Tech Bytes – Page 21 – Ulistic Projects Blog

March 13, 2019March 11, 2019

How To Create Information Gathering Forms With Microsoft Office 365

It may surprise you, but Microsoft Office 365 has a fantastic solution for creating simple quizzes, polls and surveys — and you already have access to this functionality! Microsoft Forms is relatively new, as it was only launched in June 2016, but this lightweight web app is an excellent way to gather feedback or plan activities. You can even use the information offline, which makes it handy for reviewing information that was submitted even if you’re not physically at your desk.

How Can I Create Forms and Surveys with Office 365?

The steps required to create surveys are straightforward and don’t require a great deal of technical knowledge. You can find the full instructions on Microsoft’s support website, but this quick snapshot should be enough to get most people started. Since the forms use Microsoft Office 365, each cloud-based form or quiz saves automatically as you move through the questions.

Log into your Office 365 account by going to forms.office.com.
Select the option to create a new form or quiz.
Enter a title for your new form and the optional subtitle — be specific enough that the name will make sense out of context for others!
From here, you can add questions and include a variety of options for answers such as Choice, Text, Rating, Ranking or Date questions. You can even create Net Promoter Score questions when you click the “More ***“ option.
Complete your form or quiz by adding as many questions and types of answers as you would like.
You can even add “Other“ options that allow users to input additional text
As you’re moving through your questions, be sure to select “Required“ on any questions that you want to force users to answer before stepping to the next question. If you do not select “Required“, users will be able to advance through the survey without making a selection.

The user interface is very simple, but quite intuitive for most users. There are several thoughtful additions to the form setup that will help you stay productive and quickly create your forms. For instance, when you create a question such as “Which day of the week should we go?“ the artificial intelligence in the form will automatically suggest all seven days. You can then select which days you’d like to add as answers.

User-Friendly Options to Automate Your Form

Creating a form is pretty easy, but what about organizing the various questions? The Office 365 Form module allows you to shift the order of the questions once you’ve created the quiz or survey, smoothing the process for form creators and for users. You can also copy questions to reduce the amount of typing required during the form creation process. Need to have someone enter an answer only in numbers? No problem! You can restrict responses to only accept numbers, and even limit the range of numbers that you will accept in the form. That means less time on the back end as you’re interpreting survey or form results. You can even select a theme for your form or add some graphics to make it more fun and engaging for users.

How Can I Send My Form or Survey to Users?

Once you have finalized your form, the only thing left to do is send it out to your users! Fortunately, this is just as intuitive as the form creation process since everything is fully integrated into Microsoft Office 365′s cloud-based platform. You’ll simply choose whether to share the survey to others in your organization or if you want to open the form for those outside your Office 365 ecosystem. Once you’ve determined your sharing options, copy the link to the survey and include it an email, SMS text or instant message to your selected audience. You can even create and download QR codes or embed the form on a landing page.

How Do I get Responses to Microsoft Office 365 Forms or Surveys?

The Microsoft team has made it extremely easy to gain access to the form or survey responses. Each survey has a “Responses“ tab, where you will find everything that you need to know, including;

Number of responses
Average time it took respondents to complete the survey
The current status of the survey (Active or Inactive)

You can also download the results of the survey to Microsoft Excel or even flow the data to Microsoft’s analytics platform: Power BI.

While the Microsoft Office 365 Forms option doesn’t have quite as many options for branching as you would find in a dedicated survey tool such as SurveyMonkey or Typeform, it is a fast and intuitive way to quickly get responses from your audience. What makes it even more attractive is that it’s included for free in your Office 365 license.

March 11, 2019

How To Limit What Others See From Your Browsing History

If you’re like most people, you’ve got valid concerns about your personal privacy while browsing the internet. After all, Facebook and other organizations with a huge online presence have recently been caught dropping the ball regarding protecting the privacy of their users, so it’s only natural to wonder if your privacy is being further compromised and how it’s being done, which leads us to the primary question: What measures can the average internet user take to help ensure that the details of their browsing histories are limited to anyone who may be keeping tabs?

