Create your teams 

Teams are designed to be a virtual place where people can come together, with all the tools they need, to share information or collaborate on a common workstream. You can have as many teams as you need, and individuals can be on multiple teams.  

Properly choosing and organizing your teams are key. Our goal was to shift from communicating through email threads – which can be hard to find or easily broken – to Microsoft Teams in order to streamline and simplify communication. Having well-structured teams keeps all related information in one place.  

At CCB, while we have a few company-focused teams for general announcements, most of our teams are department-based, since those are the people we collaborate with most. In marketing, we have teams like Email, Blogs, and Website, since they are things we frequently work on together. However, we also have a Podcast team that crosses departments.  

Pro tip: To avoid teams sprawl, you can set policies in your Teams administration to only allow certain people to create and manage teams. 

Add channels 

Your teams are meant to be broken down by channels – these are the specific projects or conversations you’re having around a topic. For example, under our Blog team, I created a channel for this specific article called Onboarding Microsoft Teams. Within that channel I shared my drafts, got feedback from my team, and dropped in images to include. Having everything in one place simplifies the creation process and allows others to see progress and comment as they like.  

It’s simple to add a channel to your team by clicking the three dots to the right of your team name and choosing “Add channel.” You can also set policies for who to include in a channel in case it doesn’t pertain to the entire team.  

Pro tip: The default “General” channel is included in all teams and cannot be deleted or renamed. It’s used for non-channel-specific announcements and common chat among that team.   

Make the most of your channels 

Within each channel is everything you need to work with your team and get your job done. 

Add a tab 

At the top of each channel, you can create tabs for quick access to information that you frequently use. It’s similar to bookmarks on your web browser, but these tabs take you to your files and other team assets. Default tabs are built-in, but you can add others as needed, such as a website you frequent often, YouTube videos, and most document types. When you click on the tab, the content loads right there in Microsoft Teams.  

Share, store and edit files

Within your channels you can collaborate on documents with your entire team in real-time – just like you would in-person. When you add a file to your channel, it saves to your file tab at the top. You can also create new files from there as well right within your team.  

Your team can access these files together within the channel, chat about changes and edit them right away. This provides greatly enhanced efficiency and productivity. If you want the full experience of the native file apps, you can open in Word, Excel, OneNote, etc. and it will update in Teams. 

Your teams’ files are automatically saved on a SharePoint site, giving you all of the security of Microsoft 365.  

Microsoft Teams Wiki 

This has become one of our favorite features since onboarding Microsoft Teams. We use it to share specific procedures, policies, and best practices related to each team. There are many reasons why this is such a handy tool.  

You can save details about important processes, which allows others to know how to correctly perform a specific task or helps with training new employees. That stops information from walking out the door when a person leaves. 

Some of the things our marketing team uses wiki for are instructions on how to update WordPress, our branding guidelines and image specs, frequently used html codes, and design program processes – to name a few! 

Pro tip: Every single channel has a wiki, but you might not want to use them all as it could get confusing. We often use the wiki under  the “General” channel for the entire team. 

Posts and Chat 

We have teams, we have channels, we have tools – let the communication begin! There are two ways to message people within Microsoft Teams: posts and chats. They’re fairly similar but location sets them apart. Posts are the chat conversations that happen within a channel, and chats take place outside of your teams. 

Chats are great for quick questions to one or more people, Monday morning memes, or communicating with people not in your teams.  

Posts are the conversations that take place around the topic of your channel. It’s important to share those messages in the channel so that all details are clearly communicated to team members. If you put it in a chat instead, it becomes unrelated to a specific channel topic and might get lost, slowing your progress and frustrating team members.   

What sets posts apart from chats, is that you can have threaded conversations where you can create topics for easier navigation. Back to my blog example: within the channel I might create topics called “First draft ready for review” and “Images needed,” where I can work on each item separately with the team members involved. This helps to quickly catch up on conversation topics without having to read posts that are irrelevant to you. 

Pro tip: When you create a new post within your channel, give it a headline so it’s easy to keep related details on the same thread. If you’re replying to a conversation, be sure to hit “reply” instead of starting a new conversation – it’s easy to miss.  

Messaging features in posts and chats: 

Formatting

Just like you can do in Microsoft Outlook, in Teams you can add formatting to your messages to highlight important details and make it easier to read. Options include normal styles like bolding and highlighting, to adding tables, links, quotes and more. You can also make announcements in posts to really get your team’s attention. 

