Category: Wednesday Tech Bytes

In the past, the proposal management process has been plagued by different data sources, manual methods, and a lack of collaboration across groups, despite the rise of industrial lending. Microsoft has built a solution for the Microsoft 365 platform known as Proposal Manager. Proposal Manager has advanced features, functions, and custom apps, which permits the streamlining of the corporate lending loan origination process.

What Makes Microsoft Proposal Manager Different?

Lenders who are struggling with their loan processes wind up with missed lending opportunities, dissatisfied customers, and employees burdened by highly manual and frequentative methods. Without digitization, banking executives estimate that their staff still spends more of their time on repetitive and manual tasks.

A recent Capgemini study confirms that back-office commercial bank employees do spend about 80 percent of their time on manual and repetitive tasks. That same study also cites that by automating data-intensive and repetitive tasks, automation will provide more than 25 percent in expenditure savings. With automating, your employees would have their time freed up to tackle other revenue-generating projects.

Microsoft’s Proposal Manager is the solution that helps kick-start the transformation lenders, like you, need to complete more lending cycles, without compromising on risk assessments, and to remain disciplined in a competitive market. Built on Microsoft 365, Proposal Manager is fully customizable, so lending teams can easily create professional winning proposals, streamline and accelerate the process, and improve productivity and teamwork.

How Does Microsoft Proposal Manager Work?

Let’s assume you are a loan officer for a corporate or commercial bank. And you are using the Proposal Manager to assemble and collaborate with your deal team, and you want to create a proposal for a prospective client.

With the proposal manager, you can guarantee the deal team captures client needs, even if they are on the go. That keeps the proposal moving forward from anywhere by incorporating:

• Team members who have a deep understanding of the client and Legal and Compliance teams can still manage risk and compliance processes
• You can quickly engage people with the right expertise. You can build a detailed workflow with vital tasks for content owners. You can then schedule built-in tracking and notifications. That makes it easy to keep the proposal progress moving seamlessly. As for meeting tight deadlines; risk and compliance approval processes are simplified with the pre-built workflows checklists. You also can now link document repositories to the to-do items.

Is It Possible To Collaborate or Co-Author The Proposal Draft?

Yes. In the past, proposal manager data fragmentation made it very difficult for loan officers and their teams to be agile, accurate, and compliant. But now, they can secure final sign-offs to present the formal commitment letter, and record the client’s decision.

It is easier to collaborate and co-author the draft proposal. You would assign sections of content to the expert on the team ensuring essential tasks are completed on time and securely. They can seamlessly edit, iterate, and track proposal content across the group while providing the completeness and consistency of the documentation.

With pricing, risk, and proposal terms and conditions, the proposal drafting process harnesses disparate data through links to external sources such as market data so that the content in the document is always up to date.

Is Proposal Manager Customizable?

Yes. Microsoft’s Proposal Manager solution comes customizable. It is adaptable for your enterprise development team, so your lending team can:

• Create professional, winning proposals easily — You can save time, present professional commitment letters, and sharpen creativity, to improve credit risk management and increase win rates.
• Streamline proposal management—Simplify the corporate and commercial loan origination process. Using automated, integrated, and secure tools for document management; allowing you to direct, team collaboration and workflows. Bank managers can facilitate frequentative proposal negotiations. They can help expedite credit committee approvals, empower relationship managers on the go, and guarantee version consistency.
• Improve collaboration and teamwork—Respond to proposals collaboratively and quickly with connected, company-wide communications and collaboration tools. Keep the proposal process moving seamlessly by collaborating and sharing in real-time, while meeting tight deadlines. Lead whiteboarding sessions and proposal reviews with enterprise-class video, voice, and email.

Final Thoughts

Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 customers now have access to Microsoft Proposal Manager solution. It’s integrated across existing Microsoft 365 workloads. It helps you transform your proposal process into a secure, collaborative, agile, and client-centered process without requiring significant IT involvement for deployment.

If you are a loan officer or sales manager, you can download the Proposal Manager brochure. After you’ve downloaded the material, get with your IT support and development team in understanding more about how the solution can help you and your team. The impact Proposal Manager would have for your firm is significant.

