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Microsoft Office has evolved way beyond the traditional ‘Word, Access, Excel and Powerpoint’ quartet. As stunning as these programs were (and are), the latest incarnation, Office 365, blows them out of the water.

Microsoft Office 365 can take your business to the next level, delivering the tools required to accelerate daily tasks and goals. Super-efficiency, ultra-streamlined processes, better quality products and enhanced client relationships are all within your grasp; read on for the seven reasons how Office 365 can boost your business.

No doubt you’ve seen and heard much about the necessity for a strategic approach to IT.  That’s all well and good, but for many, IT is something which ‘just happens’ and as a result, calling it ‘strategic’ couldn’t be further from the truth. Want to change that? Here’s how (and hint: a strategic approach will deliver considerable advantages - in performance, efficiency and enablement).

Looking to boost business performance without adding a great deal of cost? The answer lies in automation. Long accepted as a great way of enhancing productivity and performance with ‘round the clock’ efficiency, there is an increasingly wide array of automation opportunities for the everyday office.

These days, robots are responsible for 10 percent of manufacturing tasks and it’s growing all the time. By 2025, it will be 25 percent, according to a Boston Consulting Group study.

But it isn’t just manufacturing where automation is relevant. Anywhere in the office where processes depend on passing around pieces of paper, for example, there is an opportunity for automation. By digitising that piece of paper, it is possible to accelerate the workflow and the process, remove inefficiency, eliminate mistakes which come from ‘rekeying’ information and free people up to concentrate on more value-added tasks. Thinking, rather than shuffling paper.

Have you ever wondered how your competitors are doing but haven't gotten up the nerve to ask them yourself? With these five apps, you'll be able to keep track of what other people are saying about your competitors, as well as what they are saying about you.

1. Glassdoor
   If you want a clear view of the outside world, Glassdoor is a great app for both iOS and Android operating systems. It was originally designed for job seekers, but it lets you see salary information and reviews of employers. You can get a good idea of what your competitors do for their employees, and one-up them to prevent your talent from being poached. And if your team feels good about your company, they’ll have more desire to see you succeed over the others.

 A couple of months ago, we published a post about malware and the danger of being targeted through the internet. The reality is that despite the easy availability of plenty of information, the emails of more and more businesses are being compromised. Email-borne risks include viruses, scams, phishing attacks and more. Knowing how to protect yourself against these attacks is challenging because hackers are dynamic and smart about how and who they target, making it difficult to know what is and isn’t legitimate.

In this post we help you to help yourself by pointing out a few common email threats and how you can identify them (Oh! And provide examples of the latest spam reported in New Zealand.)

Typically, the first thing most assume when dealing with cloud services is that there will be a cost saving. The next is that the costs will be variable, and they are. What ‘they’ don’t tell you is that by using Amazon Web Services (AWS), it is possible to get lost in the cloud and end up with a bill much bigger than anticipated. Here’s how that can happen.

Let's start by considering a trully uknown - AWS Cost Accounting

Pricing for AWS is completely transparent.  The price for each service is clearly labelled online and publicly available.  Amazon’s list prices are the same for all customers, and the only discounts come in the form of volume discounts based on usage, or Reserved Instances (RIs).

So if that's so transparent, how is it an unknown? The devil is in the details

Many small to medium businesses are embracing the move to the cloud, quickly finding themselves with hybrid environments which combine on-premise technology with online services. But what are the implications for security? How can you be sure that company information is secure and that hackers aren’t getting into your company?

Firstly, accept that information security is a very real and ongoing risk. It is a simple fact of life; 1.1 billion personal and sensitive records were compromised in 2014 across 3,014 incidents. There’s no shortage of statistics and data available to show the extent of the problem.

It sounds awfully frightening and, with attackers using automated approaches to constantly probe for weaknesses, the possibility of experiencing a breach is very real.

You will by now have heard the term 'Cloud Computing' a lot.  You probably have found that the term 'cloud computing' used for completely different and apparently contradictory circumstances. Google, Uber and Amazon are all 'cloud' but very different services. Didn't Amazon once sell books?  AWS, Evernote, Uber, AirBnB, Office 365, Google - all cloud, all quite distinct.

But  then  even  though  IT  created  this  notion  of  cloud  computing  they  took  it  further  and  created  even  more  clouds.  No, these aren’t cumulus, stratus or cirrus. They are instead the public cloud, the hybrid cloud and the private cloud.

Before getting into these definitions, take a look at this previous blog for more detail on "What is cloud" 

Let's start: Public Cloud

A    public    cloud is based on a standard cloud computing    model,   where   a  service provider (think Microsoft or Amazon)    makes    resources,    such  as applications  and   storage, available  to  the   general  public over the Internet. Public cloud services   may   be   free   or    offered  on a pay-per-usage model.  

What about private cloud?

A few weeks ago, we blogged about why your business should consider moving to Office 365 and the benefits of Microsoft’s cloud productivity applications. As always, it’s worth giving thought to the reasons for moving to Office 365 (and the reasons for making any change to business services should be good ones!)

With Office 365, those reasons are very good – but there are conditions which must be fulfilled before you do it. Check out these 5 points which will determine if your business is ready to take the leap:

1. Internet Connectivity

New Zealand is in the midst of the National UFB (Ultra Fast Broadband) Network roll-out. If you’re in an area which is connected – great. However, not every business has inexpensive access to business grade internet.

As a cloud service, Office 365 depends on good internet connectivity is essential. Don’t fall into the trap of switching only to discover your connection isn’t up to it. That could deliver a poor experience, leaving your staff wondering why the switch was made in the first place.

Computer technology moves fast. For this reason, it's hard to believe that a computer program that's been around for so long is still one of the most popular programs in the world: Excel.

Nowadays, most office workers are expected to know how to work with basic Excel to the extent that many recruiters suggest you shouldn't even bother listing it on your CV. Be that as it may, if you still find yourself manually replicating columns and scribbling down maths on pieces of paper, you’ll find these 9 tips to use Excel invaluable (and you can download over 200 of them at the end of this post!).