Fortunately, you’re not helpless in this situation. However, if you’re like many current users, you may be already using the “Do Not Track“ option in your browser and possibly gaining a false sense of security by doing so. Unfortunately, all this option really does is convey to the websites you visit that you don’t want them to log your browsing history, but it doesn’t prevent them from doing so, and many completely ignore the request. In fact, this option will probably be removed in the near future.

Fortunately, your browser offers other ways to help ensure your privacy. Following are several browser-specific tips and tools designed to help keep your history safe from the prying eyes of cyberspace.

Firefox

Firefox’s privacy controls are found under the Privacy & Security tab in the Options menu. You can block third-party cookies from there, accessing Content Blocking and selecting Private Mode. You can also choose to have your cookies automatically erased each time you end your browsing session. Firefox also allows users to customize this option on a site-by-site basis under the Settings menu, which results in pop-prompt requesting permission the first time you access individual websites. You can also specify and limit the kinds of data that you allow the browser itself to collect and store, such as technical details about Firefox’s performance and various extensions you’ve installed on your computer.

Safari

If you’re running Safari, you’ll be glad to know that the browser already does some of the work for you when it comes to protecting your privacy — disabling third-party cookies is Safari’s default mode. It also gives you the option of blocking all cookies, but users often consider that a pain because it creates a situation where auto-login doesn’t work, and they must log in every time they visit their favorite sites, including email and social media. Like Firefox, Safari has a private browsing mode that deletes cookies and history once the browser has been closed.

You can also access Safari’s Manage Website Data tab to see what websites have already logged and to delete that data if you want. Under the Preferences setting, you can click Websites to control which apps and sites you want to allow to access your computer’s microphone and camera.

Chrome

Chrome provides users with the capability to adjust their privacy settings using Content Settings under the Advanced Settings option. You’ll be able to disable cookies here, but that will leave you with the inconvenience of losing auto-login. Some people find the extra layer of protection worth the hassle, but cookies aren’t really a major culprit when it comes to privacy breaches because regular cookies can’t be seen by apps or other websites.

Third party cookies, on the other hand, are those used by advertisers to track the overall browsing activity of users for the purpose of creating targeted ad campaigns. You can easily disable these in Chrome by simply switching the “block third-party cookies“ option to ON in the Content Settings permissions. You can also limit access to your location, camera, microphone, and USB devices.

Edge

Microsoft Edge functions as a part of Windows, and its user-friendly interface makes customizing privacy controls easy. Under the Privacy & Security tab in Settings, there are options allowing users to allow all cookies, disable all cookies, and disable only third-party cookies. Edge also offers a private browsing mode similar to those of the other browsers mentioned above. Under the Advanced tab in the Settings menu, you can access Manage Permissions to control who sees your location and can access your microphone or camera.

However, the browser options given here are just a part of a bigger, more complex picture when it comes to online privacy. Google still records user activity and even saves all of your search history. You can delete this by going to your My Activity page on Google, selecting Search History from its dropdown menu, and clicking on Delete. To stop it for good, you can access Activity Controls and turn off tracking for Web & App Activity. Google also saves all of your voice searches, but you can remove them by going to their Voice & Audio page and clicking on Manage Activity.

Some users opt to use a VPN when browsing the internet because it generates proxy IP addresses, so although activity is tracked, it can’t be traced back to the user. Others install various ad blockers for even more protection, and the super-vigilant often opt for the added security of using a private browser. No matter what your privacy concerns, there’s a workable cocktail of tools and strategies that can provide you with a customized solution.

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019

What Is This Chromium Application That Just Appeared On My Computer?

Have you seen a new application — Chromium — suddenly appear on your computer? It’s likely that if you did not intentionally download it, the app is malware that should be removed immediately.

While Chromium is a legitimate product, hackers have been using it to deliver adware and potentially unwanted programs, redirect browsers to different websites and track Internet activity. The results of such unwanted software can range from minor irritation to serious privacy concerns, including identity theft.

What Is Chromium?

Chromium is an open-source browser application that was initially created by Google. Chromium is the source code for what became the Chrome browser. When Google released Chrome in 2008, it also released the Chromium code. The Chromium project is now managed by The Chromium Projects and is designed for developers to create a faster, more stable and safer form for web browsing.