Did you find this article informative? If you liked this one, check out our other content we think you’ll find interesting.

Google My Business is an excellent tool for establishing and tracking your company’s online presence. Included in Google My Business are tools to help you manage customer reviews. However, in order to get the most out of the review tools, you need to know (1) how to find your reviews, (2) how to encourage customers to share reviews, and (3) how to be alerted when you do receive reviews.

1. How to Find Your Reviews

In order to both see and manage your Google My Business reviews, you need to pay a visit to this site: business.google.com. Login, and once you are in, you can see your own My Business page. This allows you to, among other things, see and respond to the feedback your clients have provided through Google reviews.

You’ll find a link to Reviews on the left-hand side of the dashboard (it has a star icon beside it). This will open up a dedicated review page that allows you to write and edit constructive responses. Note that this also allows you to select one of three basic views: All, Replied (that would be, of course, reviews you have already replied to), and Haven’t Replied (which would be the reviews that you haven’t posted a reply to yet).

If you are still new to Google My Business or just don’t have very many reviews yet, you will want to start requesting reviews from your customers. With more and more people depending on the internet for reviews of everything from cell phone plans to home repair services, it is important that your company have reviews from real customers posted on Google.

2. How to Encourage Customers to Share Reviews

Trying to get great reviews can be tricky. Google My Business web pages do not offer a way to directly request a review from a customer. There is a workaround, however. To get a URL to promote to your clients, start by searching for your company from within Google maps (maps.google.com).

This reason you need to go to Google maps is simple: at the bottom of your company listing in Google maps, there is a link to post a review of your company. Once you are on your company’s map page, copy that URL. Then open up a URL shortening service such as bitly so that you can shorten that URL. With bitly, just paste in your URL and click on Shorten. You will receive a very short URL that you can copy and paste to your company’s website, emails, invoices, email signatures, business cards, and other materials. This makes it much easier for your customers to respond with feedback without having to search for your business on Google. The easier you make it for people to provide reviews, the more reviews that will begin to come in.

3. How to Be Alerted When You Do Receive Reviews

Once you are actively promoting reviews, you need to know when reviews are posted so that you can respond to them. It is important to quickly acknowledge reviews, both the good ones and the bad ones. Poor reviews especially need attention, and your company should try to make contact with the disgruntled customer and, if possible, take the discussion offline. However, you want others looking through your reviews to see that when a customer is dissatisfied, your business will reach out to fix the situation – even when the review is unfair. It is very important that a negative review does not sit out on the internet with no response.

Fortunately, there is a way to receive an alert as soon as a review is posted. To receive alerts about reviews, start by returning to the Google My Business homepage where you should still be logged in. Look toward the bottom of the right-hand side where it says Settings (there will be a gear icon next to it). Click on Settings, which will open the Email Notifications page. About halfway down, you will see an option that says Customer reviews. If you click the checkbox on the right-hand side of this option, you will receive email alerts when a customer posts a review. That is all you need to do to be alerted when a customer posts a review.

Conclusion

Your company’s reputation online is very important, and it is critical that you receive feedback in the way of reviews. Google My Business has the tools you need to manage those reviews, including tracking them, responding to them, and being alerted when they are posted online. There isn’t a direct way to request reviews from your customers, but smart use of a link in the Google Maps listing of your business, combined with a URL shortening service, can help you gather those reviews you need.

Apple iOS 12 has so many different new features available it’s almost overwhelming. From better password management options to the introduction of the Memoji, users will appreciate some of these more than others. This article will highlight some of the most interesting and useful features and improvements, starting with one everyone can agree is probably overdue: better performance and battery life.

Performance and Battery Life

With iOS 12, all iPhone models since the 5S will see significant improvements in performance – including longer battery life and speed boosts. This is due to several improvements and changes that, combined, enable your phone to last longer and run faster. You can also access much more detailed information on your battery life and performance, even comparing its current performance to what it was capable of when it was brand new.

Password Management Methods

Apple’s iOS 12 allows you to use third-party password management apps instead of, or in addition to, its own password management method (iCloud keychain). This also includes autofill support for these third-party password managers. In addition, iOS 12 will fill in any six-digit codes you receive through SMS for two-factor authentication. To better support online security and privacy, iOS 12 will remind you if you are reusing a password when setting up a new password. It can also create a very powerful password for you and store it on your iCloud keychain.

