With the Windows 10 November 2019 Update, your desktop or laptop will get some small but important tweaks to its systems. If you haven’t already, install the latest update to start enjoying the latest performance-enhancing improvements to Windows 10.

Also known as Windows 10 version 1909 or 19H2, the Windows 10 November 2019 Update can be installed by heading to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Click Check Updates > Download and install now. Once the update is installed, that’s it — there are no long reboots and old Windows installation purges needed, unlike with previous updates. Just restart your PC and enjoy the small but helpful tweaks to your OS.

Windows Search and File Explorer integration

Previously, files on OneDrive were considered separate from those on your computer. Later versions of Windows 10 allowed file syncing between OneDrive and your PC. Doing a “This PC” search would show you a long list of the files stored on both OneDrive and your computer.

With Windows 10’s latest update, Windows Search indexes your computer. As such, typing a filename into the search box in File Explorer brings up a dropdown menu with a list of suggested files on both your local drive and OneDrive cloud. You also have the option of right-clicking on one of the search results to open the file’s location. This means you don’t have to sort through all the files that come up during a search, saving you some precious time.

You could still search non-indexed locations by pressing Enter after typing in the filename you’re looking for.

Battery life and other performance improvements

In general, some PCs will experience an improved battery life with the new update. This also means better power efficiency that leads to longer battery life for your laptop. The November 2019 Update also brings improvements to the scheduling on multicore CPUs, rotating work better among the cores to enhance performance and reliability.

Also, if your computer has digital inking features, you’ll experience lower latency with the new update. This means fewer lag or delay issues when you’re drawing, so you can complete tasks much faster.

Activate Alexa on the lock screen

Cortana’s not the only digital assistant with access to your computer’s lock screen anymore. A tweak in the November 2019 Update now allows you to voice activate third-party digital assistants from the lock screen. Those “third-party digital assistants” actually mean just Amazon’s Alexa for now, but this change could pave the way for a future wherein you could use several digital assistants on a single device.

In fact, earlier this year, Microsoft announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative (VII). This would enable users to use several wake words on a single desktop or laptop, including those running on Windows 10.

For instance, you could use Spotify’s own voice-guided navigation directly if you want to play a specific song. This is opposed to how current AI assistants work; right now, if you want to play a song on Spotify, you’d have to direct your request through Cortana or Alexa. VII basically does away with this extra step.

But again, the tech is limited to launching just Alexa from the lock screen — at least, for now.

Add new events to your Calendar from the taskbar

Windows 10’s calendar application is a nifty tool for staying organized and on top of tasks. The latest update makes it even easier to use by allowing you to create calendar events directly from the taskbar.

Simply click the clock on the taskbar to open the Calendar. Click on a date and type in the name, time, and location of the event or task in the textbox that comes up. You can also view and edit any events or tasks you create here in the Calendar app.

Other useful tweaks

The Start menu has been made more user-friendly. Hovering over icons in the navigation pane on the left side of the menu shows what you’re about to click on, so it’s easier to understand what the icon does before you click on it.

Also, Microsoft’s screen reader Narrator tells you where the Fn key is located on your keyboard and whether it’s locked or unlocked. This is especially helpful to users who can’t easily see the keys.

Finally, before the November 2019 Update, you had to disable notification sounds separately for each app that shows notifications. But now you can easily mute all notification sounds by going to Settings > System Notifications > Notifications & Actions.

Microsoft is always seeking ways to improve their products and, in turn, user experience and productivity. If you want to learn more about the different Microsoft products and devices, drop our experts a line today.

Microsoft rolled out the latest Windows 10 update on November 12. And though it’s a relatively small update, it comes with new features that will improve your Windows 10 computer’s functionality and performance.

Also known as Windows 10 version 1909 or 19H2, the Windows 10 November 2019 Update can be installed by heading to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Click Check Updates > Download and install now. Once the update is installed, that’s it — there are no long reboots and old Windows installation purges needed, unlike with previous updates. Just restart your PC and enjoy the small but helpful tweaks to your OS.

Windows Search and File Explorer integration

Previously, files on OneDrive were considered separate from those on your computer. Later versions of Windows 10 allowed file syncing between OneDrive and your PC. Doing a “This PC” search would show you a long list of the files stored on both OneDrive and your computer.

