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Use Single Sign-On to Tackle Account Sprawl

No matter how valuable your cloud subscriptions are, each new set of login credentials users are forced to create and memorize adds another level of inefficiency. With something called Single Sign-On (SSO), you can create one user profile that logs you into all your online accounts.

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20 Feb, 2018 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Office 365, Security category
Use Single Sign-On to Tackle Account Sprawl

No matter how valuable your cloud subscriptions are, each new set of login credentials users are forced to create and memorize adds another level of inefficiency. With something called Single Sign-On (SSO), you can create one user profile that logs you into all your online accounts. If you’re overwhelmed by the number of passwords linked to your name, SSO is a dream come true.

What is SSO?

Single Sign-On solutions allow you to create one username and one password that thousands of websites will recognize. If you’ve ever clicked ‘Login with Google’ on a non-Google website, you’ve already enjoyed the benefits of SSO. It’s faster, simpler, and more secure. Now, small businesses can accomplish the same level of efficiency between their employees and cloud platforms.

Instead of asking everyone in the office to track separate accounts for Office 365, Slack, Quickbooks, and whatever other cloud applications your company relies on, you can give them one set of credentials and manage what they have access to remotely. Employees come to work, enter their ACME Inc. username and password, and they’re set for the day.

Why is SSO more secure?

There are a number of ways to set up a small-business SSO solution, but most of them focus on removing login information from your servers or network storage. Usually, you’ll provide your employees’ logins to an SSO provider (sometimes referred to as an Identity-as-a-Service provider) and each employee will receive a single login paired with a secondary authentication -- like a fingerprint or an SMS to a personal device.

Each time one of your employees visits a cloud platform, such as Office 365, the SSO provider will verify the user’s identity and the security of the connection. If anything looks amiss, your IT provider will be notified.

Should your network or any of its devices be compromised, hackers would find nothing but logins to your SSO accounts, which are meaningless without fingerprints or mobile devices.

How to get started with SSO

The first step when setting up a Single Sign-On solution is making sure you have a healthy and responsive IT support system in place. You need a team that is constantly available to review suspicious alerts and troubleshoot employee issues. If you don’t currently have that capacity, contact us today and we’ll help you out!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Office 365 enhancements for iOS and Mac

Good news for Office 365 subscribers who use Apple devices: Microsoft apps now seamlessly integrate with the Apple ecosystem, which means working on documents is now much easier on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Here are some of those key capabilities.

Co-authoring in Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Apple users can now co-edit documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

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13 Feb, 2018 / by Complete Technology Resources / in iPad, iPhone, Office, Office 365 category
Office 365 enhancements for iOS and Mac

Good news for Office 365 subscribers who use Apple devices: Microsoft apps now seamlessly integrate with the Apple ecosystem, which means working on documents is now much easier on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Here are some of those key capabilities.

Co-authoring in Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Apple users can now co-edit documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. This new feature for Apple products allows several users to work, edit, or view changes in a document at once, whether from a PC, Mac, or mobile device. This feature also allows co-authors to track and identify other users who are making changes in real time.

Autosave documents in the cloud

The latest updates also come with an autosave feature for Apple users. This functionality not only automatically saves files, but also lets users view and restore previous versions of their content, similar to the autosave function in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

OneDrive support for iOS’s Files app

iOS’s Files app, which was introduced in the iOS 11 update, made searching and organizing documents more convenient for iPhone and iPad users. However, it’s only now that Microsoft has integrated its own cloud storage platform with the Apple app. OneDrive for iOS now supports the Files app, which means users can access and edit all their files in OneDrive or Sharepoint, and easily classify them via a new tagging feature.

File type preview enhancements

The improved list view in OneDrive for iOS makes viewing file names and relevant details and sorting files much easier. This view option includes thumbnails on file previews and support for 130 file types that can be opened, viewed, or shared within OneDrive.

Drag-and-drop functionality

A drag-and-drop capability is nothing new in iOS, but it was previously limited to moving around files from non-Office sources and apps. With the latest update, Apple users can drag and drop files from various sources that now includes OneDrive, Office, and other Microsoft sources. This capability saves users’ time when adding photos, graphs, and other files into documents or presentations on their iPad, iPhone or Mac.

Better search function in Outlook

Microsoft has also improved searching in Outlook for iOS because the search function now has its own tab in the navigation bar. The search feature is now more intuitive; tapping on the tab gives you instant access to top contacts, upcoming travel itineraries and deliveries, and recently accessed attachments.

