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Microsoft OneDrive – Sharing Large Files

Microsoft OneDrive can be used to share large files with people outside and inside of your organization. Using OneDrive to share files and folders can help you elevate collaborate with coworkers and customers to the next level. Instead of sending e-mails to share files back and forward, your organization can leverage OneDrive to centralize file sharing in a secure way.

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Microsoft Teams – How to Create a Meeting Invite

So what are the different options to create a meeting invite? The first that comes to mind is Outlook. In this video we go over the Microsoft Teams Outlook plugin.

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Microsoft Teams Basic Functions Under 10 min

In this video we go over basic functionalities of Microsoft teams such as making calls, meetings, screen sharing, taking notes, recording meeting and changing device settings. Learn more @ www.thecompulab.com how Microsoft Teams can change your business!

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Microsoft Teams Basic Intro Under 10 min

 

Why use Microsoft Teams? We go over some of the benefits of using MS Teams and a basic overview of how a small business could use it to streamline communication and collaboration.

Microsoft Teams is a great communication and collaboration platform that combines instant messaging, video meetings, file storage, screen sharing, basically one platform that integrates many of the different Office 365 platforms such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Planner, etc. We believe that is one of the biggest benefits of Microsoft Teams vs Zoom or GoToMeeting. Second benefit is that if you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you may be already paying for it, it’s just a matter of understating how it works, so you can start using it!

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SharePoint Explained Under 10 min.

 

SharePoint Explained under 10 min. Follow up on our previous video about OneDrive. SharePoint and OneDrive have lots of similarities but are used for different purposes. SharePoint can get very confusing, in this video we go over SharePoint Document libraries and how they work, how to synchronize them with your Windows 10 computer and some of the benefits of using SharePoint vs other platforms like G-Drive or DropBox.

Small businesses can use SharePoint as a collaborative storage where multiple people can store, access, modify and collaborate in a central secure location. One of the biggest benefits we see when using SharePoint is that it integrates very well with other business applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. It also has a nice integration with Microsoft Teams which we will explain in another video.

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OneDrive Explained Under 10 min.

 

Have you ever wonder why use OneDrive vs other products such as DropBox? or what about SharePoint? Should you use OneDrive or SharePoint?  We get this question a lot. In this video we go over OneDrive vs SharePoint and some of their differences. We also show a brief overview of how OneDrive works.  OneDrive is a cloud storage platform that works just like DropBox or G-Drive, but comes with big advantages.

Some of the benefits of using OneDrive vs Other applications:

  1. Single sign one: you only need one username and password for all the Office 365 apps.
  2. Security: same concept as single sign on, you can enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to secure all of your Office 365 apps.
  3. Ease of use: OneDrive integrates seamlessly with many of the Microsoft desktop applications like Word, Excel, Outloos and Microsoft Teams.

Watch the video to learn more!

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How to Trim the Fat From Data Center Costs

5 Things SMBs Can Do Right Now to Preserve Their Network and Systems

How to Trim the Fat From Data Center Costs

When smaller businesses look to cut costs, they commonly take shortcuts that are risky to their bottom line. They may go out of their way to avoid upgrading dated hardware, buying software licenses, or increasing bandwidth. In some instances, they layoff in-house IT support, or avoid hiring new help, even as the business grows. This often leads to a very cranky and disgruntled “IT guy” with a bad attitude as he or she runs around the office putting out one fire after another – feeling overburdened and underpaid.

Operating even the most basic data center today means recurring operating expenses that aren’t affordable for most small-to-midsize businesses.

Unfortunately, SMBs just have to accept that keeping their data center alive and kicking means significant overhead and expenses. That’s just the way it is.

Or is it? There are actually several ways to reduce data center infrastructure costs without sacrificing the efficiency of your network, server, and applications, or the sanity of your IT guy.

Rent, Don’t Own: A data center needs experienced people and a virtual, always-on, 24/7 staff of administrators, networking experts, database specialists, systems managers, and dedicated IT personnel monitoring the network. From an economic perspective, it’s simply more logical to “rent” these workers rather than hire permanent employees.

Keep Things Remote & Energy Efficient: According to a study published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the fastest-growing sources of U.S. energy consumption are data centers. This is due to the increased power supply required to run and cool a data center. Hardware sprawl is also a problem contributor, as most businesses have space limitations and lack the available room for any additional hardware.

Embrace Outsourcing

Both of the aforementioned cost control measures can be accomplished by outsourcing data center operating expenses. Outsourcing isn’t a dirty word. Managing IT on your own is difficult and far from cost effective. Outsourcing the day-to-day IT management responsibilities through a Managed Services Provider is a strategic way to improve the efficiency of operations and dramatically cut costs.

Is it any surprise that more and more SMBs today are tapping into the full spectrum of outsourced managed services to empower their business processes and reduce overhead? Are you?

Contact us at TheCompuLab

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Click, Click, BOOM – You’re in Business But Is Your Technology Ready?

Click, BOOM – You’re in Business But Is Your Technology Ready?

