So many communications apps and collaboration tools are readily available these days, with more being developed daily. With an abundant amount of options to choose from, how do you pick out one that is perfect for your business needs? If you’re looking for the best option to choose as your organisation’s collaboration channel and wondering if Microsoft Teams is really worth the hype, here’s the lowdown based on our experience with Teams.
We think that Teams is one of Microsoft’s most brilliant brainchild to date, and it has evolved considerably over time. Teams is considered an ultimate communication and collaboration tool that integrates chat, file sharing, collaboration and virtual meeting into one convenient app. It’s a one-stop channel for teams in the modern workplace and is a pretty powerful tool as part of the Office 365 suite, but it can also be used as a standalone app.
There’s a multitude of reasons why we at Grassroots IT love Teams (and why it’s a central part of the way we run our business). We’d like to share with you some of our team’s favourite features that have helped us collaborate remotely and consequently fall in love with this powerful app:
1. Teams is fully integrated with Office 365.
If you’re already experiencing the power of a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription, the full potential of Microsoft Teams is at your fingertips. You can access all the awesome chat-based collaboration with colleagues and clients in a secure virtual environment with powerful administration tools to help you manage your organization better. Plus you’ll have the backup of 24/7 support from the Microsoft team. All of the Office 365 tools are fully integrated in Teams so collaboration across your organization on files and project management is easy. For example, from within your Teams app, you’ll be able to see your Outlook calendar, be able to collaborate on documents stored in Sharepoint, talk to team mates on a video call or via the chat channel, amongst other things.
2. Teams facilitates seamless collaboration in real-time.
Wherever you are, you can rely on Teams to connect with the rest of your peers in real time via group chats, virtual meetings, online calls and conferences. You can also integrate Sharepoint in your Teams Channel for faster file and folder sharing and collaboration. Teams is continually improving its platform to provide us a great experience collaborating in a virtual environment.
3. Collaboration on-the-go with any device.
In today’s world where we rely on different devices for various tasks, it is important that we’re using tools that can adapt to our diverse needs. Microsoft Teams is a one-stop collaboration tool that is accessible on any device. You can download and use the app on a Windows PC, Mac, mobile phone, tablet, laptop or access your Office 365 Online. There’s almost no limit to on-the-go Teams collaboration while still keeping your data accessible and secure.
4. Easily switch from one device to another.
Not only is it accessible from various device platforms but Teams offers a seamless transfer from one device to another. Say you’re having a virtual meeting on your Macbook while seated in a café but you have to run to catch a plane so you have to do a quick switch to your mobile phone – that’s possible! And all this without cutting you off of the call or interrupting the conversation. Too great, hey?
5. Content sharing and screen sharing on mobile.
Living up to its on-the-go accessibility feature, Microsoft Teams has evolved to make more features compatible for mobile phones. There’s an amazing feature on Teams for mobile where you can share content or screenshare without leaving a Teams call, which historically was a desktop-app-only feature. Now that we’re using our mobile phones and tablets more often, Microsoft Teams decided to adapt and improve its capabilities so we can collaborate more efficiently.
6. Ability to create customized Teams Channels.
Teams has communication channels that can be created and customized for various parts of your business. For example, as well as having a channel for our entire company, we have a specific channel for our tech team, as well as our Marketing crew. You can create group channels for specific members of your business, or perhaps for a special project, and integrate productivity tools that fit the purpose of the channel and the interest of the specific members. Roles between members of the team can also be managed so you can keep sight of who’s authorized to control access to certain files and tools within your team.
7. Skip the emails.
How many times have you missed an urgent email because it was buried down by newer emails, or had to scroll a long way down an email thread between a certain team just to find the message you were looking for? Wouldn’t it be more convenient if, for example, your Sales Team had its own virtual chat room where all urgent notes and topics are being discussed in real time? That is possible in Teams. If you’re an admin, you can just create a Teams Channel, add relevant members to it and chat with each other without risking an overflowing Mailbox.
