Friday, December 19, 2014

Conference room booking using Microsoft Exchange Online

 

Meetings are an essential part of Business . In order to streamline the process of fixing a meeting , there are 2 important steps which need to be managed . The first is to find a suitable date and time when all the attendees will be available . This process can be automated using Meeting Scheduling Assistant , which is a part of Exchange Online. The second is to find which conference room is available on a particular date and time. Office 365 allows us to manage the Conference Room booking.

To know more about how you can streamline the Conference Room booking , please read the short article here:

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Conference_roombooking.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Friday, December 5, 2014

Office 365 explained in 5 minutes

 

Office 365 Cloud Services is the fastest growing Software or Service in the history of Microsoft . It is being used by Individuals, Small Businesses, Medium Businesses , Enterprises, Education, Not For Profits, Government . It is on the way to becoming the Productivity Platform of choice.

So what is Office 365 ? To answer that question , we have created a short, 5 minute video which gives an overview of Office 365 . Do watch the video and leave your comments on the same.

You can watch the video at any of the following locations :

YouTube : Office 365 explained in 5 minutes

Vimeo : Office 365 An Introduction

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Office 365 Security with Multifactor Authentication

 

A popular but incorrect misconception about Office 365 is that being a Cloud Service , it is less secure as compared to On Premise Solution. The fact is that Office 365 is more secure than the regular On Premise Solution. The data which travels between the Microsoft Server and the Client device is totally encrypted.

One way in which the inherent security of Office 365 can be enhanced is by using Multi factor authentication .

For more details on the implementation of Multi Factor Authentication in Office365, please visit : http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Multifactor_Authentication_Office365.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Office365 New Plans announced

 

In a move to achieve simplification of plans , Microsoft has announced 3 new plans effective 1st October 2014. These plans are for the SMB Customers . SMB means Small & Mid Business Customers. They replace the 2 plans for Small Business and 1 plan for Mid Business which were in existence . There is no change in the Enterprise Plans though. Have a look at the chart which compares the new plans :

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Office365PlansComparison.aspx

Some important points to be noted are:

1) The 3 new plans scale up to the maximum of 300 users. The 2 old plans for Small Business were able to scale upto 25 users only.

2) The Support is 24x 7 phone support. The previous Small Business Customers had only forum based support.

3) You can mix and match between SMB and Enterprise plans . This is a huge benefit. Earlier plans were in Silos meaning that you could not do a mix and match between Small Business and Mid market and Enterprise plans.

4) The older plan which offered only Office Pro Plus @ 720 per month . The new plan is called Business and it gives you Office Std for local installable copy of MS Office plus Office Online which is Office on a browser plus Office for Tablet plus Office for Smart phone plus One Drive for Business with 1 Terabyte Cloud Storage. Note that if you need MS Access, you ned to look at E3 or Pro Plus plan.

5) The existing Small Business Customers will see their cap of users increase to 300. And the existing Mid Business Customers will see their mailbox cost reduce from Rs. 900 to Rs. 750, the next time they renew subscription.

6) Active Directory integration available for all plans.

7) For existing Small Business and Small Business Premium and Mid Business Plan Customers , the action plan is 2 fold. Till 1st October 2015 , they should remain with their current plan. After 1st October 2015, they should upgrade to Business Essentials or Business Premium plan.

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Monday, September 22, 2014

Shared Mailbox in MS Exchange Online

 

In every Company , people change. So it always creates a disconnect between the Company and the external stake holders . Mails bounce or go unanswered. To overcome this problem, most of the Companies have a few public email id’s which never change. For example sales, info, service, etc. These are usually listed and given to Customers , vendors and other stake holders. This ensures that even if the person handling that function leaves the Company , the email id need not change.

Using MS Exchange , which is part of Office365, the Cloud Productivity Platform , you can create the Public email id by using “Shared Mailbox” . To know more about the same , visit ,

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Sharedmailbox.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Friday, September 5, 2014

MS Exchange Online Plan Comparison

 

MS Exchange is the World’s Best Email system. And as a part of Office365, the Cloud Productivity Platform , it is now within the reach of everyone, from a single person firm to an Enterprise with Hundreds of Thousands of users.

There are 3 variants of Exchange Online available for subscription namely  Exchange P1, Exchange P2 and Exchange Kiosk. In order that users can make an informed decision on which plan is best suited for them , let me share with you a resource where you will get a table comparing the 3 plans of Exchange Online.

