. This reduces the compounding complexity around provisioning and supporting software. With efficient cloud-based management, businesses free up resources to focus elsewhere while enabling staff to fully utilize technology investments to drive the organization forward.