8. Allows thread or conversation search.
So you’ve started utilizing the power of Teams Channels, everyone is getting the hang of chatting and now the thread is a mile long – but you really want to find that GIF Jim sent a month ago along with a funny note. Stop scrolling through a month’s worth of chats and head to the search box, type in the words that you remember from the message and just like magic, you’ll find that part of the conversation as quick as a wink.
9. Tag and notify who you’re really trying to reach.
Just like social media, Microsoft Teams has a @ mentioning feature that allows you to notify the people you’d like your messages to be seen by. Chats can easily be missed if there are a lot of new messages coming in from different people in a Teams Channel but if you directly mention a certain recipient, and he receives an O365 notification and an email about it, it’s going to be pretty hard to miss (or ignore) the message. You can also use the tagging feature in comments on a Office 365 document you’re collaborating on.
10. Security features you can trust.
Along with seamless collaboration capabilities, Microsoft Teams offers top-of-the-line security features embedded in the core of Office 365. If we are going to get technical, Microsoft Teams includes standard licenses like SOC I & 2, HIPAA, EU Model Clauses and ISO 27001. But without even worrying about the technicalities of how it works, you can put your mind at ease knowing that your data is encrypted, stored and safely accessible within your Sharepoint page and your conversations and chat collaborations between devices are secure.
You can also double your defences with these easy yet, effective cybersecurity best practices.
These are just ten of our team’s favourite features. When you start using Microsoft Teams for your own, you’ll unlock and discover more amazing features from this collaboration tool and find that it’s definitely a practical solution for your organisation’s communication and collaboration needs. We found it a little hard to keep our list to only ten features, so here’s a few features that made it to the runner’s up list:
Audio messaging
Send audio recorded messages within Teams chat. Nothing sounds more clear and personal than an audio message.
Dark mode
If you don’t like the default white and purple colour theme, you can always switch to the dark side. ( )
Secure Location sharing
Share and let your team know where to find you or where you’re headed with a secure and precise Location tracking.
Shifts for Firstline Workers
Shifts for Teams provide a more efficient schedule management tool for you and your firstline workers. Managers has the freedom to create, update and manage schedules for teams while firstline workers can see schedules, file requests and manage workdays. And all that can be performed easily from a mobile device.
Microsoft Teams has become a one-stop-hub for collaboration between colleagues and clients across locations through the years. This collaboration tool has been providing a simpler, friendlier chat-based space where teams can more easily work together on projects, files and ideas. It has changed the way teams work in modern business environments. With the developments in Microsoft Teams, we can look forward to a more connected work environment in the future to come.
Microsoft 365 has many security features and capabilities built in, however with a few simple steps you can improve your Microsoft 365 security and greatly increase your cybersecurity stance with some easy changes to system configuration and business practices.
#1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-Factor Authentication is by far one of the most effective ways to improve Microsoft 365 security and protect accounts from being hacked. When you have multi-factor authentication in place, your employees will be required to enter in a unique, constantly changing code along with their usual username and password in order to log on to their Microsoft 365 account. Even better, Microsoft 365 has some super clever features that mean you will not be constantly prompted for this code if you are connecting from a trusted location or device.
Using Multi-Factor Authentication ensures that your valuable data doesn’t get compromised should your employees use easy-to-guess passwords or leave the password written down out in the open. While it’s important to use strong passwords, this second step ensures that a malicious party won’t be able to gain access as they would need the employee’s phone as well.
#2. Use dedicated admin accounts
Your admin accounts come with elevated privileges, options, and security features. The people who use these accounts can grant rights to other users, install software, and more. This makes them a prime target for cybercriminals and hackers. Each administrator should have their own account, and they should have a separate user account for non-admin tasks.
Every admin account should have multi-factor authentication equipped. You should also routinely monitor these admin accounts to ensure they’re not granting unauthorised privileges to users who don’t need them because this increases your security risks. When an admin leaves the business, immediately shut down their admin account so they can’t use it against the business.
