We all undeniably have hectic schedules, and they’re made even worse with unorganized meetings, impromptu playdates, and unscheduled yoga classes. To move or cancel appointments, your clients would generally have to pick up the phone and call someone, which can be a drag. But with Microsoft Bookings, clients can schedule and effortlessly manage appointments. In Learn More “Save time with Bookings by Office 365”
Arranging meetings that work with everyone’s schedules is a pain — especially if participants don’t work in your office. A calendar that is easy to share publicly simplifies everything from scheduling calls with clients to quarterly meetings with business partners. Here’s how you can achieve that with Office 365. Share an Office 365 calendar with Learn More “Let Office 365 help you save the date”
Office 365 has become the go-to all-in-one tool for businesses in recent years. With different Office 365 plans — Business, Business Premium, Enterprise E1, E3, and E5 — you can have a set of services and features that are perfect for your business. We’ve summarized a list of the different features of each plan to Learn More “Choose the best Office 365 plan”
People are constantly searching for an easier way to keep their email inboxes in order, customize their email signatures, and improve group communications. The good news is that Microsoft Outlook has these features built in, you just need to know where to look. Clean Up your inbox No matter how meticulously organized your Outlook inbox Learn More “Work Smarter in Outlook with these tips”
For companies using Office 365, managers have a convenient tool available for them to assess their employees’ performance. It’s called Workplace Analytics, and it uses the data culled from Office 365. Microsoft’s previous productivity tool, MyAnalytics, only allowed employees to view their own productivity data. With Workplace Analytics, both employee and manager can view the Learn More “Assess staff productivity better with Workplace Analytics”
Every computer user must be well-versed in various office programs, including Microsoft Excel. If you only know a few basic commands, you haven’t fully mastered Excel. Here are a few features that can make your life easier. Pie and Sunburst Charts Everyone knows that bombarding stakeholders with endless numbers and decimal points is the wrong Learn More “3 Microsoft Excel tips to master”
Making the decision to migrate from an on-site system to a cloud-based Office 365 is easy, but the migration process itself presents numerous security challenges. By covering these essentials, you’ll minimize security breaches and ensure you can enjoy the benefits of Office 365.
Identify your company’s sensitive data…
Most files housed within your servers contain sensitive commercial and personal data that must be properly identified and protected. Do this by conducting a security audit before you undertake your migration.
Your audit should identify the types of data stored in the various parts of your company network, including which specific information needs extra safeguarding. Be sure to consider everything from trade secrets and contract details to the personal information of your clients.
…and then restrict access to it
Once you’ve worked out where your most precious data lies, you can check who currently has access to it and whether their access is appropriate. After all, it’s not necessary for everyone to be able to get at all the data your company owns.
Ensure that each of your employees has access only to the data that’s necessary for them to perform their duties. The great thing about Office 365 is it lets you conveniently set different levels of permissions based on user roles.
Watch out for insider threats
It’s wise to consider everyone in your organization when it comes to auditing data access permissions – and that includes system administrators who may have master access to every element of your network infrastructure.
A rogue administrator is the stuff of nightmares, since their elevated position gives them much greater leeway to siphon off valuable data without being noticed – or even to allow others to conduct questionable business and bypass the usual built-in security precautions. You can mitigate this risk by monitoring your administrators’ data usage and activities.
Use machine learning to foresee security breaches
Every action performed by your staff within Office 365 is automatically logged, and with relative ease you can create detailed activity reports. But the sheer number of events taking place within Office 365 in the course of your business’s normal operations means that even attempting to identify questionable behavior will be akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
That’s not to say it’s unwise to be on the lookout for anomalies in normal usage – the export of unexplainably large volumes of data, for instance, could suggest that a member of your team is leaking intelligence to a competitor, or that they’re about to jump ship and take your trade secrets with them.
To make things easier, machine learning technologies can identify potential breaches before they happen by analyzing large swathes of data in seconds. Graph API is incorporated into Office 365, and allows for the integration of machine learning tools into your security environment to achieve just that. The same tools can also help you avoid being caught unawares by hackers, by identifying system login attempts from locations that are out of the ordinary.
By following these tips, you’ll be able to enjoy the powerful collaborative features of Office 365 while ensuring the robust security your business demands. To find out more about how we can help your Office 365 migration run smoothly, just give us a call.
Outlook is arguably the best tool that businesses use to manage their email, set up meetings, and coordinate projects. It’s much more than a basic email program and includes features that help you organize your work, contacts, and business communications. Let’s take a look at a few tips you may have missed.
Clean Up your inbox
No matter inbox how meticulously organized your Outlook inbox is, there’s always room for improvement. For a little computer-assisted help, try the ‘Clean Up’ feature.
Ignore (unnecessary) conversations
An overstuffed inbox is often caused by group conversations that aren’t relevant to you. The Ignore button helps you organize your inbox and focus on relevant emails.
Send links instead of a file copy
Help your colleagues save storage by sending a link to a cloud version of a file instead of the file itself. This is particularly useful when sending massive files. You can also set permissions to allow recipients to edit and collaborate on linked files in real time.
Improve meetings with Skype and OneNote
Outlook allows you to combine Skype’s HD video and screen-sharing features with OneNote’s organizational and project planning functions. It’s easy:
Tag contacts
To get the attention of a specific person in a group email message, use the @Mention function. This works particularly well for mails to multiple recipients or for if you simply want to convey the urgency of your message.
These are just a few strategies for getting more out of Microsoft’s email platform. To unlock Outlook’s true potential, you need the support of certified IT professionals. Give us a call today.