Technology News:

According to Microsoft, their mission is “to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.” The goal of Microsoft 365 Solution for Legal is to address the concerns over blind subpoenas while helping Law Firms realize their full potential using the most secure cloud and to leverage Microsoft Teams in a way that is curated and configurable to meet those requirements. They have recognized the value and needs of things like Document Management Systems (DMS), Secure File Sharing, Encrypted Accesses, and User Rights Management to name some of the more obvious.

According to the experts at Law.com (reference) legal firms faced a very daunting, unprecedented challenge when COVID-19 forced the entire industry into fully remote work in March of 2020.  Now a year later, after several false starts and a few hiccups, Remote working has now morphed into Hybrid, which is creating some new issues, while at the same time delivering multiple benefits. As you probably know, the return to office plan for US based Law Firms was largely scheduled for Q3/Q4 2021…

Change allows for greater flexibility, making it a fully digital purchase process directly available from Certified Microsoft Partners, like In the Cloud Technologies! Purchases through the outgoing Open License program ending December 31, 2021. To provide a consistent and simplified purchase experience, Microsoft has introduced a new streamlined way to buy, with the goal of greater flexibility in how and where a Customer Agreement is available.

As you might have expected, Microsoft and Zoom have a lot of the same core features. Both tools support high-quality video conferencing, phone calls, group messaging, and file sharing. There are also various bonus features included with each platform to make interactions more convenient. You can separate your team into breakout groups during a meeting, set up a variety of view modes for camera streams, and even choose your own virtual backgrounds.

If there’s anyone who had it harder than others during the Covid-19 experience, it’s small businesses. Nearly every aspect of operations quickly needed major adjustments regarding staff, remote workers, scheduling, and most of all, technology in place. While very hesitant to spend on technology for good reason, it was the access to critical tools and technologies that forged the path, noting these small businesses/groups needed solutions designed specifically for their own needs…

Whether it’s a small legal firm or huge global practice, there are several things that ring true, time and time again.

Lawyers communicating is the greatest asset and biggest line-item billing of all, so meetings and collaboration are of utmost importance as clients, partners, and staff must be able to meet “face to face” to go over cases, courtroom strategies and project management aspects.  And they absolutely must be able to accurately track and calculate that information for invoicing.

One thing that you’d expect from a company like Microsoft, is the continued updating and scalability of their products. And nowhere is this more apparent, then in Microsoft Teams. Makes sense. But it’s the advancements that should get the most acclaim, so beyond the expected ecosystem partner news and interesting partnerships with Poly and Dell, EPOS and AudioCodes, Bose and Lenovo, here is what you can expect very, very soon (which is very exciting to those of us who spend all day in Teams).

One thing that you’d expect from a company like Microsoft, is the continued updating and scalability of their products. And nowhere is this more apparent, then in Microsoft Teams. Makes sense. But it’s the advancements that should get the most acclaim, so beyond the expected ecosystem partner news and interesting partnerships with Poly and Dell, EPOS and AudioCodes, Bose and Lenovo, here is what you can expect very, very soon (which is very exciting to those of us who spend all day in Teams).

Extortion.  That’s what Ransomware is.  It’s extortion.  And possibly later blackmail.

Ransomware is very similar to “data kidnapping” for lack of a better phrase.  Ransomware involves taking something that isn’t yours and then returning it for money or using it to directly blackmail individuals, vendors, companies and/or company executives.

How Clippy gets into hundreds of articles about new Teams backgrounds is beyond me. I mean, first, it’s not really a background… and second, it’s not new. Back from the dead! Beyond the grave. Grumble. But it is festive and nostalgic and in some ways so very valuably distracting in the workplace, so why not? Let’s celebrate it a bit. Into every generation comes a vampire. – Holly Black