The new Outlook 2016 has incorporated some cool features, designed to be helpful and make your work day a little smoother. It can look a bit different depending on what version of Outlook you’re using and how your admin sets it up. What’s New in Outlook 2016? When you open Outlook, you’ll see six areas. Across the top is that familiar ribbon we’ve all become used to seeing. Above the ribbon, you’ll find the Title Bar which has the File tab, Home tab, Send/Receive, Folder, and View. Across the main section, you’ll find four wide panes of varying widths. Across the bottom is the newest addition to Outlook, the navigation bar. While on the home tab, you can take a closer look at the four panes or main sections. The narrowest one located on the left contains your inbox, sent, deleted and other items pertaining to your mail folders. The second column contains your messages. Here, you can get a closer look at the items in your inbox. It shows the names and dates of each email. The widest pane shows the contents of the actual email. This section is called the reading pane. If you click on a specific email, you can read it and reply or forward it. The fourth smaller pane to the right contains your calendar and do-to list. At the bottom, you’ll see the newly added navigation bar. Hover over each item there for a closer look. This is handy because you can access frequently used features or people very quickly here. The dots, which represent “more”, open up a “navigation options” dialog box. There you can change a number of things pertaining to the way your email client is laid out. You can also choose navigation options > compact navigation. This will make the navigation bar smaller. Little icons replace the larger words that were used. The icons can run horizontally across the bottom or vertically along the side. Reading Pane Too Small? You may not always need your calendar to stay open. It’s easy to close. Simply click on the arrow at the top to close it. You can also close the folders section located on the far left the same way. By closing these two sections, you’ll now have a much wider email viewing pane. This can be helpful if you have a long or important email to read. If you need to take a quick look at the folders, simply click on the words “All Folders” (far left side, vertically written) and a handy pop-out appears. This pop-out will stay there until you click on “All Folders” again. The navigation pane appears vertically written as well and this configuration can give you the greatest amount of space to work on emails. In addition, you have the option of manually dragging the borders for each section. This is a quick and easy way to increase or decrease the width of a pane so that your Outlook email works best for your situation. The New Navigation Pane In the 2016 version, a navigation pane was added to the bottom. It has links that go out to: Mail Calendar People Tasks More – More is represented by small dots in most programs now. You can hover over each one to learn more about it or access that particular feature. For instance, hover over “People” to see all those listed in your contact list. You can also hover over a specific person to get more information about this person. For each of your contacts, you’ll see small icons along the bottom so you can email, call or video chat with that person. The same is true for each item in the Navigation Pane. Simply hover over your calendar for a quick look at your day, week or month. The calendar in your Navigation Bar performs the same tasks as the actual calendar portion of your Home Page. For that reason, you may find it handy to just leave that Calendar closed and use the one in the Navigation Bar. This will give you more room for emails and other tasks you do on the Home Page. Taking a Deeper Look at The Ribbon The Ribbon has been around since Word 2007 and most users are fairly knowledgeable about how to use it. If it’s in the way and you’d like to temporarily remove it, click on the small triangle on the far right side of the page. This collapses the Ribbon. When you want it back, click on the same triangle and it reappears. This works for all Microsoft Office programs, including Word, Excel, and Access. Of course, there are shortcuts for just about all the actions found on the Ribbon. Many users find it helpful to learn those shortcut keys and use them instead of navigating through the tabs/items on the Ribbon. You can also hide or view the Ribbon by clicking on the View tab. Outlook 2016 is all about making your email tasks much simpler. Dealing with Emails Once you get your work area set up so that it’s most efficient for you, it’s time to read and answer a few emails. At the top of each one, you have inline options to reply, reply all, forward or IM. Click on reply and you can just start typing your message. You can also right-click in this area for a list of other options like changing the font and color of your typing. Right-clicking in various areas of the page will always call up a list of other helpful options and this can often prevent you having to reopen the Ribbon to accomplish a task. When an email has attachments, you can click on the attachment to view it there in the Outlook program. This is true for PDF docs, Word docs, and Excel. This saves you the trouble of having to open Word, Excel or Adobe and this can be a real time-saver. If you do want to open up the

This chat-based meeting application for agile teams – but only if you know how to use it properly. So many things have changed in business circles. From lighting fast computers to programs that allow you to accomplish any task, today’s technology makes almost anything possible. One of the big changes in America’s corporate culture is the way that workers meet. It probably all began with the huge rise in companies employing remote workers. Remote workers save a company money in numerous ways. You don’t have to provide offices, desks, or office equipment and supplies in most cases. It’s better for the workers and studies have shown that remote workers actually get more work done each day than on-site workers. Today’s technology has responded to this growing trend with apps to facilitate remote workers. One of the big winners in this space is Microsoft Teams. This app makes it easy for a team to meet even if they live in various countries around the world. The big surprise to many business people is how well virtual meetings have taken off. Every team member may work in the same building, but when asked, they’ll tell you that a virtual meeting is much easier to fit into their daily schedule. This has led developers like Microsoft to create virtual meeting space tools that accommodate team members’ preferences. Microsoft Teams is their flagship virtual meeting product and users may not realize that it is included in MS