As we become more technologically advanced, the need for physical interaction is diminishing. More often than not, today’s young managers prefer to meet using technology. Microsoft has caught onto this and has integrated some innovative online meeting tools into their small business software, Office 365.

If you use Office 365 in your company, you can have online meetings through Microsoft’s messaging tool, Lync. Here’s how to start a meeting, and some features that make face-to-face meetings unnecessary.

How to start a meeting In Outlook’s calendar, schedule a meeting and invite the participants. When it’s time for the meeting, simply log into Lync, go to your calendar and select the meeting. You’ll have the option to Join online meeting, click it and the meeting will start. If a colleague is online and you would like them to join the meeting, click on their name and drag them over to the meeting window.

Features you can use during the meeting There are a number of useful things you can do in the meeting including:

• Video calls. If you and the attendees have webcams, you can turn the meeting into a video call by pressing the webcam button beside the attendees’ names.
• Share and share alike. Press Share (beside video) in the meeting window to get a dropdown menu with a number of things you can share with the participants. Say you are going to do a demonstration on your screen, you can share it with the attendees by selecting Main Monitor. You can also share presentations or programs.
• Change the presenter. If an employee would like to show something from their screen, or is going to present something, you can give them presenter status by right clicking on their name and selecting Make a Presenter.
• No interruptions. If one person is presenting, and another has a question, they don’t have to stop the presentation to ask a question, they can simply select IM and type the question. All participants will see it, and the presenter can answer the question when they are finished.

If you’re looking for an alternative to physical meetings, Office 365 has a great set of products that will allow you to do just that. To learn more about Office 365 or any of Microsoft’s other products please contact us, we’re ready to assist you.

Businesses have been using Microsoft Office for years and many users, if polled, would count themselves as experts. Users in their numbers have already adopted Microsoft’s cloud offering, Office 365, as their main office productivity suite. The same features from previous versions are included, not forgetting the option to include electronic business cards in your emails.

Here’s how to create and share an electronic business card:

Create an Electronic Business Card

1. Open Outlook and select Contacts followed by Home. Click on New Contact.
2. When the Contact window opens, press Business Card and the Edit Business Card window will open.
3. You will be able to enter contact information into the relevant areas under the Fields box.
4. If you want to add an image or change the layout of the business card, press the Layout button located in the right side of the screen.
5. When you have entered the information, press Ok and the business card will be saved as a .vcf file which is readable by most email clients.

Add an Electronic Business Card to an Email If you have saved a contact’s information as a business card, you can easily attach the card to an email.

1. In a message select the Contacts pane and search for the business card you would like to attach. When you find it, click it.
2. Select the Home tab, followed by Forward Contact. A drop-down menu will open, select As a Business Card.
3. You will see the business card as an attachment in the email.

Add a Business Card as a Signature You can add a business card to your signature in any email.

1. When you create an email message click Signature and select Add signature.
2. Select the signature you would like to use, if you have one. If not, press anywhere in the white space below Edit signature.
3. Click Business Card beside the paragraph alignment buttons in the Edit signature field.
4. Select the contact name you use and press Ok. Your contact information will show up at the bottom of the email as a downloadable .vcf file.

If you’re a user of Office 365 and would like to learn more, or would like more information on Office 365 or other products, please give us a call.

There are many tools businesses use during their day-to-day operations, but only a few are used by businesses across all industries. One that will be familiar to all is the office suite; comprised of a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and an email client. The most popular being Microsoft Office, which Microsoft has recently moved to the cloud.

Microsoft’s cloud based office suite for businesses is called Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote - and Microsoft Server products e.g., Lync 2010 and SharePoint Server. All programs are accessed via a Web browser, offering users the ability to access the programs from the office, home or anywhere in between.

On March 14, 2012 Microsoft held a press conference announcing that the price of Office 365 subscriptions will be reduced by up to 20%. This decrease will apply to all new and renewing direct customers.

The price cut is a great advantage to many potential customers as it makes Office 365 more competitive with other cloud based office solutions such as Google Apps. This is also beneficial as many businesses already use the desktop versions of Microsoft Office. If they switch to Office 365, employees will be comfortable with the cloud version, as the software is exactly the same as the desktop version.

It’s the perfect time to look into Office 365 and see what it can bring to your organization. If you’d like to learn more about Microsoft Office 365 or other products from Microsoft, we are your go-to experts and will be more than happy to help.

