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AI-based productivity coaching from O365

It seems like every quarter Office 365 is adding a new service that totally changes the way we do business. As we settle into 2017, Microsoft is granting businesses a machine learning-based tool for getting more out of your employee’s work day.

What is MyAnalytics?

Microsoft’s newest productivity offering is all about applying machine learning technology to your employees’ Office 365 data.

The post AI-based productivity coaching from O365 appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

AI-based productivity coaching from O365

It seems like every quarter Office 365 is adding a new service that totally changes the way we do business. As we settle into 2017, Microsoft is granting businesses a machine learning-based tool for getting more out of your employee’s work day.

What is MyAnalytics?

Microsoft’s newest productivity offering is all about applying machine learning technology to your employees’ Office 365 data. By utilizing extremely powerful computing processes to analyze huge blocks of information, MyAnalytics can uncover trends and correlations that may be too complex for human discovery.

Every day, Office 365 users create several thousand new data points across Microsoft’s productivity suite, and there’s a lot of potential to rearrange meetings, project goals, and employee tasks to increase efficiency.

The most obvious improvement is with Outlook calendar. MyAnalytics tracks how long you’re spending with each person in your office as well as the time you’re investing in specific projects. After sufficient information has been gathered, your Office 365 dashboard will begin coaching you on how to organize meetings and project goals based on your habits and past successes.

How can it improve your office?

Have you ever worked on a huge project that required multiple contributors? Did you all meet regularly to update each other on progress? Users who add contacts -- from both inside the company and out -- and projects to MyAnalytics get reminders to stay in touch with co-workers most vital to project completion.

Every metric tracked by MyAnalytics can be shared with your team to make sure everyone is on the same page. So MyAnalytics is more than just a motivational tool, because sharing these metrics allows your team to identify bottlenecks and trends to smooth the workflow process.

Response time is another key metric your employees are probably only vaguely aware of. MyAnalytics calculates average email response times -- both from you and from contacts -- to identify what time of day you’re best at communicating, and how you can adapt your schedule to get more work done in the same amount of time.

Privacy concerns

One of the greatest things about MyAnalytics is that it doesn’t introduce any new privacy concerns for business owners. All the data it uses to create customized coaching and advice is publicly available to everyone at your business -- via calendar appointments, email content, and message timestamps. The only difference is that Microsoft is lending you the previously prohibitive computing power to sift through all of it.

Availability

This wonderful new tool comes free with any Enterprise E5 plan, but can also be added on to E1 and E3 Enterprise plans for just a few dollars per month.

Increasing employee productivity is never as clear cut as it is with MyAnalytics. Install a solution, follow its advice, and start brainstorming about what to do with all your extra time. We’ve got plenty of other great solutions for streamlining your business processes -- call us today to find out!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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How does telemedicine help patients?

Telemedicine means exactly as it sounds -- a medical service delivered via telephone or any communications technology. It sounds like a new development in medicine, but it’s really not. Although there have been many great advances in healthcare, most people prefer the conventional way of getting treatment at the hospital or clinic.

The post How does telemedicine help patients? appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

How does telemedicine help patients?

Telemedicine means exactly as it sounds -- a medical service delivered via telephone or any communications technology. It sounds like a new development in medicine, but it’s really not. Although there have been many great advances in healthcare, most people prefer the conventional way of getting treatment at the hospital or clinic. Telemedicine, however, is already changing that.

Making telemedicine work

A key element in making telemedicine work is technology, which comprises video-teleconferencing equipment, a fast and steady internet connection, and the latest, advanced telemedicine software. Because this special type of medical practice requires a highly visual interaction, these elements are indispensable.

Healthcare businesses and individual medical practices with a telemedical capability also need to comply with the regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), and other healthcare legislation. Mostly, these regulations involve compliance with the handling and storage of personally identifiable patient data.

To make telemedicine effective, healthcare providers need to exert as much effort and follow the same rules as a traditional medical practice. Is it an option truly worth considering?

Benefits of telemedicine

Easy Access

Telemedicine solves the basic problem of access. For example, if a patient in a far-flung Nigerian town needs to see a specialist based in the US, telemedicine can make that possible. In a less complicated medical situation, telemedicine solves the problems of mobility. Without having to go to the hospital for treatment, a patient can conveniently dial or log in to an online system to consult a doctor.

Efficiency

One of the more problematic aspects of a doctor’s visit is the long wait. Often, wait times take much longer than the actual consultation. Patients with a minor illness would rather self-medicate than visit a hospital and be met with a long queue. With telemedicine, the waiting can be done in the comfort of the patient’s own home.

Better healthcare

Seeing your physician online doesn’t mean a diminished quality of care -- provided, of course, that all devices, telemedicine software, and other technical aspects work seamlessly. In some instances, remote medical care enhances patient experience. Follow-ups, post-operation check-ups, and quick consultations can be done using a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet, thereby reducing the possibility of missing an appointment.

Lower healthcare costs

That’s not just referring to the transportation expense of going to the doctor’s; the actual cost of an in-person visit is much higher than the cost of a virtual one. For minor ailments like colds and flu, a physical visit to the clinic might set you back as much as $100; whereas a virtual one, only $45.

