Tag Archive for: the cloud

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Microsoft Planner

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“If only there was a tool to help me manage my project work.”

Looking for a project management tool? Look no further than Microsoft Planner.

Struggling to Effectively manage tasks and projects?

Task management is an uphill battle for many businesses. Many businesses use a multitude of different applications in their daily operation, each with a different purpose and function. This inevitably leads to task management becoming a logistical nightmare, with tasks and projects often getting overlooked and even getting completely forgotten about.

A culture of poor task management frequently leading to unfinished and abandoned tasks can result in systemic low productivity. Therefore, efficient and effective task management should be at the forefront of your business’ productivity strategy, as it’s virtually impossible to achieve a decent level of productivity when tasks are going missing and remaining unfinished.

As mentioned above, using a range of unrelated, unconnected applications is one of the most common issues when it comes to managing tasks. Integration is key! You need an umbrella-type application that allows you to keep track of and monitor task progress in a range of applications. Luckily, Microsoft Planner lets you do exactly that!

Introducing Microsoft Planner

Similar to other project management tools such as Asana, Slack and Trello, Microsoft Planner acts as a project/task management hub, enabling users to monitor task progress and outcomes, assign tasks and create plans. It also functions as a gathering space for the whole team and acts as a central file sharing resource.

What’s more, seamless integration within the Office suite ensures a hassle-free user experience. See below for an overview of some of the useful components and features of this productivity-boosting application.

Plans. Alternatively, you could consider these ‘projects.’ Plans are the structures into which you set tasks. Plans allow you to gather all the tasks relevant to a specific project or outcome in one place, allowing for easy management and tracking of task progress.

Groups. ‘Groups’ refer to the people connected to a particular project. When you create a plan and add ‘group members’ the individuals concerned will automatically be notified.

Tasks. Once you establish a plan you can set up tasks within it. Why not include a description, assign team members to it, attach files, add a due date or expected completion time; with a rich range of features available your team will always know what they’re doing.

Seamless Integration. Firmly embedded within the Office 365 family, Planner offers the convenience of seamless integration with the other office applications your team are using. From file sharing via SharePoint, automated email notifications via outlook or team communication via the Teams app the ability for all your favourite apps to ‘talk to each other’ is sure to make life a lot easier.

Office 365 users should look no further than Microsoft planner for all their project and task management needs. It’s compatibility with the Office family and intuitive dashboard makes keeping track of tasks and projects a dawdle.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Ensuring an effective workforce – The Challenges of our new working world

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The turbulent business environment of the past 5 months has likely left business owners feeling stressed and exhausted. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented an ever-evolving business landscape that has required businesses to continually adapt their offering and operations in response to ever-changing restrictions on working life.

For many businesses, this has resulted in a compromised service offering.  Factors such as unfamiliar new ways of working and a reduced workforce have threatened operational capacity. As a result, it’s more important than ever that businesses level-up their productivity to maintain their service, remain competitive and even countenance the prospect of growth despite a difficult environment.

Let’s assume that you now have the basics of remote-working sorted; your team are comfortable working from home, have access to the resources and equipment they need and you’re confident that your data is secure. It’s now time to look at the tools that will let you extract every drop of value from the working day. Working flexibly has been on the rise for several years now, so thankfully the platforms that enable effective collaboration and workflow management have been a long time in development. In this article, we will look at a few of such offerings available through Microsoft 365. These affordable, accessible, and intuitive platforms will act as a springboard to your business’ productivity aims while requiring little investment in terms of time or money.

 

Innovate, perform, deliver – make you’re working week more fruitful with Collaboration and Task management solutions from Microsoft 365

Introducing Microsoft Teams

Microsoft’s workplace communication focal point, Teams is popular with remote and office-based workforces alike.  If you are already a Microsoft 365 customer or if your team use the Office apps daily, then you really don’t have to look any further than Teams for your communication needs.

