Microsoft Office 365 productivity applications like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook have allowed businesses to meet client demands efficiently, and its numerous productivity add-ons have enabled users to deliver more in less time. Here’s a handful of Office 365 extensions that help you improve workflow.

#1. Teams

Teams is ideal for organizations that collaborate frequently. It’s an instant messaging and document-sharing platform which seamlessly integrates with Office 365 programs and services. Users can create channels to work on projects, discuss topics, hold meetings, and more. And like similar programs such as Slack and Google Hangouts, Teams is customizable and accessible across mobile devices.

#2. Office Tabs

Office Tabs allows you to open multiple files in one window, which saves you from having to go through each opened document until you find the right one. It also lets you save or close the list of tabs in a single click, with an additional option to close everything except the active document. You can also directly rename files by clicking Rename, instead of going through the tedious process of clicking Save As and then changing the file name of each file.

#3. Grammarly

The last thing you want to send your clients is a confusing, poorly written email or document. Grammarly solves this by performing rigorous grammar, spelling, and plagiarism checks. It then provides vocabulary suggestions and recommends writing style changes to polish your writing further. This add-on is available in Word and Outlook, and its Premium counterpart is priced at $11.66 per month (annual plan).

#4. Pexels

Professional documents and presentations require high-resolution, blemish-free images, and Pexels helps you get them easily. Its free stock images are under a Creative Commons Zero license, meaning you can search high-quality images and use them in all your documents for any purpose with no legal repercussions.

#5. DocuSign

DocuSign for Outlook and Word lets you or a recipient securely sign a document electronically and send it through email, save it in the app, or store it in your company’s server. DocuSign complies with eSignature legal standards and is secured with end-to-end Digital Transaction Management, ensuring your files will never be leaked or breached.

#6. FindTime

Setting up a meeting time is tedious and difficult, especially if your employees have different schedules. FindTime scours every attendee’s schedule to locate open slots, and creates meeting time options for everyone to vote on. A meeting will then be scheduled according to whichever slot gets the highest vote within a specified amount of time.

#7. Translator

Businesses that deal with foreign companies will find communication much easier with Translator. This add-on recognizes and translates more than 50 different languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Not only will you spend less time deciphering foreign-language documents, but you’ll also be able to work with clients from various parts of the world.

Start improving work productivity and make the most out of your Office 365 with Microsoft productivity add-ons. To get started or to learn more about Office 365, Microsoft add-ons, or anything Microsoft Office related, contact us today.

Microsoft’s Office 365 has made everyday business operations more efficient with programs like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook. As if that’s not enough, it also offers these add-ons that streamline users’ workflow.

#1. Teams

Teams is ideal for organizations that collaborate frequently. It’s an instant messaging and document-sharing platform which seamlessly integrates with Office 365 programs and services. Users can create channels to work on projects, discuss topics, hold meetings, and more. And like similar programs such as Slack and Google Hangouts, Teams is customizable and accessible across mobile devices.

#2. Office Tabs

Office Tabs allows you to open multiple files in one window, which saves you from having to go through each opened document until you find the right one. It also lets you save or close the list of tabs in a single click, with an additional option to close everything except the active document. You can also directly rename files by clicking Rename, instead of going through the tedious process of clicking Save As and then changing the file name of each file.

#3. Grammarly

The last thing you want to send your clients is a confusing, poorly written email or document. Grammarly solves this by performing rigorous grammar, spelling, and plagiarism checks. It then provides vocabulary suggestions and recommends writing style changes to polish your writing further. This add-on is available in Word and Outlook, and its Premium counterpart is priced at $11.66 per month (annual plan).

#4. Pexels

Professional documents and presentations require high-resolution, blemish-free images, and Pexels helps you get them easily. Its free stock images are under a Creative Commons Zero license, meaning you can search high-quality images and use them in all your documents for any purpose with no legal repercussions.

#5. DocuSign

DocuSign for Outlook and Word lets you or a recipient securely sign a document electronically and send it through email, save it in the app, or store it in your company’s server. DocuSign complies with eSignature legal standards and is secured with end-to-end Digital Transaction Management, ensuring your files will never be leaked or breached.