Mentions

With channel posts, you can easily and quickly alert a person or group to your new message by using the “@” symbol. @name reaches a person, @team reaches the whole team, or @channel notifies just those in that specific channel. This comes in handy when you have many teams and communications happening at the same time.   

Mark as unread and bookmarking

Just like email, you can save a message to come back to them later or mark them as “unread” so you don’t forget to respond. These little features help you keep track of what you need to do.  

Emojis, gifs, stickers and read receipts

This mostly sounds fun – which it is – but it also can keep things tidy and be a huge time saver. Within both posts and chats, you can use one of six emojis to show how you feel about a message, with the thumbs up being the frequent go-to. If you need to express your feelings further, you can respond with any number of emojis, gifs, stickers or memes. 

If someone hasn’t used one of these simple methods to acknowledge your message, you can at least tell if they read it by the little eye icon that appears next to it. These features keep conversations efficient and fun while eliminating back and forth emails to say, “got it” “thanks” “will do.” 

Pro tip: We have enough noise and distraction at work, and Microsoft Teams notification settings make it easy to see what’s important and ignore the rest until you have time to review it.  

Virtual meetings and calls 

If messaging just isn’t cutting it and you want to talk it out, you can start a meeting with a team by clicking “meet now” in the top right corner. If you have video enabled, you will see the participants tiled in the window. You can also share your screen to show others what you’re working on.  

Within chats you can also place a video or audio call. The nice thing about both options is that with one click, you can invite several people to a call at one time. 

Pro tip: There’s so much more! You can view your Outlook calendar right within Teams or add a Microsoft Planner tab to your channel to make it easy for your team to stay organized by assigning tasks and tracking progress – everything is at your fingertips. 

Have you tried Microsoft Teams yet? 

It has transformed our work experience for the better here at CCB. It truly brings together Skype, SharePoint, and Office into an easy and efficient way of communicating. Microsoft continues to update the tool and add new features.

Setting it up properly was key to successfully onboarding Microsoft Teams. If you’re not sure how to make it work for your organization or don’t have the time to get started, our engineers can help you implement and manage Teams effectively with our Microsoft 365 Support. It even includes consulting and end user training. Let us know if we can help! 

The post What We Learned Onboarding Microsoft Teams appeared first on CCB Technology.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to send employees home to work remotely. How can your team maintain a collaborative environment while maintaining clear communication and project efficiency? If you find your team struggling with this and you’re looking for a solution – Microsoft Teams could be your answer. 

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a communication platform intended to enhance productivity by combining chat, video meetings, apps, documents and more into one interface where teams can collaborate on projects or topics. Chats are a natural way for teams to communicate, providing threaded, ongoing conversations so everyone can easily stay current. 

It’s free with all Microsoft 365 licenses

If you learn nothing else in this Microsoft Teams introduction, remember this: Microsoft Teams is available to all Microsoft 365 customers with business, enterprise, government, education and nonprofit licenses. It just needs to be turned on by your network administrator. Here’s how.

It’s fully integrated with Microsoft 365 apps

In Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 becomes a true hub for teamwork. All the tools you need are at your fingertips including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Planner and Power BI. 

For example, if someone schedules a meeting, they can include pertinent Word and Excel documents, OneNote notes – whatever applies – so all those resources are available at the fingertips of everyone involved. You can even use connectors to bring in things like Twitter and Bing News. It all works through threaded chats which is a convenient way to organize content. The application here is vast, but as this is a Microsoft Teams introduction, we’ll move on. 

It’s secure

Microsoft Teams provides enterprise-level security with key compliance standards including ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SSAE16 SOC 1 and SOC 2, HIPAA, and EU Model Clauses (EUMC). It also enforces two-factor authentication, single sign on through Active Directory, and encryption of data in both transit and at rest.

It’s customizable for each team

Workspaces can be adapted based on the needs of a team to be able to access the content and features they need every day. You can add tabs to provide easy access to frequently used documents and there are bots to help with quick actions. You can also use connectors to pull in updates from third-party vendors that are relevant to your team. 

It’s easy to get started with Microsoft Teams

This collaboration tool works on all major platforms. There are apps for Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Android, and Windows Phones, including browser-based clients, which make it useable on almost any device. Once it is enabled, it’s fairly intuitive to get going. Here are some tips we learned from onboarding Microsoft Teams. 

