Microsoft Workplace Analytics is a cloud-based service that allows organizations to assess employee performance using data gathered from Office 365. This enables business leaders to identify inefficiencies in how tasks are carried out, and then come up with a strategy for eliminating these in order to increase productivity. How does Workplace Analytics work? A paid Learn More “How Workplace Analytics improves your team’s productivity”
If you’re like most people, you only use your office chat applications for simple, everyday use — to ask someone a question or to touch base with colleagues. But wouldn’t it be great if you could do more things at once in these apps, such as completing tasks and chatting with colleagues all in a Learn More “How to get the most out of Microsoft Teams”
Yammer, Outlook Groups, and Microsoft Teams have plenty in common. They’re all Microsoft 365 tools designed for sharing files and communicating with colleagues. So what differentiates them from one another, and when should you use which? Let’s take a quick look. Outlook Groups With Outlook Groups, every member gets a shared inbox, calendar, project planner, Learn More “The difference between Groups, Yammer, and Teams”
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing employees to work from home, you and your staff can take advantage of Microsoft Teams to stay productive. Microsoft recently enhanced this already powerful tool’s capabilities, making it easier for more people to take advantage of its advanced features. What is Microsoft Teams? Microsoft Teams combines workplace chat, video conferencing, Learn More “Work remotely, effectively with Microsoft Teams”
Microsoft Office 365 is one of the most successful and popular apps in the world, currently with 180 million users and counting. To enhance the user experience, it also offers these time-saving, productivity-boosting add-ons. #1. Teams Teams is ideal for organizations that collaborate frequently. It’s an instant messaging and document-sharing platform which seamlessly integrates with Learn More “Office 365 productivity add-ons you must use”
It may seem as if Office 365 is merely Microsoft’s way of joining the online subscription bandwagon, but that’s not the case. O365 is Microsoft’s way of upgrading its ubiquitous Office suite by augmenting it with cloud features. Office apps and the files you create with them are accessible wherever there’s an internet connection, but Learn More “Make the most out of your O365 subscription”
While most Office 365 apps serve a unique purpose, tools like Outlook Groups, Yammer, and Microsoft Teams can all be used for office communication and collaboration. However, there are small differences in the way they can be used. Let us break it down for you. Outlook Groups With Outlook Groups, every member gets a shared Learn More “Groups, Yammer, and Teams: What are they?”
It can be overwhelming to have several windows pulled up to manage your email, company chats, and any cloud storage that isn’t compatible with your inbox. Microsoft Teams helps streamline the basic necessities of office work to help you overcome the tedium of multitasking. The convenience of chat apps has enabled workers to cut down Learn More “Tidy IT: emails, chats, and files in one app”
Microsoft has recently announced new features for Microsoft Teams. These features are expected to bring users greater convenience and improved communication, and ultimately increase its appeal to a wider market.
One new feature that Microsoft will bring to Teams is Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant. By integrating Cortana with Teams, users can use voice commands to make calls, join an ongoing meeting, or add other users to the meeting. This feature will also work with IP phones and conference room devices.
While most people can communicate well in English, not everyone is comfortable using the language. Inline message translation allows these people to chat in their native language and then translate their messages into English. This will not only help them verbalize their thoughts better and faster, but you’ll also be able to understand exactly what you have to do to meet their demands.
Have you ever forgotten or overlooked important meeting details? This new feature will allow you to record meetings, store it in the cloud, and create a transcript of it. The ability to save the entire meeting also allows users to review everything or segments of it in the future at their convenience. This is particularly useful for meetings that are highly detailed or very long.
Facial recognition, which will allow statements to be matched with the corresponding speaker, is expected to be included in the future.
Most people get easily distracted. But you want to minimize these distractions and have them focus on you when you have an important meeting like a business pitch. Teams’ latest feature allows you to blur your background during video calls so other people in the meeting can fully concentrate on you.
A feature that can make your meetings simpler is proximity detection. When you enter a room equipped with a Teams meeting room device, Proximity Detection will automatically detect your Teams-enabled meeting room laptop and prompt connection for you to join the Teams meeting room. This helps you save time finding an available room so you can immediately connect with other users.
Have you ever needed to join a sudden meeting but couldn’t perform as well as usual because you were on the go with only a mobile device? Mobile Sharing in Meetings solve this by allowing you to share a live video stream, photos, or your phone screen with other attendees immediately.
If you’re interested in improving your company-wide communication and would like to learn more about Microsoft Teams, contact us today.
Maximizing your Office 365 investment is easier said than done. Sure, you use Outlook and SharePoint all the time, but there are loads of features you’re probably not using. If you’re looking for ways to make the most out of your Office 365 subscription, you’re in luck because that’s what we’re discussing today.
SharePoint is the “communication sites” platform for building an intranet where you can upload and manage content. It’s customizable, feature-rich, and ideal for organizations that need an online library of information.
It’s a relatively new feature that allows you to add vibrant templates and visually appealing layouts to your company’s intranet, turning it into a highly dynamic and interactive page that staff will enjoy accessing for company announcements, to share updates, and more.
Microsoft Teams is an interactive workspace that lets users chat about specific projects. It’s a collaboration tool integrated with Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, so it’s an ideal alternative to SharePoint for employees who don’t need the latter’s more robust capabilities.
Yammer is an easy-to-use social networking platform for companies where users can post status updates, create polls, and make announcements.
It’s also useful for sharing and co-authoring documents and discussing content from SharePoint and Skype for Business. Much like Facebook, it allows users to join interest groups where they can interact with members similar to how Facebook Groups works.
Planner is Office 365’s work management application that lets you create, organize, and assign tasks, share files, and chat about ongoing projects. While its functions seem similar to Teams’, Planner’s main purpose is to organize tasks and provide users with a visible and transparent platform for coordinating work. It’s primarily a business tool whereas Teams is more of a communication tool.
PowerApps lets you build custom applications with a minimum amount of coding involved. Although there are similar app-building tools on the market, PowerApps is especially useful for Office 365 users because it seamlessly integrates with O365 apps, including SharePoint, for easy access to your data already stored in the Office environment.
Flow is an intuitive tool that has built-in templates you can use to automate various tasks. Things like tracking hours worked, saving files from one SharePoint account to another, and creating calendar events are streamlined by Flow. And like all the aforementioned apps, Flow allows you to create workflows using files from OneDrive or SharePoint.
Whether you’re a new or a long-time Office 365 user, these programs and features are hiding in plain sight, and we’re here to help you explore and maximize them for your business. Call us today if you need expert recommendations for office productivity.