#6. FindTime

Setting up a meeting time is tedious and difficult, especially if your employees have different schedules. FindTime scours every attendee’s schedule to locate open slots, and creates meeting time options for everyone to vote on. A meeting will then be scheduled according to whichever slot gets the highest vote within a specified amount of time.

#7. Translator

Businesses that deal with foreign companies will find communication much easier with Translator. This add-on recognizes and translates more than 50 different languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Not only will you spend less time deciphering foreign-language documents, but you’ll also be able to work with clients from various parts of the world.

Start improving work productivity and make the most out of your Office 365 with Microsoft productivity add-ons. To get started or to learn more about Office 365, Microsoft add-ons, or anything Microsoft Office related, contact us today.

Microsoft Office 365 is one of the most successful and popular apps in the world, currently with 180 million users and counting. To enhance the user experience, it also offers these time-saving, productivity-boosting add-ons.

#1. Teams

Teams is ideal for organizations that collaborate frequently. It’s an instant messaging and document-sharing platform which seamlessly integrates with Office 365 programs and services. Users can create channels to work on projects, discuss topics, hold meetings, and more. And like similar programs such as Slack and Google Hangouts, Teams is customizable and accessible across mobile devices.

#2. Office Tabs

Office Tabs allows you to open multiple files in one window, which saves you from having to go through each opened document until you find the right one. It also lets you save or close the list of tabs in a single click, with an additional option to close everything except the active document. You can also directly rename files by clicking Rename, instead of going through the tedious process of clicking Save As and then changing the file name of each file.

#3. Grammarly

The last thing you want to send your clients is a confusing, poorly written email or document. Grammarly solves this by performing rigorous grammar, spelling, and plagiarism checks. It then provides vocabulary suggestions and recommends writing style changes to polish your writing further. This add-on is available in Word and Outlook, and its Premium counterpart is priced at $11.66 per month (annual plan).

#4. Pexels

Professional documents and presentations require high-resolution, blemish-free images, and Pexels helps you get them easily. Its free stock images are under a Creative Commons Zero license, meaning you can search high-quality images and use them in all your documents for any purpose with no legal repercussions.

#5. DocuSign

DocuSign for Outlook and Word lets you or a recipient securely sign a document electronically and send it through email, save it in the app, or store it in your company’s server. DocuSign complies with eSignature legal standards and is secured with end-to-end Digital Transaction Management, ensuring your files will never be leaked or breached.

#6. FindTime

Setting up a meeting time is tedious and difficult, especially if your employees have different schedules. FindTime scours every attendee’s schedule to locate open slots, and creates meeting time options for everyone to vote on. A meeting will then be scheduled according to whichever slot gets the highest vote within a specified amount of time.

#7. Translator

Businesses that deal with foreign companies will find communication much easier with Translator. This add-on recognizes and translates more than 50 different languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Not only will you spend less time deciphering foreign-language documents, but you’ll also be able to work with clients from various parts of the world.

Start improving work productivity and make the most out of your Office 365 with Microsoft productivity add-ons. To get started or to learn more about Office 365, Microsoft add-ons, or anything Microsoft Office related, contact us today.

Today, Microsoft announced a public preview of Microsoft Teams for Linux, the first Office 365 tool that’s available for the open source operating system.

The hope is that by making it available for preview, the company can get feedback from the community and improve it before it becomes generally available. “Starting today, Microsoft Teams is available for Linux users in public preview, enabling high quality collaboration experiences for the open source community at work and in educational institutions,” the company wrote in the blog post announcing the release.

The goal here ultimately is to help get Teams into the hands of more customers by expanding the platforms it runs on. “Most of our customers have devices running on a variety of different platforms such as Windows 10, Linux and others. We are committed to supporting mixed environments across our cloud and productivity offerings, and with this announcement, we are pleased to extend the Teams experience to Linux users,” the company wrote in the blog post.

