Skyhigh has released a report that includes some interesting data points about Office 365, SharePoint, and the ways in which organizations are (and aren’t) making use of the productivity and collaboration platforms.
In its report, released to coincide with the debut of Windows 10, security and compliance firm Skyhigh takes a look at how Office 365 is changing how companies work. And there are a lot of companies leveraging the online productivity suite: In an analysis of the cloud usage of its 21 million users, Skyhigh found that 87.3 percent of organizations have at least 100 active Office 365 users.
"When asked to identify the benefits of Office 365, IT leaders frequently mention its cost advantages and ability to improve the productivity of an increasingly mobile workforce," notes the report, written by senior product marketing manager Cameron Coles.
Here are six take-aways from the report:
1. Windows 10 requirements may spur increased adoption of Office 365: “Windows 10 will offer deeper integration with OneDrive and the new Universal Office apps for Windows 10 (the new version of Office that supports desktop, tablet, and mobile devices) will require an Office 365 subscription. We expect that this requirement will lead many companies to accelerate their Office 365 migrations,” states the report.
2. SharePoint and OneDrive aren’t just for internal use. The average enterprise collaborates with 72 business partners via the platforms.
3. The top industries connecting with business partners via Office 365 are high tech, manufacturing, energy, financial services and business services.
4. There’s sensitive data in that thar’ cloud. Skyhigh notes that there is a “surprising amount” of sensitive data being uploaded to the Office 365 cloud. More specifically, 17.4 percent of documents in OneDrive and SharePoint Online contain sensitive data. This includes personally identifiable info, protected health info, payment data and confidential data.
5. It appears that users aren’t putting their passwords on Post-It notes and sticking them on their monitors. Instead, and maybe worse, they are storing them in files that include the word “password.” (The Skyhigh report notes that the average company has 143 files on OneDrive that include the word “password.”)
6. Companies are taking a staged approach to Office 365 migration. At the average organization, just 6.8 percent of users have moved to Office 365. Skyhigh calls this a "land and expand" opportunity for Microsoft, as the Office 365 users collaborate with the 93.2 percent of on-premise users (perhaps bringing the latter over to the cloud side?).
Do Skyhigh's findings sync up with what you are seeing at your own organization? Will Windows 10 affect your adoption of the online versions of Office and SharePoint? Please let us know in the comments section below.