  • An all-in-one communication platform. Teams have it all; instant messaging, video conferencing, scheduling capabilities and effortless document sharing and real-time editing thanks to deep integration with SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft Business voice even lets you turn Teams into your business’ phone system and the eagerly anticipated ‘lists’ app will help you organise work schedules, track task progression and more; all within Teams’ interface.
  • Organise discussions with ‘Teams’ and ‘Channels.’ Teams let you assemble groups of employees for collaboration on specific topics. You can then subdivide discussion to focus on even more specific issues using ‘channels.’
  • It’s intuitive. Launched in 2017, Teams was born in the age of ‘intuitive software,’ and it shows. There is a very little learning curve with Teams; your employees will be up to speed with most features in a few hours.
  • Customise the experience with your favourite third–party apps. If you’re currently using a third-party productivity or workflow management app there is a good chance you’ll be able to bring it under the Teams umbrella. Compatibility with hundreds of popular apps such as ‘Zoom’ and ‘Asana’ means Teams really can function as your one and only communications hub.
  • Peerless security and compliance capabilities. A core component of MS 365, Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility and Security platform lets you manage access, control document permissions, monitor online threats, secure your endpoint devices and much more. This empowering security platform coupled with the flexibility of Teams will let your Teamwork effectively while ensuring your digital assets remain secure.

Available with many Microsoft 365 subscriptions or as a standalone product discover why Teams is one of the world’s most popular collaboration platforms today!

 

Say ‘Hello’ to Planner

There are several workflow managements tools within the MS 365 landscape. Microsoft Project offers the most in-depth, feature-rich experience and at the other end of the scale you’ll find ‘To-Do,’ a more basic application that’s great for managing straightforward work tasks and personal errands. ‘Planner’ is situated between these 2 offerings and offers a good balance of features and ease-of-use; offering more features and greater insights than To-Do and while avoiding the learning curve that comes with the more complex Microsoft Project.

  • Plans. Set up project sites called ‘plans’ and organise all tasks relating to a particular topic in one space.
  • Tasks. Assign tasks to individuals or groups. Set start and end dates, attach a ‘priority’ status, add attachments, and add a detailed description so that your team know what they’re doing.
  • Buckets. Buckets let you arrange and sort tasks in any way you want. You might want to gather all high priority tasks in a single place or move all completed tasks to one bucket.
  • Chart, schedule and Board views. Planner features several ‘views’ that allow you to review task progression and look ahead to see what’s coming up. The ‘charts’ dashboard contains info pertaining to task progression; see at a glance how much progress your team are making. The ‘Board’ view displays tasks in their allocated ‘buckets.’ ‘Schedule’ view displays tasks in a calendar format, enabling you to schedule tasks well in advance. Filters let you view information relating to priority, task status, assignees and more.

Available to Premium, Business and Educational subscribers to MS365, you may already have planner available to you if you’re a 365 customer. Take this intuitive tool for a spin today and see if it could help you simplify your task management challenges.

 

Streamline scheduling with ‘Bookings,’ improve engagement with ‘Forms’ and keep the conversation going with ‘Yammer’

With so many peripheral apps complementing the ‘core’ services in the Microsoft environment you’re bound to find a solution to some of your business challenges with a little digging….

‘Bookings’ is an invaluable scheduling tool that takes the time-consuming legwork out of meeting scheduling. It lets you publish your timetable so attendees can select a time that suits, thus avoiding the tedium of lengthy email threads that arranging meetings can involve.

‘Forms’ is a simple survey generation application that lets you create and publish surveys, quizzes and polls. A great way to gauge customer satisfaction, test employee knowledge, drive engagement and much more.

‘Yammer’ Without the hubbub and camaraderie of the office environment, keeping spirits high and employees engaged while working remotely can be more of a challenge. Yammer functions as a social networking site for businesses; a great way to help employees connect and share news and updates.

How can I get the ball rolling?

As part of the government’s economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, packages of grant funding are to be announced to help businesses make efficiency transitions. These grants of between £1000 and £5000 could help your business innovate and optimise its IT system, to drive efficiency and productivity gains using some of the ideas we’ve discussed above.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Levelling-up your business’ efficiency – The Challenges of our new working world

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2020 has been a challenging year in the business world. The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown businesses in most sectors into a period of rapid change – those who are willing to rise to the occasion and innovate are those most likely to survive this continuing period of uncertainty.

Flexibility, agility, efficiency, resilience…the recipe for survival in 2020

When business slows and uncertainty looms there is a temptation to batten down the hatches, play it safe and hope for a return to better times. However, the current crisis requires exactly the opposite. The possibility of further lockdowns requires businesses to empower their teams with technical solutions that enable greater levels of agility and flexibility. Additionally, continued uncertainty and a difficult economic environment mean it’s never been more important to do as much as possible with the IT resources you have.