This announcement significant for a couple of reasons. For starters, Microsoft has had a complicated history with Linux and open source, although in recent years under Satya Nadella it has embraced open source. This shows that Microsoft is willing to put its tools wherever customers need them, regardless of the platform or operating system.

Secondly, since it marks the first Office 365 app on Linux, if there is positive feedback, it could open the door for more apps on the platform down the road.

The announcement also comes against the backdrop of the company’s on-going battles with Slack for enterprise collaboration platform users. In July, Microsoft announced 13 million daily active users on Teams. Meanwhile, Slack has 12 million DAUs. It’s worth noting that Slack has been available on Linux for almost two years.

Chalk up another win for European data protection: Microsoft has announced changes to commercial cloud contracts following privacy concerns raised by European Union data protection authorities.

The changes to contactual terms will apply globally and to all its commercial customers — whether public or private sector entity, or large or small business, it said today.

The new contractual provisions will be offered to all public sector and enterprise customers at the beginning of 2020, it adds.

In October Europe’s data protection supervisor warned that preliminary results of an investigation into contractual terms for Microsoft’s cloud services had raised serious concerns about compliance with EU data protection rules and the role of the tech giant as a data processor for EU institutions.

Writing on its EU Policy blog, Julie Brill, Microsoft’s corporate VP for global privacy and regulatory affairs and chief privacy officer, announces the update to privacy provisions in the Online Services Terms (OST) of its commercial cloud contracts — saying it’s making the changes as a result of “feedback we’ve heard from our customers”.

“The changes we are making will provide more transparency for our customers over data processing in the Microsoft cloud,” she writes.

She also says the changes reflect those Microsoft developed in consultation with the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security — which comprised both amended contractual terms and technical safeguards and settings — after the latter carried out risk assessments of Microsoft’s OST earlier this year and also raised concerns.

Specifically, Microsoft is accepting greater data protection responsibilities for additional processing involved in providing enterprise services, such as account management and financial reporting, per Brill:

Through the OST update we are announcing today we will increase our data protection responsibilities for a subset of processing that Microsoft engages in when we provide enterprise services. In the OST update, we will clarify that Microsoft assumes the role of data controller when we process data for specified administrative and operational purposes incident to providing the cloud services covered by this contractual framework, such as Azure, Office 365, Dynamics and Intune. This subset of data processing serves administrative or operational purposes such as account management; financial reporting; combatting cyberattacks on any Microsoft product or service; and complying with our legal obligations.

Microsoft currently designates itself as a data processor, rather than data controller for these administrative and operations functions that can be linked to provision of commercial cloud services, such as its Azure platform.

But under Europe’s General Data Protection framework a data controller has the widest obligations around handling personal data — with responsibility under Article 5 of the GDPR for the lawfulness, fairness and security of the data being processed — and therefore also greater legal risk should it fail to meet the standard.

So, from a regulatory point of view, Microsoft’s current commercial contract structure poses a risk for EU institutions of user data ending up being processed under a lower standard of legal protection than is merited.

The announced switch from data processor to controller should raise the bar around associated purposes that Microsoft may also provide to commercial customers of its cloud services.

For the latter purpose itself, Microsoft says it will remain the data processor, as well as for improving and addressing bugs or other issues related to the service, ensuring security of the services, and keeping the services up to date.

In August a conference organized jointly by the EU’s data protection supervisor and and the Dutch Ministry brought together EU customers of cloud giants to work on a joint response to regulatory risks related to cloud software provision.

Earlier this year the Dutch Ministry obtained contractual changes and technical safeguards and settings in the amended contracts it agreed with Microsoft.

“The only substantive differences in the updated terms [that will roll out globally for all commercial cloud customers] relate to customer-specific changes requested by the Dutch MOJ, which had to be adapted for the broader global customer base,” Brill writes now.

Microsoft’s blog post also points to other global privacy-related changes it says were made following feedback from the Dutch MOJ and others — including a roll out of new privacy tools across major services; specific changes to Office 365 ProPlus; and increased transparency regarding use of diagnostic data.

Microsoft is working hard to ensure that its popular cloud-based productivity suite Office 365 is constantly being improved. Because of the great products and support offered, businesses are starting to shift to the platform. If you’re considering moving to Office 365, you should be aware of five factors that can affect the migration process.