Chrome itself still includes some of the Chromium source code along with proprietary features, such as automatic updates. Google owns and manages the product, which is by far the most popular browser worldwide, with 62.5 percent of the market share as of February 2019.

Why Is Chromium Popular with Hackers?

Because it’s an open-source product, Chromium is vulnerable to misuse. Browser hijackers are a type of malware that makes changes to a user’s browser settings without their knowledge or consent. Most users unintentionally download hijacking malware when clicking through online ads or when downloading or purchasing other software.

How Does Malware Chromium Work?

The malware Chromium app uses a virtual layer to push ads or redirect browsers to e-commerce websites. Other types can direct users to dangerous, malicious websites that can themselves contain infectious viruses and programs.

What’s worse is that the bad Chromium browsers track your browser activity and can grab browsing data, including personally identifying information, passwords and financial data such as credit card numbers and bank account numbers. The hackers then sell this information to third parties, who often use it illegally. This activity can mean privacy breaches, unwanted use of cards and accounts, and identity theft.

There are many different Chromium-based browser applications that are dubious, despite appearing to be legitimate. Usually, these apps claim to improve browsing speed and security and boast of having new features that other browsers lack. These claims lure users into a false sense of security and invite downloads that cause trouble. These questionable app names include BeagleBrowser, BrowserAir, Chedot, eFast, Fusion, MyBrowser, Olcinium, Qword, Torch and Tortuga, among others.

How Is Chromium Malware Installed?

Often, these rogue programs are part of the Custom or Advanced settings of an app. The most common victims of these unwanted applications are users who hastily download software and install it quickly without reviewing each step. To avoid these inadvertent downloads, it’s important to pay attention during download and installation steps. Be wary of any software that is bundled with other programs and never accept offers to install third-party programs.

How Do I Uninstall Rogue Chromium Browsers?

There are several step-by-step guides online to show how to remove the malware, do thorough scans of your computer for rogue files and registry keys, and clean and reset browsers. The steps are very specific to your operating system and browsers. Two good online guides are here and here.

Being aware of types of malware, how they infect your computer and what they do can help prevent you or your employees from the frustration, time and irritation of fake Chromium browsers.

March 11, 2019

Never Lose A Receipt Ever Again

Tired of Not Getting Reimbursed for Business Expenses? Never Lose Your Receipts Ever Again!

Maintaining receipts is a fact of life for many people, but it can be extremely frustrating. Tiny pieces of paper that have to be maintained and categorized long enough to submit your expenses for reimbursement — who has time for that?!? It’s not uncommon to lose receipts and then spend additional time struggling to rebuild them once you have to submit an expense report or turn them in to get your money back. This quick life hack will help you stay organized and keep your receipts and other items under control.

Tracking Your Spending

Even if you’re not getting reimbursed by your business for purchases, it’s a smart idea to keep track of receipts so you have an idea where your money is going on a monthly basis. Every year, there’s a wonderful day (for the government) called Tax Day. Capturing your personal and business receipts in a way that you can find them again makes it that much easier to be ready to organize your taxes and get the best possible return. Plus, you’re more likely to stay on budget if you are closely watching your expenses.

Quick Hacks for Receipts

Are you using a cloud-based storage system for your photos? If not, this might be reason enough to look into it! One of the best ways to maintain your receipts and ensure that you have easy access to them regardless of whether you’re in front of your computer is to save all of your receipts to the cloud. Quick and easy — as soon as you receive a receipt from a purchase, snap a picture! If you want to get really fancy, you could create a specific folder for all of your work-related or home-related receipts and save the images appropriately. Dropbox or Box are excellent options for cloud storage that are inexpensive yet provide cross-platform functionality so you can grab your receipts digitally and match them up to your expense report or budget.

Use Receipt Tracking Software

If you have a few extra moments to process your receipts, there is an interesting new trend in mobile apps around receipt management. Not only will the apps handle the issue of annoying pieces of paper, but they’ll also pay you for capturing your receipts! Some of these apps include:

Each app provides a slightly different take on the same concept: capture your purchase and receive money back. This next-gen way of couponing is being used by millions of individuals in the U.S. to earn back a small percentage of their total purchases.