Secure Emergency Location Data

Another awesome feature in iOS 12 is that it will provide secure location data to first responders if you call 911. This feature makes use of a new Apple technology called HELO that can estimate your location based on a variety of parameters, including GPS, Wi-Fi access points, and cell towers. This will make it much easier for iPhone users to be quickly located by first responders in case of an emergency.

More Emojis, Animojis, and Memojis

For those of you who love to express yourself with emojis, good news: 70 new emojis are being added. And not only that, but Apple is working on more inclusive disability-themed emojis that will be released next year. To access all these new emojis, you’ll need to update to iOS 12.1 when it is released. Apple has also added more Animojis in iOS 12. Now you can access a T. rex, tiger, ghost, and koala, in addition to those that were already available. For those not content with Animojis, Apple has introduced Memojis. These are basically augmented reality characters that you can customize to look like you.

Better Maps

With iOS 12, the Maps app has been redesigned to provide more detail. This includes more public landmarks, more greenery, and the ability to see the layout of stores in malls. Currently, this only applies to the San Francisco Bay region, but it will be added to maps for the entire United States over the next year and a half.

Group Facetime

Group Facetime, now integrated into iMessage, will allow you to simultaneously FaceTime chat with up to 32 people. These calls are very easy to set up via the group chat window in iMessage, and are available through the iPad, iPhone, and the Mac.

Screen Time Report

Have you ever wondered exactly how much time you spend on your Apple devices? Or what apps you really use the most? Well, iOS 12 has added a weekly activity summary that provides plenty of detail. The new App Limits feature does just what it says: it will provide you notifications reminding you of when you are nearing or have reached any limits you set. And for those with children or teenagers, the Downtime feature allows you to control their usage, setting specific limits for apps or even unplug their access completely.

Greatly Improved QR Reader

iOS 12 users will have a much easier time reading QR codes. In the past, a stand-alone app was needed to read QR codes. Now, once you turn on the QR code feature in the settings for your camera, you’ll be able to read QR codes using your Camera app. iOS 12 will highlight the code for you so you will know it has been detected, and you can add a tile to more easily launch QR reader capabilities.

New Developments for Notifications

On iOS 12, you can now decide which apps will deliver silent notifications to your phone (e.g., no sounds, no vibrations), and Siri can advise you on which apps you don’t use often and thus should turn off notifications for. Notifications can also be grouped by app, topic, and even thread. You can also enact a Do Not Disturb feature that will hide your notifications until you turn it off, and you can set it up to automatically turn off when a certain event ends or at a particular time.

Conclusion

No matter how much you use Apple devices, you’ll find some features and improvements in iOS 12 that will make your user experience much more productive and fun. And remember that this was just a sampling of what is now available! There’s a lot more so be sure and check it out.

You probably use messaging for communications every day, but how secure are your messages? Messaging apps are as susceptible to hackers as any other type of electronic communication, and if you are concerned about privacy then it’s time to learn the basics about secure messaging apps.

Why You Need a Secure Messaging App

We use messaging more and more to communicate, but we don’t always realize how many eavesdroppers there may be. Those eavesdroppers may include internet service providers, government agencies, and hackers. If your messaging involves your company, it might be the target of industrial espionage. These are all good reasons to consider using a secure messaging app.

What Makes a Messaging App Secure?

We probably all remember playing around with coded messages as a kid, but never dreamed that coded messages might become important in our day-to-day communications. As it turns out, one of the key aspects of a messaging app is end-to-end encryption.

When your messages are encrypted, that means they are encoded in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for someone to eavesdrop on the information being transferred. The messages are basically scrambled, and in order to unscramble them, you must have the correct key. In the case of an end-to-end encrypted message app, only the sender and the receiver have the decryption keys.

There are messaging apps that offer encryption, but encryption is not the default setting. That means that you would have to navigate to the settings for your messaging app and turn on encryption – if it even offers that feature.

Metadata can still be an issue even with encryption. Metadata includes things like who you talk to based on your contact list, how much time you spend talking to them, your phone number, your IP address, and more. You should avoid messaging apps that collect metadata.