Office 365. It works well for chats, phone calls and meetings of any size. This app provides virtual meeting rooms where people can collaborate on any subject. It’s available for your PC, Mac or mobile device, and it’s revolutionizing the way workers communicate. It also works well in classrooms – the classroom of the future may very well take place online. You can meet with the teacher and other classmates to discuss a topic or go over a lesson. There’s no need to get dressed and drive to the school or office building. Just turn on your computer, log into the meeting room and you’re all set. You can discuss a challenging math problem, find out how everyone is progressing on a new marketing campaign or you can plan an office party. There are endless ways to use the app in schools, colleges, and business. The Microsoft Difference There are already abundant team meeting apps available, so what sets Microsoft Teams apart from other virtual meeting apps like Zoom or Go-To-Meeting? Of course, with Microsoft, developers went the extra mile to include features that were helpful and convenient. Some virtual meeting space apps do not have the ability to upload or exchange files, but this one does. You can even edit those files during the meeting. Just about everything you could do in real life can be accomplished in a virtual meeting room. Many of the exciting features are available with just a single tap – even better, Teams is fully customizable. It works the way your team needs it to work, as a seamless program that will evolve as your business evolves. You can quickly and easily create a new team and set up a meeting in just moments. How to Begin Open Office 365 and then go to Microsoft Teams. There, you will create a new team by selecting “Create Team” in the bottom left corner of the screen. Give your team a name and include a short description of it. Once you get familiar with this app and begin using it more frequently, you’ll better understand the need to name and describe your team accurately. You might have several different teams for any department in your company. That’s why it’s important to distinguish between a graphic design team that is working on Project A and other graphic design teams working on other projects. Once you’ve named your team, enter each member’s name. Team members are easy to add or delete from a team as needed. MS Outlook groups allow you to add an entire group of people at once without having to enter their individual email addresses or names. This can also be done using a security list or an email alias. Now select “Done” and create a channel for the team by selecting “” located next to the team name. Now choose “Add channel” and enter a name and description for your channel. Finally, click on “Add” and you’re done. Once you learn the process, you can set up a team and channel in less than five minutes. In the beginning, you’ll have one channel called “General” that can be used for any purpose. Later on, you can add channels as needed. Team Management Tools By selecting “View Team”, you can change the settings, add or remove team members and manage team ownership. As a team manager, you will have additional privileges that allow you to make numerous adjustments. This can be very helpful when working with people from multiple departments or various projects. Different team members can take charge of the meeting as needed. You will quickly learn how to structure your team so that it’s highly efficient or just more fun for team members. Regardless of what type of work you do or what type of projects you may be currently working on, Microsoft Teams will become an indispensable business tool. This digital hub makes quick work of creating and customizing your team so that it’s tailored to meet all your needs. The app is fast replacing email as a way to communicate because it’s so much more efficient. You can view replies, likes, and @mentions with just a single tap. Add other apps your team uses or websites you want team members to visit. Since the app is part of Office 365, you can easily access all Microsoft programs such as Excel, Outlook, and Word. Exciting Features Microsoft Teams supports flexible communication, including chats, calls, meetings, and private and group conversations. Below are a few more helpful features available in the Microsoft

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is truly an important part of marketing for any business. Businesses that rely solely or largely on online marketing must understand the concepts of SEO marketing in order to be successful. If you’ve been doing this a while, then you probably know that it’s not as easy as it seems on the surface. Today, there are numerous specialists in this field with years of experience in Search Engine Optimization. They will testify that search engine optimization is a complex procedure that requires several layers of precision efforts in order to work. Search Engine Optimization is an art that if well mastered, will ensure that your website is ranked higher than the competition. Of course, being on that first page of results is every business owners dream and if it were easy, everyone would be there at one time or another. As with all technology, people have found ways to master SEO and they’ve found ways to “beat the algorithm.” This process, though effective, can cause a website that really shouldn’t be there, to appear at the top of your search results for a specific word or phrase. Beating the algorithm sometimes results in the website that should be right at the top, falling to the bottom of the page. Though Google and others do work hard to make sure things like this don’t happen, we all see it every day. Below, are our top 12 tips for getting your website to that first page of the listings. Focus your content on fulfilling a need. This is simple. All you need to do is find a need and fill it. If you do this well enough, consumers will come looking for you. Know your target consumer. Speak to them personally in your content. Make sure you’re addressing their pain points and hitting all their hot buttons. Be sure your content speaks to people in a personal way. Always remember that the customer is who you’re after; not the search engines. Write content that is useful to your customers. Ensure your content is mobile friendly. In this age, where people are somewhat addicted to their mobile phones, your web content must be mobile friendly. Make sure that everything is easily accessible from any device. People are using their smartphones more to shop and make purchases, so this process must be just as simple on a smartphone as online. Do use keywords but ensure your web content makes sense Knowing that keywords are the way to beat algorithms, some people load their web content with keywords. Check online to see what the current density