#3. Educate your staff to be cyber-safe
The Harvard Kennedy School has an excellent handbook to assist you in training your staff on cybersecurity called the Cybersecurity Campaign Handbook. This book can help you set up a culture of cybersecurity awareness that your staff can use from the moment you hire them. You’ll train your users to identify phishing attacks through their emails to keep hackers out.
Your staff should know what a strong password is, and how to set them up, how to protect their devices and how to enable security features on Mac PCs and Windows 10. Giving your staff ongoing training allows them to keep up with the latest threats.
#4. Protect against ransomware attacks with mail flow rules
Ransomware is a program that restricts an infected computer’s access to data by locking the computer or encrypting the data. Once you get locked out of the computer, it usually asks for a “ransom” to extort money out of the victims. This money is typically cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, and the hackers claim they’ll give you access back to your computer once they get the money.
You can create mail flows that block any file extensions that cybercriminals commonly used for ransomware. You can either block all file types that could contain malicious code or ransomware, or you could set up a rule that warns your staff that they’re about to open an Office file attachment that has macros.
#5. Raise your malware protection levels
Malware is an umbrella term that covers many types of software that purposely damage a computer. Malware can be Trojans, viruses, spyware, ransomware, or worms. Malware is short for “malicious software,” and training your staff on avoiding it is critical.
Luckily, Microsoft 365 comes with built-in protection against this form of cyber attack. You can enhance this protection by automatically blocking file types or attachments that cybercriminals commonly use for malware.
#6. Set up Office message encryption
Encryption adds another layer of protection to any messages you send both inside and outside of your organisation. This way, if a staff member accidentally types in the wrong email and sends it to an unintended party, they can’t pass it around. The encryption lets only the intended party see the email when they open it.
You can have your staff use the “Do not forward” or the “Encrypt” prompt each time they send an email. Encryption comes built into Office 365, and it works with Yahoo!, Outlook.com, Gmail and other email providers.
#7. Disable the ability to auto-forward emails
Your emails are a vulnerable point for your organisation, especially if your staff have a habit of forwarding them. Any hacker that gains access to your staff’s inboxes can configure the inbox to automatically forward mail. When they do, they can attach Malware to the email and spread it throughout the organisation.
The first step you take is to make sure your staff aren’t forwarding emails on their own. You can set up a mail flow rule that prevents auto-forwarding emails from external senders. This way, even if a hacker does get in, they won’t be able to infect the entire system.
Your staff will routinely receive, share, and send attachments like spreadsheets and presentations. It’s very difficult to tell which attachments are safe to open and which ones are infected with malware.
Some Microsoft 365 plans come equipped with Advanced Threat Protection built-in. This suite includes ATP Safe Attachment protection. You have to enable it and set up a new rule for it. However, it can protect your staff from spreading malicious software through attachments.
#8. Defend your email from phishing
You can configure anti-phishing protection in both Office 365 or Microsoft 365. You can set up a policy to protect your custom domain and your staff. This software protects your organisation from general phishing attacks and malicious impersonation-based phishing attacks. Hackers won’t be able to send impersonation emails from any user you have listed in your custom domain.
Speak with the Office 365 security experts
Grassroots IT are the Microsoft Office 365 security experts, keeping our clients cyber safe in Brisbane and across Australia since 2005. One thing we understand about Microsoft 365 security and compliance is that unless you work with these tools every day, it can be hard to “know what you don’t know”. For that reason, we created our Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Packs – simple, fixed-price packs to help you take advantage of all of the advanced security and compliance features in Microsoft 365, without the complication of drawn out project scoping and design. Contact us today to learn more.
Most people are aware of the Microsoft Office Suite. Office has been around for a very long time, in fact you used to be able to buy it on CDs, remember those things?
Of course, these days, we are all used to a much more convenient and powerful way to create, collaborate and generally get stuff done in the modern workplace through Office 365. For a simple and predictable monthly subscription, we enjoy access to a wide range of productivity software, accessible even from a mobile phone. There is so much more to Office 365 than Outlook, Word and Excel. Watch this webinar replay to see some real-life case studies on how other local businesses are using office 365 to kick goals.