To know the differences between the 3 Exchange Online plans available in Office365, visit

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/ExchangeOnlineComparision.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Mobile Device Management in Office365

 

There is a virtual explosion of Mobile devices at the Workplace. Almost everyone at work now uses his Mobile device for tasks related to work. While this has led to an increase in productivity , the downside is that the Mobile device has now become the single biggest source of leakage of Corporate Data . This is mainly due to the fact that the Corporate IT has no means to manage the User Mobile. Or if there are some 3rd party tools, they are so expensive and complicated to use that the IT does not have the resources to learn and implement the same.

Enter Office365 !

Exchange Online, which is a part of Office365 , the Cloud based Productivity Platform from Microsoft , has extensive inbuilt features which can assist the Corporate IT in managing the Mobile Devices.

To know more about how you can use Office365 for Mobile  Device management ,  visit   

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/MobileDeviceManagementwithOffice365.aspx

 

with warm regards

 Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Increase Collaboration with Calendar Sharing

 

We all use Calendar in our phones and the PC. Using Office365 , you can sync your Calendar across all your devices . But today I want to discuss a nifty feature available in Office365 by which you can share your Calendar with your Colleagues. This opens up terrific opportunities to collaborate with others.

To know more about Calendar sharing , visit

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/CalendarSharinginMSExchange.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Windows Server 2012 editions

 

Most of us are familiar with Windows Server . It is a de facto standard and is widely used as a File Server , Print Server, Application Server . Now Microsoft has released the Windows Server 2012 which does everything that was done by the earlier editions. In addition, it has great integration with Cloud . In fact it is a foundation over which Companies can build their Cloud.

The Windows Server 2012 has major differences as compared to Server 2008 R2 when it comes to packaging . To know what are the different editions of Windows Server 2012 and to find which version is most suitable for you, visit :

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/WindowsServer.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Friday, July 4, 2014

Email management : Flagging Email for followup

 

Managing Emails is a priority for most of us. Too often, we get an important email which we intend to act on later. However, due to work pressure, such mails get buried under the new mails.

There are various strategies one can use to manage the Emails. One of gems which many are unaware of, is called “Flagging for Follow up“.

To understand how to use this feature to manage your Emails , visit

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/FlagEmailforfollowup.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Scheduling a meeting with MS Exchange

 

 

Meetings are a lifeline of any Organization. However, the process of fixing a meeting is extremely tedious. So if a person wishes to initiate a meeting, the process of identifying a time slot where all attendees are available, is extremely time consuming and usually involves making multiple phone calls and lot of emails going back and forth.

Using MS Exchange, a part of Office365, the complete process of scheduling a meeting can be streamlined, thus saving lot of time.

Savings by using Common Address Book for a Company

Using the Meeting Scheduler feature of MS Exchange Online , the organizer is able to save at least 1 hour per meeting considering average meeting size of 5 people. Now if we calculate average of 10 meetings in a month, we are talking of savings of at least 10 hours . If the average cost of Rs. 500/= per hour is taken , it means that direct savings of at least Rs. 5000/= per month . That is quite a decent amount !

To understand how easy it is to schedule a meeting using MS Exchange , visit

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/SchedulingMeeting.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Using Common Email Address Book in Office365

 

In my blog dated December 11, 2013, I had discussed about how you can share an Address Book in a Company using a combination of SharePoint and Outlook . Today I will discuss another way in which you can share one Common Address Book within a Company using MS Exchange and MS Outlook. The feature of MS Exchange which allows you to share a common Address Book is called as Public Folder of MS Exchange .

Savings by using Common Address Book for a Company

So if we assume that an average person takes about 5 minutes to fill up an Outlook address contact , then for 300 contacts and 100 people Company, the time savings are:

5 x 300 x 100 = 1,50,000 minutes = 2500 hours

So at average cost to Company per hour per person being about Rs. 200, this translates to a saving of Rs. 5,00,000. This is not a small saving by any measure.

Please do note that you cannot setup Shared Contacts on a Mobile . The only setup a Mobile allows is where you use the default address book . But on a PC or laptop, it works like a dream.

To understand how you can setup Company Address Book, which is called “Shared Contacts”, visit http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/SharedContactsusingMSExchange.aspx

If you wish to know more about the other benefits of Email Solution , read the details at :

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Email.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

OneDrive for Business now with One Terabyte Cloud Storage

 

Sometime back, I had blogged about OneDrive for Business . Recently Microsoft has announced that it will be significantly enhancing the service:

1) Users will get 1 Terabyte of Cloud Storage

2) OneDrive for Business will also be available as a standalone service @ Rs. 150/= per month

3) All OfficePro Plus subscribers of Office365 , will soon get OneDrive for Business free with their account.

