LEVEL UP: NEWS & VIEWS FROM RED LEVEL

Work From Home Best Practices

The COVID-19 virus has created the new reality of working from home or remotely. We have a few best practices for you to keep communicating and collaborating, from both a technical and practical perspective. Microsoft published a letter from Lily Zheng in their Shanghai office. In this letter, she had three key points for your team and organization. Your Team: Stay Well Exercise every day, make sure you eat, and have a structured schedule Go All In Don’t put things off. Don’t cancel your standing meetings. Do everything remotely. Support your Teammates Check in on people. Instead of stopping by someone’s desk to chat for a second. Ping them on teams or a random video call to chat. Share photos [...]

2020-03-25T19:00:53+00:00By Ryan Charnock|Collaboration, Collaboration Solutions, Microsoft Solution Provider|

Red Level Is Part Of The Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce

As the nation comes together to slow the spread of COVID-19, President Trump, the Coronavirus Task Force, and Governor Whitmer have asked America's to “Stay Home, Stay Safe” and close all nonessential business. Red Level is clearly classified as a critical infrastructure operation by the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and we will stay open AND stay safe to meet our special responsibility to our clients and country. The entire Red Level team is working to maintain commands centers, secure data centers, client service centers, and infrastructure support. We're also helping companies transition employees to work-from-home operations. Red Level is also here to support new clients in need of outsourced IT support – no matter if [...]

2020-03-24T20:47:13+00:00By David King|Managed Services Provider|

Microsoft’s Response to Education Institutions

Technology can play a vital role in reducing the impact of COVID-19 on people and organizations. Many schools and universities have moved to online courses to ensure everyone is still receiving an education during this time. Microsoft has introduced extended free trials and resources for clients to use to maintain collaboration, productivity, and security. Here is Microsoft's response for education institutions: New, Extended Free Trials for EDU Customers Office 365 A1 – Free versions to all educational institutions: This version provides unlimited chat, built-in group and one-on-one audio or video calling, 10 GB of team file storage, and 2 GB of personal file storage per user. You also get real-time collaboration with the Office apps for web, including Word, Excel, [...]

2020-03-19T19:18:16+00:00By Microsoft|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider|

Achieve More with the Office 365 Cloud Immersion Experience

We’ve all been there. We've had technology dumped on us, sometimes with no explanation. What we hear most often from our clients is that they have rolled out Office 365, but people are not adopting the technology. How do we solve that? People don't embrace technology, but they embrace solutions. Office 365 Offers Many Powerful Tools In the Office 365 environment, we see all these different opportunities to work with tools inside of the product. However, that can be overwhelming, and who has time to be overwhelmed in the workplace? “Empower & Inspire peopleby creating an immersive experience where they discover for themselveswhat’s possible in a Microsoft-powered organization.” Provide a Direction with an Office 365 Cloud Immersion Experience This Office 365 Cloud Immersion Experience is a chance for your users to become empowered. It’s a hands-on session to explore how to [...]

2020-03-20T19:52:14+00:00By Valerie Lewandowski|Cloud Technology Services, Microsoft|

Top 7 Microsoft Exclusive Quick Starts

We developed a series of Microsoft Exclusive Quick Starts to help answers our client's everyday questions on Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Some of the biggest and most frequent questions are around: Where do I start? What do we need to do first? Where should we go from here? We've just bought Office 365, we've just moved to Teams, or were moving to SharePoint, what do we do first? Based on these questions, we developed a series of “quick starts” to help provide answers. Office 365 Immersion Experience Quick Start Office 365 is way more than just email. Office 365 is cloud storage, integrated voice, integrated messaging, file sharing, document collaboration, video sharing, and so much more. This quick start is perfect for anyone who is looking at Office 365 and wants to make sure that it’s the right fit for them. It is also ideal for [...]