 

That sounds great, but where do I begin?

In recent months we’ve been busy helping our clients across London and the home counties make the IT transition necessary to thrive during these troubling times.

For some time now businesses have been discovering the benefits of reducing reliance on physical infrastructure by migrating services to the cloud. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend massively and driven home the inherent benefits of operating a flexible, cost-effective, infrastructure-lite IT system.

Cloud services are just one piece of the puzzle; let’s look at some of the ways you can improve your business’ efficiency while offering the same great service to your customers.

 

Discover the ‘Cloud’

The concept of ‘Cloud’ computing has been around for a long time and most businesses are now familiar with its capabilities in some form through the likes of Microsoft 365 or storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive.

The potential of ‘the cloud’ to transform your business is almost limitless due to the range of services it can offer. For example, you could migrate traditionally, fixed infrastructure to the cloud to free up space in your office and eliminate the burden of costly/time-consuming hardware maintenance. Physical firewall appliances, servers and networking infrastructure are some of the hardware you could migrate. In addition to the cost savings cloud migration also gives you the flexibility of being able to access your resources remotely.

 

Discover Automation

It’s estimated that the average small business employee spends 2 out of 5 working days bogged down with repetitive, manual tasks such as data entry. That represents a lot of time spent doing tasks that don’t add value to your business.

Automation is the process of supplementing ‘human effort’ with ‘machine effort,’ giving employees more time to focus on more value-adding tasks such as improving customer relationships, driving sales and developing business strategy. Automation technology comes in a huge variety of forms; it could be a small feature within a larger piece of software (Microsoft 365 has many examples of this) or the software itself could be centred around automation (email marketing software being a prime example).

Nowadays, automation often comes embedded in accounting software, CRMs, HR software and many other applications. Microsoft 365 users benefit from a suite of automation apps, which are often included within 356 subscription bundles. One of these is ‘power automate’ which gives users the tools to automate processes through an intuitive interface without the need for technical expertise.

 

Invest in the home office

As an employer, you may have to invest in technology or the home-office setup of your employees to ensure productivity. If your team are operating using slow, unresponsive, and insecure personal devices efficiency will suffer, your customers may notice a drop in service standards, and you may be exposing sensitive data to unacceptable levels of risk.

  • Provide work devices where feasible. This allows you to control security and ensure devices are working optimally more tightly.
  • Are devices past their best? Old, clunky machines may be an obstacle to your business’ productivity goals. Additionally, unsupported software and operating systems present security vulnerabilities.
  • Is the home environment suitably equipped for 8-hour days? Consider desks, chairs, lamps, and footrests to ensure staff are as comfortable at home as they would be in the office.
  • Is home broadband proving too slow or unreliable? It may be worth considering a business internet connection for key employees, to ensure connectivity issues don’t stifle your ability to operate effectively.
  • Can your team keep in touch? Webcams and headsets may be needed to help all team members participate in Zoom meetings. These virtual get-togethers are a good way of keeping staff engaged and morale levels high.

 

Invest in a proactive, engaged, and reliable IT partner

With so much going on now you’ll need an IT partner you can rely on. That means someone who takes the time to get to know your business and provide best-fit solutions that address the unique challenges you face. It also means having an experienced and knowledgeable partner who can guide your business seamlessly to new ways of working while ensuring minimal downtime thanks to proactive maintenance and network monitoring.

Ensure you choose an IT partner who’s commercially savvy, and understands the importance of cost-effective, budget-conscious solutions particularly during these uncertain times.

 

It’s about more than efficiency, your reputation is at stake!

Months ago, when the country was first plunged into lockdown a compromised service from businesses was considered acceptable for a while, as companies grappled with new operational challenges. However, by now, as life starts to return to some form of normality, customers are becoming less accepting of a reduced or poor service offering. This means it’s important to invest in fit-for-purpose solutions that allow your team to perform at (or near) maximum capacity while working from home.

  • Are tasks taking longer than they should be due to poor file management?
  • Is communication suffering due to inadequate telephony provision or outdated communication platforms?
  • Are tasks being abandoned due to poor process management and a lack of organisation?

Clients will notice all the above and failing to address such issues now may affect your business’ reputation going forward.

 

How can I get the ball rolling?