To know more about OneDrive for Business , visit

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/OneDriveForBusiness.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

MS Office on monthly Subscription Service

 

MS Office the an indispensable tool for any Computer User. About 95% of Worldwide Computer Users use MS Office. The good news is that now this wonderful software is available on monthly subscription . Not only that , the subscription model offers great advantages over the normal software purchase model:

1) You can install it on upto 5 devices of the user

2) You always get the latest edition of the software

3) You can use MS Office to edit files on your iPad.

4) You can use Office Mobile on your iPhone, Android and Windows Phone

To know more about this great offering from Microsoft , visit the following link : http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/MSOfficeasService.aspx

To watch the video on MS Office Licensing , visit http://youtu.be/13Kew5EKbzA

To know the various components of Office Pro Plus, visit

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/MSOffice.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Email Compliance and Security

 

Email is the preferred mode of communication in Business. Unfortunately, it is also a preferred mode of Data loss. Businesses large and small know that they cannot survive without Email. But at the same time they are powerless against Data loss due to Email.

So can we do nothing about Email Compliance and Security and just hope for the best ? Not really ! You can have a very high degree of Security and Compliance in an Email Solution. To know more about the same , read the details at the following link :

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/EmailComplianceandSecuritySolution.aspx

If you wish to know more about the other benefits of Email Solution , read the details at :

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Email.aspx

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

SharePoint Team Sites

 

SharePoint Technologies,which is a part of Office365  Cloud Services ,  is one of the best Technologies for Collaboration to come out of the Microsoft Stable. While it has many components which aid in Collaboration, one component which really stands out is Team Site.

So what really is a Team Site?

Think of Team Site as a Digital Enclosure with restricted entry. It is a virtual space in which Team Members can collaborate securely. In order to understand the different scenarios under which you can use Team Sites in your Company , large or Small, read the details at the following link : http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/TeamSite.aspx

If you wish to understand how you can use SharePoint in your Company , have a look at the video which appears on the link below:

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Collaboration.aspx

You can also watch the video on our YouTube channel at :

http://youtu.be/EzzYGK5DRiM

So reap the benefits of Team Collaboration by implementing Team Sites . Now !

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Online Email Archiving in Office365

 

If you are a user of Email, chances are that you are aware of the concept of archiving . What it really means is that in order to ensure that our mailbox remains within the specified limit , we remove the mails from our mailbox and store the same as a backup usually in the form of a .PST file . In many cases , this process is automated whereby a user specifies that any mail beyond , say, 6 months should be archived and the PST file is then stored on his PC or on the Server .

In Exchange Online , which is a part of Cloud Service Office365 , you get online Archive mailbox as a part of your Office365 Plan . This has many advantages over the traditional method. To know more about the same, read the details at http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Archiving.aspx

Let me know if you have any questions on the same. I would be more than happy to answer them.

So get going and implement Office365 Online Archiving in your Company ! Now !

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

What is SharePoint

 

SharePoint Technologies, is one of the best Technologies for Collaboration to come out of the Microsoft Stable. However , many people are quite confused about the capabilities of the same. It means different things to different people. And Microsoft has not made it easier for people to understand SharePoint .

In order to help people understand SharePoint , I have created a short 5 minute video which explains what is SharePoint . It gives a broad overview of SharePoint . So once you have seen the video, you will be clear on the capabilities of SharePoint . And then you can focus on that aspect of SharePoint which is most appealing to you.

Have a look at the video which appears on the link below:

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Collaboration.aspx

You can also watch the video on our YouTube channel at :

http://youtu.be/EzzYGK5DRiM

Let me know if there are any questions on the same after you have seen the video .

So get going and implement SharePoint and reap the benefits of Collaboration.! Now !

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Office365 plans compared and decoded

 

Office365 , the Cloud based Business Productivity Service from Microsoft is getting more and more subscribers with every passing day.

Since one size does not fit all and the needs of different users is bound to be different , Microsoft has introduced a variety of plans . This has caused some confusion among the users who are not sure as to which plan is most suitable for them .

No worries ! I have tried to simplify the complex plans in a manner which will help you understand the various options . Have a look at the various plans and features at the link given below:

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Office365PlansComparison.aspx

I would also suggest that you have a look at the link given below which will help you in understanding of the plans and give you a quick overview:

http://www.techgyan.com/Pages/Office365Plans.aspx

I hope that you would have a much clearer picture of the Office365 plans once you have reviewed the information. If you still have questions , feel free to ask .

So get going and implement Office365 in your Company ! Now !

