Monthly Archives: November 2015

11 Features to Get the Most Out of Your Business Email

In the world of work, email is a mainstay. It allows us all to communicate at lightning-fast speeds—without having to pick up the phone. It gives us the power to thoughtfully consider projects, questions, answers, opinions, requests and feedback, all of which opens the door to better communication. And it gives us the ability to see the progression of conversations without digging through a mountain of individual messages. However, most people aren’t taking full advantage of what their email systems offer. Sure, they know how to send messages, set tasks, make notes, block their calendars and schedule reminders, but there are also some pretty great features (and hacks) that you may not know about that could just transform the way you use business email. Let’s take a look:

  1. Future delivery/delayed delivery: Whether you have news that you don’t want to share immediately or a project that’s ready for delivery but you don’t want to submit it too early, future/delayed delivery allows you to create and distribute messages on your schedule.
  2. Message grouping: For heavy email users, the ability to group messages into conversations related to specific topics can help you keep track of emails, stay up to date on developments and work more efficiently.
  3. Conditional formatting: Like message grouping, conditional formatting can help you organize conversations and stay on top of a certain topic. However, instead of grouping all messages into a batch that you can browse at a glance, conditional formatting simply displays messages matching selected criteria in the font and/or color of your choice.
  4. Rules: Providing you with yet another organizational option, the rules feature allows you to create and manage settings that empower your email system to automatically process messages in a certain way. Some systems can check for and include sender, recipient, email size, date and more. This way, you’ll never miss a message from your boss or your most important client; messages with large attachments can be singled out, etc.
  5. Email to text: For those times when you need an immediate response, or need to contact someone who may not have access to his or her email account, a text message may be the best way to get in touch. Some business email providers offer this feature, others don’t. If yours does, it can help you relay urgent messages quickly. Just be careful to reserve use of this feature for those who prefer it or for truly critical situations—because it can be disruptive to receive a barrage of non-urgent text messages while in a meeting, on vacation, etc.
  6. Desktop alerts: Whether you need to reduce distractions for a day or indefinitely, by disabling desktop alerts you can eliminate pop-up notifications about new messages and focus on whatever the task at hand may be. Conversely, if you’re waiting for an important email that you can’t afford to miss by a moment, you can easily turn on desktop alerts for a few hours or turn them on and leave them on for good.
  7. Email templates: If you’re a PR exec, public information officer, customer service representative, work in sales or are in any position that requires you to field requests for information about a program, service, product or topic, email templates can help you make quick work of your responses. After creating your template, all you’ll have to do is locate the template, personalize it as necessary and hit send. Not only will it help you save time, but increase your productivity. Plus, by not having to repeat yourself over and again, it might just improve your job satisfaction.
  8. Save messages as files: If you want to save certain emails in the same file as project work, contracts or other documents, you can simply drag your message from your email window to your file folder. Or, you can click Save As and choose to save a message in a specific location. This way, you can refer back to messages without digging through your inbox and/or archive.
  9. Multi-action shortcuts: If your email system supports shortcuts, it may also support multi-action shortcuts, which gives you the ability to combine several shortcuts into one quick action. For instance, if you want to mark a group of emails as read and simultaneously move them to a specific folder, or even mark messages as read, flag them as important and forward them to your team, you can do that with multi-action shortcuts. Some email systems that support multi-action shortcuts also allow you to create your own shortcuts, so you can customize your actions and make quick work of managing your inbox.
  10. Automated cleanup: Some email systems include an automated cleanup function that can help you save space and keep your inbox tidy. When a conversation (message and response) occurs over email, some email systems can analyze the contents of that conversation and determine if a message is completely contained within each thread. If it is, then the previous message will be automatically deleted—so you’ll have access to both the original message and all comments within a single email conversation, but your inbox won’t be clogged by redundant emails.
    Of course, if someone keeps clogging up your inbox with messages you don’t need or want, you can generally block their messages by using your “junk” or “spam” filters. But if you don’t want to permanently prevent someone from contacting you via email, you can simply select to send certain conversations directly to your trash by clicking the Ignore button.
  11. Delegate access: Finally, if you’re going on sabbatical, an extended vacation or parental leave and you don’t want to either check messages daily or weekly—or come back to a mountain of email—you may be able to give someone else permission to manage your inbox. Simply look at your account settings. If you see a Delegate Access button—or something similar—you can choose to give access to a coworker who can step in and respond to messages in your absence. Of course, you’ll still have the ability to check messages and respond as appropriate, but this feature can help you keep things in check while you’re away.

