by Felicien | Jul 5, 2018 | Education
What is Microsoft Office Lens?
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to send someone a handwritten piece of paper or an illustration on a whiteboard? Microsoft has developed an app called Office Lens that works like a portable scanner, taking pictures of hard copy documents and then converting them to digital files. Once you take the photo, you can crop it, rotate it, or give it a sharper focus so that it looks just like a scanned image. The app uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, which has been around a long time and is very reliable.
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This application is available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phones. It integrates with other Microsoft applications such as OneNote and relies heavily on the camera. This App can even convert your images into other formats such as Word, PDF, and PowerPoint files. That makes it even more convenient to use.
Scenarios
You are in a corporate meeting and your boss or colleagues need detailed explanations of things discussed in another recent meeting. The problem is that most of the things accomplished in the meeting were done on a whiteboard. In the past, it’s been hard to share information like this with colleagues. With the Office Lens App, you would take a photo of the whiteboard, then edit it appropriately, convert it, and share it with others.
It works for receipts too. Keeping a pile of receipts is no longer tidy nor reliable and they can easily be misplaced. Lay the receipts out on a flat surface and take a picture of them. You can do this for each receipt or group several together. You might have five receipts from where you bought party supplies for an upcoming birthday at work. Take a photo of all of them at once, then you can forward that file to the accounting department for reimbursement. Files can also be saved to OneDrive for future reference.
How many business cards have you collected over time from different people? These are always hard to keep up with and some of them may be important. With Office Lens, you can take a snapshot of the card and save it to your mobile phone. Now you can throw the paper card away. You don’t need it anymore.
Keeping track of items in this manner prevents spelling and typing errors. Everything is photographed exactly as is so there are no worries about copying down the wrong email address.
Office Lens is a good program for use at home as well. For those who are parents, your kid’s childhood is important. Their very first writings and drawings can be stored in your device and even forwarded to grandparents or friends.
Sticky notes are used a lot around an office. They often contain important information but they are easy to lose. With Office Lens, you can take snapshots of the most important sticky notes so you’ll have them for future reference.
How does it work?
Make sure you install the Office Lens product that is compatible with your device: iOS, Android, or Windows. Follow the instructions to set it up properly. Be sure to allow the program to access your camera.
The camera will open and then a default “view” option will allow you to choose options such as whiteboard or document.
As you focus and move the camera, it will try to frame the object. Once you get a clear focus, just press the button to capture your image.
Office Lens will take a few minutes to process the image and then give you a preview of it. If you think you should trim it a bit, use the crop option in the upper right corner. Once you achieve your desired results, tap Done.
Finally, you will need to save the image. You have options such as OneNote or OneDrive. These are good places to store all documents like this. Sign in to your OneNote account, create a name for your image, and then save it in the notebook file of your choice. If you wish to store your image online, you can upload it to OneDrive, Word, your photo library, or even PowerPoint. You can also email the photo.
Why Office Lens?
This app is a great way to organize all your stuff. It’s easy to use and it integrates well with other Office applications. It can help you keep track of everything from sticky notes and business cards to receipts. Since it uses Optical Character Recognition, it provides better clarity than normal photo-taking programs and cameras. It can even give you a good image of bad handwriting.
Office Lens allows you to edit directly from the image. If you feel that your content needs more explaining or has omitted something important, you can add it on the image from your device and then save it in the most suitable mode.
The fact that you can convert your image into different file formats, such as Word, PDF, and PowerPoint ensures that the image can be opened from any user device, especially if you are sharing it in a group forum.
Wrap Up
Office Lens is one App that is user-friendly and can be applied to different situations. Whiteboard presentations, bills, and receipts from home, restaurant receipts or even the menu, can be saved for future reference. This is a helpful app that definitely makes life a lot easier.
by Felicien | Jul 4, 2018 | Education
Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever, which means they can work from virtually anywhere any time, provided they’ve got an internet connection.
While this is great, it presents a whole new spectrum of security challenges as this level of mobility means more opportunities for a security breach. If this doesn’t ring alarm bells in your head, then picture these statistics:
The IBM-sponsored Ponemon Institute’s 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study puts the global average cost of a data breach at a whopping $3.6 million. That’s about $141 for every data record. Not to mention that the cost of recovering from a security breach is higher than protecting against one.
More than 80 percent of employees use non-approved SaaS (software-as-a-service) apps in their job, leading to hundreds of million records already compromised to date.
An attacker can reside within your network for up to 200+ days on average before detection.
