Prevent virtual meeting overload with SharePoint

Prevent virtual meeting overload with SharePoint

by | May 9, 2021 | News, News 2021, Office 365

Working from home has been a challenge for everyone, particularly those who had to make it work immediately without having any experience of doing so pre-pandemic. When working in an office space, it’s so easy to have a quick catch up and find out where someone is at on a project, but with everyone working from their homes, keeping up-to-date is much more of a challenge.

 

Virtual meetings are also no longer a novelty, and having multiple video catch-ups in a day can no only zap your energy, but they can seriously disrupt your work day. So what if we told you, that as part of Office 365, you can use SharePoint online?

 

What is SharePoint?

 SharePoint is a cloud-based platform which offers a way to connect your team with the creation, storage, and sharing of documents.

 

You can create team sites for projects, where members working on that particular project can view and collaborate on documents. You can also create an intranet for your whole business, where news can be shared with colleagues, and everyone can access forms, lists, and libraries of information they need to carry out their roles effectively.

 

It’s even available in mobile app form, so you can stay up-to-date even when you’re not sat in front of your big screen.

 

Is SharePoint secure?

As far as security goes, SharePoint makes it very easy to set access permissions. You can set them at individual, group, or security group level. This means you can have HR, Sales, Marketing, and Accounts all working and accessing the files that they need, while not being able to access those they don’t need to see.

 

Aside from the obvious benefits for privacy reasons, restricting access to certain files based on who needs to see them is also good practice for security, because it reduces the chance of someone external to your company accessing sensitive information.

 

With many businesses we’re speaking to looking to continue with working from home, even if that’s in a part-time capacity, we’d love to discuss how we think you can best utilise SharePoint for your business. Give us a call on 01732 617788 or drop us an email to [email protected]. Let’s reduce the need for quite so many video meetings! 

Keep your sanity intact when it comes to projects, with Microsoft Teams

Keep your sanity intact when it comes to projects, with Microsoft Teams

by | Apr 7, 2021 | IT Support, Office 365

When you’re working on a big project, it can be hard work at the best of times, even when you’re all together in the same office space. The challenges become greater, when you add distance and not being able to see each other in person, into the mix. One of the best ways we’ve found for removing the frictions that come associated with remote working, is making sure the tools you’re using are completely fit for purpose and well-suited to everyone. For this, we recommend Microsoft Teams in particular.

What’s so great about Microsoft Teams?

Since it was launched, it’s the fastest growing app in the history of Microsoft – more than 330,000 companies are using Teams worldwide very successfully, and they can’t all be wrong!

#1 Not just about the chit chat

When you conjure an image of MS Teams in your head, what are you thinking of? Video calling? Chat? Well yes, it does have both of those features but the power of it goes far beyond that. Within the chat feature, you can share files or integrate it with other Microsoft products like OneNote or Office which means you don’t need to keep switching windows to find information that you need. You can even schedule meetings straight from chat – what a timesaver!

#2 Streamline your meetings

Hands up who likes hosting meetings? We thought not. In the age of virtual meetings especially, it’s easy to get involved in something and then realise 5 minutes beforehand that you need to find the agenda, agreed action points from somewhere else, and there was another document you wanted to go through- where’s that?

Meetings in Teams are a breeze. As soon as you’ve created the meeting you can chat to participants about the agenda, share files so they can all see them, and keep the meeting notes all in one place for easy access and finding. Once the meeting is over, the recording is available right alongside the notes and agreed actions – easy for anyone who missed the meeting, and a great way to keep on top of things.

four avatars on a group video call

A reduction of the dreaded emails

By structuring the conversation in Teams, in a way that suits your business, quick conversations can be held here rather than clogging up your inbox and giving you more stuff to wade through every time you check it.

Collaborate on documents from within Teams

Teams integrates seamlessly with Office 365, which means there’s no need to switch apps when collaborating on a document. You can create one, and share it with your teammates immediately so you can work on it together – it’s as easy as pie.

Get the app!

If your work takes you beyond the desk, then there’s no need to miss out on important conversation. You can download the Teams app and have access to all of your apps and documents as well as chatting, and joining meetings. You’ve got the power!

Would you like to know more? Give us a call on 01732 617788 or drop us an email to [email protected]. We’ve also got a guide about how to download and set up Teams to make the most out of it. You can download that here.

I’ve got a plan…

I’ve got a plan…

by | Jan 8, 2021 | News 2021, Office 365

And I bet you have too.

In fact, you’re probably full of new plans to make your business even better this year.

But how do you keep your plans all in one place? Making sure everyone involved can see the progress and what action they need to take to get it completed?

Microsoft Planner, of course!

It’s part of Teams. If you’re new to it, don’t worry. We’ve created a handy short how to video, to show you how it works.

Watch our new video right now:

 

 

Translate business documents with Microsoft Translator

Translate business documents with Microsoft Translator

by | Jan 9, 2020 | News 2020, Office 365, Popular

As more and more businesses are working with partners across the world, the ability to translate business documents only continues to grow in importance. If you find pasting text into Google Translate a time-consuming challenge then never fear, there’s a smarter solution that may have been right under your nose without you even realizing it.

Microsoft Translator

Easily translate text within Office 365. You can send and understand documents within the programme you’re using whether that be Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Watch our video to see it in action:

Office 365 is packed full of features so it’s understandable if some of them have passed you by. If you’d like to know more about what’s available to aid the smooth day-to-day running of your business, give us a call on 01732 617788 or drop us an email to [email protected]