Email continues to be an important tool in the business world, and your mastery of these tools will only enhance your value in the workplace. Hopefully, we have shared one or more features that you will introduce into your business arsenal, leading to increased productivity.

Related content:

Contact the Atidan team at http://bit.ly/1PVDnHg for additional information about business email solutions!

Credit to Microsoft Blog: http://bit.ly/1PVDnHi

The Future of Planning -Online Project Planning in the Cloud

For almost any company, whether large or small, project management is necessary for getting—and remaining—organized. There are multiple project management tools available to help your business manage resources, project and control costs, communicate effectively with multiple team members, and track progress on any given project. While some of these tools can be installed as software on individual network computers, a great many of them are web-based—in other words, they’re available in the cloud.

Project planning in the cloudBenefits of project management tools in the cloud

You may be one of those people who shudders at the phrase “cloud computing,” but take a moment to consider what it really means. While on-premises project management tools have their place, cloud-based software comes with a plethora of benefits, including the following:

  • Lower upfront cost. When you use on-premises project management software, you have to pay for a number of items, including software license investments, server hardware, IT staff for support, lengthy deployments and more. Alternately, a cloud-based solution typically only requires a monthly or annual fee.
  • More secure than ever. Despite what many business executives have believed in the past, the cloud offers just as much security as on-premises solutions—the company simply does not control the physical servers. As a recent article in Forbes suggests, “cloud computing is no longer an oxymoron.”
  • Accessible from anywhere. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can access your project management software in the cloud. Because access is achieved through a web browser, it’s also possible to allow team members to view, edit and manage documents via devices other than computers.
  • Connected team. Even when workers are separated by miles, they can feel part of a cohesive unit with a cloud-based solution. Because everyone receives to-the-minute updates, no one relevant to the project is accidentally left out of the conversation. Furthermore, conversations can be conducted in the project space (instead of via email) and stored for future reference.
  • Increased productivity. Thanks to a centralized location where all project summaries, tasks, documents, newsfeeds and calendars are kept, cloud-based project management solutions can save time. And when time is saved, productivity can increase. In addition, a centralized location allows team members to access project documents in real time wherever they are located.
  • Real-time communication. One of the biggest benefits of using project management software in the cloud is the ability to give quick feedback on information as soon as it’s uploaded to the project workspace. This can also increase productivity because it lowers the instances of work that needs to be redone.
  • Up-to-date, data-driven decisions. As a business looking to become—and stay—profitable, it’s important to base decisions on more than just a whim. Thanks to the fact cloud-based software is instantaneously updated, you have the necessary information at your fingertips. In addition, most tools will have built-in reports to bring you the insights you need to make business-related decisions.
  • Simplified IT. When you use on-premises project management software, you are typically responsible for server maintenance, which requires the attention of internal IT personnel. Cloud-based software, on the other hand, is maintained for you by the service provider (or another resource)—saving you the time and hassle of dealing with any updates or bugs, and allowing you to focus on running your projects smoothly.
  • Instant updates. Unlike on-premises software, which requires you to download updates whenever a new version is released, cloud-based tools are updated automatically. There’s no need to pay to upgrade your entire application suite or wait for your IT team to have the time available to implement the updates.

Steps for finding the best cloud-based project management solution for you

Unfortunately, getting started with a new project management solution isn’t as simple as understanding the difference between on-premises and web-based, cloud choices. Selecting the best solution for your company requires several steps—but the end result is worth the effort you put forth. Follow these steps to decide on a qualified service provider.

Step 1: Conduct a needs analysis.

This won’t come as a shock to you, but every company is different—with different sizes, different goals and different needs. That means it’s up to your company to decide exactly which solution fits you best. Be sure those who actually will use the product have a voice in the discussion. Consider factors like whether your projects only involve internal employees or external clients as well, or what kinds of reports you will need to run. Once you know your needs, it’s easier to evaluate service providers based on the features they offer.

Step 2: Research, research, research.

