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Technology Training

Project Manage With Microsoft Planner

Do you manage groups of people but have a hard time keeping track of everything? Well, Microsoft has the tool for you! Microsoft Planner is a great application that is part of the Office 365 offering. It is a work in progress from Microsoft but none the less, Planner is a vast improvement from a simple to do list that you may use in Outlook. If you are managing internal projects across several employees with a lot of moving pieces but don’t have a need for a fully fledged project management software, then Planner will be great for you!

Make the most of your Office 365 investment by trying Planner to see if it is a good fit for your organization. You can create projects, assign tasks and checklists under that project to members of your team. Planner lets you attach and share files that are relevant to the project and you can get a birds-eye view of the progress across all of your employees from the Planner dashboard. Microsoft Planner can be accessed on a web page, local desktop application or mobile app and the best part is that it stays synced across all of your devices to keep you on track while you’re on the move.

In this video, we will show you where you can find Microsoft Planner in the Office 365 portal. From there, we will show you how to set up your account, create projects and assign tasks to the team members in your organization. Keep your team on track and get your project completed on time with Microsoft Planner.

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Technology Training

Microsoft Teams For Beginners | Office 365

Are you looking to improve office efficiency and cut down on the amount of email you send internally? Microsoft Teams is a great application that allows your company to communicate internally through chat. Teams is part of the Office 365 offering and, like the rest of the Microsoft products, is integrated with the applications from Microsoft that you know and love.

Microsoft Teams really stands out as one of the best workplace collaboration tools, taking the place of email for internal work communication. Rather than sending copious emails to your colleagues, Teams allows for a much more natural conversation between groups of people or direct communication between individuals. Even better, Teams improves workplace efficiency by making it easier to ask a quick question, schedule invites or send files.

In this video, we will walk you through accessing Teams in your Microsoft Office 365 portal. Once downloaded we will show you how to set up teams, message individuals, attach files and add team members. After implementing Teams you will find that this program will drastically cut down on internal email and will allow your staff to get more done with their day.

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Technology Training

Get Started With Skype For Business

Skype for Business really brings into question the need for a physical phone in the business world, especially for small companies. Skype for Business is another value-add in the Microsoft Office 365 offering and it works seamlessly with other Microsoft Office apps.

In this video, we will walk you through accessing Skype for Business on Windows 10. Once you have the application installed and opened, we will show you how to set up your microphone, headphones, and webcam. After you’ve gone through the setup process, it is relatively straightforward. You can open up a chat session, have a voice call or start a video conference with anyone in your contacts list. The great thing about Skype for Business is that you can talk to anyone around the world no matter if they are using Skype for Business or not.

Skype for Business is a great tool that will allow you to not only talk to friends and colleagues around the world but you can also attend virtual meetings with Skype for Business conferencing. Skype for Business also has many great built-in features such as screen sharing in case you need to show something to a colleague on your computer. The best part of all this is that you have Skype For Business built into your Office 365 subscriptions.

Microsoft Office 365 is changing the way that business communicates by creating one platform that encompasses email, voice, chat, conferencing and a whole lot more. What is great about what Microsoft has created is that you can get all the basics of business communication, hosted by Microsoft, for a low monthly cost. No more Exchange servers, PBX boxes or PRI’s to pay for and maintain.

If you haven’t looked into what Microsoft has to offer through Office 365 we strongly recommend that you do. If you already use Office 365 and are still paying to maintain a phone system then you may want to consider Skype For Business to help minimize and consolidate expenses.

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Technology Training

Harden Employees Against Ransomware With KnowBe4

Are you curious to see who in your company is most likely to download a virus on your network? Well now you can find out and the best part is, its free. With KnowBe4 you can administer a range of free tools that will allow you to see which of your users is most likely fall for phishing emails.

The sad truth is that some people will click on anything that comes across their email inbox. This is how most network infections start. Till more recently, there hasn’t been a lot anyone could do to prevent this. KnowBe4 allows you to find those trouble users and train them so that this major hole in your network can be filled.