Slow internet connection speeds

Because Office 365 is primarily cloud-based, you’re going to need a solid bandwidth connection to use it. Migrating your files and system over to Office 365 consumes a large quantity of bandwidth, which can result in slower internet speeds during the migration process. If this is being carried out during business hours, employees might struggle to do tasks that require online connection.

Office 365 is most often delivered over an internet connection rather than in-house servers. This means that the day-to-day demand for bandwidth will increase. If you are already noticing slow speeds and service interruptions before implementing Office 365, these issues will likely worsen after implementation.

To avoid this, you should ask an Office 365 provider to test your existing network connection to ensure that it can handle the migration and day-to-day operation of Office 365. If not, your provider should be able to offer you a solution.

Mailboxes and files are too big

While the business versions of Office 365 come with 50 GB of email storage and over 1 TB of file storage per user, accessing your emails and files online could take a while, especially if you have users whose inboxes are approaching the storage limit.

Larger files will cause the migration process to slow down significantly, which is why you need to prepare for this to avoid disruptions at work. Encouraging your staff to archive their inboxes and delete large, unnecessary files is a good way to ensure the migration process goes smoothly.

Uninformed users

On average, migrating to Office 365 takes around one to three days to complete, depending on the size of your business and the amount of data being transferred.

Starting the migration without informing your users that their files and email will not be accessible can lead to productivity loss and resentment towards the new platform.

To avoid this, you should inform your employees about the migration and how long it’s going to take. You should train them how to use the new system to ensure that everyone is familiar with it before they start to use it. This will increase the overall chance that the platform migration and subsequent use will be successful.

Outdated software

While some versions of Office 365 come with subscriptions to the latest version of Microsoft Office, they also include built-in support for systems running older versions of Office. If your business is using a version of Office that is older than Office 2010 (e.g., Office 2003), you might have trouble using Office 365.

When it comes to web browsers, Chrome and Firefox won’t give you too many problems. However, if you’re utilizing their outdated versions, using Office 365 will be extremely difficult. Your provider should tell you if your existing software needs to be updated before migrating to Office 365.

Doing the process yourself

On paper, migrating to Office 365 may seem like a simple and straightforward process. This leads many businesses to believe that they can do the entire migration process without the assistance of experts. However, without proper guidance, you may run into problems that can harm vital business operations.

To ensure a smooth migration process from start to finish, contact us today. We’ll show you the proper way of migrating your system to Office 365 without affecting your day-to-day operations.

Office 365, Office 365 failure, Office 365 migration, Office 365 migration failure, QS_3, Ways Office 365 migrations fail, 2019November14Office_B

Office 365, the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office, is becoming the most popular software suite used by small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). With an ever-increasing number of organizations migrating to this solution, it’s not surprising that other companies are also considering making the move. However, these five issues can cause an Office 365 migration to fail.

Slow internet connection speeds

Because Office 365 is primarily cloud-based, you’re going to need a solid bandwidth connection to use it. Migrating your files and system over to Office 365 consumes a large quantity of bandwidth, which can result in slower internet speeds during the migration process. If this is being carried out during business hours, employees might struggle to do tasks that require online connection.

Office 365 is most often delivered over an internet connection rather than in-house servers. This means that the day-to-day demand for bandwidth will increase. If you are already noticing slow speeds and service interruptions before implementing Office 365, these issues will likely worsen after implementation.

To avoid this, you should ask an Office 365 provider to test your existing network connection to ensure that it can handle the migration and day-to-day operation of Office 365. If not, your provider should be able to offer you a solution.

Mailboxes and files are too big

While the business versions of Office 365 come with 50 GB of email storage and over 1 TB of file storage per user, accessing your emails and files online could take a while, especially if you have users whose inboxes are approaching the storage limit.

Larger files will cause the migration process to slow down significantly, which is why you need to prepare for this to avoid disruptions at work. Encouraging your staff to archive their inboxes and delete large, unnecessary files is a good way to ensure the migration process goes smoothly.

