GLOBAL – When it comes to being entertained and connected, the Nokia Lumia smartphones are the tool for the job. However, they’re not all about the fun-times, they’re also the perfect gadget to help get things done when you’re in (or out of) the office.
Whether you’ve got a Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 or a Nokia Lumia 900, your smartphone will have all the necessary software installed to make your life easier in many different areas.
As you sit at your work desk, chances are you’re using a Windows-based PC. That’s because Windows 7 is the world’s most popular OS and Windows XP comes in a close second – according to W3Counter.
If you’re working in an environment where collaboratively working on documents is a regular occurance (77 percent of workers according to a recent SkyDrive Infographic), then you’ll need an easy way to do it. With Microsoft Office 365 you can create documents online at your computer and save them in your newly created Office 365 cloud space.
The great thing about this is that you can create, edit and share all the documents on this online space and access them from your Nokia Lumia smartphone.
What’s more, any edits you make on the document on your phone will then be reflected in the documents held online for all your colleagues to see. All of these edits are traceable by using the comments option when editing documents with your phone.
Other useful features include: shared calendars; antivirus and anti-spamming filtering; team intranet site; and Microsoft community support.
It does require a bit of setting up and also a monthly fee which varies depending on your specific needs as a company. But if you’re looking into serious collaboration tools, they don’t come better than this.
For package information and set-up instructions, head to the Microsoft Office 365 homepage.
If collaboration isn’t that much of a big deal in your daily tasks but creating lots of documents is, then the standard Office tools built into your Nokia Lumia smartphone will help you out a lot.
With Office you can create Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets using Microsoft Office Mobile. You can also make edits to existing documents using these tools which is very useful if you’ve ran out of time at the office and want to work on your presentation during your commute home.
Once you’ve finished creating or editing your documents you can share them with colleagues via email, or upload them to your SkyDrive account.
That leads us nicely to SkyDrive. What is it? SkyDrive is a cloud-based service that can hold all your documents, but it’s not just limited to documents. It can also store videos, music and other file types.
Depending on what industry you work in, this cloud-based service can be invaluable. If you’re a photographer, you can use SkyDrive to store all your photos. If you’re an accountant, it’s a great place to save your spreadsheets and if you’re a writer, it’s the perfect place to store a copy of your first novel.
SkyDrive is accesible by both the Web from any computer, and also your Nokia Lumia smartphone. This means that you’re never far away from the important files in your life and there’s no more waiting to get home to check up on something.
With SkyDrive, you can share entire folders with other people, or just share single items if you’d prefer. By default, all items and folders are set to private to ensure that nobody gets to see that confidential information.
Email is usually a fairly reliable way of keeping in contact with the rest of your colleagues. However, we all know that IM is better. You get a reply from an IM much quicker than an email. GroupMe is a part of the Skype family and is a great way to group certain people into certain categories.
By searching through your people list you can put people into separate groups, such as coworkers. Then, when you need to, you can update all youu colleagues at the same time with one IM. It’s a great, fast way of getting a fast response.
With all this document making/editing storing of various media types complete, it’s often the case that you’ll need to go into a meeting to discuss work events.
With the built-in calendar on your Nokia Lumia, you can create meeting requests and add people from your people list that you require to attend. This will then email that meeting request directly to those people where they’ll be given the opportunity to accept or decline the meeting request. The calendar entry in your phone will then show you who’s accepted, or not.
Do you use any of these features and find them useful? Use the comments section below to let us know.