When searching for a service provider, be on the lookout for those that offer the following features:

  • Enterprise-grade reliability
  • Ability to add teams and projects quickly
  • Reporting features that give quick insights about your portfolio
  • A familiar environment or at least one that’s easy to navigate and use
  • Ability to see and act on tasks in one location
  • Scheduling capabilities that allow you to plan and manage tasks effectively
  • Summary dashboards for data-driven decisions
  • 24/7 IT support
  • Continuous data backup, disaster recovery and globally redundant data centers
  • Scalable solution that grows with your business

Step 3: Take a test drive.

In the same way you’d test drive a vehicle before purchasing it, you should try out a project management solution before implementation. Test drives allow you to get a closer look at a tool’s features and imagine how the tool would work in a situation similar to yours.

Step 4: Consider timeline and process for implementation.

If you’ve decided to go with an online-based tool for project management, it doesn’t matter if it matches up well with your current applications—this only applies to on-premises solutions. But you will need to consider when you will have the manpower and budget to make the switch, and then coordinate with your chosen service provider to make it happen.

Step 5: Implement and train.

You’ve finally implemented a new project management software solution. Congratulations! But unfortunately, your work isn’t complete. It’s important to make sure your employees have the training they need to use the new tool effectively. Set up multiple sessions so everyone can work one into their schedule. In addition, create practice projects so everyone has a chance to explore and become familiar with the tool’s features before they have to use it in the real world.

Project management in the cloud is the wave of the future. Find a tool that works for you—and don’t be left behind.

For more information about moving to the cloud check out our eBook: Myths About Moving to the Cloud.

Contact the Atidan team at http://bit.ly/1QwmS5Y for additional information and a no obligation PMO / PM briefing!

Credit to https://blogs.office.com/2015/11/18/the-future-of-planning-online-project-planning-in-the-cloud/

Video Conferencing Nightmares and How to Avoid Them

No matter what industry you’re in, you’ve probably experienced at least a few video conference calls. While these calls require slightly more equipment than audio conferencing, they fill a need for face-to-face time that can’t quite be met without in-person gatherings. In fact, the popularity of video conferencing has exploded in recent years and that is for a number of reasons.

Video conferencingFirst, video conferencing saves time and money. According to a study by PGi, companies that regularly use video conferencing find a 30 percent dip in the cost of travel overall, which includes hotel, airfare, gas, taxi, car rentals and food stipends. In addition, video conferencing can lead to higher efficiency and productivity—it holds attention longer than a regular call (35 minutes compared with 23 minutes, according to PGi). Another perk of video conferencing is that it brings a sense of oneness among scattered employees who telecommute or work in different cities. Sometimes, you just need a face-to-face meeting.

But video conferencing comes with its challenges too. Have you ever participated in a call that was so poorly organized, or had so many technology flubs, that it felt like a waste of time? Most people probably have. That’s why it’s important to do all you can to avoid the following video conferencing nightmares—whether you’re the host or a participant.

  • Background noise. A great benefit of video conferencing is that it allows you to work from anywhere—even your home. But remember, your goal is still to be as professional as possible. That means you should eliminate any extraneous noises, including dog barks and kid cries. Close yourself in a quiet room with no distractions. If you know you’ll have an important call, send the kids to grandma’s and crate the dogs in another room.
  • Unmuted distractions. Don’t be “that person” who forgets to mute himself or herself when talking to others in the room, answering another phone call or—gulp—ordering a cup of coffee. If you need to step away from the call, mute yourself no matter the reason.
  • Muted conversations. On the other hand, don’t forget to unmute yourself when it’s your turn to speak. Who knows how many countless minutes and hours have been lost in our lives thanks to accidental muting!
  • Spotty connection. There’s nothing more annoying than being kicked off a video call. Not only do you miss parts of the meeting, but you waste time and energy trying to get back on. Be sure to have a solid Internet connection from wherever you’re working, and know how to restart it should it go out. Also, have a backup source for connecting if possible; for example, if there’s an app for your video conferencing program, install it on your smart phone and know how to use it if need be.
  • Static or interference. It’s not cool when someone misses every other word you say (or vice versa). Sometimes technology is just a beast and there’s no way to prevent it. But one way to lessen the likelihood of static or interference is for all participants to mute their phones unless they’re speaking.
  • Unknown speaker. When there are multiple people on the line, it can be difficult to remember who is who. Even if the program you are using identifies you, state your name and department before saying anything important. This will help those you don’t know well get oriented before you say a word.
  • Echo central. Sometimes there’s an unexplainable echo on a video call. If this occurs, try to narrow it down to a specific person or ask everyone to redial in. If that does not solve the issue, be prepared with another bridge or line for people to join.

