| Coronavirus. The pandemic is on everyone’s mind. Staying safe and healthy is, of course, the first priority at times like this. But life goes on. Offices and schools are closing and business travel has all but disappeared. Events are being postponed for months, moved to virtual-only or canceled outright. Most of us have been quarantined in our homes, and that’s likely to continue at least for a while. Social distancing is the order of the day. You can’t even play hooky and catch a ball game – Opening Day has been postponed. Most of us still need to make a living and to find ways to keep the wheels of our businesses turning. All this has led to a renewed emphasis on working remotely. Hundreds of companies, including many in the Fortune 500, have asked employees to work from home. That sudden switch is not without its challenges. It’s a good idea to make sure your Office 365 experience is prepared and optimized for increased workloads. And with some business slowed down, now is a good time to take a hard look at your tenant’s activity, optimize for remote work, and make sure your team has the tools and access it needs to continue functioning. This new reality has also generated heightened interest in the ability of Microsoft Teams to facilitate communications, collaboration, and document sharing among workers located just about anywhere. Microsoft has seen a roughly 50% increase in Teams usage in recent weeks, and now boasts more than 75 million daily active users. Links to resources for getting started with and supporting increased Teams and Office 365 usage, are included in the blog post “Support remote workers using Microsoft Teams.” Travel to the Phoenix office canceled? No problem, you can do a face-to-face remote meeting, record it, and even share files through Teams. You won’t even have to be scanned by grumpy TSA agents or have your temperature taken by a complete stranger. It’s more efficient and more convenient. There are free versions of Teams available to mobile users through the app available in the Google Play Store for Android devices, and in the Apple store for iOS devices. It’s important to recognize that these are not full-featured versions; some capabilities like being able to remotely schedule, conduct, and record Teams meetings are not available. Here’s a convenient comparison chart. Wellington Street Consulting is a virtual company. We practice what we preach, and we’ve been using Teams to facilitate remote operations routines for several years. We’ve helped many of our clients’ structure operations using Teams. If you need assistance to gear up for a remote workforce through the capabilities of Microsoft Teams and Office 365, or to get started with Teams, please contact us. Above all, stay safe in these very challenging times. For additional information, see: Our Commitment to Customers During Covid-19 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/05/our-commitment-to-customers-during-covid-19/ Staying productive while working remotely with Microsoft Teams https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/03/10/staying-productive-while-working-remotely-with-microsoft-teams/ How to quickly optimize Office 365 traffic for remote staff & reduce the load on your infrastructure https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/office-365-blog/how-to-quickly-optimize-office-365-traffic-for-remote-staff-amp/ba-p/1214571# |