From a compliance standpoint, KnowBe4 offers actionable data that will allow you to show your HIPAA or PCI compliance officer that you are taking actions toward due diligence.

As an IT company, we do our best to prevent major disasters with layered security involving anti-virus, managed firewalls, Office 365 spam filtering, security permissions and most important, great backups. Even with all of these security measures in place, there isn’t a foolproof method to ensuring that a few phishing emails won’t slip by unnoticed. We rely on backups to get our clients up an running quickly but even under the best of conditions, it is still better for the virus to have never been clicked on to begin with.

For a small investment in time, you can’t afford to not use these great free tools from KnowBe4. Take a few minutes to watch our new video on how to get started with KnowBe4 and harder you users against malicious emails.

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Technology Training

Microsoft OneDrive For Beginners

Every Microsoft product is designed to drive collaboration and efficiency. Microsoft OneDrive is no exception. Built as a solution to match the emergence of products like DropBox, OneDrive is integrated into the Office 365 offering and works seamlessly with all Microsoft Office products.

In this video, we will show you how to access and set up your OneDrive account that comes with five gigabytes of storage. OneDrive allows you to send files without having to use email or file transfer methods. Simply upload your files to the cloud and allow your team or any specific person to have access to them.

The real power of OneDrive is the ability to share data. OneDrive will act as a kind of backup, staying synced with the computer files that you have saved in OneDrive, however, OneDrive was intended to serve as a way for teams to collaborate with large files. Instead of trying to send a large file directly, you can simply upload your file to OneDrive send a link that will allow the recipient to download and work from anywhere in the world.

If you are using Office 365 then you should take a moment to set up your OneDrive account. Especially if you are paying for a product like DropBox. This will help save you a little money every month and will sync well with all the Microsoft products you already use.

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Technology Training

CamStudio Screen Recording

If you have tried to explain a complex computer problem to your technical support group and found it difficult to bridge the gap between English and all the technical jargon, you may find it easier to make a screen recording of the problem rather than sending a lengthy email. CamStudio is a great, free program that will help you with just that.

In this video, we will walk you through downloading CamStudio and getting it set up to start screen recording. CamStudio is a very simple and straightforward program but none the less it is very powerful when you are trying to explain a problem. Once you know how to use the program you can export a .mp4 file that you can then email to your technical support group.

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Technology Training

Learn how to use a VPN

You may have heard of, or even used, a virtual private network (VPN), but do you know what it is? A VPN is an encrypted tunnel through a wide area network (WAN), also known as the Internet. This means that the network does not have to be located in one physical location, unlike a local area network (LAN). By using encryption and other security measures, a VPN can scramble all the data sent through the WAN, so the network is “virtually” private. In other words, a VPN allows you to access the files on your local network over the internet from an airport, coffee shop or another country, and you will be as secure as if you were sitting in your office.

Businesses commonly use VPNs to communicate across multiple locations. A large company that has offices in several cities may need to send data between their locations via the Internet. To keep the information secure, the company will set up a VPN with an encrypted connection, effectively giving the company a secure intranet over the Internet.

In this video, we will show how you can download one of the many VPN services on your computer. Once downloaded, we will show you how to set up and use this tool. Although there are many VPN options to choose from, most of them work the same way. If you are going to be traveling for work, or need to work from home or a coffee shop, it is important to send and receive sensitive data over a VPN. Otherwise, you are opening a direct access to all of your company’s sensitive information, and risk a security breach. For more information, or if you would like to set up a VPN for your company, contact eTop today.

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Technology Training

Microsoft OneNote for Beginners

Are you aware of all the applications that come with your Microsoft Office 365 subscription? Most people think of Office 365 as a hosted email service but don’t realize that it is much more than that. Depending on the subscription that you have, almost every Office application that Microsoft offers will be included and is accessible in the Office 365 portal.