In addition to these video conferencing nightmares, here are a few tips for best practices when preparing for a video call:

  • If you’re organizing a meeting, be sure it’s actually necessary. Almost all of us have hung up from a call and thought, “Well, that could have been accomplished with an email!” Help participants stay on task with a clear and detailed agenda. Be sure to leave time at the end for questions.
  • Be comfortable with the video conferencing technology before the meeting begins. Don’t wait until five minutes before a call starts to try signing in for the first time. If you’re the meeting host, run a test beforehand. Ask another employee to join your practice meeting so you can get the hang of granting screen sharing access, muting and unmuting participants, and more.
  • Use plenty of lighting. It doesn’t matter where you’re at during the meeting—the office, your home, etc.—be sure there’s adequate lighting so others can see your face. Don’t allow yourself to be backlit or your face could appear dark. Instead, be sure the light is coming from in front of you or from the side.
  • Make sure the background is not distracting. It’s not very professional to have a pile of laundry or your kids’ toys scattered behind you. Instead, go for simple and plain.
  • Dress appropriately. You’re still a professional, so unless it’s an audio conference, pay attention to your hair, makeup and clothing. Specifically, wear muted, neutral or pastel colors—no stripes, polka dots, plaids or anything else that could be distracting on screen.
  • Keep your webcam at eye level or a bit higher. Weird angles are also distracting.
  • Consider purchasing (or asking your company to purchase) a good microphone, especially if you make a lot of video calls. An external USB microphone is a great pick.
  • Stay focused on the call. Remember, people can see you—so don’t try to multitask during your video conference.
  • Look into the camera. Too many people stare at their own image on the screen instead, but that makes it appear (to everyone else) as if you’re looking downward. You won’t come across as professional and forthright as you want to be.

Remember, video conferencing is just like any technology in that there are many benefits as well as challenges. Fortunately, many of these challenges can be avoided with a little knowledge, troubleshooting and patience. So get ready and dive in to your next online video conference with ease. Lights, camera, action!

For information about Skype for Business please contact us at http://bit.ly/1H8vdtU to Microsoft: http://bit.ly/1H8vdtW

Introducing Microsoft Designer and Morph for PowerPoint

Taking Presentations to The Next Level

PowerPoint Designer and Morph are new intelligent tools that work for you by automating the creation of slides and presentations, helping everyone get more out of Office. With a cloud-powered recommendation engine and smart animation technology, these new PowerPoint capabilities help anyone create polished slides and captivating motion effects with just a few quick steps.

Check out our video here!

Introducing PowerPoint Designer

PowerPoint Designer allows anyone to create high quality professional slides within seconds. Just drop an image into your presentation and Designer provides you with several design ideas. Select your favorite and you’re done! This allows you to spend less time figuring out how to produce high quality designs and more time preparing for that key moment—your presentation.

The evolution of PowerPoint 1

This all works thanks to a powerful combination of automated design and smart image analysis. PowerPoint Designer was built in collaboration with professional graphic designers, who helped develop over 12,000 creative blueprints. Designer applies cloud intelligence to analyze and identify the most compelling portion of your images to determine which blueprints work best with your content. For example, if the visual contains a natural scene, Designer can zoom, crop and frame it. But if the image contains a chart, it focuses in on the relevant region to ensure the important data is highlighted. Designer then selects from the 12,000+ blueprints to provide multiple layout options to help you make the most of your image. The end result is a high quality and customized presentation—in seconds.

This first release of Designer will do amazing things, but it’s going to get even better with time. In the coming months, we will expand Designer to work with additional slide types.

Create cinematic motion with Morph

Morph creates cinematic motion by seamlessly animating between your slides. Morph doesn’t just animate regular text or images, it can animate 3-D shapes or be applied at a word or even character level, including text wrapping. Simply duplicate slides you want morphed together, move the objects based on how you want them to animate and click the Morph button under Transitions. You’ll be amazed with the quality of animations you create with just one click.

The evolution of PowerPoint 2

Exclusively available to Office 365 subscribers, PowerPoint Designer and Morph are premium authoring and editing features. PowerPoint Designer and Morph are available first in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows desktop and Windows Mobile, but expect to see these same features rolling out to other platforms in the coming months.