As part of the government’s economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, packages of grant funding are to be announced to help businesses make efficiency transitions. These grants of between £1000 and £5000 could help your business innovate and optimise its IT system, to drive efficiency and productivity gains using some of the ideas we’ve discussed above.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Investing in remote working infrastructure – The Challenges of our new working world

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While the initial scramble to get employees set up for remote working home may seem a distant memory now, you should still consider whether your remote-working arrangements are the best they could be.

Many businesses will have allowed their employees to work from personal devices and while this path offers convenience it can also be a minefield in terms of data security. Similarly, in the hope of normality resuming, its likely many businesses left telephony out of their remote-working plans, resulting in no ability to transfer calls between employees and clunky, staccato communication experience for customers.

While we’ve seen a degree of normality returning to the world of work over the past month or so, working from home remains the government’s recommendation where it is feasible to do so. Implemented properly, remote working can have many benefits; productivity can improve, employees will enjoy a better work-life balance, lengthy commutes are eliminated, and it’s even been shown to improve employee retention and reduce absence rates.

‘Implemented properly’ is the key phrase here, as when too many compromises are made, working from home can also present challenges in terms of productivity, data security and operational performance. In terms of infrastructure, computers and telephony are your 2 main considerations. Let’s consider each of these in more detail.

 

BYOD, COPE, COBO and CYOD – to provide or not to provide?

If you’ve ever looked into issuing your staff with work devices to enable remote working you’ve likely encountered some of the acronyms above. But what do they mean?

  • BYOD (Bring your own device) – Employees use their own devices to access business resources. This gives you the least control.
  • CYOD (Choose your own device) – Employees choose a device from a pre-approved list and the business then buys, manages, and retains ownership of the device. Affords much greater control than BYOD due to remote management.
  • COPE (Company-owned, personally enabled) – Devices are supplied by a business that and managed by the IT department but also set up to enable personal use. It avoids the need for employees to carry separate devices for personal and work use.
  • COBO (company-owned, business only) – This is where a business provides a device and sets it up strictly for business activities. This option offers the greatest level of control for employers and is particularly suitable where high levels of compliance requirements are involved.

For many small to medium-sized businesses, a BYOD program is tempting as there are no hardware overheads to be borne by the company. However, allowing staff to use their own devices almost always means relinquishing control, as employees may be reluctant to agree to mobile device management (MAM) on their personal devices. Having a comprehensive BYOD policy is essential where personal devices are concerned, but again, limited control means this policy will largely rely on employees acting in good faith, which may not be a risk you’re willing to take where sensitive data is concerned.

CYOD, COPE and COBO programmes will give your IT team much greater control and oversight over all aspects of device management, security and access control.

Providing devices and protecting them with remote device management is the most effective way to ensure data security. Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Management and Security platform provides a comprehensive set of tools to ensure your remote workforce is operating securely. Incorporated within this platform is Microsoft Intune, an endpoint management platform that helps your secure data, manage access, configure security settings and much more.

 

Hosted VoIP – receive and make calls from anywhere, as though you were in the office.

“If only there were away, I could use my business’ phone system while working remotely.”

Fear not; hosted VoIP could be just what you’re looking for. If you use a traditional private branch exchange system in your office, you may have thought that this was a technology you’d simply have to live without when working from home. Hosted VoIP (often known as a Hosted PBX) simply takes traditional telephony infrastructure and hosts it in the cloud. Users can then access the call interface through a portal or a dedicated VoIP handset and make calls from anywhere using a single phone number. It essential virtualises your office phone system. There is a huge range of Hosted VoIP providers out there, each offering a unique range of features at varying price points. Remote access is an obvious benefit of VoIP telephony, but it has many other advantages over traditional telephony:

 

  • Private branch exchange without the infrastructure. Hosted PBX doesn’t require investment in a physical PBX server as everything is cloud-hosted. Additionally, phone lines aren’t necessary, all that is required is an internet connection.
  • Reduced running costs. It’s estimated VoIP can reduce phone bills by an average of 40%. If your business makes a high volume of international calls the savings would likely be much higher.
  • A plethora of useful features! A hosted PBX can give you access to all the features of a traditional PBX and more. Caller ID, call forwarding, call transfer, call logs, ‘do not disturb,’ call recording and much more.
  • Unified business communications to drive productivity. Some hosted PBX services incorporate other business tools into a single interface, vastly improving communication efficiency among your team.
  • Leverage a single phone number with the ability to transfer calls. Maintain a single point of contact and improve the service experience for your customers.