With Windows 10’s latest update, Windows Search indexes your computer. As such, typing a filename into the search box in File Explorer brings up a dropdown menu with a list of suggested files on both your local drive and OneDrive cloud. You also have the option of right-clicking on one of the search results to open the file’s location. This means you don’t have to sort through all the files that come up during a search, saving you some precious time.

You could still search non-indexed locations by pressing Enter after typing in the filename you’re looking for.

Battery life and other performance improvements

In general, some PCs will experience an improved battery life with the new update. This also means better power efficiency that leads to longer battery life for your laptop. The November 2019 Update also brings improvements to the scheduling on multicore CPUs, rotating work better among the cores to enhance performance and reliability.

Also, if your computer has digital inking features, you’ll experience lower latency with the new update. This means fewer lag or delay issues when you’re drawing, so you can complete tasks much faster.

Activate Alexa on the lock screen

Cortana’s not the only digital assistant with access to your computer’s lock screen anymore. A tweak in the November 2019 Update now allows you to voice activate third-party digital assistants from the lock screen. Those “third-party digital assistants” actually mean just Amazon’s Alexa for now, but this change could pave the way for a future wherein you could use several digital assistants on a single device.

In fact, earlier this year, Microsoft announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative (VII). This would enable users to use several wake words on a single desktop or laptop, including those running on Windows 10.

For instance, you could use Spotify’s own voice-guided navigation directly if you want to play a specific song. This is opposed to how current AI assistants work; right now, if you want to play a song on Spotify, you’d have to direct your request through Cortana or Alexa. VII basically does away with this extra step.

But again, the tech is limited to launching just Alexa from the lock screen — at least, for now.

Add new events to your Calendar from the taskbar

Windows 10’s calendar application is a nifty tool for staying organized and on top of tasks. The latest update makes it even easier to use by allowing you to create calendar events directly from the taskbar.

Simply click the clock on the taskbar to open the Calendar. Click on a date and type in the name, time, and location of the event or task in the textbox that comes up. You can also view and edit any events or tasks you create here in the Calendar app.

Other useful tweaks

The Start menu has been made more user-friendly. Hovering over icons in the navigation pane on the left side of the menu shows what you’re about to click on, so it’s easier to understand what the icon does before you click on it.

Also, Microsoft’s screen reader Narrator tells you where the Fn key is located on your keyboard and whether it’s locked or unlocked. This is especially helpful to users who can’t easily see the keys.

Finally, before the November 2019 Update, you had to disable notification sounds separately for each app that shows notifications. But now you can easily mute all notification sounds by going to Settings > System Notifications > Notifications & Actions.

Microsoft is always seeking ways to improve their products and, in turn, user experience and productivity. If you want to learn more about the different Microsoft products and devices, drop our experts a line today.

At Microsoft’s Ignite conference this month, the company announced a new vision for its personal productivity assistant, Cortana — one which aimed to make it more useful in your day-to-day work, including email, but one which also saw Microsoft scaling its ambitions back from Cortana as a true Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant competitor. Now, the other shoe has dropped, as Microsoft says it’s planning to shut down its standalone Cortana mobile apps across a number of markets.

The company quietly revealed its plans to wind down support for Cortana on iOS and Android in several regions, with an end-of-life date of January 31st, 2020. After this point, Cortana mobile app will no longer be supported. Microsoft also said it will release an updated version of its Microsoft Launcher, that will have Cortana removed.

Microsoft tells us the impacted markets include Great Britain, Australia, Germany, Mexico, China, Spain, Canada, and India. While the U.S. isn’t in this list today, it would not be surprising to see its support pulled at a later date. The Cortana app for iOS is only ranked No. 254 in the Productivity category on the App Store, and only No. 145 on Google Play, according to current data from Sensor Tower.

After Jan. 31, 2020 the Cortana content users had created like reminders and lists will no longer function in either the Cortana mobile applications or in the Microsoft Launcher, but will continue to be accessible through Cortana on Windows. In addition, Cortana’s reminders, lists, and tasks are automatically synced to the recently updated Microsoft To Do application, which will continue to work.