For additional information and a free Microsoft Office 365 trial please contact us at http://bit.ly/1S1GRHs credit to: Microsoft http://bit.ly/1S1GU64

10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Choose Office 365 Over Google Apps

Atidan has achieved fantastic success with Microsoft Office 365 for our small, medium and large clients – here are top 10 Reasons to choose Microsoft!


This article excerpt originally appeared here: http://managedsolution.com/off…/

As any business owner knows, staying competitive means doing more with less. It’s about being nimble, looking professional online, and getting more done in less time. But, with the many choices that are available these days, it’s difficult to find the right tools to accomplish your goals.

Office 365 delivers a full-featured, business-centric online productivity experience. It is designed from the ground up to meet business requirements for security, privacy, reliability, and manageability. Now, of course, Google also offers online productivity services with Google Apps for Work, so why should small and midsize businesses choose Office 365 over Google Apps?

Below are ten 10 reasons:

  1. ENSURE THE PRIVACY OF YOUR BUSINESS INFORMATION. Your private business information should be just that—private. Your customers and partners trust you with their sensitive information as well, and Office 365 provides enhanced security by design with our state-of-the-art data centers, premium anti-spam and antivirus protection, and encrypted anywhere access to data. Google Apps for Work adheres to Google’s single privacy policy, which is shared across business and consumer applications.
  2. WORK VIRTUALLY ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. In today’s always-on business world, being able to get work done anywhere can be a significant competitive advantage—especially for small and midsize businesses looking to deliver superior customer service and to differentiate themselves from larger competitors. Office 365 delivers a familiar, yet powerful user experience across PC, phone, and browser, intelligently tailored for each platform. Google has limited offline capabilities for its services. They are only limited to Chrome browser. And the experience is inconsistent across services.
  3. BOOST PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH A COMPLETE SOLUTION. Microsoft has been improving Office productivity applications for decades, and Office 365 is a natural extension of that process. With Office 365, you get everything you love about Microsoft Office, and then some. Instant messaging, Yammer Enterprise, real-time presence, video conferencing, and more are built right in and accessible from desktop applications or in the web browser. Customers using Google Apps for Work must rely on third-party solutions for core features such as Mail Merge, Bibliography etc.
  4. GET UP AND RUNNING FAST WITH A FAMILIAR, STRAIGHTFORWARD INTERFACE. Office 365 mobile, online, and desktop applications share a consistent yet tailored experience to give users instant familiarity across devices and locations. You get the familiar Microsoft Outlook® and Office productivity applications you already use—now powered by and working seamlessly with cloud services. Share a file in Word, Microsoft Excel®, or Microsoft PowerPoint® and almost anyone will be able to use it without thinking twice. Customers using Google Apps for Work must rely on third-party tools such as OffiSync and Memeo for functionality that is similar to what is offered in Office 365.
  5. MAKE LIFE EASY FOR CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS. Office 365 makes it easy for users to create rich documents that convince customers, preserve ideas, and drive innovation. All that richness is preserved whether documents are edited using Office tools on a desktop computer, a tablet, through a browser, or on a mobile device. Google Docs is limited in functionality compared to Office, despite recent efforts to improve.
  6. REDUCE IT COMPLEXITY. Even if you have dedicated IT staff, it’s still likely that you want to minimize the amount of time and money you spend managing systems. Office 365 is designed to be easy for most users to administer and manage, and provides the power of trusted business solutions to meet even the most advanced IT needs. Google Apps does not provide the same level of IT management functionality as Office 365.
  7. MEET YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS WITH A FLEXIBLE SOLUTION. Microsoft believes in giving customers the flexibility to choose what works for their business. That’s why Office 365 offers a choice of easy-to-buy plans to help you get the best solution whether you are a company of one or one thousand. Google’s approach is simple, but it may not satisfy all of your business needs.
  8. RELY ON A FINANCIALLY-BACKED 99.9 PERCENT SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT. Office 365 has been built from the ground up for reliability, availability, and performance. Our proven service is powered by the same Microsoft email and collaboration products that businesses have been using for decades. Because of this commitment to reliability and availability, Microsoft is one of the very few cloud services providers that offer a financially-backed service level agreement (SLA) when any Office 365 service drops below 99.9 percent availability.
  9. PLAN EFFECTIVELY WITH A CLEAR ROADMAP AND ALL-INCLUSIVE PRICING. Microsoft updates Office 365 on a regular schedule and provides customers with 12 months’ notice of significant changes to Office 365. Microsoft also contractually commits to maintaining core Office 365 features for the term of the customer’s subscription. With a new customer roadmap to help businesses set their technical strategy, Microsoft helps you understand the company’s vision and innovations. Flexible, predictable, pay-as-you-go pricing options include everything that is listed, so you can rest-assured that Microsoft will support all of the features you purchased, helping you plan budgets more effectively and avoid unexpected expenditures. Google’s approach to innovation is to release beta features with little or no advance warning.
  10. GET THE SUPPORT YOU NEED WHEN YOU NEED IT. Small and midsize businesses don’t have the time to be disrupted. Microsoft provides easy-to-access support options that meet a variety of needs. For small-business customers, Microsoft provides moderated community forums to find quick solutions to problems faced by businesses just like yours. For businesses with advanced technology needs, Office 365 Enterprise plans supplement community support with 24/7 phone support for even single-user outages. And, of course, Office 365 is designed to be easy to manage, even for non-technical people.