Uninformed users

On average, migrating to Office 365 takes around one to three days to complete, depending on the size of your business and the amount of data being transferred.

Starting the migration without informing your users that their files and email will not be accessible can lead to productivity loss and resentment towards the new platform.

To avoid this, you should inform your employees about the migration and how long it’s going to take. You should train them how to use the new system to ensure that everyone is familiar with it before they start to use it. This will increase the overall chance that the platform migration and subsequent use will be successful.

Outdated software

While some versions of Office 365 come with subscriptions to the latest version of Microsoft Office, they also include built-in support for systems running older versions of Office. If your business is using a version of Office that is older than Office 2010 (e.g., Office 2003), you might have trouble using Office 365.

When it comes to web browsers, Chrome and Firefox won’t give you too many problems. However, if you’re utilizing their outdated versions, using Office 365 will be extremely difficult. Your provider should tell you if your existing software needs to be updated before migrating to Office 365.

Doing the process yourself

On paper, migrating to Office 365 may seem like a simple and straightforward process. This leads many businesses to believe that they can do the entire migration process without the assistance of experts. However, without proper guidance, you may run into problems that can harm vital business operations.

To ensure a smooth migration process from start to finish, contact us today. We’ll show you the proper way of migrating your system to Office 365 without affecting your day-to-day operations.

Office 365, Office 365 failure, Office 365 migration, Office 365 migration failure, QS_3, Ways Office 365 migrations fail, 2019November14Office_A

Microsoft’s Office 365 is continually gaining popularity with the growing number of businesses implementing this cloud-based version of Office. However, before you follow suit, you should be aware of five potential problems that can cause the entire process to fail.

Slow internet connection speeds

Because Office 365 is primarily cloud-based, you’re going to need a solid bandwidth connection to use it. Migrating your files and system over to Office 365 consumes a large quantity of bandwidth, which can result in slower internet speeds during the migration process. If this is being carried out during business hours, employees might struggle to do tasks that require online connection.

Office 365 is most often delivered over an internet connection rather than in-house servers. This means that the day-to-day demand for bandwidth will increase. If you are already noticing slow speeds and service interruptions before implementing Office 365, these issues will likely worsen after implementation.

To avoid this, you should ask an Office 365 provider to test your existing network connection to ensure that it can handle the migration and day-to-day operation of Office 365. If not, your provider should be able to offer you a solution.

Mailboxes and files are too big

While the business versions of Office 365 come with 50 GB of email storage and over 1 TB of file storage per user, accessing your emails and files online could take a while, especially if you have users whose inboxes are approaching the storage limit.

Larger files will cause the migration process to slow down significantly, which is why you need to prepare for this to avoid disruptions at work. Encouraging your staff to archive their inboxes and delete large, unnecessary files is a good way to ensure the migration process goes smoothly.

Uninformed users

On average, migrating to Office 365 takes around one to three days to complete, depending on the size of your business and the amount of data being transferred.

Starting the migration without informing your users that their files and email will not be accessible can lead to productivity loss and resentment towards the new platform.

To avoid this, you should inform your employees about the migration and how long it’s going to take. You should train them how to use the new system to ensure that everyone is familiar with it before they start to use it. This will increase the overall chance that the platform migration and subsequent use will be successful.

Outdated software

While some versions of Office 365 come with subscriptions to the latest version of Microsoft Office, they also include built-in support for systems running older versions of Office. If your business is using a version of Office that is older than Office 2010 (e.g., Office 2003), you might have trouble using Office 365.

When it comes to web browsers, Chrome and Firefox won’t give you too many problems. However, if you’re utilizing their outdated versions, using Office 365 will be extremely difficult. Your provider should tell you if your existing software needs to be updated before migrating to Office 365.

Doing the process yourself

On paper, migrating to Office 365 may seem like a simple and straightforward process. This leads many businesses to believe that they can do the entire migration process without the assistance of experts. However, without proper guidance, you may run into problems that can harm vital business operations.

To ensure a smooth migration process from start to finish, contact us today. We’ll show you the proper way of migrating your system to Office 365 without affecting your day-to-day operations.

