Google My Business is an excellent tool for establishing and tracking your company’s online presence. Included in Google My Business are tools to help you manage customer reviews. However, in order to get the most out of the review tools, you need to know (1) how to find your reviews, (2) how to encourage customers to share reviews, and (3) how to be alerted when you do receive reviews. 1. How to Find Your Reviews In order to both see and manage your Google My Business reviews, you need to pay a visit to this site: business.google.com. Login, and once you are in, you can see your own My Business page. This allows you to, among other things, see and respond to the feedback your clients have provided through Google reviews. You’ll find a link to Reviews on the left-hand side of the dashboard (it has a star icon beside it). This will open up a dedicated review page that allows you to write and edit constructive responses. Note that this also allows you to select one of three basic views: All, Replied (that would be, of course, reviews you have already replied to), and Haven’t Replied (which would be the reviews that you haven’t posted a reply to yet). If you are still new to Google My Business or just don’t have very many reviews yet, you will want to start requesting reviews from your customers. With more and more people depending on the internet for reviews of everything from cell phone plans to home repair services, it is important that your company have reviews from real customers posted on Google. 2. How to Encourage Customers to Share Reviews Trying to get great reviews can be tricky. Google My Business web pages do not offer a way to directly request a review from a customer. There is a workaround, however. To get a URL to promote to your clients, start by searching for your company from within Google maps (maps.google.com). This reason you need to go to Google maps is simple: at the bottom of your company listing in Google maps, there is a link to post a review of your company. Once you are on your company’s map page, copy that URL. Then open up a URL shortening service such as bitly so that you can shorten that URL. With bitly, just paste in your URL and click on Shorten. You will receive a very short URL that you can copy and paste to your company’s website, emails, invoices, email signatures, business cards, and other materials. This makes it much easier for your customers to respond with feedback without having to search for your business on Google. The easier you make it for people to provide reviews, the more reviews that will begin to come in. 3. How to Be Alerted When You Do Receive Reviews Once you are actively promoting reviews, you need to know when reviews are posted so that you can respond to them. It is important to quickly acknowledge reviews, both the good ones and the bad ones. Poor reviews especially need attention, and your company should try to make contact with the disgruntled customer and, if possible, take the discussion offline. However, you want others looking through your reviews to see that when a customer is dissatisfied, your business will reach out to fix the situation – even when the review is unfair. It is very important that a negative review does not sit out on the internet with no response. Fortunately, there is a way to receive an alert as soon as a review is posted. To receive alerts about reviews, start by returning to the Google My Business homepage where you should still be logged in. Look toward the bottom of the right-hand side where it says Settings (there will be a gear icon next to it). Click on Settings, which will open the Email Notifications page. About halfway down, you will see an option that says Customer reviews. If you click the checkbox on the right-hand side of this option, you will receive email alerts when a customer posts a review. That is all you need to do to be alerted when a customer posts a review. Conclusion Your company’s reputation online is very important, and it is critical that you receive feedback in the way of reviews. Google My Business has the tools you need to manage those reviews, including tracking them, responding to them, and being alerted when they are posted online. There isn’t a direct way to request reviews from your customers, but smart use of a link in the Google Maps listing of your business, combined with a URL shortening service, can help you gather those reviews you need.