Are you ready to unlock Teams?
Hopefully this Microsoft Teams introduction has given you more context into how this tool could keep your team connected and working collaboratively without compromising efficiencies. When it comes to deploying and managing Microsoft Teams, you don’t have to do it alone.

Let’s talk about how CCB can get you started.

The post Microsoft Teams Introduction: Is it Right for You? appeared first on CCB Technology.

• The average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute
• 40% of businesses fail to reopen after a disaster, 25% fail within one year
• 68% of small-business owners don’t have a written disaster recovery plan

At CCB, we’ve found that the most common fear among IT professionals is that some major event or error will create extended downtime or permanent data loss. The concern is real, so why are disaster recovery solutions infrequently implemented?

The fact is, disaster recovery planning often becomes an overwhelming, too-big-to-tackle project that takes the back burner to more immediately relevant projects. As important and stress-relieving as a DR solution would be, many IT professionals either have difficulty getting the ball rolling or are too busy putting out fires to make anticipatory steps.

Backup and disaster recovery begins with one step: a plan. That’s why we’ve compiled four initial steps to help you build a plan and make disaster recovery a less daunting project. Create a plan from which you can build a robust and reliable solution.

Step 1 – Create an “emergency contact” list

Create one sheet (ideally no more than one page) with the contact information for all vendors you might need to contact in case of a disaster. This list should contain contact information for any hardware or software warranties you have, as well as contact information for your internet provider or any other support.

Having all of this information in one place simplifies your first step when a problem arises.

Step 2 – Create a prioritized list of critical systems

Identify what your most critical IT assets are: email, phone lines, SQL server, etc.

Examine what dependencies exist between systems. What is the larger impact of a single point of failure? It is helpful to provide some percentage value to each item in your environment, giving more weight to your essential business tools.

Once you’ve prioritized your systems, define the maximum acceptable amount of downtime for each of those items. Utilize a tool like this cost of downtime calculator to build out a quantifiable assessment of how much downtime your business can handle. It is important to establish expectations with managers so that when a disaster occurs, everyone is on the same page.

Step 3 – Create a list of disaster scenarios

Determine what the most serious threats to your IT environment are. Natural disaster, human error, power outages, system failure, or others. Whatever you might determine for your environment, you should note these findings as well:

1. UPS System Failure (29%)
2. Accidental/ Human Error (24%)
3. Water/ Heat or Computer Room Air Conditioner Failure (15%)
4. Natural disasters (3%)

As you might expect, more common than natural disasters are technical or accidental issues – these “disasters” are largely preventable.

Assess what downtime you’ve experienced in the past, how it was handled, and what you can learn from those experiences. Determine what your environment’s greatest vulnerabilities are: lack of backup power supply, vulnerable or out-of-date software, legacy hardware, infrequent or unreliable backups? 

Step 4 – Select a solution 

The best backup and disaster recovery solution is **drum roll** completely contingent upon your environment and what you’re backing up!

Many factors will determine what backup and DR solution you eventually implement, but these four questions are a good starting point:

• Capacity: what amount of data are you routinely backing up?
• Extensibility: does the solution need to grow as your company grows?
• Speed: how quickly do you need to initiate or retrieve backups?
• Cost: does the solution you need fit into your budget?

There are basically three backup options: tape, disk-to-disk, and cloud. Which option you should choose depends on what’s being backed up and what you need from a backup solution.

Now that you have your initial backup and disaster recovery plan underway, find out how to create a disaster and recovery plan and see if Microsoft Azure is a good fit.

We’d be happy to give you some professional insight into what solution is best for you or help you implement a backup and disaster recovery plan. Send us a message and we’ll set up a conversation for you with one of our sales engineers.

The post How to Start a Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan: 4 Initial Steps appeared first on CCB Technology.

1. Do they have what you need now and later?

Look beyond the products you need right now. What projects are you looking at down the road? Does the IT vendor offer what you will need in 3 months or a year? Do they offer a diversity of brands that meet your needs? Do they specialize in other areas that you might want to use in the future, such as IT services or support?

If you take the time to find an IT vendor who you can use for years to come, you’ll save time and research in the future by relying on that established relationship.

2. Who are they?

Once you find an IT vendor who has what you need, do a little digging to find out if they are someone you can trust. Check out their about page on their website to see how long they have been in business and what their philosophy or mission is. Look for pages that describe how they work with you to see if they would make a good partner.