rate for keywords is. At the moment, it’s around 2 percent. If you go over this, the search engines could classify your site as SPAM. This is the exact opposite of what you really want. In addition, loading your content with keywords makes it sound less authentic and even annoying. It diverts the attention of the readers from important information about your business. Give your audience more than they expect Your website should contain good information about your company and your products and services. You can also add interesting trivia, a surprising story about one of the company owners, or anything unique that might make visitors remember you. Some sites use humor. Above all, be truthful and sincere and this will create trust in your website visitors. Ensure your work is amazing Do not bore your audience with irrelevant information. While writing informative pieces, ensure they are entertaining. It’s often a good idea to work with a professional copywriter who can create incredible content that will WOW your audience. Link, link, link You don’t want your visitors searching elsewhere on the internet for information concerning things that you’ve discussed on your site. Instead, provide links that go out to these stories. People today appreciate the convenience. Inbound and outbound linking can be tricky so get help from a specialist if you feel you need it. Keep creating content Do not just create your website and then walk away. Instead, keep tweaking the content there. Keep adding fresh content each week.  Make sure articles and blogs are relevant and valuable to your consumers. Think like your consumer Being an internet user yourself, you probably know a few things about how consumers think. But, it’s important to learn what motivates a person to make a purchase from your site. There’s a whole science behind these concepts. Once you understand the mindset of your target consumer, you can better address their needs and speak to their heart. Ensure that content is evergreen Before you post your content, ask yourself this question: “Three months from now, will this content still be relevant? What about in 6 months or two years?” Is the answer is yes, go ahead and publish it. If not, you may need to rewrite your content so that it’s just as relevant in two years as it is today. Every piece of your content matters Your writing should focus on the value of your products and services. You want an amazing website that stays at the top of search listings for years, not just a few days. If you focus on SEO tricks, you may be at the top for a while, but then shoppers may realize that in fact, there is not much on your site they need. Stay relevant. Give shoppers what they’re looking for. This is how you get return visitors. Social media should be your best friend Maintain all your social media sites placing fresh content there daily. Most business owners hire someone to do this for them and this can be a valuable investment that really pays off. Social media gives you the opportunity to interact on a personal level with customers and potential buyers. Don’t miss out on this opportunity. Focus on retention Work with someone who understands the analytics that you get from your site each week. You can use analytics to tell exactly when someone clicks away

“Hey Cortana, remind me to contact Bill at Acme to set up that sales meeting.” More business people are relying on their voice assistants and AI chatbots to help them save time and effort, according to market research firm Spiceworks. After surveying more than 500 technology professionals throughout North America and Europe, they found that 40% of large businesses and 15% of smaller ones will now be using voice-assist technology to improve their business efficiencies. Right now, Microsoft Cortana is the most commonly used AI assistant for businesses, at 49 percent – and 14% of businesses are using AI chatbots, with their Microsoft collaboration tools like Slack and Teams. This is probably because it’s so accessible and is integrated into Windows 10. Apple’s Siri isn’t far behind at 47 percent – it’s integrated into iOS and macOS. Some of the tasks respondents use voice assist for include: Voice-to-text dictation Employee calendar management Customer service purposes Helpdesk management tasks Sales and marketing New Players in the Business Voice-Assist Marketplace. Integrating voice assistants in the enterprise market is unleashing new use cases for the technology. In November 2017, Amazon launched their Alexa for Business platform, which lets businesses to create their own Alexa skills. IBM recently launched their Watson Assistant for businesses. They plan to license it to enterprises so they can build customized, interactive tasks into their own products and services. The Watson Assistant is more focused on customization and privacy than are Google and Amazon. This might give IBM a competitive edge in the business marketplace. Watson allows for better-tailored voice interactions and eliminates the need for a universal wake-up word like “Hey Siri” or “Alexa.” Plus, you can train the assistant using your own datasets. This makes it easier to set actions and commands. The Watson Assistant also gives each user control over their personal data. It doesn’t pool users’ information and allows each person to control which Watson-powered devices and applications can access their data via the IBM cloud. The technology then learns and remembers each user’s preferences. IBM is introducing their Watson Assistant to hotels, hospitals, banks, offices, restaurants, connected cars, and more. They’ve partnered Harmon where they’re using the Watson Assistant in a Maserati concept car. The Munich airport is also using IBM’s Watson Assistant to power a robot that provides directions to travelers. And Chameleon Technologies is using it to control temperatures in homes based on residents’ daily schedules. What Voice Assist Will Demand from Your IT Professionals. As voice assist becomes increasingly mainstream in the workplace, IT departments will face many challenges. As it stands now, the various forms of voice assist, machine learning and artificial intelligence operate on multiple platforms, operating systems, apps, and hardware. This will make it difficult to harness their potential without considerable investment in resources and expertise. Not only will IT professionals need to have a complete grasp of its functionality and how to integrate it with networks and legacy systems, but they must also define and implement strategies for using it, and provide training and education for an entire pool of users in the enterprise. As voice assist becomes more interactive and “personal,” IT professionals will need to combine their technical skills along with strategic and interpersonal capabilities to achieve greater success. Adoption