Not every hack has to be difficult; sometimes the easiest ones are already in your hand — like your phone!

February 27, 2019

Moving Into A New Office? (Free Guide)

It doesn’t matter whether you are a 10-person team or a Fortune 500 conglomerate, relocating your office is going to take some planning and forethought. The last thing you want is to be forced to close up shop for an extended period, stalling your business due to unexpected issues.
Moving your office should signal growth to your client base; not chaos. So how can you take your business to the next level – and the next address? The key to a successful transition is preparation. You have a marketing strategy … a client care strategy … and a business building strategy … so why not a moving strategy?

Creating a Plan

It is never too early to start planning your big move. This means devising a plan for individual departments as well as the business as a whole. Remember, time is of the essence when it comes to moving an office. The faster you can get your new digs up and running, the faster your team can get back to work.
The first thing you need to do is to appoint a moving manager. This is the point man designated with coordinating the entire office relocation. This includes everything from packing up all necessary files and ordering new stationery to make sure every department has what they need to work on the go for a few days.

More than just a packing or moving expert, the relocation manager knows exactly what is necessary to get your office from point A to Point B with as little downtime as possible. Once you have a moving manager in place, it is time to begin assigning teams to handle individual aspects of the move.

Hire Professional Movers

Not every commercial moving company is equipped to handle large office relocations. Be sure to choose a company that understands the nuances of relocating a business. Remember, they will not be simply moving your desks and chairs from one place to another; they will also be responsible for securing sensitive files and making sure everything makes it to the new location safely.

Equip the IT Department Properly

One of the trickiest parts of moving an office is disconnecting and reconnecting quickly and efficiently. This can only be accomplished if your IT department has what they need to succeed. Here are some tips to create a hassle-free environment for them to work in:

Give the IT department at least three months to plan the transfer. This will include developing a step-by-step outline for the move.
Evaluate the new space well in advance of the move
Order upgraded equipment weeks before moving day to ensure everything has arrived
Coordinate all installations for several days before the actual office move
Make sure that all cabling is installed and tested prior to moving day
Move the IT department first. This will allow them to work to get the rest of the office up and running while boxes are still be brought to the new site.
Install and test all work stations prior to the first scheduled workday in the new office.

Relocating an office can be exciting, but that doesn’t mean the process is always easy, or that it will run smoothly. A lot of things can go wrong if you don’t plan properly, so be sure to follow the guidelines here to ensure that your staff isn’t stressed and your clients don’t feel abandoned during the move. When handled properly, you should be able to move the entire office and have everyone back to work within a day or two.

Moving soon? Contact {company} to arrange a complimentary consultation on how we can assist in the technology side of your office move. Call {phone} or drop us an email.

February 22, 2019

Apple Tech Tip: How To Recover A File You Forgot To Save

It happens to the best of us. You’ve invested serious time and effort into a Microsoft Office file for an upcoming presentation. You may even be moments away from finishing your work. Then it happens: your Mac goes down, hard. Maybe the power goes out, or maybe you get the dreaded “Sad Mac” screen of death.

You know it’s been next to forever since you manually saved the file. Worst case scenario, your presentation or executive meeting is just hours (or even minutes) away. What do you do?

Step One: Check the Auto-recover Pane

First things first: don’t panic. As soon as your Mac is up and running again, go ahead and open the Microsoft Office application you were using. Often, Word or Excel or whatever program you’re using can sense that it has crashed. If that’s the case, it should have saved an Auto-recover version of the document and will ask you if you want to view it when you first open the program. You might get a pop-up asking you this question, or you may see various files listed in the Auto-recover pane on the left side of the program window.

If you see an option like this, try it. Chances are you’ll get back a version of your document that’s only missing 5, maybe 10, minutes of your work. Congratulations, you’re back in business.

Step Two: Dive Deeper

If you tried step one but don’t see an Auto-recover pane and don’t receive a pop-up, there’s still one more thing to try. At this point there’s no guarantee that your work is still available, but there is still a chance. Your Office program may have saved an Auto-recover file deep in the recesses of your hard drive, but it’s having trouble telling you about it. It’s possible to manually locate the file following these steps.