 

Microsoft Business Voice – Hosted PBX through Microsoft Teams

Users of Microsoft 365 can incorporate a Hosted PBX phone system into Microsoft Teams by subscribing to Microsoft Business Voice. This enables users to bring business-grade telephony into the Teams interface, resulting in a sleek, all-in-one communications hub incorporating instant messaging, video conferencing and telephony in a single unified space.

Investing a little today in robust, remote-working solutions that will stand the test of time could pay dividends in the long run. Secure, managed and high-performance devices will help your staff stay productive while keeping your data secure. While a modest investment in Hosted VoIP could futureproof your business’ communications and give you the ability to work remotely without compromise.

How can I get the ball rolling?

As part of the government’s economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, packages of grant funding are to be announced to help businesses make efficiency transitions. These grants of between £1000 and £5000 could help your business innovate and optimise its IT system, to drive efficiency and productivity gains using some of the ideas we’ve discussed above.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Microsoft Forms

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“How can I ensure the data I collect has value?”

Microsoft Forms lets you generate surveys and quizzes and helps you make sense of the data you gather.

Tired of wasting time on ineffective data collection tools?

Problematic forms and over-complicated survey reports; you may think these are par for the course with data collection. However, it’s important to get these considerations right before embarking on data gathering, otherwise, you could end up with screeds of data that are completely useless to your business.

Unnecessary data or data with little to no value represents wasted time, energy and resources. If the data you gather routinely holds little to no valuable insights then it’s time to adopt a new data collection solution. There is a vast range of tools out there that will give you the ability to generate vast quantities of data in a short time, but that’s only half the battle, as knowing what to do with the data afterwards and how to present it in a coherent way can be where the real challenge lies.

Once you’ve gathered data, the task of having to organise it begins, as a random jumble of words and numbers with no analysis won’t present well to your intended audience. Organising the data you gather can be the most agonising aspect of data collection, often involving lots of manual data entry depending on the format used for data gathering. Also, as with other data, your business holds you’ll have to give serious consideration to your data protection obligations by ensuring any personal data remains secure and that it is used and stored in compliance with any relevant legislation.

Fortunately, Office 365 features an application that responds to many of the traditional challenges of data gathering and analysis.

Introducing Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms is an effortlessly simple, intuitive tool that lets you publish surveys, polls and quizzes in a matter of minutes. Respondents can then interact with your form from virtually any device or web browser. Integrated analytics tools let you visualise and evaluate responses and you can export the data gathered to Excel for more in-depth analysis.

Seamless integration within the Office 365 family makes for a hassle-free experience. See below for a round-up of Forms’ simple yet empowering tools and features.

Surveys. Surveys are an invaluable means by which to gauge customer satisfaction, improve staff engagement and arrange events. Thanks to templated question branching and ready-to-go themes you’ll be able to launch surveys in minutes and have the responses rolling in no time.

Quizzes. These are particularly useful for keeping an eye on staff training and development. By having staff complete quizzes, you can identify knowledge gaps and areas where further training might be required. With the ability to analyse scores and add instructions and explanations these could soon become a vital learning and development tool in your business.

Polls. Perfect for gauging opinions, polls are ideal for many scenarios. Find out what your customers think of your latest product, see what the team thought of their training day or find out when they want to hold their next meeting, the possibilities are endless!

Straightforward yet powerful analysis. As forms gather responses in real-time it automatically visualises the data gathered in easy-to-interpret charts. Thanks to Office 365 integration you can export data to Excel and take advantage of its extensive range of data manipulation tools.

Simple yet extremely effective; Microsoft Forms streamlines data gathering into one effortless process. Gather data from within and outside your organisation, view results in real-time using user-friendly analytics and extract value from your data gathering to make informed decisions and improve your business’ operation.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Power Automation

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“If only there was a way I could get rid of all the manual tasks in my workflow.”

If your working day is bogged down with repetitive manual tasks then Power Automate may be the tool for you!

Are mundane, repetitive manual tasks hindering your productivity?

Efficiency, good organisation and high productivity are the keys to success. For many businesses though, achieving any one of these aims can be enough of a struggle, never mind all three.