Office 365, Office 365 failure, Office 365 migration, Office 365 migration failure, QS_3, Ways Office 365 migrations fail, 2019November14Office_C

Within Office 365 Groups, there’s a feature called Connectors. It allows you to link to popular third-party services without ever having to leave Outlook. This means relevant content and updates that you want are sent immediately to your group feed, making workflow more seamless. Let’s take a look at what Office 365 Connectors can do for your Groups.

What can it do?

Office 365 Connectors enable users to access third-party apps and services within their Outlook groups, rather than having to scour through dozens of tabs to access a specific application.

For example, your team members can be informed about a particular hashtag your company is following on Twitter without having to separately open the app. Groups aren’t limited to one particular service. With connectors, you can use Twitter, Trello, Mailchimp, Bing, UserVoice, and over 50 other services.

Small organizations can also take advantage of connectors. Office 365 lets you develop your own connectors by embedding the Connect to Office 365 button on your site. This allows users to connect to your service and get updates on your company, as they would with other third-party services. Your Office 365 client basically becomes a hub for third-party apps that keeps your company in sync to get more work done.

Connector card

Connector cards offer a user-friendly way to interact with external applications. If a particular connector is added to a Group, connector cards are generated within the group’s activity feed. While most cards will display events in plain text, some applications like Twitter and Trello provide formatted actions to interact with the card. Trello, for example, allows you to Assign or Comment on an event card.

Who can create a connector?

Office 365 Group members can configure and use a number of connectors. Once you configure a connector for a Group, that app will be also be available for other members. However, the person who added a connector to that Group is the only one who can modify that app.

How do you access Office 365 Connectors?

Any Office 365 Mail user can use Connectors for Groups. Simply navigate to a Group from your Outlook page and click on the Connectors tab at the top of the page. From here, you can connect the available third-party services on offer to any of your Outlook groups. You can even configure the settings of your apps without having to leave Office 365. Remember to pull in the applications that you think your group will be using the most.

As your business grows, you’ll need more services to be more productive. By aggregating them all in one place, you save time shifting around apps to find the needed information. So the next time you create an Office 365 Group, help your team members work more efficiently by setting up some connectors.

If you’re interested in learning about the latest Office 365 updates, contact us today.

At work, we depend on apps for productivity. However, with so many tabs open in our web browsers, it can be a drag to constantly click in and out of them just to get the information we need. Fortunately, Office 365 Connectors for Groups allows you to stay on top of all the third-party services your company is using. How exactly do these connectors make life for everyone in your Groups easier? Here are a few things you need to know about the new Office 365 feature.

What can it do?

Office 365 Connectors enable users to access third-party apps and services within their Outlook groups, rather than having to scour through dozens of tabs to access a specific application.

For example, your team members can be informed about a particular hashtag your company is following on Twitter without having to separately open the app. Groups aren’t limited to one particular service. With connectors, you can use Twitter, Trello, Mailchimp, Bing, UserVoice, and over 50 other services.

Small organizations can also take advantage of connectors. Office 365 lets you develop your own connectors by embedding the Connect to Office 365 button on your site. This allows users to connect to your service and get updates on your company, as they would with other third-party services. Your Office 365 client basically becomes a hub for third-party apps that keeps your company in sync to get more work done.

Connector card

Connector cards offer a user-friendly way to interact with external applications. If a particular connector is added to a Group, connector cards are generated within the group’s activity feed. While most cards will display events in plain text, some applications like Twitter and Trello provide formatted actions to interact with the card. Trello, for example, allows you to Assign or Comment on an event card.

Who can create a connector?

Office 365 Group members can configure and use a number of connectors. Once you configure a connector for a Group, that app will be also be available for other members. However, the person who added a connector to that Group is the only one who can modify that app.

How do you access Office 365 Connectors?

Any Office 365 Mail user can use Connectors for Groups. Simply navigate to a Group from your Outlook page and click on the Connectors tab at the top of the page. From here, you can connect the available third-party services on offer to any of your Outlook groups. You can even configure the settings of your apps without having to leave Office 365. Remember to pull in the applications that you think your group will be using the most.

