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Microsoft overhauls Outlook with move to Office 365

Th new tweaks include 13 new themes, Clutter and search U

Microsoft has announced a new-look Outlook.comas it prepares to move the service to its Office 365 productivity suite.

Microsoft is taking personalisation seriously in this update, adding 13 new themes for the email application and learning what you want to see and what you don’t.

“Your inbox is part of your daily routine. It’s where you keep in touch with family and friends, check the shipping status of packages and find deals from your favourite companies. These new inbox features are aimed at creating a richer and more engaging inbox, while maintaining the same look and feel you love,” the company said in a blog post.

This first new feature is called Clutter and it will sort your inbox into the emails you normally ignore (the clutter) and those you want to read, which it will surface in the main inbox. Any emails it thinks are clutter will be moved into a separate folder. You can move emails you want to see out of the clutter and in time, the machine will get to know exactly what should be in each mailbox.

Search has also been boosted in the latest iteration of Outlook. If you start searching for a particular email, the application will highlight emails from the people you email most often when searching for content. Refiners helps you filter out the irrelevant content by allowing you to search based on sender, folder, date, and attachments.

For those who are sent lots of videos or richer content, Microsoft has implemented a link preview function that will show a snippet of the link’s content when yu open the email. If you send a lot of images, you can now just copy and paste these directly into the body of an email.

Messages can be popped out in a new windows, to make it easy for you to compose more than one email at once and add-ins allow you to see information while you’re writing an email so you don’t have to keep switching whole apps.

You can also now pin the most important of your emails to the top of your inbox so they’re always there when you need them and flags mean you can mark messages for following up later.

Microsoft also announced the ability to switch between email and Skype easily if you want to take a conversation into IM mode and better sharing with OneDrive.

The Outlook update has been rolled out to select users as a preview already, but made available to others in the coming weeks, the company said.

Have Questions?
Contact Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Partner now!
Call 856-745-9990 or visit: http://southjerseytechies.net/

SharePoint Online

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Share Point Online

SharePoint Online

You can also get SharePoint Online with Office 365.  SharePoint Online delivers the powerful features of SharePoint without the associated overhead of managing the infrastructure on your own. Flexible management options ensure that you still retain the control you need to meet the compliance requirements of your organization. You can purchase SharePoint in the cloud as a standalone offering or as part of an Office 365 suite where you could also get access to Exchange, Lync, the Office clients and web apps.

Cross device availability

Easily access and interact with your SharePoint news feed, wherever you go using the SharePoint mobile apps available across various devices.

Easy to Manage

You can get setup in virtually no time! The powerful admin console allows your organization to easily manage capabilities, policies and security for all the content and features within SharePoint. Automated maintenance of the servers ensure that you are always up to date with the latest features with minimal downtime.

Enterprise grade reliability and standards

Safeguard your data by hosting it in geographically distributed data centers with continuous data backup, premier disaster recovery capabilities and a team of experts monitoring the servers around the clock.

Office 365 FastTrack and adoption offer

FastTrack is the onboarding service benefit included for qualified Office 365 customers. Microsoft onboarding experts will provide personalized assistance ensuring the service is ready to use company-wide.

To see all the features that are included, view the detailed service descriptions.

If you are interested in SharePoint Online please contact us at 856-745-9990.

Tips for Switching to Office 365

Office-365-Logo-ThumbTakeaway:  Moving to Office 365 will provide anywhere access for Microsoft features but before you decide to switch there are 10 things everyone should consider.

Migrating

Starting fresh or merging Active Directory from a local machine are options when switching to Office 365.  Exchange 2010 SP2 can minimize the process of merging an existing Active Directory environment by using the included wizard.

Spam Filtering

Microsoft Forefront Online Protection is the spam filter that will need to be setup and configured when switching to Office 365.

Outbound Addressing

Switching to Office 365 you will have to configure user accounts because the e-mail addresses will add ‘.onmicrosoft.com’ to the end of the addresses.

Utilities

For on-site Exchange servers there are additional utilities that can be installed, for Office 365 you cannot install additional software on 365 servers.

DNS Issues

When switching to Office 365 you will have to confirm a list of DNS entries and create SRV records for Microsoft Lync.  If you have a Microsoft DNS server this shouldn’t be an issue.