You probably use messaging for communications every day, but how secure are your messages? Messaging apps are as susceptible to hackers as any other type of electronic communication, and if you are concerned about privacy then it’s time to learn the basics about secure messaging apps. Why You Need a Secure Messaging App We use messaging more and more to communicate, but we don’t always realize how many eavesdroppers there may be. Those eavesdroppers may include internet service providers, government agencies, and hackers. If your messaging involves your company, it might be the target of industrial espionage. These are all good reasons to consider using a secure messaging app. What Makes a Messaging App Secure? We probably all remember playing around with coded messages as a kid, but never dreamed that coded messages might become important in our day-to-day communications. As it turns out, one of the key aspects of a messaging app is end-to-end encryption. When your messages are encrypted, that means they are encoded in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for someone to eavesdrop on the information being transferred. The messages are basically scrambled, and in order to unscramble them, you must have the correct key. In the case of an end-to-end encrypted message app, only the sender and the receiver have the decryption keys. There are messaging apps that offer encryption, but encryption is not the default setting. That means that you would have to navigate to the settings for your messaging app and turn on encryption – if it even offers that feature. Metadata can still be an issue even with encryption. Metadata includes things like who you talk to based on your contact list, how much time you spend talking to them, your phone number, your IP address, and more. You should avoid messaging apps that collect metadata. Believe it or not, one of the signs of a secure messaging app’s integrity is making its source code available to the public. Open source code is actually better than proprietary code because it provides experts access to the code for review. Experts who did not develop the code will be far more likely to notice vulnerabilities and bugs that could be exploited. The result is a highly robust source code and a bulletproof app. Secure Message Apps There are several messaging apps on the market that qualify as secure messaging apps. What follows are five of the top options that are available for Android and iOS operating systems. Dust: If you want messages that don’t hang around, then Dust is your app! Messages disappear within 100 seconds of being read or within 24 hours – your choice. You’ll also be notified if any screenshots are taken. It includes end-to-end encryption, no permanent storage, and you can even erase your message off someone else’s phone. The major drawback of Dust is that its source code has never been released. Signal: The Signal messaging platform uses end-to-end encryption and its source code has been released. There is an option that makes messages disappear after a certain amount of time has passed and it can be password protected. It only stores the metadata it needs to function properly on your device. As far as drawbacks go, there are virtually none associated with Signal. Telegram: The Telegram app was banned in Russia because they refused to hand over the encryption keys. It offers end-to-end encryption through a feature called “Secret Chat” that must be turned on. It can be locked by a passcode and has a Self-Destruct timer option for Secret Chat messages. The drawback of Telegram is that it lacks transparency about the protocol that it uses. WhatsApp: With WhatsApp, end-to-end encryption is the default and provides an option for you to verify that encryption is in place. Messages are not stored on your phone, and it makes available a two-step verification feature. WhatsApp’s major drawback is that it does keep track of metadata and backups of messages are not encrypted for Android users. Wickr : Unlike most messaging apps, Wickr offers both a personal (Wickr Me) and an enterprise edition. It provides end-to-end encryption and a host of additional features that make it one of the best options for businesses that are looking to keep their messages secure. It recently released its cryptographic protocol. And when Wickr deletes things, it “shreds” them so that they cannot be recovered. Wickr doesn’t really have any drawbacks from a security perspective. Conclusion Not all secure messaging apps are equally as effective. When selecting one, you should look for end-to-end encryption (and by default is even better) and the storage of little to no metadata. Also, keep in mind that companies that have released the source code behind their app are considered more reliable and their apps more robust. If privacy is important to you, then it’s time to check out secure messaging apps. Before installing or investing in any messaging app…always consult with your technical support provider.

