LEVEL UP: NEWS & VIEWS FROM RED LEVEL

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 [...]

2019-10-28T18:48:36+00:00By Justin Coffey|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider, Security|

Modern Workplace Summit Delivers Business Insight to Michigan Companies

The modern workplace is coming into its own as more and more companies jump on board with advancements in technology and tools that digitally enable the workforce. Where the conference room used to be the meeting hub, now digital collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams effectively lead virtual “in-person” meetings. Where note pads, folios, and pens dotted tables in boardrooms, now e-pads and screens replace paper with Microsoft OneNote as the preferred mode of notetaking. Red Level, along with Microsoft, recently hosted the Modern Workplace Summit to help focus Michigan businesses on their evolution to the modern workplace. “Continual change is the new normal. New systems and practices sweep away old ones with almost predictable regularity,” said David King, President and [...]

2019-10-24T13:14:22+00:00By Red Level|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider, Office 365|

Protect Against Spoofing

Office 365 Exchange Online is a robust email platform, but it’s still vulnerable to cyber-attacks. One such attack is spoofing. Spoofing is when somebody with malicious intent sends an email to trick you into thinking that the email is coming from someone you know within your organization or someone you receive emails from regularly. For example, I received one last week from someone that appeared to be from Amazon for Business the email was telling me to reset my password to click to verify and asking me to put in my credentials. It looked very similar to an Amazon email. It had the Amazon logo, and the form was professionally done. However, I do not have an Amazon for Business [...]

2019-10-22T17:08:24+00:00By Dean Bostedor|Microsoft, Microsoft Partner, Microsoft Solution Provider, Office 365, Security|

SharePoint Modern Gets a Facelift With Branding Features

SharePoint Modern gets a facelift with new branding features. Have you noticed? Modern SharePoint got a facelift with new branding features that you can now customize. There are four new branding features: themes, headers, navigation, and footer. Let’s take a quick tour. Note: To change and customize your page, you will find the four features under the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner. Themes - You can pick from predefined color themes in SharePoint Modern. The color schemes have been designed for better readability. In addition to the predefined color themes, you can add and customize the supplementary color themes to enhance the color contrast based on your preferences. Header - You now have the option to change the header [...]

2019-10-01T14:37:12+00:00By Ryan Charnock|Microsoft|

Developing and Deploying SharePoint Framework on a Mac

Developing in SharePoint Framework (SPFx) or any Microsoft technology on Mac is new to .Net Core and highlights Microsoft’s shift to becoming open source. The value of developing SPFx on a Mac? You don’t need to a setup windows machine or virtual desktop to be able to build, compile, and deploy SharePoint Framework. Microsoft’s shift to being Mac and Linux friendly opens the field for developers to use their preferred system and still produce Microsoft based products. Development of SPFx on a Mac is simple, and the basic setup is straight forward. You’ll first need to have Node Package Manager installed, as that is the tool we use to pull from the Microsoft repositories to get the generator. The generator [...]

2019-09-27T15:03:04+00:00By Red Level|Microsoft|

Excel Automation Add-In

Today we are going to cover Excel Automation Add-In which allows you to set your own User Defined Functions. Now, before we jump in, I had a desire to write functions using C#. And I wanted them to be deployable, so not just linked to an excel macro worksheet. With those two requirements, there are a few ways to write Excel Add-Ins which allow User Defined Functions (UDF’s). There are COM add-ins, Automation Add-ins, and XLL Add-ins. For the sake of not using a library to build the XLL Add-In, I was sitting between using a COM Add-In or an Automation Add-In. When researching, I discovered Automation Add-Ins are simpler to set up initially, and also are extensible to the [...]

2019-09-24T12:53:53+00:00By Red Level|Microsoft, microsoft excel, Uncategorized|