Remember, feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day isn’t necessarily a sign you’ve been productive, it could indicate that the way you work is inefficient. Persevering with the old routine may seem like the only option, but if you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of recurring menial tasks you should be looking for solutions that can help slim down your burden of work, and give you time to focus on the more rewarding aspects of running your business. Even if you are managing currently, automating menial tasks will give you time to focus on other things and will increase your capacity to take on more work which means greater revenue potential!

Fortunately, Microsoft offers a platform to help you address these common business problems.

Introducing Microsoft Power Automate

Previously called ‘Microsoft Flow,’ Power Automate is a service that enables users to link apps, services and files and create automated workflows between them without the need for technical expertise.

Power automate will let your business ‘automate-away’ many of the annoying and tedious tasks that plague daily office life using digital and robotic process automation. Listed below are a few of the ways it could benefit your business.

Improved Productivity.  As the name suggests, Power Automate can bring the benefits of automation to your Office. Such benefits include improved organisation, time savings and increased efficiency. By automating mundane tasks your workforce will be able to focus on the things that add value, such as building relationships with clients and working on business performance outcomes.

Easier access to business data. Trawling through files and applications to bring data sources together may not seem like too much trouble, but when you’re doing this many times a day, five days a week the time spent on it soon adds up.  You can use Power Automate to establish ‘flows’ between file locations/apps allowing you to transfer files from one location to the other utilising over 100 data source connectors. For example, you can set up a connector between Outlook and SharePoint so that email attachments you receive are automatically transferred to a SharePoint site.

Fast and easy automation that requires no expert knowledge! You don’t have to be a computer genius to set up workflows in Power Automate. The whole process is guided, intuitive and doesn’t require any knowledge of coding, so you can let all your staff take advantage of the power of automation. What’s more, you can rest assured knowing that your business’ data is secure thanks to cloud-based data loss prevention and access management services.

At least 30% of activities in approximately 60% of job roles are estimated to be technically automatable. By investing a little time now automating those repetitive tasks you could save yourself and your business countless hours in the future.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Power BI

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“I wish there was an easy way to gain insights into my data.”

If making sense of masses of data is a headache for your business then ‘Power BI’ might be the perfect tool for you.

Struggling to make sense of data and share insights?

Gathering, handling and making sense of data is a fundamental part of running any business. Data insights let you identify problems, prepare for the future, make informed decisions and as a result are essential to the running of any stable, well-managed business. If you’re having trouble extracting information from and making sense of data then you may be exposing your business to risk and hindering its progress.

Is your business one of the many who hold masses of data but don’t learn anything from it? Tapping into the value of data may seem like a rather involved and time-consuming process but it’s important to view data as a potential source of revenue; data insights can help your bottom line by empowering better decision making and identifying areas that need attention.

Gathering the data is one thing but the bulk of the challenge lies in making sense of it and presenting it in a compelling way that means something to your audience. Security and compliance is another serious concern – how do you share data insights with a large audience while ensuring it remains secure and within your control?

Thankfully, there is a service that gives you the power to tackle these persistent challenges.

Introducing Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI (BI standing for ‘business intelligence’) empowers informed decision making by helping you make sense of your data and present it in a meaningful, easy-to-understand way. You can deploy it at every level of your business to allow your employees to make better decisions using relevant, up-to-the-minute data insights.

Compile data from hundreds of sources and ‘visualise’ it using attractive, customisable dashboards and reports.

Interactive Visualisations. It doesn’t matter where you hold your data, Power BI has the ability to tap into data from hundreds of supported hosts, both office and cloud-based. Highly customisable visual effects can be used to bring your data to life. Create captivating reports that capture your audience’s attention using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and choose from a vast range of themes, layouts and formatting options.

Collaboration and sharing. Share insightful information with your team using eye-catching reports and dashboards. Presenting insights in an enticing way can increase engagement and help promote informed decision making at every level of your organisation.

A scalable analytics solution. Dispense with the security headaches, complexity and clutter of various data insight solutions and roll-out Power BI as your business’ data insight platform. Make it available on an individual basis or to your entire organisation by enjoying the flexibility of Power BI’s SaaS (software as a service) model.

Safeguarding Data. With Microsoft Cloud App protection and Microsoft Information Protection, you can help keep your data out of the wrong hands and ensure compliance.