You may have heard about Microsoft 365?
A lot of people hear about Microsoft 365 and get it confused with Office 365 and to be fair, it’s an easy mistake to make. The naming is a little bit confusing (as often happens with Microsoft), but Office 365 is one part of what is on offer with a Microsoft 365 subscription, in addition to the operating system and advanced security tools.
Microsoft 365 is an integrated platform that brings together the productivity of Office 365, the stability of Windows 10 and Enterprise mobility & Security.
Like Office 365, Microsoft 365 a subscription-based service designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses like yours. As well as all the goodness that comes with your Office 365 subscription that you know and love, the Microsoft 365 offering also incorporates strong data security features. Microsoft 365 is designed as a complete package when it comes to workplace productivity and security. Instead of having to design and purchase subscriptions piecemeal, everything is incorporated from the get-go.
Let’s have a look at what’s included.
Office 365 Business Premium and Microsoft 365 Business are two of the best plans to compare in terms of what’s on offer to understand the differences between these two products.
Both products come with web browser versions of the Office Suite as well as the ability to have fully installed Office applications on tablets and smartphones and, of course, your PC if you like. You get 1TB of personal file storage as well as business class email and calendars. You have all the trimmings with Microsoft Teams for collaboration and all the additional business applications such as Delve and Planner.
Basically, both products have the full Office Business Premium Package.
The differences start with security and device management. Microsoft 365 comes with Enterprise Mobility and Security. This aligns with the vision of IT that focusses on the person, and not just a device. In the modern workplace, employees expect to be able to have access their information in a flexible way, across multiple devices. Microsoft 365’s cloud-based enterprise mobility management tool included with the subscription aims to help organisations manage the mobile devices employees use to access corporate data and applications.
The BIGGEST difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365 is that the Windows 10 professional operating system is included in your Microsoft 365 subscription.
For organisations that still maintain a large fleet of Windows 7 systems, the Microsoft 365 subscription is very attractive.
It’s not uncommon to see businesses still operating on a fleet of computers running Windows 7. In fact, it’s estimated that approximately 40% of all computer users are still running Windows 7.
Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 7 way back on January 13, 2015. Time flies! Extended support won’t end until January 2020 but at our current speed of business, this is just around the corner.
So, what happens when Windows 7 is no longer supported?
The risk of not upgrading once extended support ends is that systems still running Windows 7 may be vulnerable to un-patched security risks as Microsoft no longer rolls out security updates to keep systems secure.
If you are looking to upgrade the operating system across your fleet to remain secure, then it makes a lot of sense to look at a subscription model for your operating system instead of the traditional approach of purchasing new perpetual licenses for all your applicable devices.
For organisations that are yet to make the move to Office 365, Microsoft 365 makes a lot of sense especially if their current fleet of computers is still running Windows 7.
Any business looking to establish a secure, collaborative working environment that integrates traditional desktop workstations and mobile devices with a dispersed workforce will benefit from this integrated solution provided by Microsoft 365. It combines the Operating System (Windows 10), the Productivity Suite (Office 365) and the authentication system (Enterprise Mobility and Security).
“What sort of costs am I looking at?”
With both Office 365 and Microsoft 365, there are multiple plans to choose from depending on your needs and both would involve a process of setup and migration. Unless you’re particularly IT savvy, we would highly recommend the project is properly scoped and managed by a professional IT service provider to have the best outcome and minimal disruption to your business. You can view more information about Microsoft 365 Business here and compare the Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans here.
“I’m still not sure whether Office 365 or Microsoft 365 is the best option for my organisation.”
That’s okay, we totally get it! Make a time to catch up with us and we’ll help you work out which would be the best fit for your organisation’s needs and business goals.
Are you ready to get solutions that drive positive change to your business? Reach out to us to know more about how we can build these solutions together.
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