A common trend among new software is in giving users the ability to personalize certain areas. This could be something as simple as adding your picture or changing the layout. Many programs that have traditionally been utility in nature, such as office suites, are starting to offer ways for users to customize. Microsoft Office 365 is one of those such programs offering these features.

Microsoft Office 365 is first and foremost a suite of familiar office software for businesses to use in their day-to-day operations. But just because this software is instantly recognizable as a Microsoft product, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make some small changes to personalize your computing workspace. Here are a few ways you can do just that:

Set Your Profile Picture You can set a profile picture which will show up on any window or application that has the ability to show your image - e.g., Microsoft Lync. To set your picture:

1. Log into Office 365 and go to the Home page.
2. Click the My Profile header. It’s located in the top right hand side of the screen, underneath your name.
3. Click Change Photo.
4. Choose your photo by selecting Browse. It’s recommended that your picture be under 100kb in size, you’ll get an error message telling you if it is any larger. When you have selected your picture, press Save.

Add a Signature to Your Emails Many business emails include a signature at the bottom, a way to make each email seem a little more personal, or provide more information including contact details and a potential message about an upcoming promotion. To set your signature:

1. Navigate to the Outlook page, click on Options. It’s located in the top right hand side of the screen, underneath your name.
2. Click See all options from the drop-down menu that opens.
3. Select My Account, followed by Settings which is located in the left hand menu.
4. Under the Mail Tab, you will have an option to edit your signature. If you want Outlook to automatically place your signature on every outgoing email, click the radio button below the signature that says Automatically include my signature on messages I send.

If you don’t choose to have Outlook automatically add your signature, you can add the signature in your email by selecting the Messages Tab in each new email, and clicking the little arrow below Signature. A list of created signatures will be shown, select the one you wish to use.

Add Your Picture or Logo to Your SharePoint Site If your company uses SharePoint, you can add a logo or picture to enhance what is a relatively plain environment.

1. First, you need to create an image. You can use almost any picture, just ensure you can legally use it. Get creative, this is your space!
2. When you have the image you want to use, open SharePoint, click Site Actions and select More Options.
3. Select Picture Library, and in the window that opens, select a name for a new library, and press Create.
4. Your new Library should be on the left side of the screen. Click to open it and select Upload.
5. When your picture shows up in the library, select it twice, so it’s in its own window. Copy the web address from the top of the page.
6. Under Site Actions select Site Settings followed by Look and Feel.
7. Beside Logo URL and description paste the URL you just copied. Click Ok and your image will show up on your SharePoint site.

With a few steps you can make Office 365 a little more personal. Just be sure that you can legally use the images you select. If you would like to learn more about Microsoft Office 365 or any other Microsoft products, give us a call.

Technology and software: two things many business owners and managers use on a daily basis. The majority of people in business have some knowledge and comfort working with computers, but when the software they are using stops working there’s a “What do I do now?” moment. Does it have to be so frustrating?

The answer is: No, it does not have to be. Microsoft Office 365 is a good example of a suite of programs with a strong background of troubleshooting and support resource data bases. If you have a question or problem while using Microsoft Office 365, there are a number of ways you can get the problem solved.

• Troubleshooting Tool:  This tool should be the first place you look when you have questions or need support. When you go to the page you will asked four questions and presented with links to solutions based on the answers given.
• Office 365 Community: The community, run by Microsoft, provides information on all aspects of Office 365 with the majority of the information being provided by users of the various products. This community also has information on updates and commonly asked questions. It’s a good idea to check with the community to see if there are any other users who have had the same questions or issues as you.
• Office 365 Technical Blog: If you can’t find answers on the Community page, try looking at the Technical Blog. The blog is run by Microsoft engineers and is a direct link to the developers of the product you are using. Any answers to questions on this blog will often be straight from the source with the answers usually being more on the technical side with lots of explanations or update information.
• Tools and Diagnostic Wiki: This is a wiki article that covers products in the Office 365 suite. Think of this as the umbrella section that covers troubleshooting of all issues, while providing you with links and updates related to troubleshooting. You can search issues based on product plan, specific products, services, and more. If you are having a problem not covered by the other resources, chances are you will find the answer here.

With comprehensive coverage and a number of different places to go to when you have questions or a problem, you should be able to get back on track in no time. Please contact us if you would like to know more about Office 365 or any other Microsoft products.

