Cloud Connect April 2017

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CloudConnect is IOTAP’s monthly publication for all things cloud. We will cover updates, tips & tricks and other relevant information for your cloud services. Be sure to write us at or follow us on twitter @iotap

Tips and Tricks:

This month we have another tip to help schedule meetings within your organization – no additional software required!

In Outlook, it’s possible to have all your viewed calendars appear as one. This is called creating a Calendar Overlay, and it’s very simple!

  • On the navigation bar in Outlook (bottom left side) click the Calendar icon. Click each calendar you want to view.
  • Each calendar you check opens them in the default side-by-side view.
  • After you’ve added a calendar to the side-by-side view, on the calendar’s tab,

Each Calendar will be laid on top of each one you select! This makes it easy to identify free times among different calendars within your organization.

The question of the Month

How do I recover mistakenly deleted emails?

It is not possible to recover mistakenly permanently deleted emails without a backup service that provides a mode of recovery. IOTAP is proud to announce our managed backup service for our clients for as low as two dollars per month. This will protect against malicious and accidental email deletions as well as other miscellaneous mishaps – never again will you lose an email! Contact us for details today!

Feature Update:

Skye for Business has been going through some big changes! In addition to the forthcoming compatibility for Mac, we are pleased to announce that Office 365 E5 now offers an auto-attendant and queues for Skype for Business!

Auto Attendant provides an automated system to answer inbound phone calls to a company, play prompts to interact with the caller and determine the destination of the call. Prompts can be made from an uploaded pre-recorded material or use text-to-speech in 27 languages while replies from callers can be captured using touchtone or speech recognition in 14 languages. Callers can speak the name of an end-user in the tenant directory to be routed directly to that person or they can be presented with a customized menu to support routing to different departments.

  • Both Auto Attendants and Call Queues are managed from Office 365 and allow customers to have powerful call management functionality homed completely out of the cloud. To support this capability, customers can acquire both toll and toll-free phone numbers from over 90 countries around the world, all without the additional subscription cost.

Cloud Connect March 2017

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Tips and Tricks:

Do you often find yourself spending more time trying to schedule a meeting than actually meeting? No more! Using FindTime for Microsoft Outlook, it’s easy to find a time for everyone to meet without the calling and emailing back and forth. Most importantly, FindTime works with personnel outside your organization whose calendars aren’t available to you!

A question of the Month:

Privacy is of the utmost concern for me. Is there any feature in Office 365 that would let me encrypt the mail messages I am sending?

  • Yes! Office 365 Message Encryption as part of Azure Rights Management allows senders inside an organization to send encrypted messages amongst themselves and to recipients outside an organization. Even better, outside recipients do not need a subscription!

Your Office 365 plan may already support Office 365 Message Encryption.

Feature Update:

Many of our clients ask for a way for them and their employees to have a persistent chat – something that keeps your conversation history between yourself and your coworkers stored and accessible. We know that Skype is great for short-term communication, but once you close the window, the history is saved to your mailbox and no longer in the chat window! Microsoft Teams is a great option to enable persistent chat in your workplace.

We’ve mentioned Microsoft Teams before in CloudConnect, but we’re mentioning it again because it is set to launch publicly! Microsoft Teams original debuted in preview back in early November.

Security and Backup:

A common question when moving to the cloud is “Where is the anti-virus?” And while the Microsoft Cloud does offer many innate more robust security benefits – things like two-factor authentication, the “basics” are left out. With some additional services for Office 365, the question of “How do I secure my cloud?” is answered. Although data is available in the cloud it is not protected from user errors or data loss from user actions.

To learn more about how to protect your all your data –email, documents, and systems contact us at [email protected] and learn about your options! Security and data protection is on top of mind and we can help you with the piece of mind!

CloudConnect is IOTAP’s monthly publication for all things cloud. We will cover updates, tips & tricks and other relevant information for your cloud services. Be sure to write us at or follow us on twitter @iotap

Cloud Connect February 2017

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Tips and Tricks:
A new scheduling experience for Outlook on iOS is here!
Directly from Outlook for iOS, it is now possible to create a meeting, add invitees AND see their availability on a calendar, making it easy to pick a time that works for all attendees right from your phone. Android functionality is coming soon!
A question of the Month:
Office 2013 is going into “End of Life”, what does that mean for me?
Most users of Office 365 have the newest version of the Office 365 apps, meaning that most likely Office 2016 is currently and there is nothing to worry about. However, if the specific decision was made to install Office 2013, there are some things to be mindful of:
  • At the end of February, the option to install Office 2013 from the Office 365 portal will be removed.
  • Users of Office 2013 can continue to receive updates until September 2017. After that, there will be no further updates and it is recommended to install Office 2016.