of the technology is moving slowly but is predicted to pick up as the power of voice achieves a new level yet to be discovered. Those businesses that stay informed and ready for and prepared for change will be better positioned to take advantage of its benefits. Some of these benefits include increased productivity and sales, more and better innovations, improved collaboration, and the ability to increase global market share. Deep Learning Voice assistant providers are improving recognition capabilities through the power of deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence (similar to facial-recognition technology). Deep learning goes a step farther than machine learning that is based on algorithms and historical data. It will be able to predict a pattern of speech based on previous content without training by compiling vast amounts of data from the Internet. Voice assistants will be capable of taking meeting notes with much more accuracy. And, they’ll be able to identify different voices in a room to transcribe who said what. Deep learning will be better at translating foreign languages. Imagine how this could fuel the growth of a global business, and the ability for more seamless collaboration. Right now, voice assist is a bit “robotic,” but eventually it will be more conversational in tone and respond more accurately due to deep learning. But, Don’t Fire Your Administrative Assistant Just Yet. Those who aren’t using them say it’s because they don’t see a use for them, that the cost is holding them back, and they worry about security issues. They also worry about technology distracting their employees and that it could negatively affect productivity. Although voice assistants and chatbots are helpful in the workplace, the technology still needs improvement. 59% said that it can misunderstand requests and 30% said that it is inaccurate when executing commands. And, 29% said that it can’t distinguish their voice from others. Other than using them for simple tasks, voice assist has yet to become widely used in the workplace. If you have a lot of employees in one area, the technology won’t work for you. It has difficulty deciphering commands with there are simultaneous conversations taking place. But, as the technology improves, more will be willing to use it. Is your business ready to meet the demands that voice assistants and future technology advancements will surely bring? If your small or mid-sized business is struggling to manage your existing IT systems, or you can’t keep up with IT security concerns, it’s time to consider partnering with a Technology Solutions Provider. In this way, you’ll be prepared for what’s coming next in the world of voice-assist, and other technologies that can help you better compete in your marketplace, improve productivity and ultimately your profitability.

Are you using Outlook to its fullest potential? If not, you’re missing out on a valuable tool that will make your work so much easier. Not only will it incorporate everything you need to do with emails, like make appointments and set “Quick Steps,” it can save you a lot of time. We have 9 great timesavers we want to share with you here. 1. Turn Off Notifications You know those little pop-ups that appear when you’re trying to concentrate on a project? They are there to let you know that you have new mail. This is great if you’re waiting for an important email. Otherwise, they can be very distracting. Here’s how to turn these off: Just go to the bottom right-hand side of your screen (in Windows) and click on the little triangle. A check box will come up. You can see here where it says, “Show New Mail Desktop Alert”. Uncheck this and no more annoying pop ups! You can also do this right from Outlook: Go to the left-hand side of your screen with Outlook open. Select “File” and “Options.” Under “Mail” you’ll see a bunch of options. Here’s where you can select all the notifications and sounds that simply distract you, and that you don’t need. Ah, peace and quiet for a change! 2. Drag Mail to the Calendar When you’re in an email, and you want to add a meeting to your calendar, simply go up to the top Ribbon where it says “Meeting” and you can “Reply with Meeting” to all the people on the email stream. Set up the time and place, and then invite everyone. 3. Block Off Time Slots Let’s say someone emailed you a proposal and you need to block off some time to read it. Here’s how to do this right from the email and attachment: Here’s the email with the proposal marked in blue. Drag the box down to the left where it says “CALENDAR” and it will create a prompt where you can enter the block of time in your calendar, on the day and time that works for you. It will appear as an appointment in your calendar. When you’re entering time in your meeting time slot, Outlook does some of the work for you. Say you want to start at 10:00 am. Simply key in 10 and hit TAB, and Outlook will enter the rest (10:00 AM). You can even enter military time. 15:15 TAB and Outlook will convert it to 3:15PM. You can do the same with the end time as well. 4. The Ignore Button If there’s an email that keeps appearing in your inbox, but you don’t want to see it anymore, rather than deleting it you can simply go to the Ignore button on the top left, (or Control >Delete) and emails about this subject will automatically go into your Deleted Items. You’ll get this prompt to ensure that you want to delete the message every time. Check “Don’t show this message again” and click “Ignore Conversation.” You won’t be bothered by the message anymore. 5. The Quick Access Toolbar Microsoft provides this toolbar in all of their software solutions. You can put some of your most used commands in this toolbar. Simply check the ones that you want to appear. They will always appear at the top of your screen until you remove them. And you can easily add more commands, as you see below. Simply highlight the commands to the left and click “Add” and they will appear in your ribbon. To remove, do the opposite. Highlight the commands to the right and click “Remove.” 