Technology News:

In our continued series on trying to help you focus on your business, and not on your technology, we thought it would be interesting to talk about Migration. And not so much the process of migration, but migration solutions delivered to you as an ongoing service, with all-inclusive use and support.

Well-managed IT services are essential in any industry and as technology advances, it offers many new opportunities to businesses and organizations. At the same time, however, these advances are making IT more difficult to manage in-house. But as technology continues to specialize to some degree, hiring traditional full-time staff gets extremely expensive.

Today, many organizations have started realizing the benefits of engaging experts in their IT operations. And then they see the cost. This is exactly why Managed Service Providers have begun to thrive, offering expert level services at a fraction of the cost. Because let’s face it, every business faces ongoing IT questions like when to manage some or all IT services or projects in-house and when to outsource them.

Yes, it’s true. In an effort (I guess) to apparently not use a unified system built by a reputable provider, many companies initially put their faith in Slack to help fill their enterprise collaboration efforts. “Well, it’s free right?” Um, no, it’s really not, there is an initial free tier, but once that trial ends you pay for members that are active in your workspace. “So, what’s the problem?” The problem in question here is…

While Teams Telephony is certainly a game changer, I feel the even more valuable, commonly overlooked and least understood aspect of Teams and its Unified Communications benefits, is in Enterprise collaboration. In my opinion, this is where Microsoft Teams truly shines and provides benefits to users that they can’t find anywhere else. Well, they could (and do) find similar apps from different providers…

After more than a decade, Google is moving away from free use of its services to paid, beginning with small businesses, and the response is… well, not great. In January, Google announced that customized email services and other workplace apps which had been free for over a decade, were quickly coming to an end. Needless to say… business owners quickly responded that they feel…

When localized, O365 was deemed secure, but with the addition and coordination of Microsoft Teams, began to raise some questions about security and data protection due to its always on, 24/7 available access to sensitive resources, documents, collaboration and more. There’s no question about the obligation of law firms to take appropriate measures to keep their client data secure. Today, through commercial cloud-based platforms, this combination offers significantly more in the way of data security and system reliability than old, on-premises/legacy/server-based systems.

Unveiled at Microsoft’s Ignite conference last year, Operator Connect is an operator-managed service that makes it easier for businesses to connect their PSTN to a Teams-based Phone service. By maintaining an existing operator relationship, companies save on infrastructure purchases and management, as well as benefit from enterprise-grade reliability and shared technical support.

The rise of the contingent workforce has made day-to-day workforce management increasingly complex for HR and procurement departments. Hybrid, remote and on-site workers all have very different needs when it comes to IT services and workforce tools, expanding the knowledge and skills necessary to properly service an entire organization. Working with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) has often been the most successful solution, primarily through having access to an entire team of technicians, versus one in-house person.

Microsoft Teams Phone has nearly 80 million users and has been at the core of digital transformations across the globe. These Covid-inspired, hybrid-driven transformations provide the flexibility, reliability, and functionality organizations rely on to stay connected and productive. Continuing in this tradition, Microsoft most recently has announced Operator Connect Mobile, a fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solution which will allow mobile devices to become a Teams Phone endpoint. Operator Connect Mobile will preview and begin in Q2 of 2022…