Apple iOS 12 has so many different new features available it’s almost overwhelming. From better password management options to the introduction of the Memoji, users will appreciate some of these more than others. This article will highlight some of the most interesting and useful features and improvements, starting with one everyone can agree is probably overdue: better performance and battery life. Performance and Battery Life With iOS 12, all iPhone models since the 5S will see significant improvements in performance – including longer battery life and speed boosts. This is due to several improvements and changes that, combined, enable your phone to last longer and run faster. You can also access much more detailed information on your battery life and performance, even comparing its current performance to what it was capable of when it was brand new. Password Management Methods Apple’s iOS 12 allows you to use third-party password management apps instead of, or in addition to, its own password management method (iCloud keychain). This also includes autofill support for these third-party password managers. In addition, iOS 12 will fill in any six-digit codes you receive through SMS for two-factor authentication. To better support online security and privacy, iOS 12 will remind you if you are reusing a password when setting up a new password. It can also create a very powerful password for you and store it on your iCloud keychain. Secure Emergency Location Data Another awesome feature in iOS 12 is that it will provide secure location data to first responders if you call 911. This feature makes use of a new Apple technology called HELO that can estimate your location based on a variety of parameters, including GPS, Wi-Fi access points, and cell towers. This will make it much easier for iPhone users to be quickly located by first responders in case of an emergency. More Emojis, Animojis, and Memojis For those of you who love to express yourself with emojis, good news: 70 new emojis are being added. And not only that, but Apple is working on more inclusive disability-themed emojis that will be released next year. To access all these new emojis, you’ll need to update to iOS 12.1 when it is released. Apple has also added more Animojis in iOS 12. Now you can access a T. rex, tiger, ghost, and koala, in addition to those that were already available. For those not content with Animojis, Apple has introduced Memojis. These are basically augmented reality characters that you can customize to look like you. Better Maps With iOS 12, the Maps app has been redesigned to provide more detail. This includes more public landmarks, more greenery, and the ability to see the layout of stores in malls. Currently, this only applies to the San Francisco Bay region, but it will be added to maps for the entire United States over the next year and a half. Group Facetime Group Facetime, now integrated into iMessage, will allow you to simultaneously FaceTime chat with up to 32 people. These calls are very easy to set up via the group chat window in iMessage, and are available through the iPad, iPhone, and the Mac. Screen Time Report Have you ever wondered exactly how much time you spend on your Apple devices? Or what apps you really use the most? Well, iOS 12 has added a weekly activity summary that provides plenty of detail. The new App Limits feature does just what it says: it will provide you notifications reminding you of when you are nearing or have reached any limits you set. And for those with children or teenagers, the Downtime feature allows you to control their usage, setting specific limits for apps or even unplug their access completely. Greatly Improved QR Reader iOS 12 users will have a much easier time reading QR codes. In the past, a stand-alone app was needed to read QR codes. Now, once you turn on the QR code feature in the settings for your camera, you’ll be able to read QR codes using your Camera app. iOS 12 will highlight the code for you so you will know it has been detected, and you can add a tile to more easily launch QR reader capabilities. New Developments for Notifications On iOS 12, you can now decide which apps will deliver silent notifications to your phone (e.g., no sounds, no vibrations), and Siri can advise you on which apps you don’t use often and thus should turn off notifications for. Notifications can also be grouped by app, topic, and even thread. You can also enact a Do Not Disturb feature that will hide your notifications until you turn it off, and you can set it up to automatically turn off when a certain event ends or at a particular time. Conclusion No matter how much you use Apple devices, you’ll find some features and improvements in iOS 12 that will make your user experience much more productive and fun. And remember that this was just a sampling of what is now available! There’s a lot more so be sure and check it out.