5. Respond Fast with Instant Messaging Sometimes you need a fast way to get a message to someone, and email isn’t doing this for you. Right from Outlook, go to the top ribbon to: “Reply All with IM” Now, you can send everyone on your email stream an Instant Message instead of an email. This comes in handy if you need to get a quick message to your team. However, it only works if your team is connected to you with Microsoft Link. If not, you can do this with Skype as well. 6. Quick Steps You may recognize this in the top Ribbon. It’s been in Microsoft products since 2010. Sometimes you do things manually. Or you may set up Rules. For example, “If the email is from Molly Dempsey save it to Project Falcon.” Or something like this. You can also save commands like this in Quick Steps. Here’s one we set to move the message, mark it as read, tag it, and put a follow-up flag on it. Quick Steps moved the email, categorized it and marked it as read, just as we specified. There are multiple actions you can choose from in Quick Steps. Start with “Create New” and your selections will pop up. Click “New Message.” Then preset the email that you think you’ll use over and over. Here’s a Quick Step to create an invoice right from Outlook. Click the invoice you want (we have one called Tailspin already set up). Outlook will take you to your contact list where you can choose who to send it to. Then we set the importance level as “High.” And we simply fill in the information in the preset template, send it and it’s done! 7. Out of Office in Advance Now you can set your “Out of Office” messages in advance. Remember when you had to do this right before you left town? No more. Here’s how to set it up: Go to the “File” menu. Click ” Automatic Replies (Out of Office) Then set up your parameters. Click “Send Automatic Replies” and type in the start and end date, along with the message you want to send when you’re away. Check the box that says, “Only send during this time range”. Outlook will remember to send the Out of Office message beginning on the date and time

Excel Like A Pro Part III  This is the final of a three-part series about using Microsoft Excel 2016. It will cover some of the more advanced topics. If you aren’t great with numbers, don’t worry. Excel does the work for you. With the 2016 version of Excel, Microsoft really upped its game. Excel’s easy one-click access can be customized to provide the functionality you need. If you haven’t read Part I and Part II of this series, it’s suggested that you do so. The webinar versions can also be found on our site or on YouTube. This session will discuss the following: More with Functions and Formulas Naming Cells and Cell Ranges Statistical Functions Lookup and Reference Functions Text Functions Documenting and Auditing Commenting Auditing Features Protection Using Templates Built-In Templates Creating and Managing Templates More With Functions And Formulas Naming Cells And Cell Ranges How do you name a cell? You do so by the cell’s coordinates, such as A2 or B3, etc. When you write formulas using Excel’s coordinates and ranges you are “speaking” Excel’s language. However, this can be cumbersome. For example, here G12 is significant because it refers to our Team Sales. You can teach Excel to speak your language by naming the G12 cell Team Sales. This will have more meaning to you and your teammates. The benefits of naming cells in this fashion are that they are easier to remember, reduce the likelihood of errors, and use absolute references (by default). To name our G12 cell Team Sales, right-click on the cell, choose Define Name, and type “Team Sales” into the dialog box. You can also add any comments you want here. Then click Ok. Another way to do this is to click on the G12 cell and go up to the Name Box next to the Formula Bar, then type your name there. And, there’s a third option at the top of the page called “Define Cells” that you can use. Notice that there’s an underscore between Team and Sales (Team_Sales). There are some rules around naming cells: You’re capped at 255 characters. The names must start with a letter, underscore or a backslash (). You can only use letters, numbers, underscores or periods. Strings that are the same as a cell reference, for example B1, or have any of the following single letters (C,c,R,r) cannot be used as names. How To Name A Range Highlight an entire range of cells and name your range (we’re doing this in the upper left-hand corner). Then you can easily use the name to produce the sum you need: You won’t have to go back and forth from spreadsheet to spreadsheet clicking on specific cells to calculate your formula. You simply key in the name of the cell range you want to add. Just be sure to remember the names as you build your spreadsheets over time. If you ever make a mistake or want to change names, you can go to Name Manager to do this. Remember that if you move the cells, the name goes with it. Statistical Functions The three statistical functions are: Average If Count If Sum If The Average If can be used to figure out the average of a range based on certain criteria. Here we’re going calculate the Average If of the ERA of 20+ Game Winners from the spreadsheet we developed in our last session. We’ve already named some of our cell ranges (wins, era). And we want to know the average greater than 19. Hit Enter and you have the average. You can use this feature across a wide variety of scenarios. For example, if you wanted to know the average sales of orders above a certain quantity – or units sold by a particular region, or the average profit by a distinct quarter. Count If is used for finding answers to questions like, “How many orders did client x place?” “How many sales reps had sales of $1,000 or more this week?” or “How many times have the pitchers of the Philadelphia Phillies won the Cy Young Award?” As you can imagine, it’s essential that you type in the text exactly the way you named that particular cell. Hit Enter and you get your answer Now we’re going to use the Sum If function to calculate the number of strikeouts by the pitchers on this list who are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sum If is a good way to perform a number of real-world statistical analyses. For example, total commissions on sales above a certain price, or total bonuses due to reps who met a target goal, or total earnings in a particular quarter year-over-year. Lookup and Reference Functions These are designed to ease the finding and referencing of data, especially in large tables. Here, cells A1 and E3 relate to a variable interest rate that is paid on a bank account. For balances under $1,000, the interest rate is 3% – between $1,000 and $10,000, the interest rate is 4%, etc. Cell A6 shows the balance of a specific account. The Lookup Function is used in B6. It looks up the interest rate and applies it to the account balance of $45,000. This is what the formula looks like in the bar at the top: The vector form of the Excel Lookup Function can be used with any two arrays of data that have one-to-one matching values. For example, two columns of data, two rows of data, or even a column and a row would work, as long as the Lookup Vector is ordered (alphabetically or numerically), and the two data sets are the same length. V Lookup and H Lookup are used to pull information into reports. We’re going to use Report Setup. Here, we have a worksheet that references salespeople, sales data, pricing, revenue, and the clients that they sold to. You’ll see on the top right where we set up a report with names referencing sales data.

