3 Things about Microsoft Office You Need to know

2 min read
December 14, 2020

The year is coming to an end and 2021 is just around the corner. It is time to plan strategy for the coming year, to strengthen your company and make it even more efficient. This is the second time we have conducted a comprehensive study to find out how productive and consistent companies are with Microsoft Office this time with market research specialist Nielsen. In this article we highlight some key findings from the German study that should influence your strategy for 2021 in terms of efficiency and corporate design in Office. The global and US Office Suite Study is coming soon. 

3 Microsoft Office things for your business strategy

 

Market leader and essential component of office work 

Microsoft remains the productivity suite standard in the vast majority of offices in Germany. With a market share of 85%, Microsoft Office dominates the German market and  leaves alternatives like  Google Docs, Apple iWork, and LibreOffice far behind. 

Office’s central role in daily work can be seen by looking at working time and output. Every office employee in Germany uses at least one of the Microsoft applications, spending 23 hours a week on average working in Office programs. On average, they create eight documents and send 71 e-mails every week 

Our Office study shows the major influence Office can have on productivity and on a company’s overall success. Our report includes detailed statistics on the use of individual Office applications. 

What steals most of our time in Microsoft Office 

Considering the number of documents created and hours worked in MS Officeyou should question how efficiently you spend your time in Office. To get to the bottom of this question, we asked 1,023 employees in German companies what they consider the biggest productivity enemies when working with Office. Formatting in particular proved especially time-consuming. Whether adjusting fonts and colorsplacing logos correctly, or designing attractive diagrams, every employee loses seven hours per week that they could use instead for what really drives them. The study identifies additional time eaters that waste a significant amount of working time.  

E-book: Digital Workplace with Microsoft Office Download now for free!

 

What about corporate design in Microsoft Office? 

Even though people spend a large part of their work hours formatting documents in Officeevery second document in German companies does not comply with their company’s corporate designSince Office documents are often shared externally, a company’s brand suffers considerable damage as a result of that poor design compliance. Office plays a decisive role in communicating the brand.  

What you can learn from our study for your business strategy 

Our study highlights 3 major factors where Microsoft Office impacts productivity, the company's brand communication, and the overall success of the company:  

  • Microsoft Office is at home in almost every office in Germany and takes up a substantial part of our working time.  
  • However, a lot of time is spent on the biggest productivity enemy in Office: formatting documents.  
  • Half of all documents do not comply with corporate design and therefore harm the brand. 

 

Raise the bar for your business strategy

Working better with Microsoft Office offers many optimization possibilities to increase efficiency and strengthen the any company’s external communication in the coming year.  

One approach is to make design-compliant templates and other tools easily available to employees so they can format presentations faster and implement corporate design more accurately. 

The detailed report from our German office suite study reveals important findings about working with Office as well as solutions to strengthen your company with Office. 

Global Office Study

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