Open Finder and select the Users folder.
You should see your username. Click on it.
Then click on the Library folder.
Next, select the Containers folder.
Within the Containers folder, you should see folders named com.microsoft.Word (and com.microsoft.Excel, and so on). Look for the folder with the name corresponding to the Office program that crashed on you. You’ve now located the folders where Office stores behind-the-scenes folders, so you’re almost there.
Now click on the Data folder, and within that click on the Library folder.
Within the Library folder, open Preferences, and finally, AutoRecovery.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find a file within that folder with a similar name to the one that you were working in. Now, you won’t be able to open it just by clicking on it, because it has a different file extension. Instead, right-click, choose “Open with…”, and select the Office program you need. Or rename the file, giving it the proper extension (.docx for Word, .pptx for PowerPoint, and so on).

Hopefully one of these two methods enabled you to recover your file. If not, it’s time to contact IT support. They may be able to further troubleshoot beyond the scope of this guide.

February 19, 2019February 18, 2019

How Advanced eDiscovery In Microsoft 365 Helps Manage Data

Do you have a lot of data?

Are you able to organize your data in a convenient logical way and then search for it with ease and/or with advanced search criteria so that the results are not in the hundreds but in the tens or less?

Is managing it or finding specific data at any given time proving time-consuming? Does that consumption of time eat into your budget?

If any of this is true, you may need an advanced program, something like Advanced eDiscovery that you can use via your Microsoft 365 subscription. It’s great for lawyers and it’s great for just about anyone else in any other industry who needs a better way of managing data.

Here’s how

Advanced eDiscovery helps people like you manage data.

What is Advanced eDiscovery?

First, what is Advanced eDiscovery? You may already be familiar with eDiscovery. eDiscovery is software that helps you process and collect information in a digital form or from digital sources. Examples include:

Emails
SMS
File Shares
Web pages
Social media
Other online documentation

eDiscovery allows you to search and put together information and unstructured data with relative ease. You can also search, tag, review, organize, analyze, and/or export it whenever necessary.

Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery is the next level — it fills many of the gaps left by eDiscovery and incorporates Equivio Zoom technology — Microsoft acquired Equivio in January 2015. Advanced eDiscovery, by optimizing the powerful tools provided by Equivio technology, makes managing data and gathering things like evidence much more efficient and intuitive.

What features does it offer?

The powerful features presented by Advanced eDiscovery include some of the following capabilities:

Powerful search capabilities that allow you to:
- search documents stored within Office 365 as well as information and data outside of Office 365,
- search using keywords and/or specific conditions defined by the program or added by the user,
- identify information that is redundant or duplicative,
- determine the relevance of using advanced predictive coding, and
- apply tags to in effect label certain documents under one theme.
Intuitive organizational capabilities that allow you to:
- cluster or group information from relevant topics,
- define who has access to the data or allow only certain persons to view information, and
- set up notifications.
Extensive analysis, reporting, and exporting capabilities that allow you to:
- analyze data using different criteria,
- filter information into a specific package using tags or labels that the user created, and
- generate reports that can be submitted to government agencies or other legal institutions.

How does Microsoft Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery help manage your data?

Managing data is all about the above-mentioned features. Using these features, you can prepare a case, process it, analyze information and data, determine and save what is relevant, create reports, and export information, data, and/or reports.

The following is a breakdown of steps you would typically take when using Microsoft Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery to manage a new set of data:

Step 1: Conduct a search and pair down the information by about 60%. You can use different modes and themes to narrow the search.
Step 2: Click on the Relevance tab to mark each entry as R (relevant), NR (not relevant), or Skip (for later determination).
Step 3: Decide if you should move forward by clicking on the Decide tab.
Step 4: If you want to create a package to send to another party, you click on the export tab.

Advanced eDiscovery is all about helping users assess their position, protect data and information, and respond to requests for data, information, or compliance issues, among many other uses. There’s a lot to learn about Office 365 programs. It offers a lot of tools, but you can’t build if you do not know how to use the tools. Return to this blog regularly to learn more about these tools to make your professional life more efficient and productive.