What Microsoft is doing to combat security threats
Microsoft’s protection begins with the unique insights that the tech giant amasses through machine learning technology. Machine learning on Microsoft Security works by overlaying separate sets of company data for its Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to monitor. The system measures each dataset against the other using pattern recognition to detect any anomalous activity which it then flags in order to be addressed.
This threat intelligence gathers signals — or indicators — from a broad and in-depth array of sources to help the security graph understand the threat landscape. This means analyzing and learning from data built into products and services such as Windows, Office 365, Hotmail, and Azure from users all over the planet to detect attack trends and intercept new threats before they happen.
That’s data provided by:
400 billion emails monthly
2 billion devices monthly
1 billion cloud queries daily
2 million file samples daily
Microsoft also employs threat researchers and analytics systems across its worldwide network to provide a timely and actionable assessment of the threat landscape. This approach means that Microsoft has billions of data points that throw light on various security issues.
The company is constantly learning from every one of these interactions and creating a security graph built on its broad scale, strength of signal, visionary mindset, and vast experience as a global enterprise. Most importantly, they perform ongoing studies of the threat landscape to help understand and mitigate the impact of more sophisticated attacks.
Pillars of Microsoft Security
Microsoft’s approach to security comes down to four simple pillars: Trust, Intelligence, Partnerships, and Platform.
Trust
Microsoft believes in the need to trust that your organization, data, and people are protected from security threats.
Intelligence
This is about acting on the intelligence that Microsoft gives you from its security-related signals and insights – helping both Microsoft and its users detect threats more quickly.
Partnerships
Microsoft is fostering an ecosystem of vibrant partners whose contributions lead to the effective raising of the security bar across the industry. The tech giant believes in working with the industry as a way to take a holistic approach to technology.
Platform
Microsoft security is in-built on the company’s platforms, taking a holistic approach to security by looking at it across identity, apps, devices, and data, as well as the security infrastructure. This involves, for instance, harnessing machine learning on integrated applications such as Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to seamlessly monitor data, detect threats, and eventually contain them before they become a problem. Since all this is done using technology rather than human input, there is little need for employee involvement or related software deployment.
A more targeted approach to threat protection
Because many of today’s organizations have multiple data centers spread across various locations or all over the globe, there are more opportunities for a security breach. This means that an integrated approach to protection would be a less efficient alternative. Microsoft, therefore, encourages the deployment of more targeted products that narrow the focus and guarantee the security of internal business processes.
A good example is the protection that Microsoft offers for emails; a major point of breach targeted by cybercriminals. Here, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (which works in the same way as ATP) focuses only on scanning and detecting suspicious activity within emails.
There is also the Threat Explorer in Office 365 Threat Intelligence and Exchange Online Protection that Microsoft uses along with the Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection to create a broader threat visibility. This guarantees faster detection, investigation, and response to email threats.
Conclusion
With its unique approach, Microsoft is always steps ahead of bad actors that threaten your two biggest assets – people and data. Using Microsoft Office 365 means that you’re leveraging these unique capabilities to increase your protection. The beautiful thing about having world-class security is that it ensures your employees have the peace of mind to do their best work that will yield the most productivity for your organization.
by Felicien | Jul 4, 2018 | Education
On July 4th we as Americans honor the formation of the union we call The United States of America. Whether enjoying the holiday at the beach; a backyard barbeque; watching a fireworks celebration in the city; working hard in the office or shop; or marching in a local community parade; we all celebrate the birth of our great nation together as one.
Here’s to our beautiful lakes, our majestic mountains and everything that makes American the greatest place to live!
For anyone who’s not American, or new to our country, here’s what Independence Day is all about.
Independence Day is celebrated each year on July 4th. It’s often known as “the Fourth of July.” It’s the anniversary of the publication of the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1776.
In 1775, the people of New England began fighting the British for their independence. On July 2, 1776, the Congress secretly voted for the country’s independence from Great Britain. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the final wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved, and the document was published.
The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence occurred on July 8, 1776. Congressional delegates began signing it on August 2, 1776. Fifty-six congressional delegates signed the document. The delegates signed by states from North to South, beginning with Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire, and ending with George Walton of Georgia.
Some delegates refused to sign the Declaration, including John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and James Duane, Robert Livingston, and John Jay of New York.
Some opposed the document but signed it anyway to present the appearance of a unanimous Congress. This included Carter Braxton of Virginia, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, George Reed of Delaware, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. Five delegates were absent including Generals George Washington, John Sullivan, James Clinton, and Christopher Gadsden, as well as Virginia Governor Patrick Henry.
