Today's post was written by Marcus Johnson internationally renowned jazz musician and CEO & Co-Founder of FLO Wine.

As a part of FLO Brands, a lifestyle company I co-founded, FLO Wines aspires to enhance our customers' lives one sip at a time. We strive to make each experience with our wines a little better than the last and work hard to ensure that FLO Wine provides an exceptional experience for customers.

As a jazz musician and entrepreneur, Microsoft Office 365 has improved the way I work and I find new things every day that get me more and more excited about our decision to move to Office 365 - and I have only touched the surface.

Every couple weeks we round up industry news and articles you might have missed. Read on for our latest selections.

With the 50th annual National Small Business Week kicking off June 17th, it's amazing to think just how vital small businesses are to our economy. Small businesses make up 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms, 49 percent of private sector employment, and 46 percent of private sector output, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Recently, we've started to see some signs of turnaround in the economy, and some interesting conversations are sure to be had during the Small Business Administration's annual National Small Business Week kicking off in Seattle and across the US on June 17. It is exciting to see this infographic and report from Babson College citing a record high number of startups in the U.S. in 2012. According to the report, 13 percent of the U.S. adult population is currently engaged in entrepreneurship; a significant jump that Forbes highlighted as a positive pulse point for the American economy. 

About five years ago, Veyance Technologies became an independent company after being carved out of Goodyear. Veyance manufactures and sells engineered rubber goods-products like heavy-duty conveyer belts and industrial hoses. As a private-equity spinoff of a company with roots that go back more than a century, we combine deep process expertise and supply-chain resources with the go-to-market approach of a new company. 

When I took the position as CIO at Veyance, my biggest objective was to use technology to help modernize our business. My first priority was helping move the company to a shared services model so that we could improve operating efficiency and lower our costs. I saw an opportunity to leverage the speed, elasticity, scale, and variable cost advantages that come from implementing cloud technology as a way to rapidly achieve the company's global shared services vision. 

When challenges arise, LEVICK can make the difference that leads to a positive outcome. LEVICK is a leading strategic communications firm driving communications in the highest-profile global matters for companies and countries. From our offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, we deploy uniquely qualified teams, armed with the instincts, influence, and experience needed to win battles in an increasingly complex and challenging world.

Our teams rely on quick and effective communications. Over time, we found that we needed a single workspace where we could go for information, files, and intra-office communication that would be easily accessible both in and out of the office. With about 10 percent of our staff using Macs and more staff working remotely, moving to the cloud became necessary.

Every couple weeks we round up industry news and articles you might have missed. Read on for our latest selections.

Office 365 helps realize the most complete vision of business productivity. No other enterprise-class vendor provides the broad set of business productivity services that Office 365 does. Choosing a different primary solution means supplementing that solution with additional services to fill gaps. This means stitching together multiple technologies that introduce both complexity and varied experiences. Customers who purchase Office 365 get the most complete solution while eliminating this complexity.

Why compromise? Get the most value by choosing the enterprise-class capabilities of Office 365 for your business today!

Today the Skype division announced the availability of Lync-Skype connectivity for customers around the world. This is our first step in combining the enterprise richness of Lync with the global reach of Skype to connect working professionals to a broad network of their suppliers, customers and partners.

The Office 365 Team had a chance to ask Stephen Roux, Infrastructure Manager at L'Occitane, about what this means for his company. Here's what he had to say....

Office 365 Team: Can you share some background on the role communications plays at L'Occitane?  

Stephen Roux: As a global brand, L'Occitane requires efficient and easy to use tools to communicate. Communications technology is important to us because enabling our employees to use communications tools to be more productive is such an important part of my charter. We want to improve the capabilities and experience so our team can work as efficiently as possible and minimize the company's environmental impact.

Today, our employees are enjoying the enhanced videoconferencing capabilities.  It's much more like meeting in person and has helped us personalize company interactions, reduce travel costs and minimize the environmental impact of the company.

Additionally, because of the tight integration of telephony with email messaging in Microsoft Lync, employees can quickly escalate email messages to voice calls and web conferences with just a few mouse clicks. For instance, if a sudden design change affects a store, a designer can set up an audio or video conference with an architect on the spot. These efficiencies help L'Occitane open stores faster and ensure that all design details are implemented correctly.

We're excited to announce we've just published new global research looking at worker appetite for enterprise social tools. You'll find lots of data here. The upshot is more than three quarters of workers want social tools to increase productivity and collaboration, and nearly a third would bring social tools into their organization through the back door. We refer to this trend as "bring your own service."  

Enterprise social is a critical cornerstone of workplace collaboration. It addresses the changing nature of work and employee demographics. Done right, social tools can create significant business value by improving how people connect, share information and work across teams and geographies to name a few.