Believe it or not, one of the signs of a secure messaging app’s integrity is making its source code available to the public. Open source code is actually better than proprietary code because it provides experts access to the code for review. Experts who did not develop the code will be far more likely to notice vulnerabilities and bugs that could be exploited. The result is a highly robust source code and a bulletproof app.

Secure Message Apps

There are several messaging apps on the market that qualify as secure messaging apps. What follows are five of the top options that are available for Android and iOS operating systems.

Dust: If you want messages that don’t hang around, then Dust is your app! Messages disappear within 100 seconds of being read or within 24 hours – your choice. You’ll also be notified if any screenshots are taken. It includes end-to-end encryption, no permanent storage, and you can even erase your message off someone else’s phone. The major drawback of Dust is that its source code has never been released.

Signal: The Signal messaging platform uses end-to-end encryption and its source code has been released. There is an option that makes messages disappear after a certain amount of time has passed and it can be password protected. It only stores the metadata it needs to function properly on your device. As far as drawbacks go, there are virtually none associated with Signal.

Telegram: The Telegram app was banned in Russia because they refused to hand over the encryption keys. It offers end-to-end encryption through a feature called “Secret Chat” that must be turned on. It can be locked by a passcode and has a Self-Destruct timer option for Secret Chat messages. The drawback of Telegram is that it lacks transparency about the protocol that it uses.

WhatsApp: With WhatsApp, end-to-end encryption is the default and provides an option for you to verify that encryption is in place. Messages are not stored on your phone, and it makes available a two-step verification feature. WhatsApp’s major drawback is that it does keep track of metadata and backups of messages are not encrypted for Android users.

Wickr : Unlike most messaging apps, Wickr offers both a personal (Wickr Me) and an enterprise edition. It provides end-to-end encryption and a host of additional features that make it one of the best options for businesses that are looking to keep their messages secure. It recently released its cryptographic protocol. And when Wickr deletes things, it “shreds” them so that they cannot be recovered. Wickr doesn’t really have any drawbacks from a security perspective.

Conclusion

Not all secure messaging apps are equally as effective. When selecting one, you should look for end-to-end encryption (and by default is even better) and the storage of little to no metadata. Also, keep in mind that companies that have released the source code behind their app are considered more reliable and their apps more robust. If privacy is important to you, then it’s time to check out secure messaging apps.

Before installing or investing in any messaging app…always consult with your technical support provider.

OneNote is a free application from Microsoft that allows you to collect notes in a variety of formats – handwritten text, typed text, digital drawings, photographs, links, screenshots, videos, and audio files – and organize them, share them, and use them to create other documents. OneNote is an excellent app whether you take notes in a classroom, convention hall, or business meeting. However, the usefulness of OneNote is greatly increased when you use a tablet with it. The two top competitors on the market today are the Surface Pro and the iPad Pro, and both are compatible with OneNote.

OneNote on a Surface Pro

Because the Microsoft Surface Pro is a Windows device, there are many more apps available that are compatible with OneNote. It works like a Windows PC, which means you can run the basic OneNote App available in the Microsoft Store. This is also true for the Surface Pro.

One of the benefits of the app is the ability to easily add pictures to your notes using the Surface Pro’s camera. Just keep in mind that the photo quality may not be very good, especially in conditions with little light. The iPad Pro offers a much better picture-taking (and editing) experience compared to the Surface Pro.

On a Surface Pro, the typical battery life is about 7 hours, which could leave someone looking for an outlet near the end of the workday even if they charged it the night before. However, the battery life is considered an improvement over the previous versions of the Surface tablet.

One of the key benefits of the Surface Pro is its physical, tactile keyboard a part of the cover. The Surface Pro does need to be docked in order to use the keyboard, but it is an option that isn’t available with an iPad Pro. Note that the keyboard can be tilted at a slight angle when used. These features would be very important to someone who plans to type their notes into OneNote rather than write them.

The ability to lay the Surface Pro screen almost flat while it is still attached to the keyboard works extremely well for adding handwritten notations to something you are working on in OneNote. Of course, the screen can be completely detached from the keyboard when needed.