Telemedicine is not taking over conventional medicine -- it augments it. Substantially. Patients can expect an expansion of this practice in many medical providers, while healthcare providers can expect rapid growth in telemedical technology, especially as healthcare compliance requirements evolve.

We stand at the forefront of the technological innovations that will continue to define an industry as dynamic as healthcare. If you need industry-based knowledge, contact us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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3 great upgrades to Chrome this month

Unlike the release schedule of the Android operating system, new versions of the Chrome browser come out so often that they’re distinguished only by the version number. The most recent release is number 57, and it packs a little more wallop than the average upgrade.

The post 3 great upgrades to Chrome this month appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

3 great upgrades to Chrome this month

Unlike the release schedule of the Android operating system, new versions of the Chrome browser come out so often that they’re distinguished only by the version number. The most recent release is number 57, and it packs a little more wallop than the average upgrade. If you’re a Chrome user, there are three improvements you need to know about.

More power consumption improvements

Google’s browser is a known battery hog. At one point it got so bad that Microsoft was publicly criticizing Chrome engineers for destroying laptop battery performance. Part of the problem is that Chrome allocates far more processing power to tabs running in the background than do other browsers.

Google’s browser now limits power devoted to unopened tabs at 1% of CPU consumption. But if you’re using minimized tabs to stream music or video, don’t worry, Chrome won’t limit these. Engineers claim this change will “lead to 25 percent fewer busy background tabs.”

Chrome for iOS gets a “Save for Later” feature

In what is probably a delayed attempt to catch up to iOS’s native Safari browser, the newest version of Chrome for Apple devices will feature offline reading. To add to your reading list, just tap the Share icon in the upper right hand corner of the browser and select “Read Later.” Even if you don’t have internet, you can view content from both the Unread and Pages You’ve Read sections of your reading list.

Although not quite as convenient, earlier versions of Chrome on Android have a roundabout way of doing the same thing. When clicking the the download icon under the Menu dropdown, Chrome saves offline pages in local storage.

Better graphics on desktops

Chrome is also getting a serious boost in terms of visual processing power. Google’s browser now supports WebGL 2.0, which improves the speed, textures, and animated effects of elements on websites.

Support for WebGL has yet to make its way to mobile versions of the browser, but desktop improvements should put graphics on par with the 3D graphics in most modern games. Firefox and Opera already support this standard, but its addition to the most popular browser on the internet creates a huge incentive for web designers to push the visual boundaries.

For those who have been in the small- and medium-sized business field for a while, it’s tempting to think that browser improvements really aren’t that big of a deal. But in an age when the majority of work is done inside of browsers rather than software, how you surf matters. For all the best news and tips, get in touch with us today!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Is Intel’s Optane SSD right for you?

Hardware buyers often have a list of specifications they need to consider. They have to assess graphics cards, RAM, processing power, and even the sound system. As if choosing a new computer wasn’t hard enough, Intel released a hard drive optimized for fast performance and storage.

The post Is Intel’s Optane SSD right for you? appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

Is Intel’s Optane SSD right for you?

Hardware buyers often have a list of specifications they need to consider. They have to assess graphics cards, RAM, processing power, and even the sound system. As if choosing a new computer wasn’t hard enough, Intel released a hard drive optimized for fast performance and storage. But before you make any final decisions, here is a quick rundown and evaluation of Intel’s release.

Optane SSD
Intel’s new standalone drive maximizes storage performance and can also serve as extra RAM for your servers. The Optane SSD DV P4800X has 375 GB of space, a data read latency of 10 microseconds, and data transfer rates (or throughput) of 2GB per second. With these specs, Intel claims users will experience faster boot times, quicker application load times, and 30% faster system performance.

All of this makes the Optane SSD perfect for hosting machine learning and analytics. Also, if your company is involved in high-performance computing, Intel’s new RAM/storage drive should be high on your company’s wish list.

Optane SSD, however, may not be the best for everyone. First of all, the latest storage drive is meant for servers. Another downside is that the 375-GB SSD is a hefty $1,520 -- almost as much as deploying your own in-house server would cost! In this case, you would probably get more value out of a conventional SSD.

SSD
Consumer-level SSDs still provide fast software boot times, but will probably offer less storage space and throughput rates than the Optane SSD. This really isn’t much of a sacrifice, considering that plenty of users can afford and work with 128 GB of ‘normal’ SSD storage. In fact, a 128-GB SSD can go for as low as $50.

HDD
Your other choice would be the standard hard disk drive (HDD). Though these storage devices are far more common and much less expensive than the previous two, HDDs are slow to boot, noisy, and susceptible to hardware damage and data loss. The only thing going for the traditional hard drive is its storage capacity. For $50 dollars, users can buy a 1-TB hard disk drive.

Although HDD may not be ideal in terms of speed, it’s a good choice for any business on a tight budget. Most people actually pair SSD with their standard HDD to get the best of both worlds. Operating systems and critical applications can be stored in SSD for faster boot times, while regular files can be stored in HDD.

Even with this crash course on hard drives and SSDs, you will still probably need a storage professional to help you pick the best device for your business. For all your storage drive queries, installment requirements, and IT maintenance needs, contact our IT consultants today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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