2020-03-03T14:56:59+00:00By Megan Testani|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider|

Red Level Named to 2020 Managed Service Provider 500 by CRN

Red Level, announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company has named Red Level to its 2020 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the MSP Pioneer 250 category. This popular list identifies North American solution providers that deliver operational efficiencies, IT system improvements, and a higher rate of return on investments for their customers. These accomplished MSPs work tirelessly to guide their customers and create solutions for complex IT issues. This annual list is divided into three categories: the MSP Pioneer 250 who are focused primarily on the SMB market; the MSP Elite 150, large data center-focused on- and off-premises; and the Managed Security 100 made up of off-premises-focused, cloud-based IT security services. Red Level expanded our managed service offerings in February of 2019 through the strategic acquisition of a Grand Rapids, MI-based business and technology consulting C/D/H. Our new offerings include custom application development, business analytics, and collaboration services. It also allowed us to [...]

2020-02-18T19:33:40+00:00By Kristy Mossoian|Awards|

New Years Resolutions for Smart Business Leaders

https://youtu.be/UaSD-VIGNAY Everyone is busy getting ready for the holidays. It's crazy to think 2020 is just around the corner. And while a lot of people are talking about their same old New Year's Resolutions – lose weight, exercise more and save money – smart business owners should be thinking about their new year – and new decade tech resolutions. Is 2020 going to be a year of growth and success for your company? It can be if you make these three simple tech resolutions. Lose weight. It's time to trim down all that old on-prem hardware in your server room. Make a resolution to move to the cloud. Red Level is helping companies do more for less with cloud [...]

2019-12-20T15:58:27+00:00By Red Level|Azure, cloud usage, Collaboration, Security|

MASCO Corp. Aligns IT with the Business to Transform as a Modern Workplace

MASCO Corp. designs, manufactures and distributes branded home improvement and building products worldwide. Its industry-leading brands include Delta® and Hansgrohe® faucets, Behr® paint, and Kichler® decorative and outdoor lighting. With about 10,000 associates throughout the company, IT is challenged to stay abreast of technology to digitally transform MASCO as a modern workplace. The Situation In 2005, MASCO targeted about 10 siloed business units each functioning with a decentralized structure. There was little-to-no communication with corporate IT. At the same time, fragmentation plagued other internal departments. The concern in communications, for example, was broken intranet hubs, a lack of cohesive communications with associates causing confusion and a need for new tools to improve business services. Essentially, MASCO was in disarray requiring [...]

2019-12-05T14:26:17+00:00By Red Level|Collaboration, Collaboration Solutions|

Use Exchange Online Protection to Protect Your Business Against Online Threats

Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is a service that is hosted by Microsoft as email security for your organization it's always on filtering spam, in addition to removing malware and viruses, so you don't have to. What is Exchange Online Protection Service? Microsoft Exchange Online Protection is a cloud-based email filtering service that helps protect your business against online threats, including spam and malware. How can it be used? Exchange Online: Built-in to Office 365 email subscription Standalone Scenario: Protection for your existing on-premises email server Hybrid deployment: Protection for both on-premises and cloud mailboxes EOP provides several convenient services, and there is no software to install. It is built-in and ready to go for Office 365 subscribers. For Exchange Hybrid [...]

2019-11-12T13:49:19+00:00By Corey Spencer|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider, Security|

Identity Challenges for Today’s Organizations

As we move into a cloud-first world, identity protection is becoming more necessary and prevalent. A cloud-first world has a lot of benefits, but it also comes with its challenges. Identity Challenges for Today’s Organizations The explosion of apps on-premise and BYOD and external users outside your corporate network are coming in, and those could be customers, vendors, partners, contractors, whoever is needing access to collaborate share data. The result of that there’s been an increase in identity attacks, and for most organizations, they lack the visibility and control. Increases in identity attacks and lack of visibility and control is leaving organizations vulnerable. Some organizations have protocols in place to watch out for suspicious activity. However, organizations may not have [...]

2020-02-25T16:52:37+00:00By Justin Coffey|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider, Security|