Note that one of the commands available on the Surface Pro tablet that isn’t available on the iPad Pro is the Add/Remove Space command located on the Insert tab. This makes the process of rearranging the content in your notes very easy.

OneNote on an iPad Pro

Compared to the Surface Pro, the iPad Pro is both lighter and thinner, making it easier to carry around, more mobile, and easier to hold for notetaking. This can be a major benefit for those who have to spend extended time taking notes without the convenience of a desk or table. The battery life of an iPad Pro averages about 15 hours, almost twice that of the Surface Pro. This is great for users who often struggle to find an outlet to charge their device.

One of the outstanding features of the iPad Pro is the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil glides very smoothly and is better at capturing handwriting when compared to the Microsoft Surface Stylus, which is a great bonus for OneNote users that depend on handwritten notes. It also has a solid tip, unlike the soft tip of the Surface Stylus. The size of the tip is also slightly larger on the Pencil.

Another plus of the Apple Pencil is that you don’t have to switch tabs to erase something. Rather, you can simply flip the Pencil over and use its eraser. The lasso tool can also be turned on instantly by using the magnetic button on the Pencil.

Unlike the Surface Pro, the iPad Pro allows you to take very high-quality photos even in low-light conditions. You can then easily add them to your OneNote document, as well as zoom, crop, and focus them. This is very useful for capturing content-heavy slides during a presentation or extensive notes someone has written on a whiteboard. Also remember that the Add/Remove Space command is not available for the iPad Pro, and this can make it difficult to rearrange content you have added to your notes.

Conclusion

Both the Surface Pro and the iPad Pro work extremely well with the OneNote app, but only the Surface Pro can be used with the full-fledged desktop version of OneNote (aka, OneNote 2016). The Surface Pro offers the Add/Remove space command, a tactile keyboard, and the ability to easily switch between typing in notes and writing notes. The iPad Pro, on the other hand, offers a much better writing experience when the Apple Pencil is used and the Pencil offers more functionality for things like erasing text and lassoing content. Both tablets, however, are ideal for notetaking.

To date, Excel and similar apps deal primarily with text and numbers as data types. However, that tradition is about to be a thing of the past as Microsoft is adding two new data types to Excel. These data types allow cells to contain rich, intelligent data that can better represent more real-world data types.

Limitations and Possibilities

Suppose you are putting together a spreadsheet that will plot the relationship between a company’s sales and population in South America. The sales data is easy enough to find, but tracking down the latest population for each South American country might be a bit time consuming and error-prone. At the last minute, someone asks for data that shows sales related to the size of the country, which means another session of hunting down the right information.

What if you could have all that information for a country — population, square miles, map, gross national product, average minimum wage and more – all contained in a single cell within your worksheet? Believe it or not, those days are not too far away.

Excel’s New Intelligent Data Types

There are two new intelligent data types available in Excel: Geography and Stocks. That means that cells in your Excel workbook are no longer limited to holding flat information like text, numbers, or dates. Cells can now house an incredible amount of information related to geography and stocks. Not only can you access this information easily, you can even work with it when you are offline. Both of these data types can be found under the Data tab in Excel, and converting existing data to either of these types is very simple.

Working with the New Geography Data Type

Let’s suppose we have a worksheet that contains a single-column table. The table contains strings that represent countries. To convert this data to the new Geography data type, highlight the country names, then go to the Data tab and click on Geography. This takes care of the conversion.

You’ll notice that an icon appears in the cells next to each country name. It resembles a map that has been unfolded. If you click on that icon, you’ll see a data card that contains tons of information about that country. Now that cell is no longer just a string of characters, but a rich data type with much deeper meaning. All of the data from the data card is actually contained in that cell, and you don’t need an internet connection to access that data.

You will notice that a widget appears to the right at the top of the table. If you click on it, it offers to add another column. You can select from a list of available fields based on the data contained in the card you just looked at.

Stock Data Type

The Stock Data type works in a similar manner to the Geography data type but provides access to data involving stocks. Let’s say you have a table with a single column that contains some company names and some ticker names. You highlight that data, then go to the Data tab and select Stocks. That converts the string data into the new Stock data type, and all the names are switched to company names. You’ll notice that an icon appears by each company name, allowing you to access the data card for that company.