These recent updates to Microsoft’s productivity tools aim to make users’ life much easier regardless of the device they use. But there’s way more Office 365 apps and programs to help you work more efficiently, and we have Microsoft consultants who can help you maximize all of them. Just give us a call.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Differentiating Groups, Yammer, and Teams

Yammer, Outlook Groups, and Microsoft Teams have plenty in common. They’re all Office 365 tools designed for sharing files and communicating with colleagues. So what differentiates each from the other and when should you use them? Here's a quick rundown to help you decide.

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26 Jan, 2018 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Office, Office 365 category
Differentiating Groups, Yammer, and Teams

Yammer, Outlook Groups, and Microsoft Teams have plenty in common. They’re all Office 365 tools designed for sharing files and communicating with colleagues. So what differentiates each from the other and when should you use them? Here's a quick rundown to help you decide.

Outlook Groups
With Outlook Groups, every member gets a shared inbox, calendar, project planner, notebook, and document library. You also get the ability to connect to third-party apps -- like Twitter, Trello, and Mailchimp -- so notifications are sent directly to your shared inbox.

This means all relevant messages and information are contained in one place, so if a majority of your conversations occur via email then, Outlook Groups is the perfect choice. What’s more, HR and Sales departments that communicate with external parties will also find plenty of uses for its email features.

One drawback with Outlook Groups, however, is email overload. Because all messages and notifications are sent to one inbox, users may be overwhelmed by the number of emails they have to sort through every day.

Microsoft Teams
Then there’s Microsoft Teams, a chat-based collaboration platform similar to Slack. It works with Skype for Business so you can text, call, video chat, and share files with colleagues. And thanks to its seamless integrations with other Office 365 programs, you can even work on shared files without having to leave the app.

Unlike Groups, Microsoft Teams is designed for high-velocity collaboration, making it the best of the three for completing projects with tight deadlines or other tasks where employees need immediate feedback.

Yammer
Much like Groups and Teams, Yammer works well with other Office 365 tools like Outlook and OneDrive. But the big difference is Yammer is a social media app designed to foster open communication and break down barriers between teams.

With Yammer, important files and announcements can be shared with the entire company like an office bulletin board. What’s more, users can see the most popular post on their feeds, follow it, and even provide their input by leaving a comment.

Yammer also takes design elements and features from popular social media apps like Facebook, making it a popular choice for companies with a significant number of millennials in their workforce.

Although we’ve discussed the fundamental differences between Groups, Teams, and Yammer, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what each app can do. To figure out which apps you need, you must understand how your employees work, how they prefer to collaborate, and what you want to achieve.

But there’s another way to find the right app for your business. Contact us today for an IT assessment!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Boosting Office 365 with AI Capabilities

In the past month, Microsoft has beefed up Office 365 with AI-driven capabilities designed to help businesses make the most of their data, company content, collaborative projects and more. Read on to learn about the new smart features you can expect in the Office 365 update.

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10 Jan, 2018 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Office, Office 365, Productivity category
Boosting Office 365 with AI Capabilities

In the past month, Microsoft has beefed up Office 365 with AI-driven capabilities designed to help businesses make the most of their data, company content, collaborative projects and more. Read on to learn about the new smart features you can expect in the Office 365 update.

Automatically Uncover Trends in Excel Data

Finding useful information lurking in massive tables of jumbled numbers and data can be quite a headache. Not with Insights Preview! This feature uses machine learning to analyze Excel data, highlight patterns, and create visualizations to make information easier to locate and digest.

Search Text Within Images

Thanks to Office 365's Intelligent Search feature, any printed words in images uploaded to SharePoint and OneDrive are now automatically detected, extracted, and made searchable. This makes it possible to find screenshots, receipts, and business cards based on the text they contain.

Understand Company Jargon with Acronyms

Microsoft Word’s new Acronyms feature will help users understand workplace-specific acronyms. This feature uses machine learning to analyze your employees' vernacular and automatically create a useful glossary of terms.

Improve collaboration with the Whiteboard Preview App

This real-time digital canvas makes interactions between team members easier, whether they’re working on a conference room screen or across different devices and locations. The app is equipped with freehand drawing tools, geometry recognition, data illustration tools, and more to improve both business and creative projects.

As Microsoft gears itself toward making AI accessible to every user and organization, we are excited to see more smart features rolling out in Office 365 products in the near future.

But how can these upgrades transform your business? Can it save time and cut costs? There’s no better way to understand these updates than to chat with our team of IT professionals. Give us a call to learn more or to set up the new Office 365 in your workplace today!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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