OneNote is a free application from Microsoft that allows you to collect notes in a variety of formats – handwritten text, typed text, digital drawings, photographs, links, screenshots, videos, and audio files – and organize them, share them, and use them to create other documents. OneNote is an excellent app whether you take notes in a classroom, convention hall, or business meeting. However, the usefulness of OneNote is greatly increased when you use a tablet with it. The two top competitors on the market today are the Surface Pro and the iPad Pro, and both are compatible with OneNote. OneNote on a Surface Pro Because the Microsoft Surface Pro is a Windows device, there are many more apps available that are compatible with OneNote. It works like a Windows PC, which means you can run the basic OneNote App available in the Microsoft Store. This is also true for the Surface Pro. One of the benefits of the app is the ability to easily add pictures to your notes using the Surface Pro’s camera. Just keep in mind that the photo quality may not be very good, especially in conditions with little light. The iPad Pro offers a much better picture-taking (and editing) experience compared to the Surface Pro. On a Surface Pro, the typical battery life is about 7 hours, which could leave someone looking for an outlet near the end of the workday even if they charged it the night before. However, the battery life is considered an improvement over the previous versions of the Surface tablet. One of the key benefits of the Surface Pro is its physical, tactile keyboard a part of the cover. The Surface Pro does need to be docked in order to use the keyboard, but it is an option that isn’t available with an iPad Pro. Note that the keyboard can be tilted at a slight angle when used. These features would be very important to someone who plans to type their notes into OneNote rather than write them. The ability to lay the Surface Pro screen almost flat while it is still attached to the keyboard works extremely well for adding handwritten notations to something you are working on in OneNote. Of course, the screen can be completely detached from the keyboard when needed. Note that one of the commands available on the Surface Pro tablet that isn’t available on the iPad Pro is the Add/Remove Space command located on the Insert tab. This makes the process of rearranging the content in your notes very easy. OneNote on an iPad Pro Compared to the Surface Pro, the iPad Pro is both lighter and thinner, making it easier to carry around, more mobile, and easier to hold for notetaking. This can be a major benefit for those who have to spend extended time taking notes without the convenience of a desk or table. The battery life of an iPad Pro averages about 15 hours, almost twice that of the Surface Pro. This is great for users who often struggle to find an outlet to charge their device. One of the outstanding features of the iPad Pro is the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil glides very smoothly and is better at capturing handwriting when compared to the Microsoft Surface Stylus, which is a great bonus for OneNote users that depend on handwritten notes. It also has a solid tip, unlike the soft tip of the Surface Stylus. The size of the tip is also slightly larger on the Pencil. Another plus of the Apple Pencil is that you don’t have to switch tabs to erase something. Rather, you can simply flip the Pencil over and use its eraser. The lasso tool can also be turned on instantly by using the magnetic button on the Pencil. Unlike the Surface Pro, the iPad Pro allows you to take very high-quality photos even in low-light conditions. You can then easily add them to your OneNote document, as well as zoom, crop, and focus them. This is very useful for capturing content-heavy slides during a presentation or extensive notes someone has written on a whiteboard. Also remember that the Add/Remove Space command is not available for the iPad Pro, and this can make it difficult to rearrange content you have added to your notes. Conclusion Both the Surface Pro and the iPad Pro work extremely well with the OneNote app, but only the Surface Pro can be used with the full-fledged desktop version of OneNote (aka, OneNote 2016). The Surface Pro offers the Add/Remove space command, a tactile keyboard, and the ability to easily switch between typing in notes and writing notes. The iPad Pro, on the other hand, offers a much better writing experience when the Apple Pencil is used and the Pencil offers more functionality for things like erasing text and lassoing content. Both tablets, however, are ideal for notetaking.

Profile – Viewing – Searching We get questions from our clients about using LinkedIn all the time. And we get so many that we’ve been keeping track of some of the most commonly asked ones. We’ve posted three of them here with detailed answers for you. 1. “Is There A Way To Change How My Profile Is Viewed?” Sometimes you want to change the way your profile is viewed. Perhaps you’re looking for a new job, or you’ve just gotten one. Or, maybe you’re working a second job and you don’t want your boss to see this. With changes in your business life, you want to keep track of what’s important to post on LinkedIn. Here’s how to change or update how people see you on LinkedIn. Click Me Click Settings & Privacy This is what you’ll see… Click the Privacy Tab. LinkedIn will give you half a dozen options to change your privacy settings for changing who can see what information about you.   