Stock data changes quickly, unlike the Geography data. Because of the dynamic nature of Stock data, the data is refreshable. Some of it is available in almost real-time, while other data will be delayed. If you want to do calculations with cells that contain either the Geography or Stock data type, type in a formula referencing the cell number and then use the . (dot operator) to select the correct member of that geography object. Anything you can do with normal data, you can do with these new data types.

Intelligent Data Types

The Microsoft Knowledge Graph, the intelligent service that also powers Bing, is what provides the data. When someone points out that the Stock and Geography data types are intelligent, that means far more than fixing typos or spelling errors. For example, these intelligent data types can interpret data requests in context. It may ask for more specifics if you enter a city name and convert it to the Geography data type because it wants to make sure what city you mean. However, if a city is listed with other city names in a particular geographical region, then Excel will select a city in that particular region (context).

Accessing It

Not all Excel 365 users can access these new AI data types just yet. According to Microsoft,

“The new data types are being released as preview to Office 365 subscribers enrolled in the Office Insiders program, in the English language only, starting in April 2018. “

However, it will eventually be rolled out for all Office 365 users. And other AI data types will also be added to Microsoft Excel’s repertoire. These developments mean that in Excel you can do even more, even faster.

 

If you’ve ever attended a high-level education course or business meeting, chances are you’ve come across the PowerPoint presentation. Microsoft’s PowerPoint program has been helping students and professionals organize their thoughts and ideas for decades. From class presentations to complex business proposals, Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 holds a wide range of benefits for users. Familiarizing yourself with the program’s many features can help you create engaging and error-free presentations every single time.

How To Spell Check Your PowerPoint Presentations

It’s important to make a good impression on your audience when using PowerPoint. This includes proper spelling and grammar throughout the entirety of your presentation. Misspelled words and grammar errors can make for an embarrassing moment in front of classmates or colleagues. This is why it’s important to learn to utilize PowerPoint’s wide range of tools. Knowing when and how to check the spelling within your PowerPoint proves you’ve gone the extra mile to produce a professional presentation that helps your audience clearly understand your talking points.

There are several things you can do to improve the overall user experience. Here are a few steps to follow to spell check your PowerPoint presentation.

Run A Spell Check

PowerPoint automatically checks spelling for its users. As you type, you might find some words underlined in red. This can happen quite often in the first draft of your presentation, so don’t panic. While PowerPoint will draw attention to your errors automatically, if you’d rather wait until after you’re done with your presentation to spell check, you have that option, as well.

PowerPoint’s Spelling and Grammar tool was designed to help users create error-free presentations. Once you notice an error, simply right-click on the word to reveal an option for correction. You can also choose the “Add to Dictionary” option, which will avoid PowerPoint flagging the word for the remainder of the presentation.

If you are ready to spell check your entire presentation after you’re finished, click the “Review” tab and then click “Spelling.” PowerPoint will move through each error, offering you options to edit, until you have reviewed them all. PowerPoint will provide alternative options for every error. You may choose one of these suggestions, then click “change” to correct the spelling error. If there are no suggestions provided, or none that make sense for your presentation, you’ll be able to manually type in the word’s correct spelling.

You can repeat this process for each error you encounter as you navigate your presentation. Once the last error has been corrected, you’ll see a dialog box that will confirm your presentation’s spell check is now complete.

Contrary to popular belief, PowerPoint’s Spelling and Grammar tool isn’t flawless. For words like proper nouns and people’s names, the system may still detect an error even if there isn’t one. You can easily ignore spelling suggestions if they don’t apply. Just click “Ignore” to skip a word without changing it. You can also ignore all by clicking “Ignore All”. This will not only skip the word without changing it, but will also skip over other uses of the word for the remainder of the presentation.

Modify Your Proofing Options

Microsoft PowerPoint allows users to modify and customize proofing options to allow more control over the process. For instance, you have the option of customizing the way PowerPoint notifies you of spelling errors. The grammar check also carries the option of helping you correct contextual spelling errors, further simplifying the process as you type. To modify these proofing options, access Backstage view by clicking the File tab, then select the Proofing option to customize as needed.

