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Microsoft 365 unveiled

Microsoft has sold Office 365 and Windows 10 to businesses in various ways. While some business owners don’t mind purchasing the two solutions separately, others prefer one bundle that offers both. And that’s now possible with Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 combines Office 365 and Windows 10 into one solution, which will be available in two plans: Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Enterprise.

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01 Aug, 2017 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Office 365, Windows category
Microsoft 365 unveiled

Microsoft has sold Office 365 and Windows 10 to businesses in various ways. While some business owners don’t mind purchasing the two solutions separately, others prefer one bundle that offers both. And that’s now possible with Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 combines Office 365 and Windows 10 into one solution, which will be available in two plans: Microsoft 365 Business and Microsoft 365 Enterprise.

Microsoft 365 Business

Designed for small- to medium-sized companies, this bundle includes Office 365 Business Premium and selected features from Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Simply put, you’ll get cloud versions of Office applications, business class email, Windows 10, and cyber security controls, among many other user-friendly features.

The main difference between the new Microsoft 365 Business and the current Office 365 Business Premium is that the former includes Windows 10, plus a single console to manage settings, automatic Offices apps to Windows 10 PC deployment, and robust security applications like Windows Defender.

Microsoft 365 Business will be available on August 2nd, 2017 for $20 per user per month.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise

Capable of supporting up to 300 users, Microsoft 365 Enterprise is designed for medium-to-large businesses. It combines Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility + Security features into one solution. You can expect all the features of Office 365 including cloud versions of Office applications, access across mobile devices, business-class email, document and email access controls, and Skype for Business.

The inclusion of Windows 10 Enterprise means you’ll get more advanced capabilities than from the basic version such as Credential Guard and Device Guard, extensive manageability and a broad range of options for application management and operating system deployment.

Last but not least, Enterprise Mobility + Security offers comprehensive identity-driven protection, mobile devices and applications management, risk-based conditional access to threat analysis, and single sign-on capabilities across devices to keep things secure.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise is now available with a pricing structure based on your subscription plan.

By choosing the right subscription model, you’ll be able to make the most out of Microsoft’s growing number of service offerings. If you’re looking to upgrade to Windows 10 and have any questions about the operating system, or are wondering which of the two plans to choose, give us a call today.

 

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Comparing Hangouts and Skype

Google and Microsoft have made huge strides with their communication solutions, Hangouts Meet and Skype for Business. Both products offer text, voice, and video chat, but each has unique features suited for specific businesses. To help you make a decision about which solution to install, we compare Hangouts Meet and Skype for Business features so you can see how they stack up against each other.

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19 Jul, 2017 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Office 365, VoIP category
Comparing Hangouts and Skype

Google and Microsoft have made huge strides with their communication solutions, Hangouts Meet and Skype for Business. Both products offer text, voice, and video chat, but each has unique features suited for specific businesses. To help you make a decision about which solution to install, we compare Hangouts Meet and Skype for Business features so you can see how they stack up against each other.

Calling features
While Hangouts and Skype both offer enterprise-grade security, 1080p HD quality video, and screen sharing capabilities, there are some slight differences. For starters, Skype for Business users can set up and record online meetings for up to 250 participants and broadcast meetings for up to 10,000 attendees. With call forwarding and auto-attendant features, Skype ensures you never miss calls and streamlines caller management. What’s more, it has Skype Translator, a plugin that instantly translates voice and text.

Hangouts Meets, on the other hand, supports up to 30 people per session and lacks broadcasting and voting capabilities. It does, however, have intelligent built-in features like auto screen focus and muting so that participants get the right amount of attention when they’re sharing ideas with the group. You can also invite participants to the call by simply sending the URL link of the Hangouts session.

Presence
Hangouts sports a simple green circle to indicate that a contact is online. Skype offers similar features, but the difference is that you have more status options to choose from such as Available, Busy, Away, Do Not Disturb, and In a Call.

Integrations and add-ons
Being a Google product, Hangouts has tight integrations with powerful G Suite apps, including Gmail, Sheets, Maps, YouTube and Google Calendar. With Calendar, Hangouts can schedule appointments and set call reminders within the app. Using YouTube, you can even broadcast your presentations live.

Meanwhile, Skype for Business is heavily integrated into Office 365. This means you can initiate calls with colleagues working on the same Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file. Outside of Microsoft, Skype also integrates with Slack and other unified communication solutions.

Price
The biggest difference between Google and Microsoft’s VoIP product is pricing. Hangouts is offered with every G Suite subscription plan (Basic, Business, Enterprise), and usually starts at $5 per user per month. By comparison, Skype for Business can be purchased as a standalone solution starting at $2 per user per month. Keep in mind, those with Office 365 Business subscriptions also get all the Skype features listed above.

What works for you?
Based on these features, it should be easy for you to decide which platform is suitable for your business. Hangouts is clearly built for startups and small companies that need a low cost communication solution. It supports only up to 30 people per call, and while its features are a bit limited compared to Skype, it does offer companies with fewer than 50 employees what they need.