As your business grows, you’ll need more services to be more productive. By aggregating them all in one place, you save time shifting around apps to find the needed information. So the next time you create an Office 365 Group, help your team members work more efficiently by setting up some connectors.

If you’re interested in learning about the latest Office 365 updates, contact us today.

People often have dozens of tabs open in their web browsers to access services that help them with work or catch up on social media. As a result, it’s difficult to keep track of all of them and get the information you need. Office 365 Groups solves this problem with Connectors, a new feature that lets you connect to third-party applications within the Outlook page. So if you want to declutter your taskbar, try out Connectors for your Groups.

What can it do?

Office 365 Connectors enable users to access third-party apps and services within their Outlook groups, rather than having to scour through dozens of tabs to access a specific application.

For example, your team members can be informed about a particular hashtag your company is following on Twitter without having to separately open the app. Groups aren’t limited to one particular service. With connectors, you can use Twitter, Trello, Mailchimp, Bing, UserVoice, and over 50 other services.

Small organizations can also take advantage of connectors. Office 365 lets you develop your own connectors by embedding the Connect to Office 365 button on your site. This allows users to connect to your service and get updates on your company, as they would with other third-party services. Your Office 365 client basically becomes a hub for third-party apps that keeps your company in sync to get more work done.

Connector card

Connector cards offer a user-friendly way to interact with external applications. If a particular connector is added to a Group, connector cards are generated within the group’s activity feed. While most cards will display events in plain text, some applications like Twitter and Trello provide formatted actions to interact with the card. Trello, for example, allows you to Assign or Comment on an event card.

Who can create a connector?

Office 365 Group members can configure and use a number of connectors. Once you configure a connector for a Group, that app will be also be available for other members. However, the person who added a connector to that Group is the only one who can modify that app.

How do you access Office 365 Connectors?

Any Office 365 Mail user can use Connectors for Groups. Simply navigate to a Group from your Outlook page and click on the Connectors tab at the top of the page. From here, you can connect the available third-party services on offer to any of your Outlook groups. You can even configure the settings of your apps without having to leave Office 365. Remember to pull in the applications that you think your group will be using the most.

As your business grows, you’ll need more services to be more productive. By aggregating them all in one place, you save time shifting around apps to find the needed information. So the next time you create an Office 365 Group, help your team members work more efficiently by setting up some connectors.

If you’re interested in learning about the latest Office 365 updates, contact us today.

Microsoft wants to make it as easy as possible to migrate to Microsoft 365, and today the company announced it had purchased a Canadian startup called Mover to help. The companies did not reveal the acquisition price.

Microsoft 365 is the company’s bundle that includes Office 365, Microsoft Teams, security tools and workflow. The idea is to provide customers with a soup-to-nuts, cloud-based productivity package. Mover helps customers get files from another service into the Microsoft 365 cloud.

As Jeff Tepper wrote in a post on the Official Microsoft Blog announcing the acquisition, this about helping customers get to the Microsoft cloud as quickly and smoothly as possible. “Today, Mover supports migration from over a dozen cloud service providers — including Box, Dropbox, Egnyte, and Google Drive — into OneDrive and SharePoint, enabling seamless file collaboration across Microsoft 365 apps and services, including the Office apps and Microsoft Teams,” Tepper wrote.

Tepper also points out that they will be gaining the expertise of the Mover team as it moves to Microsoft and helps add to the migration tools already in place.

Tony Byrne, founder and principal analyst at Real Story Group, says that moving files from one system to another like this can be extremely challenging regardless of how you do it, and the file transfer mechanism is only part of it. “The transition to 365 from an on-prem system or competing cloud supplier is never a migration, per se. It’s a rebuild, with a completely different UX, admin model, set of services, and operational assumptions all built into the Microsoft cloud offering,” Byrne explained.

Mover is based in Calgary, Canada. It was founded in 2012 and raised $1 million, according to Crunchbase data. It counts some big clients as customers including AutoDesk, Symantec and BuzzFeed.