Microsoft has been steadily dialing back its plans for Cortana over the past couple of years. At Microsoft’s Build 2018 event, the company showed off Cortana’s interoperability with Alexa, for example — an admission of sorts that Cortana wasn’t powerful enough on its own to serve the needs of voice assistant users. And this January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company no longer saw Cortana as an Alexa competitor and ended its plans to go in the direction of Cortana-powered smart speakers.

“Cortana is an integral part of our broader vision to bring the power of conversational computing and productivity to all our platforms and devices,” a Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement. “To make Cortana as helpful as possible, we’re integrating Cortana deeper into your Microsoft 365 productivity apps, and part of this evolution involves ending support for the Cortana mobile app on Android and iOS.”

Are you using all of Windows 10’s awesome productivity features? From adjusting system and battery performance to silencing notifications, you could be missing out on powerful features and productivity enhancements — check out our four favorites.

Night Light

This feature lets you reduce the amount of blue light emitted from your screen, which reduces eye strain and boosts sleep efficiency. Night Light is disabled by default, so you need to enable it by following these steps:

• Click the Start Menu
• Open the Settings app (or press the Windows key + I to quickly open Settings)
• Select the System icon followed by the Display option in the left-hand pane
• Set Night light to “On” or “Off”

Taskbar pin

It takes only a few seconds to open a browser and enter a web address or choose a saved page from the bookmarks menu. However, Windows 10 makes the process even quicker with Edge browser’s “Pin this page to the taskbar” feature. This is an essential shortcut for anyone who relies on web-based apps such as email or company intranets.

Pin your open windows

Do you struggle to organize a screen cluttered with open windows? Holding the Windows key and pressing an arrow should solve most of your problems:

• Windows key + Left – Resize the current window’s width to half the size of the screen and align it to the left
• Windows key + Right – Resize the current window’s width to half the size of the screen and align it to the right
• Windows key + Up – Maximize the current window to fit the entire screen
• Windows key + Down – Downsize the current window

When none of those keys are enough to set you straight, holding the Windows key and pressing the Tab button will show you all the apps you currently have open.

Focus Assist

Notifications are frustratingly distracting. Windows 10’s Focus Assist feature helps you tackle this issue by customizing which contacts and applications can interrupt you during predetermined periods of time. Try it out by:

• Opening the Settings window
• Clicking the System icon
• Selecting Focus Assist from the left-hand pane
• Adjusting the notifications settings based on your preference

If you wish to disable it and receive all notifications, click “Off.”

These are just a few of our favorites. For more software and productivity recommendations, give our experts a call today.

Microsoft’s latest operating system is so full of features that it’s hard to learn them all. After countless hours answering questions and fixing issues related to Windows 10, we’ve put together a list of the most useful apps, settings, and features. See how many of our picks you already know!

Night Light

This feature lets you reduce the amount of blue light emitted from your screen, which reduces eye strain and boosts sleep efficiency. Night Light is disabled by default, so you need to enable it by following these steps:

• Click the Start Menu
• Open the Settings app (or press the Windows key + I to quickly open Settings)
• Select the System icon followed by the Display option in the left-hand pane
• Set Night light to “On” or “Off”

Taskbar pin

It takes only a few seconds to open a browser and enter a web address or choose a saved page from the bookmarks menu. However, Windows 10 makes the process even quicker with Edge browser’s “Pin this page to the taskbar” feature. This is an essential shortcut for anyone who relies on web-based apps such as email or company intranets.

Pin your open windows

Do you struggle to organize a screen cluttered with open windows? Holding the Windows key and pressing an arrow should solve most of your problems:

• Windows key + Left – Resize the current window’s width to half the size of the screen and align it to the left
• Windows key + Right – Resize the current window’s width to half the size of the screen and align it to the right
• Windows key + Up – Maximize the current window to fit the entire screen
• Windows key + Down – Downsize the current window

When none of those keys are enough to set you straight, holding the Windows key and pressing the Tab button will show you all the apps you currently have open.

Focus Assist

Notifications are frustratingly distracting. Windows 10’s Focus Assist feature helps you tackle this issue by customizing which contacts and applications can interrupt you during predetermined periods of time. Try it out by:

• Opening the Settings window
• Clicking the System icon
• Selecting Focus Assist from the left-hand pane
• Adjusting the notifications settings based on your preference

If you wish to disable it and receive all notifications, click “Off.”

