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Did you know that there is a quick way to securely request files from someone via OneDrive or SharePoint in Office 365? You can create a folder, send a request, and your recipient can upload their documents all with a few quick clicks. Learn more here! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

You can use "Styles" to add a bit more flavor to your documents: To Apply A Style Highlight the text you want to stylize Select a a style from the ribbon To Modify a Style Right click a style in the ribbon you want to modfy Select Modify Make the changes you want and select OK Anything in your document or email will update with the new modifications You can learn more about styles here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

OneNote can be used for more than just basic math! You can learn more about using OneNote to solve math equations here!

Much like the rest of your business, your technology infrastructure needs the right strategy to be successful. Among many things, part of that strategy should include plans to keep you secure and compliant in an ever changing industry. Another part of that strategy should be to discuss various solutions that can help you run a more successful business. Here are a few solutions to plan for: All Windows 7 Computers and Server 2008 R2 Servers need to be replaced Support for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 ends on 1/14/2020. It is the "end of life" for these 10+ year old operating systems. This means no more security updates and you will not meet any technology compliance standards if you are still running any computers or servers with these operating systems. It also means your business isn't fully utilizing the modern capabilities of Windows 10. Your best bet is to replace old computers with new or modernly refurbished equipment. For servers, migrating to a newer platform is essential. If you aren't using server virtualization, it needs to be part of your strategy to save time and reduce costs. You need a plan, as soon as possible, to migrate away from Windows 7 so that you aren't putting your company or customers at risk! It's time to implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Office 365 By now, you have experienced or heard of someone having their emails "hacked". More than likely the person wasn't actually "hacked". Good chance they were tricked via a phishing scam into giving their password to a malicious entity that was then used to access that person's account. When MFA is enabled, if someone takes your password, when they try to use it, the user is notified so they can reject access. With a more advanced deployment, the system can automatically reject that malicious person from even attempting. This protects your email, your files, your teams, and more! And here's the crazy part… Basic MFA Licensing is included with your Office 365 subscription! That doesn't mean you should "just turn it on" without a plan. Implementing MFA can have a large impact on your office culture, a good plan is key to it being a success. Depending on the size and complexity of your business, the free version could be a perfect fit for you. And if not, the next tier of licensing is affordable and adds more security features like Conditional MFA (turns off MFA when you are in the office, but turns it on when accessing outside of your office) or Risky Login Protection (Someone tried to login from Miami while you were in Chicago, create an alert!). On top of all that, once MFA is enabled for Office 365, you can consider integrating it and/or other cloud identity security features with other services and cloud identities. (Salesforce, Amazon, RDS, Dropbox, ServiceNow, SAP, Twitter, Quickbooks, and more!) It all begins with getting Multi-factor Authentication enabled for your Office 365. You need a plan to start that conversation and implement MFA! Consistent Company Email Signatures This one doesn't have as much to do with security or "end of life" compliance, it's just simply a good idea for any business. If you don't have a solution currently, then you already know how much of a pain it is to have everyone in the company setup with a consistent e-mail signature. Maybe you've gone through each employee's computer and set things just right. Maybe you've gone to the mail app of each phone and tablet they use and made sure that was configured with your standard signature as well (if that's even possible). When someone in your business sends an email, that email is communicating more than what is typed, it is a representation of your brand. It's an opportunity to project your company image and can even be used casually to communicate news about your business. When your company's email signatures are not consistent, you miss out on that opportunity. In some cases, it can even look less professional! Fortunately, email signature solutions are no longer cumbersome and expensive. It's very straightforward to design a great looking signature that dynamically changes based on who is sending an email and the content of that email. The solution itself is easy enough to use that, once implemented, your IT, a staff member, or your marketing contact can update signatures with minimal training. It's time to make a plan for consistent email signatures in your business. Hopefully these are solutions you already have in place or have planned for. Whether you are in charge of making decisions, a technology adviser, or just an employee who wants to help improve the business they work for, it's a great time to start talking about new technology solutions. (Seriously, you need a plan for Windows 7 and 2008 R2 ASAP!) Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Everyone hates changing their passwords. You have to remember your new password. You have to update the sticky note underneath your keyboard (stop writing it down!). You have to enter your password into multiple devices. You might lose access to systems because the password change didn't take effect properly. If you forget your password after you changed it, then you might lock yourself out typing it incorrectly, causing a whole new set of problems. Password change policies are tedious and unnecessary. Every business should have a password policy. There's great value to enforcing things like password complexity or minimum password length. It's important to define a policy that helps set a solid standard for password security in your business. However, if you company password policy forces regular password changes, it is likely doing more harm than good. Think we're crazy? Microsoft doesn't think so. They've been saying this since 2016. Neither does the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). SANS Security Awareness thinks password expiration should go away as well! Does this mean you should call your IT department right now and tell them to remove this "old-school" security process? Maybe, but more than likely, not yet. This should be a conversation that leads to replacing older security mindsets and policies with modern ones designed to mitigate real risks. Consider removing your password expiration policy while in parallel implementing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and improved identity protection technologies that can detect risks and reduce the need to share passwords. Also, consider security awareness training for your staff, they are at the forefront of any identity threat. An educated workforce is the best defense against the new deceptive tactics used by malicious entities! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Okay, so maybe not ANY problem, but OneNote can be an essential tool to helping your organize your troubleshooting process. If you aren't familiar, OneNote is a free Notebook application provided by Microsoft. If you have Office 365, you likely already have it installed on your computer. Not a fan of OneNote, that's okay, I wasn't initially either. While I fully intend to ramble on about many ways OneNote can make your life easier, the focus of this post is on how it can help you solve problems. A challenge with OneNote is that it in all of it is infinite powers, it's usefulness relies on your ability to organize your own processes. Below is the layout of one of my OneNote Notebooks: This is my "personal" work notebook, only I have access to it I have a section called "Solutions" where I keep pages filled with problems and solutions I have a page called "Wagon Wheel Inc. - A real problem" to use as an example The basics of solving any problem is to identity what's happening, why it is happening, what to do about it, and then communicating the plan to resolve that problem. Eventually, that resolution will become a solution that turns into something much more organized for me (A proposal, a ticket or project plan, and eventually an invoice!) I use this OneNote page as my "center for information gathering" while going through this process. Which means, as things progress, this page will get updated. If I have a meeting (in-person or remote), I'll have this page open and ready for me to add notes: As action items begin to form, that'll get added to this page as well: I'll continue to add to this page during the entire research and discussion process, always adding titles to keep things organized: With OneNote, you have unlimited space to work with, so I'll generally keep on moving to the right as things progress: Even important emails will begin on this page: For an important email like this, I might share this page with someone to review and proofread: Eventually, that draft will turn into a real email that leads to a real solution. The entire time, my notes are in a single place that are easy for me to get to via my phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop: When I am in a meeting with my team, I can open my OneNote page and share my screen so everyone can review with me. Down the road, if I need to look back, I can search instantly to find those notes. On top of that, everything in this notebook follows my company's security standards and can be safely accessed from anywhere. If you've worked with me in the past and have wondered how I remember so much, you now know my secret… I don't actually remember, I just have easy access to my notes in OneNote wherever I am! This is just one of the hundreds of ways I use OneNote to help make my job easier. A takeaway from this is to consider using OneNote if you aren't using it already. There are alternatives out there, and many of them are great, but if you are in the Office 365 universe, it really deserves to be part of your normal day to day workflow. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Well, this is exciting for Office 365 customers! Microsoft Flow is now Power Automate.  If you aren't familiar with this product, Power Automate (Flow) is an Office 365 service that can add automation steps to almost anything. For example, let's say you wanted to have a web form send an email or automatically request manager approval after it has been completed. Your business can enable workflow steps using Power Automate to make this happen. Microsoft has published a great article that gives an overview of some of the new features. Some of the highlights include: Removal of "coding" requirements for many workflows New form integrations between Teams , Sharepoint, and PowerApps The ability to utilize features with your guest users Power Virtual Agents that allow you to quickly create chat bots for your Teams Easier integration with your cloud and on-premise data Modernizing your workflow is a key component towards a company's digital transformation. Updates like this empowers more businesses to implement the type of automation that lets you do more with less in a more efficient way. By streamlining how you implement these new technologies and reducing many of the more typical programmatic barriers, many of these new features will let businesses with fewer technical skill sets implement new forms of workflow automation and innovation in their business. TL:DR If you have wanted to implement some basic workflow changes in your business (e.g. "Let's make a change request form" or "I want Teams to let us know if X happens") it is now much easier to do this. If you are already an Office 365 customer, you likely already have the licenses you need to make this happen with minimal training. There's no better time to start exploring! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.