Management Tools

If there are no longer on-site Exchange servers, Exchange Management Console and ADUC will no longer be used.   Exchange Control Panel is the primary management tool for Office 365.

File Server Permissions

Prior to switching to Office 365, decide how users will access on-site File Servers without on-site Domain Controllers and permissions to manage file access.  There are a few options before switching your network to Office 365.

Mobile Devices

Connecting mobile devices to Office 365 could take several days.  If you chose to start fresh but would like to keep your existing contacts, calendar and mail, you will need to merge the existing PST file to the Office 365 mailbox.  If you have merged your organization to Office 365 this should not be a problem.

Control Issues

Office 365 takes control of common administrative tasks such as:

  • Software upgrades
  • Patch Management
  • & many others.

Microsoft Communication

Microsoft will continue to reach out to your organization via e-mail and phone calls to answer any questions and to ensure that everything works out during the switch.

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

 

Microsoft Office Mobile

ios-office365-hero2Microsoft released Office Mobile in the Apple Store for free to all Office 365 users on June 14, 2013.  Office Mobile has a lot of stipulations and only provides the basic document editing capabilities.  Integrating Office Mobile with SkyDrive and Office 365 is a smooth process.

The first stipulation is Office Mobile is designed for iPhone.  The app is not optimized for iPad use; older iPad(s) receive errors.  The second stipulation is Office Mobile requires an Office 365 subscription.  A large percent of businesses have not switched to Office 365 which excludes potiential Office Mobile users.

For Office 365 subscribers, Office Mobile is a free app that provides the ability to view, edit and save Office documents.  All users that are not Office 365 subscribers can continue to use Office-compatible mobile apps that provide the same functionality.

Office Mobile has a similar interface to Windows phone.  After installing Office Mobile, users can view, edit and save Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents.  Users may be surprised with the limited editing abilities.  SkyDrive, SkyDrive Pro and SharePoint are ways to access documents.  ”Recent Documents” tracks the most recent documents that you viewed or changed and makes them easily accessible.

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

 

Improved Outlook for Office365

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Office 365 has recently improved the user interface as well as, the included social and communication features.  Outlook starts in the now-familiar three-pane view, but without the ribbon menus of the full Outlook 2013.  

Navigation pane is located on the left of the screen.  To create, rename, empty or delete folders can be done with a right-click on the specific folder.

Tasks can be accessed through the Task tab at the bottom of the Navigation Pane.  Using color-coordinated icons can easily categorize tasks.  Also, flagged e-mails will show up in the general task list.

The View Pane is located on the right side of the screen.  In the view pane there are options to Reply, Delete and more options (…).  Deleting, printing and creating simple rules are located in the ‘More Options’ drop down menu.  For full control of creating/editing rules, setting automated replies or creating retension policies select Options in the Settings menu.

Your IM status will show next to the account name at the top of the screen.  The IM that is offered as part of Outlook is different than Microsoft Lync.  Microsoft Lync is used for chat, audio/video chat and meetings with anyone, within or outside of your organization.

For more information on Hosted Services & Office365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

 

Office 365 vs. Google Apps

MSvGAMicrosoft and Google have been in a publicity rivalry over the services.  Days before the Google I/O Conference, Microsoft announced Sensia Halsovard, Arysta LifeScience and Sepco III have chosen Office 365 after using Google Apps.  Other companies have also switched to Office 365 are that Caltex Australia, FHI 360 and Santa Clara County

“Google Apps was difficult to use and lacked the capabilities our employees had grown accustomed to in Office,” said Dustin Collins, global head of IT infrastructure, Arysta LifeScience. “With Office 365 we’re able to interact and engage with each other more, allowing us to efficiently and quickly respond to new opportunities. As a result, we’re a more agile, competitive organization.”

Google offers a set price for their services, while Microsoft’s price varies by Residential and Company size.  The familiarity and dependability already established with Microsoft Office products is why many organizations are choosing Office 365 over Google Apps.

For more information on Hosted Services and Office 365

 please contact us 856-745-9990 or click here.

 

New Features for RingCentral

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RingCentral is a company that specializes in providing business VoIP services, fax services and mobile communication solutions.  RingCentral continues to offer more features to boost efficiency. 

Intercom:

intercomIntercom allows you to call an individual extension that will automatically pick up on speaker.  This is a “one-to-one” feature, not a “page-all” feature.