In contrast, Skype for Business and its robust features are designed for small and large businesses alike. Of course, if you’re still unsure about either product, you should opt for a trial run and make up your mind then. Otherwise, contact our team today so we can recommend a VoIP solution that fits your business.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Workplace Analytics measures productivity

Microsoft’s MyAnalytics was designed for employees to monitor their individual performance. An updated version, Workplace Analytics, is a significant upgrade because it can be accessed by managers. It not only provides managers with insight into an individual employee’s performance, but it also helps them plan and create strategies around increasing productivity and improving employee output and engagement.

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18 Jul, 2017 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Office, Office 365, Productivity category
Workplace Analytics measures productivity

Microsoft’s MyAnalytics was designed for employees to monitor their individual performance. An updated version, Workplace Analytics, is a significant upgrade because it can be accessed by managers. It not only provides managers with insight into an individual employee’s performance, but it also helps them plan and create strategies around increasing productivity and improving employee output and engagement.

How it works

Now available as an add-on to Office 365 enterprise plans, Workplace Analytics extracts behavioral insights from data gathered from Office 365 email, calendar, documents, and Skype. This means that any data an employee types into their email and calendar -- whether it’s on the subject line or the main content itself -- can be used to indicate their productivity status.

The program has an overview dashboard that provides specific information:

  • Week in the Life provides an overall view of how the entire organization spends time and how members collaborate
  • Meetings shows the amount of time spent in meetings
  • Management and Coaching gauges staff-manager one-on-one meetings
  • Network and Collaboration takes a look at how employees connect to colleagues

What does it aim to do?

Workplace Analytics aims to address what, according to Microsoft, are businesses’ most common challenges: complexity, productivity, and engagement.

Using Analytics data, managers and human resources departments can form productivity strategies for the entire company. If, based on Workplace Analytics data, a majority of your employees are spending 60% of their time attending meetings and not enough time doing creative work, they can come up with a strategy that reduces meeting time and focuses more on productive tasks.

It also identifies how employees collaborate with internal and external parties. Suppose one of your sales staff frequently communicates with certain contacts. By using Workplace Analytics data, the employee’s manager would be able to determine whether this particular collaboration pattern is helping the employee hit sales targets or whether he or she is missing out on other more critical contacts. Also, based on this info, managers would be able to determine which employees are most likely to meet or exceed their targets and set company-wide standards accordingly.

Data gathered by Workplace Analytics also allows managers to determine an employee’s level of engagement (i.e., whether the organization’s collaboration patterns are good for the company) and whether workloads are fairly distributed among workers and/or departments.

Is it useful for small businesses?

Large corporations have been using Workplace Analytics, but small businesses can also benefit from it. For one, the data used to provide the insights are all based on data generated by employees themselves -- how much time they spend on meetings, whom they frequently communicate with, and how much time they spend on productive tasks.

Aside from letting managers examine their staff’s working behavior, Workplace Analytics also provides an overall look into what happens at an organizational level. If you want your organization to harness the capabilities of Workplace Analytics and other Office 365 tools, give us a call today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Get more out of Office 365 with Power BI

The benefits of Office 365 have totally changed the way most businesses operate, and it’s hard to believe anything else could have been added to make it even better. But lo and behold, Microsoft has added another excellent feature for getting a better return on your productivity software investment.

The post Get more out of Office 365 with Power BI appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

23 Jun, 2017 / by Complete Technology Resources / in Business Intelligence, Business Value, Office 365 category
Get more out of Office 365 with Power BI

The benefits of Office 365 have totally changed the way most businesses operate, and it’s hard to believe anything else could have been added to make it even better. But lo and behold, Microsoft has added another excellent feature for getting a better return on your productivity software investment.

What is Power BI?

Released in the spring of 2016, Power BI is Microsoft’s business analytics platform. Regardless of whether or not data is stored within a Microsoft platform, connecting Power BI to a database allows you to create detailed graphs, charts, maps, and more. For example, if you upload sales records, dragging and dropping two columns is all it takes to map out where your product sees the most demand.

Recently, Microsoft announced a brand new feature for business owners who want to get more value out of their software subscriptions. The Office 365 adoption content pack collects information about how your employees use Microsoft productivity software, and feeds it directly into Power BI’s analytics. There are four types of insights you can work with:

Adoption

These metrics give you visibility into how much each O365 platform is being used. You may be paying for OneDrive accounts for the entire organization, only for Power BI to reveal that less than a quarter of your team is using it. Compare enabled users and active users to get a clearer picture of your investments.

Communication

You can also see exactly how employees are using communication solutions. If nearly everyone on the team is accessing Skype for Business from a mobile data connection, it might be time to reduce your investments in cellular-based minutes.

Collaboration

Microsoft has several collaboration platforms, and without proper guidance, employees are likely to use the easiest one rather than the best one. Power BI shows you how much time users spend time in their own Word, PowerPoint, and SharePoint documents compared to the time they spend in documents from colleagues. This shows you which platforms encourage the most collaboration and which ones are struggling.

Activation

- The activation insights give you under-the-hood visibility into which versions of O365 users are running, and what devices they use to access them. That may seem like trivial information, but it can have huge impacts on cyber security.

Power BI comes in three different plans: Desktop, Pro, and Premium. Best of all, both the Desktop plan and the Office 365 adoption content pack are totally free. If you like what you see, consider enlisting us to set up and optimize either a Pro or Premium Power BI deployment -- we’re only a phone call away!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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