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A look at Office DelveMany small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have started using Microsoft 365 to enhance their processes and productivity. This means the amount of data created by Microsoft 365 is growing, posing some challenges in tracking connections and information. This is where the Office Delve feature comes in handy. What is Office Delve? Office Delve is a […]

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A look at Office Delve

Many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have started using Microsoft 365 to enhance their processes and productivity. This means the amount of data created by Microsoft 365 is growing, posing some challenges in tracking connections and information. This is where the Office Delve feature comes in handy.

What is Office Delve?

Office Delve is a cloud-based data solution, file hub, enterprise social network, and collaborative tool developed using Microsoft Graph. It is currently available for Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Standard, Office 365 Government, Office 365 Education, and Office 365 Enterprise. This nifty tool allows you to:

  • Discover new information – Delve displays information from different sources in Microsoft 365 that you may find useful for what you’re currently working on.
  • Discover what you need – Documents you have seen before, or have recently worked on, are highlighted and made easier for you to find, regardless of where they are stored. This makes it less taxing to find work you have done/started in the past, and continue from where you left off.
  • Discover new connections – Typing a name in Microsoft 365 will allow you to see what a user is working on, their connections, and even connect with them to build relationships and share information.

How does it work?

Microsoft created Delve with a tool called Graph to provide users with information they’ll find useful. Graph maps the relationships among the various Microsoft 365 users in your company and the content/information related to them.

This “map” is then used by Delve to provide users with the information they need, when they need it. Content and information are displayed on a card-based screen, which is found under the Delve tab in the main Microsoft 365 launch screen.

Aside from content such as profile information and document links, users can also see likes, views, comments, and tags, bringing a deeper social integration into Microsoft 365.

Delve also orders content in different ways, including:

  • What you’ve recently worked on – shows you content in card-form that you recently opened or worked on
  • Content that has been shared with you – shows the content your colleagues have shared with you
  • Content that has been presented to you – shows content that colleagues have presented recently, or content that has been sent to you

If you don’t have access to your desktop or if you’re working outside the office,you'll be glad to know that Delve is also available for iOS and Android. The mobile app version of Delve lets you browse cards with files, search for colleagues, view documents they have shared with you, and view their recent activity.

Is my data safe with Office Delve?

Delve keeps all your documents private by default unless you want to share them with other users. For example, if you have a document stored in a private folder, you’ll be the only one who can access and modify it through Delve. If that document is in a shared folder, it’s accessible to you and the people you shared it with.

If you are looking to learn more about Delve, contact us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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An excellent update to Microsoft ExcelIt’s difficult to create budget plans, data entry records, and financial information without a productivity tool like Microsoft Excel. Over the years, it’s been a staple in most offices because of its many useful functions, which aid in making business decisions a lot easier. And with a new feature, Excel has become even handier. Previous […]

The post An excellent update to Microsoft Excel appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

An excellent update to Microsoft Excel

It’s difficult to create budget plans, data entry records, and financial information without a productivity tool like Microsoft Excel. Over the years, it’s been a staple in most offices because of its many useful functions, which aid in making business decisions a lot easier. And with a new feature, Excel has become even handier.

Previous Excel upgrades include the addition of dynamic arrays and array formulas, a feature that enabled single formulas to return an array of values. Another upgrade was the Stocks and Geography function, which lets users add stock and geography data into a spreadsheet with the help of the search engine Bing. These are both useful, but Microsoft decided to add even more functionality to the program.

New data types

Excel has always been a formidable tool for storing text, numbers, and formulas and allowing users to process information out of them. Still, the data that one could put in Excel grids were limited because they were flat. Recent upgrades improve upon that limitation.

Luckily, users can now add data types to Excel, making the program more dynamic and intelligent. These data types effectively expand what information inside cells can do. In particular, cells can now contain not just text and number data, but a connected, up-to-the-minute collection of information such as currencies, cities, population, stocks, and the like. Simply put, cells can interact with charts and formulas with live data.

Data in cells can be used as a reference for an even larger collection of different data types, images, and actions. In other words, you’re no longer just typing data and writing formulas into a cell, although you can still do both. Rather, a cell can contain a specific set of information that branches out into subsets of data that you would otherwise need to type directly into the cell.

For example, if you’re creating or upgrading a customer information spreadsheet, things like transaction history, preferences, or phone numbers don’t have to be typed one by one. Adding customer-specific data types could simplify this process: entering a customer name in a cell would link to a network of information about a specific entry (i.e., customer) using a scroll-over menu, as opposed to having to enter all that information manually. This makes data input more flexible, efficient, and less prone to error resulting from copy-pasting and manual entry.

Enhancements for Power BI customers

It is, however, users of Microsoft Power BI, the company’s business intelligence program, who will greatly benefit from the upgrades. If your company uses Power BI, data published into your account will automatically link to Excel, which makes the flow of company data types into the program more seamless.

In addition, Microsoft’s data connection technology Power Query will allow users to create custom data types, while pre-configured data types (through a partnership with knowledge engine provider Wolfram Alpha) will also soon be added to let users track different types of information.

This only scratches the surface of what these Excel upgrades can do. For more Office and general productivity tips, consult our IT experts today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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How do Microsoft 365 Groups connectors work?The cross-application service in Microsoft 365 known as Groups enables members of a team to collaborate and share resources with one another. Such resources can be a calendar, spreadsheets, and even an Microsoft Outlook inbox, among others. Groups also has a feature called connectors that allows users to share content from third-party services right in […]

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How do Microsoft 365 Groups connectors work?

