Collaboration Solutions Archives

2023’s Top New Microsoft Teams Features

Microsoft Teams continues to lead the way with its innovative features. The October 2023 update introduces a suite of enhancements designed to streamline workflow, improve efficiency, and foster better connectivity. Let’s delve into these groundbreaking updates! 1. New Microsoft Teams App Microsoft has reimagined the Teams app, focusing on performance, reliability, security, and IT management. This overhaul has resulted in a platform that’s faster, smarter, and more user-friendly, ensuring a seamless experience across various tasks. 2. Meet App The Meet app is a centralized hub for all your meeting-related activities. It simplifies the preparation process and makes catching up on past meetings a breeze, boosting overall efficiency. 3. Live Translated Transcript Breaking language barriers, the live translated transcript feature supports over 30 languages. Available in Teams Premium, it ensures inclusivity and accessibility in global meetings. 4. Collaborative Notes in Teams Mobile This feature transforms the way meeting notes are taken ...

Kristy Mossoian2023-12-08T16:18:02+00:00

What is IT Change Management?

What is IT Change Management? Definition: Change management is a process for controlling the lifecycle of changes while minimizing disruption to an organization’s employees and IT services. Things do fall apart. Printers jam, Wifi goes down, laptops die, and networks lag. That’s why we hire IT consultants. Repair and maintenance come with a cost, not the cost of hiring an IT vendor, but rather the cost of downtime, work disruption, and getting employee acceptance and buy-in. When not carefully planned out, repairs and even standard upgrades can often cost more in lost productivity than the cost of repairs. Change management focuses not only on maintenance and repair but on how a company and its employees are affected when changes take place. Change is hard on people, especially when it means learning a new process or when it affects someone’s job in unexpected ways. There are multiple methods on how ...

Red Level2023-03-20T18:56:14+00:00

5 Ways to Leverage Technology to Surpass Your Competition

Looking for a leg up on your competitors? Making sure you have the right tech can set you on the fast track to success. Technology is no longer just for tech companies. Any organization can benefit from adopting technology to run operations – boosting productivity and skillfully leveraging data analytics. Here are 5 ways technology can help you gain a competitive advantage - Boost Productivity Investing in technology will provide your employees with the tools they need to complete their tasks swiftly and effectively. Use technology to improve internal communications and help employees stay organized as they manage multiple tasks at once. You can also use tech-based tools to keep projects in sync or track employee time to understand where to automate or speed up processes. You will pull ahead of the competition as your team produces higher-quality work in less time. Automate Processes Automating business processes will increase ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:17+00:00

Modern Workplace Summit – Digital Transformation for Modern Workplace Evolution

At this year's Modern Workplace Summit business leaders discussed real-life scenarios where their organizations are achieving their overall business strategy and positively impacting their ability to achieve business goals when innovation and timing were crucial. Red Level invited three Michigan-based national and multi-national corporations to share their digital transformation experiences during the opening panel. Our morning panelists discussed Digital Transformation, how the pandemic changed everything from IT roadmaps to getting into the cloud as quickly as possible, and tech solutions that worked for three very different companies with unique IT challenges. VIEW THE MODERN WORKPLACE SUMMIT HERE Real-World Case Studies of Modern Workplace Evolution: Keynote Panel Discussion During the panel discussion, several elements of Digital Transformation recurred throughout the morning: being proactive and nimble, understanding that your technologies may not mirror your customers’, security, making do with reduced IT staff, and getting internal buy-in. With Moderator David King, ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:18+00:00

How to Reduce Background Noise in Teams Meetings

How to reduce background noise in Teams meetings Microsoft announced that you now have the ability to remove unwelcome background noise during calls and meetings with a new AI-based noise suppression option in Microsoft Teams. Whether it's shuffling papers, slamming doors, or barking dogs teams offers three levels of noise suppression to help keep distractions at a minimum. You can enable this new feature by adjusting your device settings before your call or meeting and selecting "High" in the "Noise suppression" drop-down. Note: This setting is currently available only in the Teams Windows desktop app. From the main Teams window Select your profile picture at the top right of Teams and then select Settings. Select Devices on the left and then, under Noise suppression, select an option. • Auto (default) The Teams app decides on the best level of noise suppression based on local noise.• High For this option, your computer's processor must support Advanced Vector Extensions ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:21+00:00

5 Long-Term Tech Changes Set in Motion This Year

Another year, another technology roundup. However, this list, much like the past few months, is anything but ordinary. We’ve all had to work against the clock to develop new processes and protocols to keep our companies on track, even as the virus shut down offices and halted business travel. The disruptions have been numerous, but so have the technology solutions. This recap of 2020’s fastest-changing technology offers a look at how we’ve stayed nimble and productive this past year. Remote collaboration tools thrived Working from home can make collaborating and maintaining company culture challenging. Thankfully, remote work tools have stepped up to that challenge, creating more efficient and spontaneous work environments in the process. These WFH collaboration tools empower employees to go beyond communication alone, helping them make vital connections to one another and their work. Some of the more notable collaboration solutions include: Editing documents or presentations in real-time using the cloud. ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:21+00:00

Work From Home Readiness Checklist

Our current reality has created a big push for people to work from home. There are many applications and services that give organizations the ability to have their employees work remotely. The Work From Home Readiness Checklist consists of three main pillars that you want to be sure you cover when implementing a work from environment: hosted items, access tools, and policies. Hosted Items Software-as-a-service (SaaS) SaaS is any software or application that is hosted on the Internet and is accessible by users either from an organizational device (laptop, phone, tablet) or a personal device. Systems like payrolls services, ERPs, Office 365 fall into this category. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) IaaS is a managed computing infrastructure that is offered on-demand, meaning computing can be quickly scaled up and down. Azure, Mi-CLOUD, and AWS are examples of this and include the application, the data, and the computing needed. SharePoint Online SharePoint can be ...

Edward Aube2023-02-16T16:01:22+00:00

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 of you working from home on Yammer. Your Organization: Share information remotely with live and recorded messages Have daily briefings that you can share a video or a recorded message. ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:23+00:00

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 an infrastructure upgrade to stabilize the company’s technology stack. Specifically, IT was challenged to: Upgrade old hardware Digitize the backend, and migrate from SharePoint 2003 and old Microsoft Access databases ...

Red Level2024-02-29T18:57:09+00:00