These are just a few of our favorites. For more software and productivity recommendations, give our experts a call today.

Windows 10 is full of useful features, and more are added every time Microsoft releases an update. If it’s been a while since you’ve familiarized yourself with the operating system’s capabilities, you could be missing out on a game-changing enhancement. We’ve created a list of our favorites.

Night Light

This feature lets you reduce the amount of blue light emitted from your screen, which reduces eye strain and boosts sleep efficiency. Night Light is disabled by default, so you need to enable it by following these steps:

• Click the Start Menu
• Open the Settings app (or press the Windows key + I to quickly open Settings)
• Select the System icon followed by the Display option in the left-hand pane
• Set Night light to “On” or “Off”

Taskbar pin

It takes only a few seconds to open a browser and enter a web address or choose a saved page from the bookmarks menu. However, Windows 10 makes the process even quicker with Edge browser’s “Pin this page to the taskbar” feature. This is an essential shortcut for anyone who relies on web-based apps such as email or company intranets.

Pin your open windows

Do you struggle to organize a screen cluttered with open windows? Holding the Windows key and pressing an arrow should solve most of your problems:

• Windows key + Left – Resize the current window’s width to half the size of the screen and align it to the left
• Windows key + Right – Resize the current window’s width to half the size of the screen and align it to the right
• Windows key + Up – Maximize the current window to fit the entire screen
• Windows key + Down – Downsize the current window

When none of those keys are enough to set you straight, holding the Windows key and pressing the Tab button will show you all the apps you currently have open.

Focus Assist

Notifications are frustratingly distracting. Windows 10’s Focus Assist feature helps you tackle this issue by customizing which contacts and applications can interrupt you during predetermined periods of time. Try it out by:

• Opening the Settings window
• Clicking the System icon
• Selecting Focus Assist from the left-hand pane
• Adjusting the notifications settings based on your preference

If you wish to disable it and receive all notifications, click “Off.”

These are just a few of our favorites. For more software and productivity recommendations, give our experts a call today.

Microsoft several years ago acquired the popular iOS app Wunderlist with the intention of building out its own list-making productivity app that brings the best of Wunderlist’s feature set to a larger group of mobile consumers. This is a similar path as Microsoft took with email app Accompli, which later became Microsft Outlook for mobile devices. In the case of Wunderlist, Microsoft didn’t just rebrand the app — it built a new one called Microsoft To Do. With Wunderlist up and running for years alongside To Do, its founder wants to know if he can just have it back.

The founder of Wunderlist maker 6 Wunderkinder, Christian Reber, recently tweeted a desire to buy his app back from Microsoft just as the company is launching a new version of To Do. 

According to the tweets, Reber says he’s serious about reacquiring Wunderlist and wants to make it open-source and free. He even tweeted a list of upgrades he’d like to build, including features like shared folders and cross-team collaboration, among other things.

The founder doesn’t come across as having sour grapes exactly. He just says he’s sad that his plans for Wunderlist didn’t work out, but he’s grateful for the Microsoft exit.

If anything, it seems to be just remorse over the fact that Wunderlist itself will be shut down.

Microsoft had said years ago this was its intention, but also that it would hold off until it felt it has a competitive product that Wunderlist’s users would love.

On Monday, Microsoft unveiled another upgrade for Microsoft To Do, which hints that the Wunderlist shut down could be nearing.

The upgrade delivers a more polished look-and-feel with a wider range of backgrounds, including the Berlin TV tower theme that was popular in Wunderlist.

The app also includes smart lists and a personalized daily planner that offers smart suggestions of tasks that need to be accomplished, Microsoft reminded its users, and it’s supported across a variety of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.

The app is now also integrated with other Microsoft apps like Outlook, Microsoft Planner, Cortana, and Microsoft Launcher on Android, among others. And it works with Alexa, if you prefer.

With the release, Microsoft is again pushing users to migrate from Wunderlist to To Do to gain access to these features.

It did not, however, give an end-of-life date for Wunderlist, which is remarkably still a top 100 Productivity app in the U.S. App Store, according to data from App Annie, over four years after its acquisition.

We’ve asked Microsoft if it will share more details around its plans for Wunderlist and if it has any response to Reber’s request. We’ll update if the company comments.