It’s a fast business world. Brilliant business ideas can be conjured up at some hipster-filled vegan coffeehouse, a website is thrown together, and poof… in no time at all there is a living, breathing, small business venture accessible from anywhere in the world.

But as your head hits the pillow at night, with visions of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg dancing in your head, understand that many obstacles will greet you on your road to entrepreneurial success. A fresh innovative idea is merely a start. For every successful startup like Groupon, there are even more that have faltered. Some great, even revolutionary, business concepts that just faded into obscurity; leaving behind nothing but tales of what could’ve been and insurmountable debt.

Failed business technology is often a big reason for this. Many startups think big but tend to operate small-minded to keep overhead and costs down. They then find themselves completely unprepared to meet the demands of growth, particularly when it comes to their IT infrastructure. There is no one-size fit all approach to how to manage technology for optimal efficiency, uptime, and profitability. Especially given the challenges of limited budgets and the need to keep overhead down.

So exactly how do SMBs make sound decisions regarding their technology infrastructure? Choices that are cost-effective enough to get their business off the ground and running without screwing them over once it truly takes off?

Combine On-Site and Off-Site Support for the Best of Both Worlds

Over 45% of SMBs have no dedicated in-house IT staff and no contracted IT consultant regularly monitoring and managing their technology. Roughly only 7 percent of SMBs have a full-time onsite IT technician on payroll. The rest rely on third-party on-call IT companies who appear only when technology goes haywire and disrupts business. These on-call companies can sometimes take a day or two to even show up, which means issues aren’t resolved in a timely and efficient manner. And did we mention they’re expensive?

Most SMBs say they simply can’t afford full-time in-house support. Even those who do budget for it face overwhelming challenges. They often experience a revolving door of on-site help who leave for a larger company and better salary once they’ve beefed up their resume. And those hires that do remain loyal often feel as if they have no reliable help and become overworked and frazzled as the business and their responsibilities grow. Discontent may even set in if wages aren’t raised proportionately to the added responsibilities, or if they grow bored of doing the same mundane repetitive work everyday.

But today’s SMB has access to technology that won’t drain resources. In particular, the evolution of cloud computing and managed services can either automate or re-assign a lot of the day-to-day caretaking of technology to remote employees, leaving onsite support available for more meaningful and potentially profitable projects.

Better yet, it saves money on equipment costs.

Whenever possible, a mix of on-premise and off-premise IT support is the best way to make your technology scalable and prepared for growth.

Contact us at TheCompuLab

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Three Steps To Fix IT Management for SMBs

Understand How Data Loss Can Happen…

Three Steps To Fix IT Management for SMBs

Small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) tend to have a more difficult time managing IT than larger enterprises. Despite being as technology dependent as larger enterprises, SMBs have tighter budgets and fewer resources to devote to IT management. This leads to a more reactive “break-fix” approach to their technology that never does any smaller company or organization any good.

Here’s what break fix most often leads to. If the burden rests on the shoulders of hourly or salaried in-house IT support, and they’re too busy putting out fires all day, then their skills and talents are essentially wasted.

If there is no in-house tech support, and many smaller companies and organizations don’t have even one onsite “IT guy”, SMBs are commonly taken for a ride by some of the more unscrupulous on-call IT consultants.

Although “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a popular saying, it should never be applied to the management of business technology. The cost of downtime can crush any barely surviving small business. The combined impact of lost revenue, lost productivity, and lost brand reputation is a severe hit that many SMBs aren’t built to withstand.

It pays to be proactive, not a reactive about technology. This requires a cultural shift from how IT has commonly been handled in the past. Say goodbye to manual, yet necessary, processes and hello to a better way for businesses to meet their technology needs – a smarter and more cost-efficient way.

Three Steps To Better Manage Your Business Technology

Be Proactive – More often than not, it’s the things that aren’t caught early on that turn into costly business disruptions. For instance, many of the hardware, software, and application failures that cause downtime occurrences are preventable; they’re just not detected and addressed early enough.

SMBs today have the advantage of using a Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tool to help their existing in-house support staff get a grip on their workload.

A RMM tool, combined with an outsourced 24/7 Network Operations Center (NOC), monitors your technology all day and all through the night via one comprehensive interface that is even accessible with a mobile device. This kind of around the clock monitoring transforms technology management. Problems can be nipped in the bud with an alert and prompt ticket resolution before they turn into major issues that disrupt day-to-day operations.

Automate/Schedule Mundane Tasks – Free the in-house support staff from everyday manual maintenance and monitoring by automating a broad range of IT security and monitoring tasks.

Get More From Your In-House Team – If you have any in-house IT support, you’ve likely hired some incredibly skilled and talented people who would be more worthy contributors to your company or organization if they weren’t always so tied up fixing things and performing monotonous tasks. With RMM and NOC solutions, SMBs can put these individuals to work on projects that matter. They are freed-up to work on concepts, strategies, and application development that better serve your customers, employees, and suppliers, truly giving business a competitive advantage.

Contact us at TheCompuLab

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