Microsoft Archives

Scaling Up? Leverage Managed IT Services

If you’re reading this, you’re likely the go-to person for all things tech in your small or medium-sized business. As the steward of your company's IT infrastructure, you understand better than anyone that keeping up with rapidly changing technology can be challenging. You also know that as your business grows, the need for a robust, reliable, and scalable IT infrastructure grows with it. Balancing day-to-day IT management with strategic initiatives becomes increasingly tricky, and let’s be honest, your time could be better spent on strategic growth rather than troubleshooting a network outage. That's where Managed IT Services come in. And no, this isn't just another fad or buzzword. Managed IT Services can be a game-changer for your expanding business. Let's dive into how outsourcing your IT needs can enable your business to scale smoothly and efficiently. Free Up Your Time By offloading routine IT tasks to a managed services provider, ...

Kristy Mossoian2023-09-06T15:25:14+00:00

Microsoft Licensing in the Cloud Era: What You Need to Know

Businesses across all sectors are leveraging the powerful capabilities of cloud services to transform their operations and stay ahead. Microsoft offers many robust solutions that require an understanding of their licensing models. It's imperative to familiarize yourself with the intricacies of Microsoft's cloud licensing to maximize your business' potential. A Shift to Cloud Licensing In the traditional on-premise model, Microsoft software licenses were typically bought outright and hosted on your own servers. However, the cloud model works quite differently. In the cloud era, Microsoft has moved towards a subscription-based model for most of its products. This shift means that you're essentially leasing the software. This option allows you to scale up or down based on your needs. A cloud license gives you access to Microsoft’s cloud services like Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics 365, among others. Microsoft 365 Licensing One of the essential Microsoft cloud offerings is Microsoft 365, an ...

Kristy Mossoian2023-08-22T13:49:53+00:00

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, PowerPoint, and OneNote. No restrictions for # of users. Get started for free Technical documentation Microsoft Teams for Free (Individuals and IT roll-out – in Office 365 A1 above): Provides unlimited chat, built-in ...

Microsoft2023-02-16T16:01:23+00:00

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 leverage the tools you already own to do more with less. We listen to what the needs of the business are. We walk through your business challenges one-by-one that way, we can see a clearer vision of ...

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

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 Microsoft Exclusive Quick Starts to help provide answers. Microsoft 365 Immersion Experience Quick Start Office 365 is way more than just email. Microsoft 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 companies that have just deployed Office 365, and want to ensure they are using it to the fullest. Office 365 Power Up Quick Start Dig into all the different layers of Office ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:24+00:00

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 and Standalone environments, all that is needed is to point your MX records (records that allow the internet to know how to reach you by email) to exchange online protection ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:25+00:00

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 the time to go and proactively review every log. The lack of visibility and control has been a big struggle we have seen for businesses of all sizes. Evolving data ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:25+00:00

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 CEO of Red Level. “Our annual Modern Workplace Summit tackles the necessary efficiencies everyone needs to smoothly transition as a digital workforce.” Power Summit for IT and Business Leaders Alike ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:25+00:00

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 account, so I knew it was a spoofing attempt. Here are a couple of examples of what you might see when someone has sent you a spoofed message: The display ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:26+00:00

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 and the overall look of your page. For the standard header, you have the logo, site title, and navigation. With the new branding feature, you now have the option to ...

Red Level2023-02-16T16:01:26+00:00