In order to receive Office 365 support going forward, it is required to have the latest versions of Office 365 installed. This means that after September 2017, those still running the 2013 version of office will not be able to receive support.

Feature Update:
 

Microsoft Access is a great database management solution for small businesses because it makes collecting and storing data accessible on the desktop – no support from an Admin needed! As part of a cost-free update to Office 365, those with Business Premium subscriptions now have the use of Microsoft Access as part of their subscription! Formerly Access was only included on an enterprise-tier subscription. Dependent on how Office 365 is set to receive updates, this update has either already rolled out or will be rolling out in June 2017.

Security and Backup:

A common question when moving to the cloud is “Where is the anti-virus?” And while the Microsoft Cloud does offer many innate more robust security benefits – things like two-factor authentication, the “basics” are left out. With some additional services for Office 365, the question of “How do I secure my cloud?” is answered. Although data is available in the cloud it is not protected from user errors or data loss from user actions.

To learn more about how to protect your all your data –email, documents, and systems contact us at [email protected] and learn about your options! Security and data protection is on top of mind and we can help you with the piece of mind!

Cloud Connect January 2017

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Tips and Tricks:
Are you tired of having to dig through address books to remember email addresses, or forgetting to add a recipient in the address bar and having to forward the email to them to loop them in? Even if you’ve typed their name out in the email? 

With @mentions in Outlook, Simply type the @ symbol anywhere in the body of your email and start typing to pick the person you want to address. Once you pick the person you want to address their name is highlighted in the message in blue, grabbing their attention. And the best part, if the person you’ve added via an @ mention isn’t already in the email, they’ll automatically be added at the To line! No more forwarding emails to mistakenly omitted personnel! To learn more about @mentions in Outlook, click here! 

Note: We expect this feature to be rolled out to all Outlook users in January, so stay tuned! 

A question of the Month:
 

What is “The Waffle”? 

In the Office 365 web interface, there’s a blue tile on the top-left corner of the screen. This tile, when clicked brings up all of your web-based productivity apps and any other applications available to you in your Office 365 subscription. This tile is called the Waffle and it is the hub of navigation between everything in Office 365. 

To learn about customizing the waffle and your office 365 experience.

Feature Update

Microsoft has just fulfilled one of the biggest feature requests for Office 365 – the ability to use shared calendars on Outlook for iOS, Android, and Windows 10. This feature requires no update and should be available immediately. 

If the feature isn’t working, you may need to re-share calendars you’re already subscribed to. You’ll then be able to see the calendar under Settings>Calendar>default. From there, users can edit, share and create calendar apps just like on the web. 

If you’re on the latest Outlook version, you shouldn’t have to update. The change comes automatically and doesn’t require any extra input. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, they’re working on a few extra features before the public announcement.

Cloud Connect December 2016

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Tips and Tricks:
Did you just finish a document that you now need to attach to an email? Instead of browsing for it, save a few clicks and hit “attach” in Outlook 2016 when drafting an email. A drop-down menu will appear that lists your most recently edited documents.
The Cloud is a safe place to do online business but cyber threats and security are the number one risk facing all digital communication and assets.
A question of the Month:
 
What is the difference between an Office 365 Group and a traditional Distribution List?
For a 90-second video on groups.

An Office 365 group is a distribution list AND MORE! You not only get the full functionality of the original Distribution Group but a shared document library for storing and sharing folders and documents between members. There’s also a shared OneNote Notebook, useful for taking a project and meeting notes. And so everyone in the group stays on the same page, there’s also access to Microsoft Planner, a shared calendar and a shared inbox for assistance in scheduling group meetings and events! To see Office 365 groups in action, click here!

Feature Update
Microsoft Teams is a new chat-based workspace in Office 365. It provides a hub for the team between employees in a totally seamless fashion. It provides instant access to all of your content in Office 365. Apps; SharePoint, OneNote, and Skype are built into the app – you can even edit documents without opening a separate program, just edit it right there in teams!

Teams are currently in Technical Preview right now (general availability is set to Q1 2017), but if you would like to activate it for your Office 365 tenant.