According to a recent survey, around 29 percent of companies named security as the major problems in the upcoming years. The current percentage is a ten percent increase from last year’s survey results. While security is the biggest problem, efficiency and workflow was a close second, at 26 percent. Apart from cybersecurity and problems pertaining to privacy, emerging technology and infrastructure management have also been ranked as the top technological challenges faced by companies; regarding of the industry they belong to. Challenges faced by tech companies While firms do face these major challenges, coming up with a solution for them is a problem because half of the companies that cited security as a big problem don’t have the money needed to deal with the problem. Half of the respondents claimed that their firm’s budget was the same as last year while 8% of them stated that the budget allocated to the IT department was smaller this year. Another research also suggests that a large part of global companies, up to 55%, only have an IT audit assessment on a less-frequent basis; most commonly once a year. It is a difficult task for security professionals to get the budget they require for setting up a proper, well-developed cybersecurity program. The problem is that security professionals are only handed the budget after there has been a major data breach or if there has been an incident that has left a negative impact on the company. A number of organizations find it hard to quantify security or put a monetary value on it. With news filled about phishing scams and hacking incidents and social media websites talking about privacy, one can easily understand why security is such a concern. For instance, just last year in May, companies in more than 150 countries had been targeted. The targeted companies included big names such as NHS, FedEx, and Honda. Just like law firms, tech firms also store tremendous amounts of sensitive data about users, which is why it is crucial for them to employ high-security levels. A lack of security on the part of tech firms not only shows negligence but also puts all the users at risk who’s data is stored with the company. What security challenges do tech firms face? The challenges to cybersecurity are regularly developing and are becoming more severe; making it vital for tech firms to stay on top of their game and constantly work on finding solutions, so they stay safe from security attacks. Mentioned below are a few of the common kinds of threat that tech companies can face: Malware Malware is highly common. Not only is it present abundantly on the internet, but it is also the tool that a majority of cybercriminals use for obtaining their goal. Whether it is for locking up computers and charging them for obtaining their goal or it is for infiltrating an organization and stealing confidential information; malware is the best tool. Similarly, malware can also be used for making public statements and getting people’s attention. In each cybersecurity incident, malware always has a role. In fact, it can also be used as a pivot into the company. Users While this might seem surprising but users are a threat too. For instance, the threat can come from the inside, i.e., a malicious employee, or it could also be because of accidental user actions. Spear phishing Another tool that is becoming more common these days is spear phishing, primarily because it is quite effective. Hardly anyone thinks twice before opening any PDF document or a Word document. Many of us, in fact, use it regularly for work without thinking. This routine of not giving a second thought before opening a document is exactly the factor that criminals count on. For all these security threats, the solution is simple; user education. For any organization, it is crucial to teach employees to first think before clicking on anything; whether it is a link or a document. While user education is important, it doesn’t mean that technology selection should be neglected. Enterprise systems can provide a sufficient amount of security if their users are given the right cybersecurity training and know how to use the systems correctly. While this requires more money and more time, the training is crucial for keeping the firm’s data protected. Furthermore, another step that firms can take is to use email gateway technologies that can help get rid of the malicious emails before it goes into the user’s inbox. This simple measure can go a long way when it comes to protecting the firm from spear phishing. Bottom line It cannot be denied that the industry is filled with challenges, that increase in difficulty with each passing year. However, the good news is that all problems can be solved if only firms make use of passion, ingenuity, and a systematic thought process for solving them.