Online meetings and calls are a good way to have meetings, conference calls, or any form of communication without the need for all participants to be in the same office or location. The only drawback to these programs is that if a meeting needs to be recorded it could be tough, or even impossible, to achieve.

Microsoft Lync Online, a service of Microsoft Office 365, has recently introduced a solution to this problem. Users can now record meetings including all related audio, visual, presentations, and more related to the meeting and or call.

Recording can be started during any meeting by clicking the more options (>>) button and selecting the red Start Recording button. Recording controls will be at the bottom of the window. Once the recording has finished, it will be saved, unless changed, to C:/Users/YOUR USER NAME/Lync Recordings.

With two clicks of a mouse, users can record valuable meetings and easily access them for later reference or revision. For more information on Microsoft Lync Online and Office 365, please contact us.

Onboarding, the process of hiring and training new employees, is a buzzword in all organizations these days. This process can be a long, drawn-out affair often leaving a bad taste in the mouths of employees. For most organizations, it’s getting the employee’s computer ready for work that takes the longest, often leaving IT staff frustrated with the time it can take to set up a computer.

Microsoft has a solution to this problem: Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 is in the cloud, and there is no need to install duplicate programs. On their first day, employees log into Microsoft Office 365 and can be working with limited delay. A big advantage to this program is that it uses software almost all employees are familiar with, reducing the need to train new employees on a new system.

For more information on Microsoft Office 365 and other products, please contact us.

As more small businesses continue to seek ways to make operations more efficient and cost effective, applications such as Office 365 continue to evolve to better meet consumer needs. With over 30 new updates to its efficient cloud-based service, Office 365 promises improved communication between users and clients within the same organization as well as compatibility with new platforms.

For many businesses nowadays, working while on the go is a necessity. This is why there is also a growing need for services and applications that allow people to work and continue to be productive even while they are mobile.

One of these services is Office 365, which is a package offering Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online. Office 365 is cloud-based, which enables people to access files and applications in a much more seamless and efficient manner. This kind of system is especially suitable for small businesses, not only because of its cost efficiency, but also its flexibility of use – which in turn helps members of smaller firms handle multiple tasks more effectively with no loss to productivity, even when they are out of the office.

Office 365 has also recently launched its first major service update, which makes it a more versatile tool for better communication and collaboration. The more than 30 new updates include support for Windows Phone 7, which allows people to access and edit their SharePoint documents from their Windows Phone 7 mobile device; new SharePoint Business Connectivity Services, which enable people within an organization to use SharePoint interface to connect to customer relationship management (CRM) or SAP software, which are common critical line-of-business applications; as well as new support for Lync for Mac, giving users the ability to use instant messaging, presence, and videoconferencing.

If applied and implemented properly, Office 365 can prove to be a very efficient tool for small businesses who want to be more cost efficient without compromising the quality of their output or their productivity. If you want to know more about how Office 365 will impact your business, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

For most small businesses using Office 365, the sender limit restriction will never be a problem. But in some situations, the restriction of 500 (1500 for Enterprise) recipients per day per account could pose a challenge. There’s an easy solution for organizations that need to send high volume emails.

While many small businesses evaluate moving their productivity applications to the cloud, it's important to understand and manage restrictions that may affect your business processes. The Sender Limit in Office 365 was set up to deter spammers from abusing Microsoft's cloud solution. A noble cause we can all support. But some organizations have legitimate reasons to send bulk emails from one account.

Distribution Groups count as one recipient By using distribution groups you can easily stay under the 500 recipient limit even when you need to send the same email to a large group. Use distribution groups or dynamic distribution groups when you send messages to large numbers of recipients. Groups are counted as a single recipient toward the Sender Limit.

For example, if you send a message to 100 recipients by adding each of those recipients on the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: fields, that counts as 100 recipients toward the recipient rate limit. But if you add those same 100 recipients to a distribution group or dynamic distribution group, and then send the same message to the group, that counts as one recipient toward the recipient rate limit.

Most organizations already use distribution groups to streamline email productivity. With Office 365, you may want to build a few more internal or external groups to manage the number of recipients for high volume email senders. A little planning can eliminate any concerns about the daily Sender Limit.

Office 365 is a cost effective solution that can fuel growth by retaining capital for your small business. We’ll be happy to sit down with you and talk about solutions that support the growth and success of your business.