Notes: After you change or disable your profile public, it may take several weeks for it to be added to or removed from search engine results. If you edit the settings of your profile photo from your profile page, then your public profile page will be updated with the new setting. For example: if you change your profile photo visibility setting from Public to Your Connections, that change will be applied to your public profile as well, and your photo will no longer appear as part of your public profile. Likewise, you can update your photo visibility settings while you’re editing your public profile page (or by disabling your public profile). Before these settings were unified, some members entered into inconsistent photo visibility states (e.g., their photo is visible in a public profile in search engine results, but is not visible to most members on LinkedIn), and those members are being prompted to reconcile their settings. The default photo setting is Public. Not all sections of your profile can be displayed publicly. On the Public profile settings page, you’ll be able to see and adjust the sections of your profile that can be displayed publicly. Viewers who aren’t signed in to LinkedIn will see all or some portions of the profile display selections you make on this page. 2. “How Do I View My Post Statistics In LinkedIn?” If you’ve ever posted an article or video to LinkedIn, you can see specific demographics about your readers. To see this stats, just like you did above, click on Me and View Profile. Now, scroll down until you see this Dashboard section. Click on Post views. ≈ Next, click on the Posts tab. Now,, scroll down to one of your articles. On the lower left click the view counter next to the line graph icon. LinkedIn will provide you details of who viewed your article. The stats are broken down by company, title and location. Notes: Your post analytics are available for 60 days from creation. Your article analytics are available for 2 years from creation. Your posts and articles will display a detailed breakdown of the analytics only when they have been viewed by 10 or more unique viewers. Once your post or article has reached the minimum number of unique viewers, your analytics button will appear. The analytics breakdown displays non-unique views. 3. “How Do I Use Boolean Search Terms In LinkedIn?” LinkedIn provides powerful search capabilities. It can take a while to efficiently use the power of people search. But it’s worth taking the time to learn. LinkedIn gives you the option to use Boolean Search Terms to perform more specific searches. You can do this by adding or eliminating elements to the search parameters. (Boolean logic is a system of showing relationships between sets by using the words AND, OR, and NOT. The term Boolean comes from the name of the man who invented this system, George Boole.) Boolean Operators are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms. When searching electronic databases, you can use Boolean operators to either narrow or broaden your record sets. The three Boolean operators are AND, OR and NOT. Here are some examples of Boolean search strings: infographics AND presentations copyediting OR copy editor Google NOT Salesforce Let’s say you wanted to find someone who is an expert in presentation design. You should use this as a key term in your search. When you do, your search results will come up with anyone who has the words presentation and design in their profile even if the two words are located separately in their LinkedIn profile. But by adding quotes around “presentation design” LinkedIn will only list those people with the two words together in their profile. If you wanted to find someone with expertise in both infographics and presentation design, you would do a Boolean Search like this: “infographics” AND “presentation design”. By adding the AND qualifier, you’ve combined the two terms for your search ensuring that you receive more relative results. Other Boolean Search Parameters you can use for more effective results: “OR” to broaden your search to include profiles that include one or more terms. For example: “Microsoft” OR “LinkedIn”. “Vice President” OR VP OR “V.P” OR SVP OR EVP Parenthetical Searches If you’d like to perform a complex search, you can combine terms and modifiers and use parentheses. For example: design AND (graphic OR presentation) (copyediting OR copy editor) Notes: When handling searches, the overall order to precedence is: Quotes [“”] Parentheses [()] NOT AND OR Important: The + and – operators are not officially supported by LinkedIn. Using AND in place of + and NOT in place of – makes a query much easier to read and guarantees that we’ll handle the search correctly. When using NOT, AND, or OR operators, you must type them in uppercase letters. We don’t support wildcard “*” searches. Boolean search will work in the keyword field in Recruiter and Linkedin.com, and will work in the Company, title, and keyword field in Sales Navigator. “NOT” Parameters If you’d