John Adams sent a description of how Independence Day would be celebrated in a letter to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776. He described “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations” throughout the country.
An interesting note: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both signers of the Declaration of Independence and presidents of the United States, died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the adoption of the Declaration.
For our Help Desk employees, Independence Day is a workday. We plan to celebrate the 4th just like the rest of our countrymen (and women!). But we do this by being here if you have any technical issues.
Our Help Desk is your front-line support for submitting incidents and service requests.
We say that we operate 24/7/365 and we mean it – Independence Day, Memorial Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Easter – no matter the holiday or day of the week.
You’ll have direct access to the IT professionals who help you onsite and provide the advice, guidance, and rapid restoration of services you need to keep your business running.
When you call, one of our agents will log your request into our IT service management system and either resolve it for your then or escalate it to the next level of support.
You have the option of reporting an incident or service request by email or by contacting us by phone. When you do, this will generate a “ticket” in our IT service management system.
Once the ticket is created, you’ll automatically receive an email receipt confirmation with your ticket or reference number. This confirmation tells you that your request has been logged at our Help Desk and that it’s been assigned to a tech specialist who knows your business and is experienced in your particular IT issue.
Here’s what we ask that you provide when submitting a request to our Help Desk:
Your name, business name, phone number, and email address.
A detailed description of the problem or concern.
Whether the issue you’re experiencing affects only one user, many users, your entire office or multiple offices.
The impact your issue has on your business, including whether any critical applications have been affected.
Anything you or your staff have done to try to resolve the issue before contacting us.
Prioritizing Tickets
It also helps if you prioritize your need. Here’s an example of what we mean:
Non-Urgent: Your problem is minimal and doesn’t impact your ability to work. It’s something that you could wait to be addressed within the next week. (For example, you’d like us to provide a new piece of computer equipment for you.)
Normal: The IT issue has some impact on your day-to-day operations. However, you could wait for two days for it to be addressed. (For example, you’d like us to help you find a better way to use an application or replace it with a different one.)
Urgent: The issue you face has a significant impact on one user’s ability to work. You need help sometime during the workday.
Emergency: This issue has a significant team-wide impact on your staff’s ability to work. Multiple employees are affected. You need help as soon as possible, no matter if it’s after hours, over the weekend, or on a holiday (like the 4th of July). This is for things like outages and downtime.
Please do your best not to prioritize something as “Urgent” or “Emergency” when it’s not. This helps us get to those really urgent requests much faster.
We want you to know that you and your staff can enjoy Independence Day with the peace of mind that our Help Desk is always here for you. Happy 4th of July everyone!
by Felicien | Jul 3, 2018 | Education
Help! How Do We Migrate To Office 365?
YOUR MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 MIGRATION CHECKLIST
First, let’s talk about why you should use Microsoft Office 365.
It’s simple…
If you do, you’ll have a full-featured, cloud-based office productivity tool that can help you work more easily, productively, and collaboratively.
This allows you to please your customers and grab more market share. There’s no better solution for small and mid-sized businesses today than Microsoft Office 365.
Why?
Because instead of simply packaging the popular applications you use (like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and more) Microsoft has taken the extra step to integrate these tools, along with others. This provides your organization with the capabilities a larger-sized business enjoys.
But there’s something you should know.
Migrating to cloud computing is a multi-phased project. There are many things to consider when making a conversion to Microsoft Office 365, or any cloud-based system.
We’ve developed this Microsoft Office 365 MIGRATION CHECKLIST to help ensure the process is seamless for your business and transparent to your customers.
Of course, we think we should do this for you.
Why?
Because it’s complicated and a lot of things can go wrong unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
But, if you’re ready to try this on your own, here’s what you need to do.
INVENTORY EVERYTHING IN YOUR IT ENVIRONMENT
Start by making a detailed inventory of everything in your IT environment. This way you can make the best decisions and estimates about what it will take to migrate everything. You’ll also be able to better determine how long this might take and develop a migration timeline that you can share with your staff.
Your inventory may include things like:
Site Collections (a group of websites that have the same owner and share administrative settings)
List and Libraries (a special list/library for documents)
Pages (all files that have a dependency to another file using a URL)
Blocked File Types
Branding
Workflows (pre-programmed mini-applications that streamline and automate a wide variety of business processes)
Content Types
Site Columns (reusable column definitions or templates that you can assign to multiple lists across multiple SharePoint sites)
Permissions
User Alerts
Retention Policies (A retention policy is the only feature that can both retain and delete content across Office 365.)
Records
Users and Groups
Large Lists or Libraries
Any other UI customizations (JavaScript, altered menus, etc.)