Bring data together, analyse and extract value. Use a range of visualisation options to bring uninspiring data to life and put valuable insights into the hands of your staff and customers to promote better decision making and improved outcomes. Use Power BI to make the most of your business’ valuable data resources.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Microsoft Kaizala

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“I wish there was a way to moderate instant messaging among my staff.”

If you’d like greater oversight and control over mobile chat in your business, then Microsoft Kaizala could be just what you’ve been looking for.

Struggling with staff coordination and communication?

The proliferation of mobile devices in today’s work environment has enabled the business to adopt more flexible working practices.  While this flexibility carries many benefits, it also presents challenges in terms of communicating with staff and coordinating workflows.

For example, it can be a challenge bringing together a group of dispersed employees for collaboration on a task or to work towards a specific outcome. Coordinating work can be challenging at the best of times without the further complication of large numbers of staff working at different locations. Without the right tools, you can be left with a timetable that lacks structure and staff find difficult to interpret, even after it’s explained to them.

When managing large groups productivity suffers when there is no unifying hub of information and collaboration. For example, repeating the same information to individuals, again and again, can be time-consuming. Security is also problematic. Distributing and storing sensitive information on a large number of mobile devices presents some security risks that you simply don’t have in your office environment. With today’s host of regulations designed to protect sensitive data, it is vital that you stay on top of security across each and every device used by your organisation – that means securing all mobile devices.

Fortunately, there is a single application that can assist with many of these challenges.

Introducing Microsoft Kaizala

Microsoft Kaizala is a mobile application that helps to facilitate the efficient and effective management of large groups. It enables you to structure workflows and features a management interface that gives you the tools to manage a large team effectively.

In recent years, the number of businesses operating with remote workforces has increased massively. Kaizala was Microsoft’s response to this. Applications to assist with remote workforce management are few and far between, but luckily Kaizala features an empowering range of tools to help business face the remote workforce challenge! A few of these are listed below.

Effective Team coordination and communication. Kaizala’s chat interface lets you get the team together and communicate via messaging, multimedia as well as live voice and video calling.  Send videos, photos and documents to large groups within and outside your business quickly and effortlessly and use surveys and polls to gather feedback.

Take advantage of action cards (effectively ‘mini-apps’) within Kaizala that help you manage tasks and compile team data and insights.

Comprehensive Data security. Enjoy enterprise-grade security, industry-leading compliance standards and the ability to enforce end-to-end data ownership. Microsoft Kaizala functions as your ‘operation command centre,’ with its extensive administrative features giving you oversight and control over how your important files are used and stored.

Gather valuable data and insights. Kaizala is as much a data insight platform as it is a communication app. Its built-in analytics features help evaluate team performance and you can have regular reports sent automatically to decision-makers in your business. This helps leaders monitor team output and flags up issues and areas of concern.

Microsoft Kaizala makes remote workforce management easier with its host of features that help improve productivity, gather insightful data and empower effective collaboration. Why not give it a try today and make your remote team more effective.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Office 365 Compliance

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“How can I control what happens with my data and where it ends up?”

With Office 365 this is an easy challenge to solve; ensure data compliance with the built-in Enterprise-grade security.

Struggling to maintain total data security?

A sound cybersecurity strategy is vital to any business. Where data security is concerned you should take no chances, as sensitive information in the wrong hands could prove disastrous for your business.

Cyber-attacks are opportunistic; they tend to strike when presented with signs of weakness. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that you implement the highest standards of Cyber Security procedures at all times. Sadly, however, many businesses are still not confident in ensuring that their data remains protected, with many business suffering data leaks through poorly protected servers and improper storage practices.

The introduction of GDPR has helped to refocus the issue of data compliance. While it may be EU legislation, the UK has effectively passed a near-identical version into UK law, meaning data compliance will remain an extremely important consideration for businesses of all sizes in the UK. Additionally, cyber threats have never been so common, with the rise of increasingly intelligent and harmful threats effective data security has never been so important.

Fortunately, the solution is at hand, with Office 365’s security and compliance centre.

Introducing Office 365 Security and Compliance

Microsoft Office 365 features a range of privacy and compliance tools to help your business meet its data protection obligations. Secure your data, ensure data privacy and maintain compliance with advanced protection that harnesses the elevated security inherent in cloud storage.