Microsoft introduced the Surface Pro 4 Tablet some time back in 2015. It replaced an older model called the Surface Pro. Soon after the release of the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft’s social media pages were flooded with complaints about a flickering screen. The Redmond Washington-based company responded to these complaints by promising that they would replace some Surface Pro 4 devices with this problem. Trouble for the tech giant This is good news especially since the company is making the replacements for free, but for only those devices experiencing the mishap within three years of purchase. In their web page called Surface Pro 4 screen flickers [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4230448/surface-pro-4-screen-flicker], Microsoft said that their top priority is to create the best products and experiences for their customers. Further, the company noted that they have heard their customer’s complaints and that’s why they have come on board to address these issues. After some investigation, Microsoft determined that some of the affected Surface Pro 4 devices could not be repaired with driver updates or new firmware. Surface Pro 4 users who are experiencing the flicker are advised to first install the latest Surface and Windows programs to ensure that this is not the cause of the flickering. Surface and Windows updates are designed to keep any device running in an optimal state. If the issue persists, consumers should contact Microsoft Support. Once they verify that the device is certified as one of those that will require a replacement, the exchange process is set in motion. Getting your Surface Pro 4 replaced or repaired For those shipping their devices out to Microsoft for repair or replacement, it typically takes about 5-8 business days for the tech giant to get your broken device. The time to repair or replace it can vary depending upon several different factors. Microsoft has also promised to refund the warranty fee to customers who paid for a warranty fee to repair their device. In order to get a refund, customers must contact Customer Support for validation. Microsoft is committed to delivering great products and services to their customers. Consumer complaints Information about the flickering screen issue came to the attention of Microsoft after Consumer Reports, a non-profit organization that offers product ratings, said that they could no longer recommend Microsoft Surface products because the device did not perform as expected. As any serious service provider would do, Microsoft did a thorough examination, made their own findings, and came up with a resolution to have the screen replacement performed for free. Further, Consumer Reports learned about the flickering screen from surveyed electronic owners who said that their Surface Pro had too many problems and that they would not recommend it. Experts have been concerned that the Surface Book Laptop may be more likely to have screen failures as compared to other competing brands. To date, this has not been the case, but it has caused sales of these products to decline. Mitigating the damages Microsoft’s decision to replace the flickering screens for free might not be the immediate solution that will stop future damage, but they are hoping to mitigate the harm caused by negative reviews of the Surface Pro devices. Nothing raises the spirits of a devoted customer or consumer than a company that acknowledges fault on their part and gives a remedy with no strings attached. Many companies, especially those in the business of electronic devices, handle these types of issues poorly. They often spend months denying that anything is wrong. Then, later they make the method of repair and replacement so complicated that users get frustrated. Some warranties are felt to be useless due to these and other problems that people have experienced over the years. Consumers often complain that no one seems to qualify for the free repair services. However, with the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, the steps were purposely made simple and straightforward. This encouraged those affected to give the company a second chance to do it right. Often, this type of issue can turn off consumers to a product or even an entire brand, but Microsoft has made every attempt to do the right thing. Future Microsoft designs The Microsoft design team has taken these problems into consideration when developing new versions of the Surface Pro. For the future, Microsoft products should have very clear and reliable screens that will last for years with no problems. The company seems to have learned an important lesson throughout this ordeal. Developing brand loyalty What Microsoft has done by launching the Surface Pro 4 Replacement Program is not only a wise corporate decision, but a show of gratitude and humility to their consumers. This is probably a major reason why Microsoft customers are loyal to this brand. They expect perfection from the company and do not accept anything less.

At nearly $1 Trillion in earnings a year, hacking is now at record proportions. Your data is a valuable asset, not only to you but to criminals as well. Don’t get hacked. Here’s what you need to know. 1 in 3 Americans has been hacked. A hacker attacks someone every 39 seconds. 61% of small businesses experienced a cyber-attack within the past year. The average cost of a data breach in the U.S. is $7.35 Million. $5 Billion was lost due to hacking in 2017. This is more than 15 times the total losses in 2016. Most of this cost was due to data breach fines, downtime, and productivity losses. 54% of breaches are caused by negligent employees who click on suspicious websites and emails. 20% of businesses experienced downtime of over 100 hours due to ransomware attacks. 64% of businesses paid ransoms even though paying doesn’t guarantee that data will be returned. The anticipated cost of cybercrime in the next 3 years is $6 Trillion. The pool of cybersecurity experts is shrinking. By 2021 there will be 3.5 Million jobs that can’t be filled. The demand for security experts is increasing and is outpacing the supply. 5 THINGS TO DO RIGHT NOW  Ignore Ransomware Threat Popups and Don’t Fall for Phishing Attacks. These attacks say that your data will be encrypted so you can’t access it, but in many cases, this isn’t true; it’s just a ploy to get you to click on something harmful. Once you click on the link, then you’re in trouble. You may have to pay a ransom to get your files unlocked. Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that blocks access to a computer. It infects, locks, or takes control of a system and demands a ransom to unlock it. It’s also referred to as a crypto-virus, crypto-Trojan or crypto-worm. It then threatens that your data will be gone forever if you don’t pay using a form of anonymous online currency such as Bitcoin. Phishing is when a scammer uses fraudulent emails, texts, or copycat websites to get you to click a link so they can steal your confidential information. Thieves are looking for information like social security numbers, account numbers, login IDs, and passwords. They use this information to rob you of your money and your identity. The odds are good that phishing will work. A campaign of 10 messages has a better than 90% chance of getting clicked on. The majority of account takeovers come from simple phishing attacks where you or someone in your organization gets tricked into releasing private credentials and information. Use Hard-to-Guess Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication. Use complex passwords with 9+ characters and don’t reuse passwords across your different accounts. Consider using a password manager like LastPass. For accounts that support this, two-factor authentication is an extra step worth taking to ensure the privacy of your data. It requires both your password and an additional piece of information to log in to an account. The second piece could be a code the company sends to your phone or a random number generated by an application or token. Two-factor authentication will protect your account even if your password is compromised. Secure Wi-Fi With a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Hackers now emulate free open Wi-Fi to steal your IDs and passwords. You can be fooled when you try to login to free Wi-Fi in airports, restaurants, and other public areas. When this happens, everything that you type is copied and archived by these criminals and used against you. Using a VPN encrypts your Internet connection and protects your privacy. When you connect to the Wi-Fi over your Virtual Private Network, no one can see the information you send, and your privacy is safeguarded at all times.  Back Up Your Data. Store data both onsite and offsite in a secure Enterprise-Based Cloud System. Back up your files regularly to ensure you have a duplicate of all your files and applications if your network is compromised. Traditional data backups can’t always restore all of an IT system’s data and settings. This is why you need both an onsite backup and a reliable backup via the Cloud. An enterprise-based cloud backup solution safeguards your data and ensures that it’s recoverable under any circumstance.  Hire a Reputable Technology Solutions Provider to Help. A reputable Technology Solutions Provider can deploy a layered security protocol with regular software patches, vulnerability management, and continuously-updated endpoint protection. They can also provide Security Awareness Training for your employees to help them recognize potential threats. With the right provider, you’ll boost your defense posture and decrease the likelihood that a data breach will take down your business. Don’t get hacked. Contact us, and we’ll keep your data secure.