Customized IT Solutions
What About Our Customized Solutions?
You could run into trouble here.
Create an inventory of all your customizations. Identify what you want to migrate. This is a good time to identify what you don’t need any longer and remove it.
Make sure you have a good overview of what you have in your sites (WSP, Sandbox, etc.) And note if one depends on another.
Map things out, so you’re sure to deploy everything in the right order when it’s migrated to your destination.
Are you running any Farm Solutions? These run codes that can affect the whole farm and can’t be migrated to Office 365. Get rid of them.
Do you have any Sandbox Solutions? As with Farm Solutions, it’s recommended that you don’t include these.
Converting any Web Parts you developed for Add-Ins could be problematic.
If you’ve built Timer Jobs, there is no real solution when you migrate to the Cloud. You must find a new way to do this.
Event Receivers: You’ll need to rewrite and host them differently to get the same results.
Determine how you can deploy your declarative artifacts. You might be able to do this with an Azure Web App or PowerShell.
Stay away from customized fields. Display Templates or Office 365 column formatting might provide an option for displaying content the way you want so you don’t need to create new fields.
Item IDs in Lists and Libraries could change during the migration.
REMOVE & REORGANIZE YOUR OLD IT ENVIRONMENT ITEMS
Microsoft SharePoint helps you custom-build what you need for your unique operations. Now’s a good time to locate and reorganize what you want to keep or delete what you don’t.
Locate and get rid of any “Orphaned Users.”
Locate and get rid of vacant SharePoint Groups.
Move users with specific permissions back into Groups.
Get rid of any Custom Content Types, Site Columns, and Workflows you no longer use.
Locate any sites that you haven’t used or modified and determine if you still need them.
Ask all users to check-in documents they’ve checked-out, including those that have never been checked in. (Ensure you migrate the most recent versions.)
Find any Large Site Collections and break them up into multiple Site Collections.
Locate Large Sites and promote them into Site Collections.
Delete any duplicate content.
Clean-up items that have too many custom permissions.
Get rid of versions in your history you no longer want.
Re-order Lists and Libraries that contain too many columns.
Rethink and re-order very Large Lists.
Ask all users to finish up any pending workflow tasks.
III. PREPARE YOUR NEW DESTINATION
This is the time to prepare a clean slate for your new destination. A well thought out Information Architecture can make all the difference between a successful migration and one you’re not happy with. Take your time doing this as it might be the last chance you have to do this for quite a while.
Map out the information architecture of your new destination.
Backup all of your data.
Test your backup restoration to make sure it works.
Check out all databases for any corrupt data. (Delete any that you find.)
Run a number of migration tests beforehand. (Take note of any unsupported elements.)
Determine the overall time required to migrate all sites. (Slow migration speed can significantly impact project duration, causing delays that can disrupt your business operations.)
Set SharePoint to import user profiles from any specific sources.
Map a plan for the metadata on your content.
Look at your customizations. (If required, convert them to work in the new destination.)
Locate any deprecated native templates or features and make a plan to replace them.
IT’S NOW TIME TO COMMUNICATE EVERYTHING TO YOUR STAFF.
Change is always difficult for everyone and this includes your users. For your Office 365 Migration to be a success, you need to let them know what to expect.
Communicate with all users before starting the migration and let them know this is a process but that you’ll keep them informed.
Circulate the proposed timeline to ensure it won’t interfere with their business-critical efforts.
Let them know about the IT downtime that will occur and for how long.
Relay any possible changes in the environments (URLs, Bookmarks, Document References, Excel Macros, etc.).
Determine where to go to get an updated status or any assistance you might need during the migration.
Create sandbox sites for previewing.
BEGIN THE MIGRATION
At this point, the process of migrating to Office 365 shouldn’t be too difficult if you’ve followed all the steps above. Just be prepared to deal with any unforeseen complications that might not have been revealed during the testing phase.
Workflows:
Stop running any workflows you’ll be migrating.
Migration Scenarios:
Use a third-party tool to migrate and granularly restructure as you transition.
Perform multi-phased, incremental migration for large sites.
AFTER MIGRATING
It’s time to take a “test drive” to make sure everything is working properly in your new environment.
Test your Destination Environment.
Make sure everything migrated successfully.
Test all your workflows and check user permissions.
Make a complete backup of your new environment.
Remove all access to the old SharePoint environment.
ON A WEEKLY BASIS: MONITOR YOUR OFFICE 365 ENVIRONMENT
You’re not done. It’s very important that you continue to monitor the security, usage, and other elements in your new Office 365 environment to make sure it’s running at peak performance without any glitches.