Find And Replace Words

Finding and replacing certain words is easy with Microsoft PowerPoint. Doing this can help you save time as you work on your presentation. For Mac users, simply locate the “Search in PowerPoint” box in the upper-right corner of your screen, then click the arrow right next to it. This will provide the option to “Replace” text. In the “Find What” box, type in the word you’d like to locate, then type in the word you’d like to use instead, inside the “Replace With” box. You can click “Find Next” to locate the next occurrence of the word, or simply click “Replace All” to replace all occurrences.

Present In Different Languages

Microsoft Office, above all, is intended to make work more efficient for its users. PowerPoint for instance, allows users to type in different languages, such as Chinese or Arabic. To type your presentation in one of these non-Latin based languages, you first must change your keyboard layout. If you’re unable to locate your desired language through Office, you may need to add it manually or download a Language Accessory Pack. These packs can add extra display and/or proofing tools to help you create a highly professional PowerPoint presentation.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 is one of many tools within the Office Suite designed to make business better for users. Utilizing these tools to their fullest can potential can help businesses achieve their goals more efficiently than ever before.

 

Social media has become an integral part of everyday life for many people. From Facebook, to Instagram and Snapchat, a growing number of internet users are embracing the power of instant connection. And while this is par for the course for social life, social media can be useful in the business world, too.

By the year 2025, it’s expected that over 70% of the workforce will be people from the millennial generation. And millennials are very keen on connecting via social media and meeting apps. They have embraced technology much better than other generations. This means that more businesses should be exploring methods of communication that make the most of the digital world in which we live.

Yammer is one of the most well-known social media apps for business platforms, and it’s already working for companies who’ve adopted Office 365. Microsoft has done a great job to ensure its capabilities are primed for the business world, and with Yammer, the potential for team environments is greater than ever before.

There are plenty of benefits to integrating Yammer into your business operations. With the ability to create groups, you have access to instant communication among team members. This makes for a single point of communication that can be used for reference, unlike emails. Not only is Yammer valuable in bringing together teammates, but it’s also got potential to give management an inside look at what employees care about. They can readily explore how team members are using Yammer to enhance productivity and teamwork.

Communicate Efficiently With Yammer Groups

Yammer’s goal is simple: Make communication more effective. In order to achieve this, it’s important for users to familiarize themselves with the wide range of tools at their disposal. If you’re already using Microsoft Office 365, then simply download Yammer to get started.

Yammer groups are a place to share information about projects, ask questions, and communicate openly with your team or department. Join a group by using the search box to check and see if there may be established groups you’re interested in joining.

Create your own group by clicking “create group.” Once you create a group, you can post an update or announcement, conduct a poll or upload files to share with others.

One example of a useful group would be an HR Benefits group. This type of company-wide group can be used to ask questions and start conversations about the types of benefits available. Groups are valuable in that they serve as a stored space where people can comment and ask questions with the confidence they will be answered. Too often, emails end up lost or deleted. Yammer Groups are a way to keep important files out in the open, in a centralized location where they’re easily accessible.

Much like Facebook, Yammer allows for a personalized feed to keep you informed about things that matter. You can follow your colleagues by searching for them in the search box. Once you are following another user, you can view their posts in your Following feed. This feature is particularly valuable for large companies with many departments. Following users within your department can make it easier to keep privy of the developments that pertain to you.

Effective Integration

One of the most impressive aspects of Yammer is its capability for integration. Not only can it be used to share live links to documents among a group of teammates, but it also allows users to work within these same files and view each others changes as they happen. Yammer has the ability to link into a Skype call if needed, and it can also link directly to your Office 365 Calendar or Planner. Organization is made much simpler with Yammer in tow.

Mobile App Accessibility

Long gone are the days of clocking in from 8 to 5. For many, the modern day work experience means constant availability. With an ever-increasing number of remote workers joining the workforce, it’s important that communication be accessible even beyond the office. And with Yammer’s mobile app, users can stay connected with teams wherever they go. Users can download the Yammer app and gain access to the same communication tools they’d find in their desktop at the office.

Yammer’s integration with Office 365 also means instant updates. With Yammer updated in line with the rest of Office 365’s apps, this means it will always be current as far as collaboration and efficiency go.