This week we have created a video that will walk you through one of the included applications, OneNote. Like the name would suggest, OneNote is an application that keeps all of your note taking in one place. No matter if you are in a meeting, a trade show or conference, or even if you’re still in school, OneNote is a great application for all of your note-taking needs.

To help get you started, we will show you how to access and download OneNote from your Office 365 portal. Once installed, we will show you how to set up the program so that it is customized to your liking. Although the program is pretty straightforward, there are a few features that you should know about and we go over them in this video.

Once you watch this quick overview you will be able to take notes and insert pictures, videos, and sound recordings like a pro. Need a table, graph or chart? We’ll show you how to use those as well. When you’re all done taking notes, you can share them with colleagues and friends making OneNote a great tool to help your team collaborate. If you are used to using other Office products like Word or Excel then you will pick up OneNote quickly since many of the features and functionality are set up the same way.

If you haven’t already, we would encourage you to take a closer look at your Office 365 portal to see what applications are available to you. From the beginning, Microsoft has packed a lot of value into the 365 offering and since then they have done an excellent job of adding in more applications and features. To help you get the most out of your subscriptions, we will be making a series of how to videos that will debut what Microsoft has to offer and how to use each application.

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Technology Training

Install And Set Up Microsoft Outlook 2016

If you are new to Microsoft, or thinking about making the switch from another platform, you will need to know how to get started with the various programs that Microsoft has to offer. This week we have put together a quick video to help you get started with Outlook.

Microsoft Outlook 2016 is a great program that will centralize your email, calendar, task lists and contacts. It seamlessly uses each of these applications to keep all of your information synchronized. You can easily send and receive emails with attachments, schedule meetings with clients, and keep track of everything across all of your devices.

If you’re coming over to the Microsoft world from a platform like Google, there will be a learning curve. However, once you understand how one application works, you will be able to navigate all of them with ease. To begin, watch our tutorial for beginners to learn how to install Outlook from Microsoft Office 365. Once it is downloaded on your computer, we will show you how to set up Outlook to work with your email address. Since Outlook has a few hidden features, we will show you how to navigate through the most important ones such as the email application, your calendar, and the contacts options.

If you need to learn more about Outlook 2016, or any of the other Office suite of products, you can visit our YouTube channel or website for more how-to videos that will walk you through each feature. We have videos specifically for all of the many features in Outlook: from email signatures, to calendar sharing, and task features. We hope you find this useful!

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Technology

Use Chat For Internal Business Communication

Email was once considered the hub of communication for business, and for external correspondence, it generally still is. However, if you just need to have a quick conversation with someone on the other side of the office, email is clunky and slow. Fortunately, there is a new trend for internal business communication: chat services.

Slack vs teams

There are a few major players in the messaging space for business, namely Slack and Microsoft Teams. Both platforms allow for a seamless collaboration between team members that is far more efficient than relying on emails or in person meetings. This is especially effective for businesses that have remote employees who need to be able to chat and send files.

There are two main ways to communicate with these chat tools, aside from direct messaging between team members. You have the option to add as many team members to a conversation as you would like, which is great for collaboration between groups within a company. You can also create general chat topics that go out to the whole company, which is great for HR updates and general company-wide notifications.

No tool is complete without its ability to offer third party integrations. Slack offers a slew of apps and API integrations for just about every application you use. For example, maybe your sales team uses SalesForce, but you want your team to be able to communicate quickly to drive more sales. Slack offers apps and integrations for SalesForce so that all correspondence flow seamlessly from one platform to another.

The world of communication is swiftly changing. Although chat services have been around for many years with services like Skype, they have made a comeback within the business world. Instant messaging makes it faster to ask a quick question then it would be to spin around in your chair and talk to someone directly. If you are looking for a simple way to help your team communicate quickly and collaborate effectively, then you should talk to your IT partner about setting up a chat service within your company.

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