2016 was the year when Google Now was replaced by Google Assistant, a virtual hub that can make mobile device users’ lives a lot easier. Here are some ways it can ease up your workload.

Locate the best route to any location

Google Assistant works seamlessly with Google Maps, which makes it a great tool for finding the best route to any location.

For instance, if you’re trying to find the best route home, just turn on the app and say, “Get me home.” It will then work with Google Maps to let you know the ideal route based on your current location.

You can also check for traffic updates with Google Assistant, and get the latest information on road closures and traffic diversions. This feature is perfect for people who are often on the move.

Make a shopping list with your voice

Google Assistant can also help you make shopping lists with ease — just “talk” to the app.

To do this, open the app and say, “Add [item] to my shopping list.”  Google Assistant will then collate all the items on your shopping list and read it back to you for good measure. 

Stay updated with the latest news

Too busy to browse the day’s news? Why not have Google Assistant read them for you? If you say “Play the news,” Google Assistant will begin reading the stories from news sources you have saved in your RSS feeds, social media accounts, etc.

You can make Google Assistant play, pause, and stop reading at any time, as well as request it to read articles from a particular source or media site. 

Take control of your smart home

If you’re enhancing your living space with smart devices like ovens, light bulbs, or thermostats that operate automatically, Google Assistant can help you easily control them. For example, you can say, “Okay. Google, turn off lights in the living room.”

To activate Google Assistant, tap on the menu icon at the upper-right section of the screen and choose Settings. You can then add the smart devices in your house that are compatible with your app.

Measurement and currency conversions and language translation

You can also use Google Assistant to convert measurements, currencies, and other data. You can even ask it to get exchange rates between the US dollar and a foreign currency. Just say, “What is 12 US dollars in euros?” The trusty assistant also has a nifty language translation feature. 

Check the email inbox and appointments calendar

If you’re using Google Assistant, chances are you’re using other services like Gmail or Google Calendar, so why not use your voice-activated helper to connect to these apps?

You can ask Google Assistant to skim through your Gmail inboxes for target keywords, or pull up a recently added appointment in your Calendar app. Google Assistant can also work with your Google Keep app, which is handy for taking down notes. 

These are just a few of the things Google Assistant can do for you. If you have questions about this tool, get in touch with our experts who are ready to help you.

Before there was Google Assistant, there was Google Now. In 2016, it replaced Google Now as the virtual assistant (VA) in the Google app for Android and iOS. The updated VA offers plenty of functionalities to Google device users. Here are a few that you should take advantage of.

Locate the best route to any location

Google Assistant works seamlessly with Google Maps, which makes it a great tool for finding the best route to any location.

For instance, if you’re trying to find the best route home, just turn on the app and say, “Get me home.” It will then work with Google Maps to let you know the ideal route based on your current location.

You can also check for traffic updates with Google Assistant, and get the latest information on road closures and traffic diversions. This feature is perfect for people who are often on the move.

Make a shopping list with your voice

Google Assistant can also help you make shopping lists with ease — just “talk” to the app.

To do this, open the app and say, “Add [item] to my shopping list.”  Google Assistant will then collate all the items on your shopping list and read it back to you for good measure. 

Stay updated with the latest news

Too busy to browse the day’s news? Why not have Google Assistant read them for you? If you say “Play the news,” Google Assistant will begin reading the stories from news sources you have saved in your RSS feeds, social media accounts, etc.

You can make Google Assistant play, pause, and stop reading at any time, as well as request it to read articles from a particular source or media site. 

Take control of your smart home

If you’re enhancing your living space with smart devices like ovens, light bulbs, or thermostats that operate automatically, Google Assistant can help you easily control them. For example, you can say, “Okay. Google, turn off lights in the living room.”

To activate Google Assistant, tap on the menu icon at the upper-right section of the screen and choose Settings. You can then add the smart devices in your house that are compatible with your app.

Measurement and currency conversions and language translation

You can also use Google Assistant to convert measurements, currencies, and other data. You can even ask it to get exchange rates between the US dollar and a foreign currency. Just say, “What is 12 US dollars in euros?” The trusty assistant also has a nifty language translation feature. 