Enterprise-grade protection at a price SMEs can afford. Take advantage of enterprise levels of protection without having to employ an army of Cybersecurity professionals.  With Office 365 you have Microsoft’s trusted cybersecurity expertise and capabilities at your disposal, helping to keep your files and systems safe with minimal cost and maintenance implications for your business. Expose and guard against various threats such as phishing attempts, malicious links, spam, viruses and more.

Avoid accidental leaks. Control the use and storage of data at file-level to ensure files are only opened by those permitted to do so and are only stored in approved locations. Office 365 enables users to send and receive encrypted emails to ensure sensitive data in emails and attachments can’t be intercepted by cybercriminals.

Control access. Assign and withdraw access permissions as you see fit to ensure that only trusted individuals have access to your sensitive data. Implement access policies and create security groups to ensure blanket control over your data at all times.

Enjoy compliance ‘peace of mind.’ You can be confident in your ability to meet your Compliance obligations as Office 365 has been designed in accordance with industry-specific, international and regional data security legislation. Office 365 lets you simplify your data compliance and risk strategy by slimming the process down into one intuitive and easy to manage platform. Message encryption makes sensitive information unattainable to cybercriminals without affecting productivity, and a range of tools help you identify and protect particularly sensitive information such as GDPR data.

Keeping tight controls on your data might seem like an insurmountable challenge, but with the help of Office 365’s security and compliance features, it doesn’t have to be. Protect your business’ and customers’ sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance by taking advantage of these features today.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.

Tackle your business challenges head on – With Microsoft Bookings

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“Is there any way I can arrange meetings without the tedious email back-and-forth?”

Ask this question no more as a solution is at hand…Microsoft Bookings.

Is meeting scheduling taking up too much of your time?

When it comes to scheduling meetings, particularly those which are face-to-face, communication is key!

It can be hard getting work done when you have to exchange countless emails over the course of an afternoon in order to organise a simple meeting. However, you may feel there is no way round the issue, that it is the necessary rigmarole you have to endure – you’ve always done it this way so why change now? Additionally, you are frequently bombarded with phone calls, and you spend precious hours repeating when you can and can’t attend meetings to various clients, associates and potential customers. Your office hours are finite, so all this emailing and chatting eats into time you might otherwise be using more productively.

Fortunately, there is a solution to the age-old challenge of arranging meetings, and it may already be at your disposal.

Introducing Microsoft Bookings

Microsoft Bookings is the solution to scheduling challenges that you’ve been looking for. It largely takes your time out of the equation, by transforming the way in which your customers and clients arrange appointments with you, letting you focus on more fruitful tasks.

Customer satisfaction guaranteed. Your customers will enjoy the control, convenience and flexibility that Microsoft Bookings gives them. Your Bookings page lets them see when you’re available at a glance, so they’re able to book an appointment with you there and then, without the endless email exchange or hassle of a phone call. They’ll then receive an automatic confirmatory email and calendar invite. The booking page also lets them reschedule or cancel as required, again without the fuss and hassle doing so might otherwise entail.

If they prefer to book over the phone then you simply enter the details of the meeting into Bookings and it handles the rest.

Your Office time is valuable, Save it! E-mail and telephone scheduling can prove time-consuming and tedious for both parties concerned. Bookings lets you dispense with the tiresome process altogether by letting your customer’s book meetings quickly and efficiently 24/7 via a highly customisable webpage.

Avoid missed appointments with reminders. When meetings are booked the traditional way you rely on attendees setting reminders and entering dates and times into their calendars and diaries. Bookings have that covered! It schedules reminders and automatically updates calendars so that all concerned know where they need to be and when.

Microsoft bookings take the hassle and stress out of booking meetings while helping to ensure your business appears organised and professional. It is featured as part of Microsoft 365 and various Office packages so why not try it out today.

 

Struggling to find a solution that fits around your business?

At Cloudscape, we use our extensive experience to deliver custom-fit technology solutions to SMEs in London and the home counties. Technology should serve your business’ aims and aspirations, it shouldn’t be something to mould your operation around. We are experts in Cloud-computing and we know how empowering Cloud Services can be when leveraged correctly, so let us help you tailor Office 365 so that it works for your business and the unique challenges you face. Call us on 0207 952 8123 or send us an email info@cloudscape.it.