Intercom is available for:

  • Cisco – 303 / 502G / 504G / 508G / 509G / 525G / 525G2 
  • Polycom – 321 / 331 / 335 / 450 / 550 / 560 / 650 / 670 / VVX500

Softphone and Polycom 6000 conference phones can only initiate Intercom using the touch tone command.

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Polycom VVX-500

The new color touchscreen IP phone with 12 touch keys that display Presence Status, speakerphone, integrated PoE, Gigabit Ethernet… etc.

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Business SMS:

Business SMS easily integrates with iPhone(s) and Android(s) to allows you to use your business RingCentral number to send and receive text messages from customers, colleagues and company departments.

  • Unlimited texting
  • Ability to text from multiple devices using RingCentral smartphone App

conferencing2Audio Conference Bridge:

Audio Conference Bridge allows you to setup and/or join unlimited conference calls anytime and anywhere. 

  • Dedicated conference bridge dial in number
  • Free unlimited conference calling
  • Host & Participant access codes for each RingCentral User

callrecording3Call Recording:

Call Recording can be used on your Softphone, IP phone or cell phone and allows you to record conversations on for RingCentral phone number.

  • On-demand recording
  • Recordings stored in the cloud
  • Anytime access for playback or download

callparkCall Park:

Call Park allows you to park a call (put on hold) in two ways:

  • Public Call Park – allows anyone to pick up the call
  • Directed Call Park – only allows the owner of the extension to retrieve.

For more information regarding RingCentral,

please contact us at 856-745-9990 or click here.

RingCentral’s New Pricing Editions

RingCentral is a company that specializes in providing business VoIP services, fax services and mobile communication solutions. RingCentral is moving from one (1) Office product to multiple Office editions with differentiated feature or functionality.

New Pricing Editions

Effective July 4th, RingCentral Office has changed to an editions pricing model (US Only).  Each edition now includes specific feature sets and is priced differently.

PricingEditions2

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do existing Office customers get moved to new editions?

No.  Existing customers or users will continue to be granted a special exception on their current plans: Entrepreneur, Office Metered Toll-Free (MTF) and Office Unlimited.

Q:  Can existing users be upgraded to the new editions?

Yes.  They can use the upgrade wizard.

Q:  What are the benefits of these new Office editions?

The new editions offer the following:

      • Offers you flexibility to select the best feature or functionality set based on your business needs at a low monthly price.
      • Enables your large business to move up the market through enterprise level capabilities.
      • Provides one complete solution for any location and any number of employees.
      • Enables advanced call management and phone system administration.
      • Lets you manage, access, and use on smartphones and tablets.

Q:  What are the differences among the new Office editions?

There are various differences among the new editions, namely:

Standard:  Cloud PBX with call management features and mobile apps, unlimited calling/faxing/texting/conferencing and 1000 toll-free minutes.

Premium:  All Standard edition features, Salesforce CRM integration, Automatic call recording, Premium support for 10+ users and 2500 toll-free minutes.

Enterprise:  All Premium edition features and unlimited toll-free minutes

Refer to the table below for more information:

PricingEditions3

For answers to more frequently asked questions, click here.

For more information regarding RingCentral,

please contact us at 856-745-9990 or click here.

Introducing RingCentral Cloud Touch

I’m excited to announce the launch of our new RingCentral Cloud Touch platform, the first and only phone system that enables businesses to set up, manage and use their phone system from smartphones and tablets.

We’ve completely re-imagined the phone system, enabling businesses to turn any location into an office while giving employees the flexibility and freedom to access the system from any connected device. We help businesses, administrators and end users work the way they want to – from anywhere and on any device.

Our new platform includes three key components:
1. RingCentral Touch – Fully touch-powered platform for phone systems, enabling full management capabilities from any tablet or smartphone. Intuitive customizable settings for administrators and users provide unmatched flexibility and control.

2. RingCentral Presence – Presence is extended beyond desk phones, enabling users to see availability based on smart mobile devices. Enabled with simple controls, users can access from everywhere. Employees are better connected with presence that integrates mobile users.

3. RingCentral Connect – RingCentral integrates with Dropbox, Box and Google Docs, enabling customers to share documents and files in the cloud, providing enhanced productivity.

We’d love to hear how RingCentral Cloud Touch enables you to work from anywhere and manage your phone system with ease!

CALL US NOW!