February 15, 2019

How Compliance Manager With Microsoft Office 365 Works

Companies today operate under strict regulatory conditions. Complying with those regulations can be daunting, but failure to do so has serious implications. Managing compliance, therefore, is imperative. Microsoft offers Compliance Manager, a unique cross-Microsoft-Cloud tool, that allows organizations to manage and navigate the complex terrain of regulations. Here is how Compliance Manager works to help your company comply with the law and applicable regulations and standards.

Who is Compliance Manager For?

Compliance Manager is for any company or organization that needs a comprehensive and proactive tool to assess, track, verify regulatory compliance and assign tasks related to the same. Anyone who must comply with regulations or standards like the following would benefit from this tool:

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Health Information Portability and Privacy Act (HIPAA)
International Organization for Standardization (e.g., ISO 27001 and ISO 27018)
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Essentially, the tool allows you to protect data and meet regulatory requirements via Microsoft cloud services.

What are Compliance Manager’s built-in features?

Compliance Manager features various tools to help your organization comply with regulations and standards pertinent to data protection and security. Here are three specific capabilities featured:

Assessment. The tool allows you to assess compliance from one place. Risk assessments are conducted on an ongoing basis.
Protection. Users can protect data across all devices, applications, and cloud services by using encryption, controlling access, and implementing information governance.
Response. Users can respond to regulatory requests through the incorporation of eDiscovery and auditing tools that allow you to locate relevant data for meaningful responses.

Through these features, Compliance Manager works to help you stay in and proactively manage compliance.

How does Compliance Manager Work?

Compliance Manager works by utilizing a single dashboard to see compliance stature. The dashboard provides summaries of your company’s assessments and action items. From those summaries, you can access controls and tools like exporting data to Excel.

You create assessments for the regulations and/or standards that matter to your company using Office 365, Azure, or Dynamic 365.

From these assessments, you receive actionable insights and detailed information about what Microsoft does to secure your data and help you comply with regulations.

Assessments

On the Assessments page, you are provided snapshots of your company’s compliance with specific regulations and standards — like those listed above — assessments of each.

For instance, compliance snapshots of your company will identify your company’s overall compliance with regulations like GDPR or standards associated with NIST or ISO. Each category is provided a “Compliance Score,” and the higher the score, the better your compliance stature.

On the same page, you are also provided with snapshots of assessments for each of these same categories. An Assessment Status is provided to let you know the status of the current assessment (e.g., in progress).

Under each of these snapshots, whether it is for compliance or assessment, you are additionally informed of:

The created date;
The modified date;
The number of customer-managed actions and the number of those actions that have been addressed; and
The number of Microsoft managed actions and the number of those actions that have been addressed.

Action Items

This page provides guidance on actions that could or should be taken to increase your Compliance Score. These are recommendations and are up to the company to implement.

Controls

Controls are the core of how Compliance Manager works. There are two controls: Microsoft and Customer.

Microsoft managed controls is a family of controls that align your company assessments with the standards and regulations. They are managed controls used to implement the assessment and assess compliance. Customer-managed controls, on the other hand, are controls that you as an organization manage. Here, you can implement actions recommended by Microsoft to increase your Compliance Score.

Compliance Manager is a tool to simplify compliance for organizations. It offers real solutions to a complex problem.

February 13, 2019February 13, 2019

What Is Customer Lockbox And Privileged Access Management In Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 is a suite of services that includes Customer Lockbox and Privileged Access Management. Both tools to assist customers in meeting their compliance obligations and maximizing data security and privacy. These tools are currently only available for customers with Office 365 Enterprise and Advanced Compliance SKUs.

Privileged accounts are being compromised more rapidly every day and sensitive data can be exposed in shorter and shorter periods of time. Therefore, organizations must establish multiple regulations, procedures, and compliance obligations that must be followed before access is provided by anyone. Microsoft Office 365 understands this and has built-in Privileged Access Management to meet these higher levels of security. Lockbox and Privileged Access Management provide granular task-based access control within an approval workflow so organizations can gather privileged access as well as monitor and control sensitive tasks.