If you are a fan of smart devices, then you may already have an Echo device – Amazon’s line of smart speakers that connect to other devices using Amazon’s voice-controlled personal assistant Alexa. These Alexa-powered speakers from Amazon hit the market first before the likes of Google, Lenovo, and Apple followed suit with their own smart personal assistants. The top products in this space include: Google Home Smart Assistant Lenovo’s Smart Assistant Apple’s HomePod The Echo from Amazon These products are taking the market by storm through Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo, the pioneer in this world of smart speakers, remains in command of the largest market share. Amazon Alexa supports a large number of streaming services – both free and subscription-based on Amazon devices. The voice-controlled app lets you customize practically all the voice commands you use with your speakers and intelligently keeps track of these commands for you. With Alexa, you can enjoy convenient playback control in your home as you stream music and other media through any number of your Alexa devices. Registering your Alexa device to an Amazon account also allows you to access your Audible library and Amazon Music library automatically, taking your home entertainment to another level of convenience. What if you have an iPhone home? Apple devices and services are extremely selective when it comes to pairing and connecting to non-Apple services or devices. So, you may realize that Apple iTunes and Amazon Alexa do not play well together, which begs the question: is my iPhone able to connect with an Amazon Echo device? The answer is a big YES! So pull up a chair, sit down and we’ll show you how it’s done. Echo devices are Bluetooth enabled, which means you can control the audio playback on your device by speaking to Alexa. This is to say that you will be able to play and control your Apple music service on Amazon’s smart speakers if iPhone is what you use for your home entertainment. Using Bluetooth to connect your iPhone to Alexa You can connect an iPhone to the Amazon product via Bluetooth, giving you the ability to start streaming and control the audio with the following products: 1st or 2nd generation Amazon Echo 2nd gen Echo Dot Echo Spot Echo Show Echo Plus Initial pairing The first thing you’ll have to do is get the two devices (your iPhone and the Amazon Echo device) connected. This entails pairing the iPhone with your Echo device via Bluetooth. To do this, take your iPhone near the Alexa device that you want to pair. On your iPhone, open the Settings app. Navigate to Bluetooth and open it. Say, “Alexa, pair” to put the Amazon Echo device in Bluetooth Pairing mode. With that command, Alexa should give you an audible acknowledgment that it is searching and confirm when your Echo device is in pairing mode. Next, you’ll get a notification on your iPhone screen asking if you want to pair or giving you the ability to cancel the pairing request. Tap “Pair” to connect the two devices via Bluetooth. Alexa should also give you an audible confirmation that it has just connected to [name of your iPhone], adding that now that you’re paired, you should just say “connect my phone” next time you want to reestablish the pairing. On your Bluetooth screen, the Echo will now show as connected. You can see this by scrolling to Other Devices at the bottom where the particular Echo device appears. Streaming music and more Once you have paired your iPhone with Alexa, you can open the Apple Music app and select the specific song or playlist that you want to stream. You should then hear this selection play through your Echo speaker. You can stream audio from iTunes, Apple Music, Podcasts, and even the Apple TV. You also have the option to play music from any third-party app that has audio, such as AudioBox or Pandora. Controlling playback and more Alexa is a voice-controlled app so you will be able to control your playback by simply speaking to it once it is playing. You can tell the intelligent personal assistant to play, pause, raise and lower the volume, resume, and even skip ahead and back to the contents on that playlist. You won’t be able, however, to ask Alexa to identify a song for you, nor can you make it play specific songs or other content from your iPhone. If you try asking your Alexa to play specific songs, it will simply break the connection to your iPhone and instead play music from the Amazon music source that you have set as your default choice, such as Amazon Music. For that kind of command, Apple prefers that you use its own personal assistant Siri, so you’ll need to say “Hey Siri” for that. Wrap Up If you’re an iPhone owner and an Echo diehard at the same time, Bluetooth pairing is a great way to start using these amazing devices together. Though it does have its limitations, it still makes listening to your favorite music fun and easy.