Looking for quick tips to optimize your Microsoft Outlook experience? Check out this article that includes all you need to know to get the most out of Microsoft Outlook. With over a billion users worldwide, Microsoft Outlook is the preferred email program for business owners. Though other email programs have some of the same features, no single one of them addresses the everyday needs of business professionals better than Outlook. In spite of its popularity and its versatility, many users are not getting the full range of benefits Microsoft Outlook has to offer. This program provides a rich array of valuable features. It allows users to sort, filter and categorize all emails. In addition, there are numerous other email shortcuts that can save users time and reduce their daily frustration. Below, we discuss some of the biggest time-savers. Please note that these shortcuts are based on Outlook 2010, but most will work on later versions, as well as earlier ones. Learn the Keyboard Shortcuts It may not seem like it to some people, but having to move your mouse around and click on something takes a lot longer than just pressing two keys. For people whose world revolves around email, the wasted time can really add up. Therefore, it’s expedient to learn a half dozen of the most commonly used shortcuts: Ctrl+R: reply to email Alt+S: send email Alt+R: reply to all in email or switch to work week calendar view Ctrl+M: or F9 to Send/Receive all Alt+W: forward email or switch to weekly calendar view Ctrl+G: open the “Go to date” dialog and jump to any date in the calendar New to Outlook? You won’t be a newbie for long once you learn these tricks. Below are a few great tips for newcomers that will have you working like a pro in no time. Switching Tasks This tip lets you easily switch between your calendar, contacts, email and other items by pressing Ctrl + [the place number of the item]. This can eliminate lots of clumsy maneuvering in the navigation pane. Quick Steps This feature, first introduced in Microsoft Outlook 2010, is the fast, painless way to create your own shortcut when performing any multi-step action (it’s also available for modifying default Quick Steps). For instance, let’s say you want to create a Quick Step for marking emails as read, then forward them to a specific group of people. Go to the Home tab and click Mail, then in the Quick Steps section, click the More arrow. Next, click on Manage Quick Steps. Select the Quick Step you would like to change, and then choose Modify. Look for Actions, then change or add the actions you want this Quick Step to perform. In the Shortcut key box, assign this Quick Step a name. You can also change the icon next to the Name box by clicking on it, then click OK. Create a New Item from the Clipboard This one is a real time-saver. Instead of going to Outlook, opening a new item and then copying and pasting content into it, you can do all this in one smooth step. Simply copy text to your clipboard and press Ctrl-V to create a new message that contains the selected text. Using Outlook for A Short Time? Sometimes we all must work on a specific project or with a team that’s already using Microsoft Outlook. For those people, it can be a hassle to get up to speed on how to carry out common tasks. The tips below will have you whizzing through your emails. How to Create a Calendar Event Most new users think you have to scroll through the calendar to find a date that works for your upcoming meeting or appointment. Outlook allows you to simply type phrases like “three weeks from now” or “next Wednesday”. Your calendar automatically sets up the appointment. Of course, you can always change these dates if you need to. Modify Desktop Notifications If you get lots of emails each day, you understand how distracting it can be to constantly be notified of a new email. Many of the emails we all get aren’t that important anyway. Outlook allows you to set your desktop notifications so that you are only notified of messages from people that you specify. You can set up a VIP email folder by going to Rules > New Rules, then select “Advanced Options”. The “Rules Wizard” allows you to specify which emails should be sent directly into the VIP folder. That way, you’ll have your important messages all in one place. Using the Rules Wizard, you can set up all your Mail Options so that they work for you, not against you. Creating Email Templates During an ordinary workday, we often send out similar messages to people. Why not create an email template for those? Open the email, then select File > Save As > Outlook template. Now when you want to send the message out to someone, go to New Items > Choose Form. Browse through your “User Templates in File System” to find the template and click on it. Seasoned Outlook Vet? Maybe you’ve been using Outlook for years and are ready to learn some new tricks. Below are a few amazing time-savers. Schedule Email Delivery Whether you’re running off to a meeting or rushing to the airport, you may want to send emails to special people later that day or even weeks in the future. First, write the email, then go to Options > Delay Delivery > Do not deliver before. and then simply type in the date and time you want the message sent out. Make Folders for Emails Organizing emails into specific folders is a great way to streamline your Inbox. A good folder system can save you time and prevent important messages from getting lost. Once you have your folders set up, simply drag emails into the right folder. Go to Folder > New Folder and enter a name for it. In the pull-down menu called “Folder Contains”, select “Mail and

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

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

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

“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.