Ensure all your users are getting what they need from Office 365. Find out if they require any assistance or run into problems.
Always monitor data security and check for any data breaches.
Locate any broken permissions.
Ensure all users are using the right permissions.
Ensure user credentials remain private.
Control sharing of monitor permissions.
As you can see, when you move your organization to Microsoft Office 365, it’s important to plan exactly what steps you want to take, when to perform them, and who’s involved. Keep the lines of communication open, and this checklist will help you as you plan and prepare for a migration to Office 365.
by Felicien | Jul 3, 2018 | Education
How Do You Know That You Can Trust Your Cloud Provider?
8 Important Questions You Should Ask
Whatever industry your business may be in, chances are you’re using some form of cloud solution in your daily work life. From food service to retail and construction, from legal services to medical practices, finance and more, there’s a place in the Cloud for everyone. But now that we’re all here, what are we doing to ensure our cloud solution is truly secure?
We lock the doors to our workplaces when we leave for the day, but there’s no key to turn on our cloud storage security. So, what do business owners like you need to know to keep your digital world as safe as the real world?
While there are many common cloud software suites being used by providers that offer cloud storage-as-a-service, it doesn’t mean that their operations are equal. Ensuring your cloud security should begin before uploading your first file.
Here Are 8 Important Questions That You Should Ask Before Choosing A Cloud Provider
Does your cloud provider have a regular backup schedule?
Depending upon your specific solution, any cloud provider worth their subscription cost will run regular backups with redundancies for all the data it stores. The backups are often stored separately from the primary storage which adds another level of security against data loss. In the event of an incident in one location, data can instantly be restored from one of the other backups.
Do they stay ahead of issues?
Along with an alternate storage location for those backups, ensure you’re getting the protection you are paying to receive. Because a cloud provider’s reputation largely relies on its ability to deliver on its promises of security and reliability, staying ahead of issues before they become problems is every good provider’s top priority.
Does your provider conduct security audits and make them available to you?
Reputable cloud providers conduct routine security audits of their systems to ensure your data is safe from a variety of threats, including malware, data corruption, system failure, or damage to your physical infrastructure. Even better, these security audits are typically available to the provider’s customers because they want you to know that your data is in good hands.
Do they offer Security Awareness Training?
With all the security tools available today, it would be much more difficult for cybercriminals to gain access to data if it wasn’t for the single biggest source of security breaches – human error. The end user remains the biggest threat to the security of business data. Knowing that your cloud provider can educate and empower you and your employees in the practice of good security hygiene is an important step in ensuring your data safety.
What about Cloud Compliance Support?
Can they deliver cloud infrastructure solutions for closely regulated industries and ensure the data they collect, store, and access for you will be protected in line with compliance regulations such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and more?
They should also provide support 24/7 to ensure that any issue or concern you may have is addressed and taken care of quickly and effectively.
Will their Standard Uptime SLA meet your business requirements?
Some cloud providers offer SLAs (Service Level Agreements) with 99.9% uptime, while others offer 99.999%. An SLA with 99.999% uptime will cost more than one with a 99.9% uptime. However, it may be worth the price.
There’s a significant difference between the two:
A 99.9% uptime equals 8.77 hours of downtime per year.
A 99.999% uptime equals 5.26 minutes of downtime per year.
Evaluate your needs and consider how much downtime is acceptable to ensure your business runs smoothly without reputational damage or major revenue loss.
What’s included in their Disaster Recovery Plan?
The cloud provider’s disaster recovery plan is extremely important. Ask about site visits and audits to estimate the vendor’s recovery time and the impact of a potential failure.
Does the provider have a reliable process in place? Is the provider’s staff knowledgeable and ready to react under the worst possible conditions? Unfortunately, disasters occur so it’s critical for your business and your cloud provider to be prepared.
How often do they test their disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan alone doesn’t ensure that downtime will be minimized in the unfortunate event of a disaster. The cloud provider must test their plan on a regular basis to ensure the plan is effective. Ask the cloud provider to disclose the results of disaster recovery tests on a regular basis.
When Selecting A Cloud Provider, Be Sure To Do Your Homework First
Your business needs a robust and comprehensive data security policy. And your cloud provider should play a role in the development and execution of this very important strategy.
Cloud computing and storage have changed the way we store and share data in all types of businesses – from the cost savings of off-site storage and the ease of collaboration to the peace of mind regarding disaster recovery and more.
But with the trust that we put in cloud solutions, it’s very important that this trust is also earned by the cloud provider.