How Can Management Use Yammer?

Communication platforms like Yammer are useful for back and forth conversations and project sharing among teammates. But management can also benefit from this type of open-ended communication. They can use Yammer to evaluate company culture and make improvements by determining what type of content employees are searching for. This also applies to which threads are the most popular, and whether Yammer is effective at delivering the necessary information to the appropriate parties.

Wrap Up

Tools like Yammer have the potential to change the game for companies seeking more effective ways to communicate. Microsoft Office 365 has done the professional world a great service by realizing the power of Yammer to make an imprint in the business world. If your organization is hoping to improve communication and organization, consider subscribing to Office 365 to utilize this exciting range of tools.

 

 

Does it make you nervous when you consider how much of your personal information is essentially spread all over the internet? In spite of antivirus programs and firewalls, all data is somewhat at risk on the web. One of the most proven techniques to ensure your data is safe is to use a virtual private network (VPN), which will give you back control over how you’re identified online. With the constant news of data breaches, most of us are tired of hearing that our personal information was lost yet again by a large credit reporting agency or some retailer.

VPN Explained

A VPN constructs a virtual encrypted tunnel that runs between you and a remote server controlled by a VPN service. All outside internet traffic is transmitted through this passageway, so your data is not spied upon as you put it out there on the internet. Also, your computer looks as if it has the IP address of the VPN server, so your identity is hidden.

When you put your data out to the VPN server, it exits back out to the public internet. If the site you’re visiting has HTTPS to keep the connection safe, you are still secure. But even if it was intercepted by a third party, it’s challenging for the outside party to trace the data back to you, since it appears to be coming from a VPN server.

VPN in Real Life

Let’s look at an all too familiar scenario to understand the value of a VPN in your everyday life. When using a public Wi-Fi network at a popular spot, such as coffee shop or airport, you typically connect without giving it much thought. But unbeknownst to you, there may be people watching the traffic on that network. Can you be sure the Wi-Fi network that gave you quick access is secure, or could it be operated by a hacker who is after your personal data? While you are busy taking care of your business waiting on a plane or a meeting, your banking and credit card information, and all your private data could be delivered to the hacker on a silver platter.

It is extremely tough to tell whether or not a Wi-Fi network is what it appears to be. You could be at a coffee shop called Java Joe’s, and you link to a public Wi-Fi network that says JavaJoes. But that doesn’t mean the server you are on is really owned by that coffee shop. A hacker can put out their own server with similar wording to the coffee shop’s server, and sometimes it even has a better signal.

Now, if you connect to that same public Wi-Fi network using a VPN, you can be sure no thief will be able to steal your data. If there are hackers seeking for would-be victims, they can’t touch your computer.

VPN and the Government

We all would like to think that the government is on our side. Perhaps some of its agencies are only online snooping for terrorists and Wall Street insiders. Unfortunately, news of the Snowden leaks and Russian online infiltration have shown us that a government’s surveillance capability is massive in scope.

The NSA (National Security Agency) has the ability to intercept and explore almost every communication that is being sent out on the web. When using a VPN, you can have the peace of mind knowing that your encrypted information is less directly traceable back to you.

The Federal Communications Commission has recently turned back Obama-era rules that were made to protect net neutrality, and this opened the door for internet service providers (ISPs) to make money off your data. Now they are able to gather huge amounts of information about you, and then use it to tailor advertising. Often, these companies sell your data to other companies.

Your ISP is basically your gateway to the entirety of the internet. Most of us have limited home ISP choices, and some only have one ISP that provides wired internet access. Now that ISPs are allowed to sell data from consumers, it makes us easy targets. Do you ever wonder why your Google search for a product, and then that product shows up in advertisements on every page you go to for the next few days? Your ISP could be sharing your data and profiting off your personal searches.

The Unique Protection of a VPN

When the internet was first becoming popular, there wasn’t a demand for security or privacy. In the beginning, shared computers at research institutions made computing power very limited. The use of encryption would have made things extremely problematic.

Today, the average user has multiple devices connected to the web. It is up to individual users to protect themselves. Antivirus apps and password managers are a key factor in keeping you secure online, but a VPN is a uniquely powerful tool that will keep you safe in today’s connected world.