Attachments in Outlook 2016 – Enhanced Collaboration

Tired of digging around for the file you want to attach when you were just working on it earlier? Tired of later trying to sift through emails to find links shared with you? With the Windows release of Outlook 2016, attachments just got a whole lot better. You can now skip the hassles associated with finding and sharing files, regardless of whether you were working on them on your computer, phone or tablet.

The next time you go to attach a file to your email, the first thing you’ll notice is a list of recently accessed documents under the Recent Items. The Recent Items list is comprised of documents on your local hard drive as well as OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint—making it simple to pick files you have accessed across any of your devices.

Attachments in Outlook 2016 - 1

If you can’t find what you were looking for in the Recent Items list, we make it easy to navigate to your OneDrive, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint locations by selecting Browse Web Locations. To find other files saved on your PC, choose the Browse this PC option to open File Explorer.

If you select a OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint file to share, Outlook’s new attachment feature shows you what permissions you’re granting to your recipients at a glance. Of course, you also have the ability to change these permissions or even attach a copy instead—all without having to go to where it’s stored.

When you send your email, Outlook does the work of granting everyone the right set of permissions behind the scenes. Additionally, because the OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint links now appear side-by-side with your other attachments, you’ll notice a paperclip associated with them and have the ability to search for them just as you do with attachments today.

This new attachment experience is available today for users of Outlook 2016 on Windows devices, while continuous improvements and new features will be delivered to Office 365 subscribers. The best way to get the latest features with Office is to subscribe to Office 365. If you aren’t already taking advantage of the new experience, give it a try with your next attachment!

From Microsoft Outlook Team https://blogs.office.com/2015/11/09/attachments-in-outlook-2016-ready-for-collaboration/

Create the Modern Workplace Webcast Series – Join Us!

Join us for a virtual webcast series live from the Microsoft Technology Center to learn how to empower your employees and organization with tools from Office 365.

With the industry’s most advanced productivity suite—Office 365—Microsoft is focused on creating the modern workplace to help you communicate and collaborate without borders and barriers. We know that connecting with coworkers, customers and partners is critical for your business. With better tools and better connections, your opportunities for business growth are limitless.

This three-part webcast series will help you learn about the industry’s most innovative productivity suite. Today, with Office 2016 and Office 365, there is no one else who takes such a broad view of productivity. We think about productivity across individuals, teams/groups and organizations. Explore how you can take advantage of our solutions to create a more modern workplace.

Join this virtual webcast series to hear insights into Microsoft’s latest productivity solutions and to understand how you can:

  • Improve meetings with new features in Skype for Business and Office 365.
  • Collaborate and share files in real time with advanced tools and the cloud.
  • Enable mobile productivity with Office 365.
Date Webcast title Registration link
November 12, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST 5 Ways You Can Modernize Your Meetings Register here
November 19, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST Drive Connected Collaboration Register here
December 4, 2015 at 10 a.m. PST Fuel Mobile Productivity with Office 2016 Register here

Register now and join us live or on demand and learn how you can empower your employees to be more productive from anywhere on any device or platform.