You’ll also want to look off their website to get the full story. Are they active on social media? By looking at social sites like Facebook you can get a great understanding of their company culture. Also, look for any reviews on popular sites like Google and Yelp.

3. How are they qualified?

An IT vendor should not just be sales people in the IT industry. Anyone helping you make IT purchases needs to have IT qualifications to be able to answer a broad range of questions and help advise you on how to achieve your technology goals.

Find out how the IT vendor stays up-to-date with the continually evolving technology landscape and what standards they maintain for account representatives that you will be working with. If they have a services department, ask to see what technical certifications their engineers hold.

4. Do they have proof?

This is one of the best ways to find out if an IT vendor is right for you. Ask to see case studies or current customer references who you can call and ask about their experience. They should be more than willing to provide these resources if they have great relationships with their clients.

In addition to asking IT questions, ask their clients how they’re treated as a customer. Does the IT vendor invest in learning opportunities for them such as webinars, demos or events? Do they visit customers, send treats or sponsor fun outings to show they care? The customer will be able to give you insight into their relationship.

Finally, ask the IT vendor if they have ever been recognized for excellence in the IT industry or by technology partners they work with.

5. What’s their calling frequency?

This is one of the biggest concerns around IT vendors – no one wants to be harassed with sales calls.

An IT vendor should be a reliable resource who anticipates your needs and reaches out when relevant for help, news and updates – not spam. They should work with you where you are instead of trying to push you in another direction.

Current customers will be able to tell you how appropriate communication from the IT vendor is.

6. Can this be a long-lasting relationship?

If they pass 1-5 this should be the last question you need to ask. Find out how they will work with you over time, including how responsive they are to requests and quotes and what their shipping procedures are. Ask them about their employee turnover rate and how frequently you might receive a new account representative.

After you’ve done your research on an IT vendor, ask yourself these questions to find out if you should use them:

• Is this IT vendor someone who understands me and my company’s goals?
• Do they pay attention to details that are important to me?
• Do I trust their IT recommendations?
• Are they transparent in their business dealings?
• Do I like them?

If they pass the test, then you’ve just found yourself a trusty new IT vendor who can help you make informed IT decisions and quickly get you what you need.

But trust can be hard. If you truly have found the right IT vendor, over time they will continue to prove the validity of your relationship by providing value time after time. Here is a great example of how an IT pro leverages his relationship with CCB to help him stay on the cutting-edge of technology in his industry.

Related: It’s not me, It’s you: Signs You Should Break Up with Your IT Provider

Once you can trust an IT vendor, they can become an extremely valuable partner who can help you save time and money. By relying on their product knowledge and expertise, you can focus your efforts on larger IT initiatives to grow your business.

Is your IT vendor working for you?

CCB is a trusted IT vendor to over 40,000 customers nationwide, and has been helping IT pros achieve their goals with technology since 1991. Become a happy customer.

The post What to look for when choosing an IT vendor appeared first on CCB Technology.

When the development and maintenance of technology struggles to be a strategic focus or is changing too quickly for staff to keep up with, you can easily find your company in the midst of unsupported software, antiquated hardware, and decreased productivity.

I’d like to share a list of 4 solutions that can help you guarantee that technology is properly sustained as a catalyst for your business’s growth with less effort.

4 Major IT Challenges

1. Managing Aging Hardware

Remember your last new server? It was new, it was shiny, and you ensured that everything was compliant and operational… but a mere four years later the storage space was insufficient, the processor was 4x slower than the industry standard, and you all-too-soon saw the approaching headlights of software EOS coming towards you.

Resource: When is a Computer Outdated?

PaaS & IaaS

Rather than making major capital investments in hardware every few years, cloud solutions like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) create an efficient environment with constantly up-to-date hardware and software. They also save you the time and headache of installing and managing local machines.

Through a solution like Microsoft Azure, you can use the cloud for virtual machines, backup, web apps, additional computing, and so much more. And with Azure, you only pay for what you use.

2. Mobilizing Your Workforce

Don’t let mobilizing your workforce turn into technology running away from you. You can advantageously address the technical challenges and security threats that come with it.

Hosted Email and Productivity Suite

A hosted email and productivity suite delivers mobility while mitigating technical challenges and security threats. Since the data is often hosted in the cloud, it is backed up and can be accessed from just about anywhere.

