Imagine a football team; eleven players, all committed to getting the same result, but sent out by eleven different managers, with eleven different ideas on how the game should go. They might score the odd goal, perhaps; but they couldn't possibly play as well as they're capable of, disjointed and contradictory, incapable of working as anything other than far less than the sum of their parts.

Sounds foolish, yes? Unrealistic? Of course.

The team - any team - relies on cohesion and coordination, on both the shared purpose and the shared instruction. The workplace team is no different; whether large or small, the organisation needs its staff working together, towards the same end and following the same directions to get there. But the tools to get there... all too often, these can be brought together in an ad hoc fashion, the relevant staff members being presented with software for a particular job, and taught to use only the basic functions needed there and then.

Yet, with a range of applications that are cohesive, that are coordinated, so much more can be achieved. By adopting the Microsoft Office suite, staff can benefit from an array of software that is entirely compatible, that can be used together to create, manage, analyse and display data and bring the greatest benefit to the organisation.

Take just one individual piece of data; perhaps Annie in accounts has entered that month's sales figures into Excel, the MS Office spreadsheet. Anthony in admin needs this information in a word processing document that will be sent out to shareholders, whilst Mal in marketing requires graphical analysis of the month's sales.

Meanwhile, Phyllis plans to portray this data to management at a major meeting. Without software that works together, this could easily be a disjointed and time-consuming process, with individual steps taken quite separately, and each new use for the figures having to be put together manually.

Microsoft Office can transform both the efficiency and effectiveness of these operations. Mal can make use of the wide range of analytical tools included within Excel, identifying trends, creating charts, and making projections automatically from just the basic data entered by Annie. Anthony can insert the Excel data, very simply, into his Word document - he can also freely append the charts and statistics that Mal has created, all dropped straight into the document with the utmost ease.

What's more, this information could also be used in a company brochure or report, created using Microsoft Publisher. All these different types of information, having come from MS Office applications, can be moved about freely between different programs within the suite.

All this information can also be brought into Phyllis' Powerpoint presentation; quickly and effectively, a few bare sales figures can now be brought visually before management, clearly and comprehensively. The simplicity with which this process can be completed would mark a tremendous, and indeed vital, improvement on the uncoordinated and ad hoc approach described earlier. But, moreover, the versatility and choice offered by the Office suite can greatly enhance any information that you wish to present, manage, analyse or disseminate.

Each individual application has a wide variety of simple tools for preparing the information just how you need it - but when different applications are combined and working in tandem, Office allows an enormous depth of options and opportunities for a skilled and trained staff. Bringing your whole office into the Office suite can work wonders for the quality, presentation, cohesion and efficiency of your output.

To make the most of all the opportunities that Office can offer your organisation, your staff will need the skills to take advantage of this versatile and powerful software. Best STL offers a range of training courses for all skill levels, and in all the aspects of Office, and giving your organisation the chance to get ahead in a competitive market.