Check the email inbox and appointments calendar

If you’re using Google Assistant, chances are you’re using other services like Gmail or Google Calendar, so why not use your voice-activated helper to connect to these apps?

You can ask Google Assistant to skim through your Gmail inboxes for target keywords, or pull up a recently added appointment in your Calendar app. Google Assistant can also work with your Google Keep app, which is handy for taking down notes. 

These are just a few of the things Google Assistant can do for you. If you have questions about this tool, get in touch with our experts who are ready to help you.

Google Assistant was launched in 2016 as an enhanced version of Google’s previous virtual assistant (VA), Google Now. It improved on Google Now’s features, and those who use Google-powered devices certainly have a lot to gain. What functionalities can you expect from the search giant’s AI-powered virtual assistant? Read on and find out.

Locate the best route to any location

Google Assistant works seamlessly with Google Maps, which makes it a great tool for finding the best route to any location.

For instance, if you’re trying to find the best route home, just turn on the app and say, “Get me home.” It will then work with Google Maps to let you know the ideal route based on your current location.

You can also check for traffic updates with Google Assistant, and get the latest information on road closures and traffic diversions. This feature is perfect for people who are often on the move.

Make a shopping list with your voice

Google Assistant can also help you make shopping lists with ease — just “talk” to the app.

To do this, open the app and say, “Add [item] to my shopping list.”  Google Assistant will then collate all the items on your shopping list and read it back to you for good measure. 

Stay updated with the latest news

Too busy to browse the day’s news? Why not have Google Assistant read them for you? If you say “Play the news,” Google Assistant will begin reading the stories from news sources you have saved in your RSS feeds, social media accounts, etc.

You can make Google Assistant play, pause, and stop reading at any time, as well as request it to read articles from a particular source or media site. 

Take control of your smart home

If you’re enhancing your living space with smart devices like ovens, light bulbs, or thermostats that operate automatically, Google Assistant can help you easily control them. For example, you can say, “Okay. Google, turn off lights in the living room.”

To activate Google Assistant, tap on the menu icon at the upper-right section of the screen and choose Settings. You can then add the smart devices in your house that are compatible with your app.

Measurement and currency conversions and language translation

You can also use Google Assistant to convert measurements, currencies, and other data. You can even ask it to get exchange rates between the US dollar and a foreign currency. Just say, “What is 12 US dollars in euros?” The trusty assistant also has a nifty language translation feature. 

Check the email inbox and appointments calendar

If you’re using Google Assistant, chances are you’re using other services like Gmail or Google Calendar, so why not use your voice-activated helper to connect to these apps?

You can ask Google Assistant to skim through your Gmail inboxes for target keywords, or pull up a recently added appointment in your Calendar app. Google Assistant can also work with your Google Keep app, which is handy for taking down notes. 

These are just a few of the things Google Assistant can do for you. If you have questions about this tool, get in touch with our experts who are ready to help you.

A marketplace dominated by Slack and Microsoft Teams, along with a host of other smaller workplace communication apps, might seem to leave little room for a new entrant, but Swit wants to prove that wrong. The app combines messaging with a roster of productivity tools, like task management, calendars and Gantt charts, to give teams “freedom from integrations.” Originally founded in Seoul and now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Swit announced today that it has raised a $6 million seed round led by Korea Investment Partners, with participation from Hyunadi Venture Investment Corporation and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.

Along with an investment from Kakao Ventures last year, this brings Swit’s total seed funding so far to about $7 million. Swit’s desktop and mobile apps were released in March and since then more than 450 companies have adopted it, with 40,000 individual registered users. The startup was launched last year by CEO Josh Lee and Max Lim, who previously co-founded auction.co.kr, a Korean e-commerce site acquired by eBay in 2001.

While Slack, which recently went public, has become so synonymous with the space that “Slack me” is now part of workplace parlance at many companies, Lee says Swit isn’t playing catch up. Instead, he believes Swit benefits from “last mover advantage,” solving the shortfalls of other workplace messaging, collaboration and productivity apps by integrating many of their functions into one hub.