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Managing Team Tasks in Office365

 

Teams are a reality for every Company , Large or Small. These Teams usually have a Team Leader whose job it is to ensure that Team members work in unison and complete the Team tasks .

In order to effectively manage the Team Tasks , the Team leader can make use of the Team tasks which is available in SharePoint , a part of Office365 . Let me show you how we make use of Team Tasks in our Company TechGyan.

Given below is the snapshot of our Team site “Admin “ . You can see various tasks that are created along with the name of the person to whom they are assigned ; status; priority; due date; % complete.

sharepointtasks01

These tasks can be easily added and updated on SharePoint itself. For example, given below is the snapshot of one of the Tasks which has description of the Task . And being an update on SharePoint , you can see that it has various bells and whistles like Description , Workflow, Shared with, etc.

sharepointtasks02

 

Alerts can also be set so that as soon as task is created , an alert can go to the person assigned the task. You can have various alerts configured as can be seen in the following snapshot below:

sharepointtasks03

By itself, the above system is very efficient in managing the tasks between the Team members thereby improving the efficiency of the Team . But the functionality can be taken to the next level by integrating the Team tasks with the Outlook of the User . In the screenshot below , the Admin Tasks have been integrated with the local outlook on my PC :

sharepointtasks04

 

In the above snapshot , the Admin Task list of SharePoint has been synced with my local Outlook . It appears to me as a regular Task item of Outlook. What that means to me is that I allocate tasks using Outlook without having the need to go to the SharePoint. However , in case I wish to allocate a task while I am on the rod, I can do that by going to SharePoint and updating the Task. This will then sync up with my outlook .

What this means

By implementing the Team tasks in SharePoint and then integrating the same with MS Outlook, we have created a very effective Platform within our Company which allows us to share and manage Team Tasks without bothering about the location of the Team members. This has considerably added to our productivity and mobility because ultimately Work = series of tasks . So if we can streamline Team Tasks , it means we have streamlined work . How’s that for Productivity !

So get going and implement Office365 based Team Tasks in your Company ! Now !

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Benefits of Alias in Office365

 

There is a very useful feature available in Exchange Online . Its called alias. Today I will discuss the benefits of using alias in a Business. I shall show you how we use Alias within our Company TechGyan.

We have created a few aliases as follows:

Helpdesk : This is for existing Customers. They can send a mail to this alias if they wish to record a support call; they have some queries in billing ; they need any kind of information. In short , if an existing Customer needs to communicate with us , there is only one email id he should remember.

Sales : If a new Customer wants some information on our products or service or if we have to send a proposal , then this alias is used.

Services : If the Customer is discussing any issue with the Services Team

Infoline : General information

Officeadmin : Communication with Vendors

Advantage of alias :

In every Company , people change or leave . So it always creates a disconnect between the Company and the external stake holders . Mails bounce or go unanswered. To overcome this problem, we have created the above aliases in Exchange Online. They are also called as Distribution Lists . So if an existing Customer sends a mail to Helpdesk , there is a Distribution List linked to this alias by which , any email to Help Desk will get auto forwarded to the people in Distribution list . If any person in the list changes , we have to just remove old name and add new name . The alias name remains unaffected.

alias01

The above screen shot shows the general information about the alias Helpdesk

Other Features of Alias in Exchange Online:

1) Membership

alias02

The above screen shows the list of people who are members of this alias. Here you can add or remove people as per your requirement .

2) Membership approval

alias03

As shown above, various options are available. Group can be open or closed. Members can join it by themselves or only owners can add them.

3) Delivery management

alias04

You can create alias such that only senders inside the organization can send the mail . Or , as in our case for Helpdesk , you can specify that Senders from inside and outside the organization can send the mail

4) Message approval

alias05

Any messages sent to this alias could be moderated before being delivered. In our case, we have not kept any moderator as we want any Customer to contact our Helpdesk without restriction.

5) Group delegation

alias06

By creating Group delegation, a group member can send outgoing mail also as an alias

So in the above case , we have given kkalani and bnaik the required group delegation. What happens with that can be seen in the next screen shot:

alias08

In the above image, you can see that Kavita is sending mail from her outlook. But the outgoing mail has mail id of helpdesk@techgyan.com .

As you can understand, the alias feature in Exchange Online is very powerful and can be customized with various options. And the best part is that it is FREE . Which means , you can create as many aliases as you wish to and there will be no charges for the same.

So get going and implement Office365 aliases in your Company ! Now !

with warm regards

Suresh Ramani

www.TechGyan.com

Blog: www.CloudChangesEverything.com

Microsoft MVP 2009
Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year 2011 & 2007