Multiple Layers of Protection

Microsoft 365 Customer Lockbox and Privileged Access can assist organizations to meet their compliance obligations through a built-in set of tools offering multiple layers of protection to:

1. access their compliance posture

2. protect sensitive data

3. respond to requests

4. maintain business continuity

5. efficiently reduces costs

This is accomplished by ensuring there is a regulated process flow to handle incoming requests. Virtually all Microsoft operations are fully automated unless during very rare circumstances requiring human involvement that is necessary to troubleshoot and correct a problem. If this intervention is needed, an approval request is generated, and then the approval group is notified by email. The request can either be approved or denied and even blocked. If the request is approved, the task is processed and checked against the privileged access policy and then logged in the Office 365 Security and Compliance Center.

Customer Lockbox Controls

Customer Lockbox allows users to control how Microsoft support engineers access data and features special procedures for explicit data access authorization. This keeps your information secure while the problem is being fixed. Customer Lockbox works with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and OneDrive For Business.

There are multiple levels of approvals from the Lockbox system before access is granted, so your information remains secure. The request must be very specific and include role, data location details, the specific reason for the access and the duration of the access. There is also an expiration time on all requests, so the content access is removed after the engineer has fixed the problem. The majority of problems do not require Customer Lockbox access, but it is available and very secure. The Customer Lockbox feature can be turned off in the Admin Center.

Refer to this informational video to learn more about how Customer Lockbox And Privileged Access Management In Office 365 can help you keep your information secure.

February 12, 2019February 12, 2019

Business Insights With Visio and Power BI

Microsoft’s Visio Visual and Power BI are two extremely useful software tools that help business owners store, organize, and interpret data with easy-to-understand visual representations.

Using these tools can take your business to the next level. Still, many business owners don’t know about Visio Visual or Power BI. Moreover, many are skeptical as to why data interpretation is important at all.

Why is data interpretation so crucial to your business?

As a business owner, it is vital that you understand the “big picture” of your company’s data. Any given company will have a plethora of diverse data at any given time. This may include:

Sales records, recorded by the hour, day, week, month, and year
Sales records by location
Sales records by department
Floor plans of stores, warehouses, offices, and more
Employee information
Subscriber or client information
Inventory data
And more

Storing all of this data and never looking at it will inevitably hurt your business. Doing this almost certainly means missing the “big picture” and subsequent opportunities for growth and improvement.

How can Visio Visual and Power BI help?

Here are the biggest reasons companies don’t examine, analyze, and interpret their data more often (or at all):

1. They have too much of it.

2. It’s difficult to organize and understand.

This is where tools like Visio Visual and Power BI step in. Both tools create easy-to-see and understand visual representations of your data, with the goal of targeting what’s working and what’s not.

What is Microsoft Visio?

From flow charts and 3D graphs to network schemas and floorplans, Microsoft Visio Visual is one of the most capable pieces of software for creating and manipulating diagrams of all kinds.

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Power BI is another indispensable Microsoft tool that allows businesses to analyze their data in a variety of ways and see and share insights via the dashboard. Everything on Power BI is updated in real time and can be accessed from anywhere in the world via the cloud. This software includes a myriad of invaluable features for analyzing, fixing, and understanding data.

What can you learn from your data with Visio Visual and Power BI?

We know that Visio Visual and Power BI allow you to see your data clearly and concisely. This starts with using Visio Visual creating the necessary charts and diagrams that pertain to your industry.

From this data, the goal is to learn what’s going wrong and why, what’s going right and why, and where you need improvement. For example:

If you own a retail establishment, what’s selling and what’s not?
If you own a restaurant, what ingredients are you constantly running out of?
If you own a transportation business, why are your trucks stocked to the brim one month and empty the next?

This is largely Power BI’s job.

Power BI layers the base data organized by Visio Visual with analytic tools that share insights about how your business is doing across numerous benchmarks.

Empowered with the information and data-based insights both Microsoft Visio Visual and Power BI provide, you can make impactful changes in how you run your business. Try these tools today and see what you think for yourself!