Email Archiving—5 Reasons Why This is the Best Email Feature You Never Use

Whether you work in the corporate world or not, you probably send and receive multiple emails every day. It’s a fast, convenient way to communicate with peers, colleagues, clients, friends and family. Of course, email is an extremely popular communication tool for companies—in part because of its ability to document conversations and serve as a searchable repository of information.

In fact, studies suggest that three-fourths of an organization’s intellectual property is contained within email and messaging systems. That means it’s important to protect this data and not just send it to the trash. But keeping that much information can overload your company’s storage servers.

So what’s the best solution?

Email archiving is nothing new. The tool has been around for years—so why don’t more companies use it? Here are five benefits to using an email archiving solution:

  • Storage. When email data is stored on live servers, it can greatly reduce performance as the server gets fuller. The only other options are to delete emails altogether—not a wise option, since important data can be lost forever—or store them elsewhere. Email archiving follows this latter option and moves data to a secure off-site server or cloud environment. Some solutions use advanced compression and/or deduplication to reduce the required disk space in the archive—sometimes by 50 percent or more.
  • Restoration. Depending on what backup solutions you already have in place, email archiving can speed up the process whenever your data needs to be restored. This is because the archived data takes up less space. In addition, restoring non-archived emails becomes faster and easier, because the mail server’s data load is lessened.
  • Security. Just because your old emails are “out of sight” and stored elsewhere doesn’t mean they aren’t protected as well as emails in your live inbox environment. If you’ve got the right email archiving solution, your data is immutably preserved and safeguarded with continuous data backup and premier disaster recovery capabilities. For the best service, look for a provider that delivers reliability, availability and performance with a guaranteed 99.9 percent uptime and financially backed service level agreement.
  • Productivity. When your live servers are bogged down with tons of email data, it can make searching for a specific email or a specific subject grueling and slow. In addition, by getting rid of email box quotas and setting up automatic email archiving, employees no longer have to spend precious time deleting emails or moving them to PST files like the old days. Finally, when you give your employees the ability to easily access archived and backed up email data, you place the power in their hands—meaning they won’t have to engage the IT department to do it for them.
  • Compliance. Most industries require organizations to keep business records—and since emails often contain such records, deleting them is a no-no. Specific industries like health care, financial services, pharmaceuticals and energy have even stricter regulations about what business records must be kept.

When you consider an email archiving solution, remember to research providers and select one that will deliver a user-friendly solution that keeps you in control and maintains high standards of security and reliability.

Related content:

Credit to Microsoft Office Team:https://blogs.office.com/2015/11/05/email-archiving-the-best-email-feature-you-never-use/

Brainstorm Training for Microsoft Office 365 – QuickHelp Video Training On Demand

With the launch of Office 2016 and so many other new features in Office 365, Atidan is pleased to partner with Brainstorm to offer their QuickHelp On Demand training offering. Brainstorm QuickHelp is a subscription that gives all of your users access to video and reference help right within the applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. for immediate help and training right when and where they need it. The subscription includes:

  • Thousands of short, on-demand training clips hosted in the cloud
  • Searchable content complete with course lists, favorites, and Quick Ribbon tips
  • Simultaneous see-and-do clips, delivered immediately

Please check out the enclosed video demo link:  Brainstorm QuickHelp Video Demonstration

Brainstorm Training Vision - Atidan

Videos are added very frequently as new products and features are released. Also included is a live monthly training called QuickCasts at no additional charge.

Initial subscription covers up to 50 users and is extremely cost effective. Additional subscriptions can be purchased individually and volume licensing is available. Considering the cost of training and your staff’s productivity , we believe this will pay for itself many times over!

Brainstorm QuickCast-Screenshots - Atidan

Why Quickcasts work:

  • Assisted help desk functionality to answer questions via videos
  • Customized course lists and the ability to add corporate content
  • Relevant reports on personal, company, and help desk usage

What’s in it for you

  • Improve user adoption, ease transition
  • Increase usage, increase productivity
  • Decrease help desk calls and costs
  • Increase software ROI

Another offering from Brainstorm are their ‘famous’ Quick Start reference cards. These are orderable in any quantity for any topic including Office 365, all of the Office 2016 products, Windows 10, etc.

QuickReference Cards Brainstorm - Atidan

Contact the Atidan team today at brainstorm@atidan.com !