[gallery ids="1854310,1854311,1854309"]

“We know the market is heavily saturated with great unicorns, but many companies need multiple collaboration apps and there is nothing that seamlessly combines them, so users don’t have to go back and forth between two platforms,” Lee tells TechCrunch. Many employees rely on Slack or Microsoft Teams to chat with one another, on top of several project management apps, like Asana, Jira, Monday and Confluence, and email to communicate with people at other companies (Lee points to a M.io report that found most businesses use at least two messaging apps and four to seven collaboration tools).

Lee says he used Slack for more than five years and during that time, his teammates added integrations from Asana, Monday, GSuite and Office365, but were unsatisfied with how they worked.

“All we could do with the integrations was receive mostly text-based notifications and there were also too many overlapping features,” he says. “We realized that working with multiple environments reduced team productivity and increased communication overhead.” In very large organizations, teams or departments sometimes use different messaging and collaboration apps, creating yet more friction.

Swit’s goal is to covers all those needs in one app. It comes with integrated Kanban task management, calendars and Gantt charts and at the end of this year about 20 to 30 bots and apps will be available in its marketplace. Swit’s pricing tier currently has free and standard tiers, with a premium tier for enterprise customers planned for fall. The premium version will have full integration with Office365 and GSuite, allowing users to drag-and-drop emails into panels or convert them into trackable tasks.

While being a late-mover gives Swit certain advantages, it also means it must convince users to switch from their current apps, which is always a challenge when it comes to attracting enterprise clients. But Lee is optimistic. After seeing a demo, he says 91 percent of potential users registered on Swit, with more than 75 percent continuing to use it every day. Many of them used Asana or Monday before, but switched to Swit because they wanted to more easily communicate with teammates while planning tasks. Some are also gradually transitioning over from Slack to Swit for all their messaging (Swit recently released a Slack migration tool that enables teams to move over channels, workspaces and attachments. Migration tools for Asana, Trello and Jira are also planned).

In addition to “freedom from integrations,” Lee says Swit’s competitive advantages include being developed from the start for small businesses as well as large enterprises that still frequently rely on email to communicate across different departments or locations. Another differentiator is that all of Swit’s functions work on both desktop and mobile, which not all integrations in other collaboration apps can.

“That means if people integrate multiple apps into a desktop app or web browser, they might not be able to use them on mobile. So if they are looking for data, they have to search app by app, channel by channel, product by product, so data and information is scattered everywhere, hair on fire,” Lee says. “We provide one centralized command center for team collaboration without losing context and that is one of our biggest sources of customer satisfaction.”
.

You’ve probably purchased Office 365 to be more productive, but things haven’t turned out well. Don’t feel bad since it’s not too late; here’s what you can do.

Get the staff aboard

To maximize your company’s productivity with Office 365, make sure that every employee with a computer uses it. While this may be easier said than done, you can easily promote the service by encouraging the officers of your company to use it first. When your executives, managers, and top employees use Office 365, others will be persuaded to do the same.  

Train employees

If your employees don’t know how to use Office 365, they won’t be productive, and the cloud service becomes a wasted investment. This is why training is vital. Teach your staff the ins and outs of the platform so they can take full advantage of it. 

One way to train your staff is to make or assemble short training videos. These are easy to digest and will be remembered by employees. They can be viewed over and over again and used anytime. This saves management the trouble of training people. 

Utilize core tools

When you first used Office 365, what did you like about it? You were probably sold on the idea that it increases staff productivity since it allows employees to work and collaborate anywhere. If you’re not utilizing this service for that purpose, now is the perfect time to do so. 

Some of the tools that increase productivity are OneDrive for Business (OD4B), SharePoint, and Skype for Business. OD4B and SharePoint allow employees to upload and save documents to a virtual drive, share that document with another group or user, and edit it at the same time. This gives everyone the ability to access that document and work wherever they want. 

Because it is a flexible communication channel, Skype for Business also enhances productivity since employees, colleagues, and customers can communicate easily. From online meetings to conference calls, video calls to instant messaging, you have a wealth of options for instant communication. 

Be more secure

Not only can a security breach cost you money, it can also destroy your business. While Office 365 already has built-in security with Azure Active Directory, it’s always wise to be cautious of the files you add and share on the service. If you upload files with sensitive company information to the platform, make sure you control them.   

These four productivity tips can help your business grow. If you’d like to learn more, or need additional training on Office 365, give us a call. We are happy to help you!