The cross-application service in Microsoft 365 known as Groups enables members of a team to collaborate and share resources with one another. Such resources can be a calendar, spreadsheets, and even an Microsoft Outlook inbox, among others. Groups also has a feature called connectors that allows users to share content from third-party services right in Outlook, making workflows more seamless. Let’s take a peek at what connectors can do for your team.

How do connectors work?

Connectors enable users to access third-party apps and services within their Outlook groups, eliminating the need to scour through dozens of tabs to open a specific application. For example, your staff can keep tabs on a particular hashtag your company is following on Twitter without having to open the app in another tab. They can also receive the latest news and current events by adding the Bing News connector, or keep track of projects by connecting to Trello or Asana.

Content and updates from connected apps and services are delivered via connector cards, which offer a user-friendly way to interact with external applications. If a particular connector is added to a Group, connector cards are generated within the group’s activity feed. While most cards will display events in plain text, some applications like Twitter and Trello provide actionable messages. Trello, for example, allows you to assign or comment on an event card — which you can do without leaving Outlook.

Aside from configuring the apps and services to connect to, the connectors feature also allows users to set the frequency of delivery of content and updates, enabling you to better manage your Outlook inbox.

Who can create a connector?

Any group member can configure and use a number of connectors. Once they configure a connector for a group, that app will be made available to other members. However, only the person who added the connector can modify the settings of that app.

Microsoft 365 also lets your business develop its own connectors by embedding the Connect to Microsoft 365 button on your site. This allows users to connect to your service and get updates on your company, as they would with other third-party services. Your Microsoft 365 client basically becomes a hub for third-party apps, keeping your company in sync to get more work done.

How do you access Microsoft 365 connectors?

Simply navigate to a Group from your Outlook page and click on the Connectors tab at the top of the page. From here, you can choose the apps and services your group needs, and connect these to any of your Outlook groups.

As your business grows, you’ll need to use more apps and services to be more productive. By aggregating them all in one place, you save time shifting around apps to find the information you need. So the next time you create a Microsoft 365 Group, help your team members work more efficiently by setting up some connectors.

Microsoft tools like Groups and Outlook help organizations of all sizes improve their workflows and enhance their productivity. If you’re interested in learning about Microsoft apps and what they can do for your business, contact us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Business communications: Teams or Meet?Microsoft and Google have been competing on almost every front, and both have made big strides in machine learning, cloud computing, and productivity software. In terms of communication solutions, the tech powerhouses are also neck and neck with Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. These platforms share common calling and video conferencing features, but depending on […]

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Business communications: Teams or Meet?

Microsoft and Google have been competing on almost every front, and both have made big strides in machine learning, cloud computing, and productivity software. In terms of communication solutions, the tech powerhouses are also neck and neck with Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. These platforms share common calling and video conferencing features, but depending on your organization’s requirements, one may be more ideal for your company than the other.

Calling features

Microsoft Teams and Google Meet both offer enterprise-grade security, 1080p HD-quality video, and screen sharing capabilities, but there are some slight differences.

In the free version of Microsoft Teams, there is no limit to the number of people who can use its chat and document collaboration functions. Meanwhile, up to 20 users can join an audio or a video call. This number increases to 250 in the paid version.

What’s great about Microsoft Teams is it supports meeting and group call recording, and even has captions and transcription features. It also has an inline message translation feature that translates messages into the language specified in a user’s settings.

On the other hand, Google Meet’s free version supports up to 100 participants in a video call. What’s more, it has intelligent built-in features like muting and auto screen focus, which automatically switches the screen to the person who is currently talking. It also lets people join meetings even without Wi-Fi or data through unique dial-in phone numbers.

Integrations and add-ons

Microsoft Teams is, first and foremost, a unified platform that allows users to communicate and collaborate on a single platform. It comes with powerful content collaboration on Microsoft 365 apps (e.g., Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and easily integrates with hundreds of other productivity and collaboration platforms.

Meanwhile, being a Google product, Google Meet fully integrates with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). For instance, users can schedule appointments and set call reminders within Google Meet using Google Calendar. Users can even broadcast their presentations live on YouTube.

Pricing

Both Microsoft Teams and Google Meet have free versions but with limited features. With the free version of Microsoft Teams, users can join a meeting and use its screen and file sharing features even without an account. However, they cannot record and save meetings. They also cannot take advantage of call encryption and call-in features if they do not have a Microsoft 365 account.

The most affordable subscription is $5 per month per user, and an additional $4 per user is needed for the call-in capabilities. Adding webinar features is also an additional cost if users want to livestream events to hundreds of people.

Meanwhile, users can use Google Meet for free with their personal Gmail accounts, but also with limited capabilities. A subscription that starts at $6 per month per user, however, lets users get Google Meet along with all the other powerful Google business apps and tools.

What works for you?

Knowing the similarities and differences between the two platforms, it should be easy for you to decide which suits your business the best. Google designed Google Meet for startups and small companies that need a low-cost communications solution, while Microsoft Teams, with its robust features, is suitable for small and large businesses alike.

If you’re still unsure about either product, you can opt for a free trial to help you in making the decision. Otherwise, you can contact our team today so we can recommend a VoIP solution that’s perfect for your business.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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