Microsoft 365 is competitively priced and offers a great tool set with Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and OneDrive. It eliminates the need to purchase, manage, or maintain your own Exchange server—plus, it meets compliance requirements like HIPAA, so you avoid potential fines from being incompliant.

3. Maintaining Uptime / Preventing Downtime

You may have a business that runs smoothly through day-to-day operations, but do you find yourself tossing and turning at night for fear of a critical device failing or being destroyed by a disaster?

Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan

A full-fledged backup and disaster recovery plan brings more than just uptime and business continuity—it brings peace of mind. Downtime can cost your company close to $12,500 an hour through loss of critical resources and productivity. Backup and disaster recovery solutions keep downtime to a minimum so you stay profitable and meet customer needs.

Your first step towards peace of mind will be to sit down and implement a backup plan. Take a look at our blog about getting started with a backup and disaster recovery plan. The solution that goes with your plan will depend on what you’re backing up, but Azure is the solution we recommend.

Azure is a great tool for protecting your entire data center. With virtual machines replicated into the hosted environment of Microsoft’s geo-synchronous data centers, you could have your environment up and running mere minutes after a disaster.

Additional resource: How to create a disaster recovery plan – is Azure right for you?

4. Avoiding Cyberattacks

Larger enterprises have become better defended, so cybercriminals are moving down the business food chain and targeting smaller businesses. Security threats evolve and threaten your environment… even when you do everything right.

Multifactor Authentication

Circumventing attacks requires a new approach. Merely enforcing a username + password form of authentication has become dangerous and insufficient, so I recommend a multifactor authentication (MFA) solution from a provider like WatchGuard Technologies.

MFA is comprised of well…multiple factors: something you have (card, token, etc.), something you know (password, question, etc.), or something you are (physical characteristics or biometrics of the user). With MFA, a lost or stolen password won’t be enough to access your environment since logging in requires a 1) username and password, 2) an action like swiping a card or scanning a token, or 3) providing some sort of physical evidence like a fingerprint or voice recognition. This will augment security, enforce compliance, and simplify the lives of your users.

Now go do what you do!

If you focus on solving these three business challenges with long-term solutions, you’ll find yourself with more time to invest in the missions and goals of your company. Technology will begin to catalyze your growth rather than complicate it.

Wearing many hats will always be in the fiber of small and medium businesses, but you don’t have to wear all the hats. At CCB, we want to not only deliver the technology that will help, but shoulder the weight of your IT. Contact us about any of these technologies and we’ll connect you with one of our Engineers to discuss how we can implement the solution.

MAKE CCB YOUR BUSINESS PARTNER

Work with an IT provider who will come alongside your missions and goals. Tackle your next project with CCB.

The post 4 Tools that Solve Your Small and Medium Business Woes appeared first on CCB Technology.

Your IT provider should do more than just place your orders or begrudgingly fix your network problems. You should receive the business equivalent to a box of chocolates and a dozen roses: great service and technology that meets your business needs.

An IT provider might be your hardware/software reseller, managed service provider, or anything in between. But the fact is technology is a big part of business, so it’s important that you’re working with the right company (maybe even “the one”).

No matter what they’re helping you with, if you’re experiencing any of these signs, it’s time to do some soul-searching. So grab some chunky monkey ice cream and a seat on the couch, and let’s talk.

1. They don’t get you

An IT provider should be more than just a company you work with—they should be a business partner. Their goal shouldn’t be placing orders or merely remediating problems, but equipping you with the means of accomplishing your mission and goals. Technology is just how they do that.

Does your IT provider understand you? Do they know your business, your mission, your goals, hopes, and dreams? Now, hopes and dreams might be a deeper stage of the relationship, but if they’re not familiar with what your company is about, then they’ll never be capable of fully meeting your needs.

You should be equipped with technology to achieve your mission and goals, and that will require an IT provider who knows what those missions and goals are. If your IT provider doesn’t know your business on that level, then stop settling! Get out there and find someone who does.

2. They don’t make you feel special

A growing relationship should keep you feeling like a priority. A major part of feeling valued comes from responsiveness to needs. Nobody likes waiting on a response to a call or an email, and then being met with an unapologetic answer when they finally get back to you. As Dr. Phil probably says, “Communication is a big part of relationships!”

Time is money, so if your IT provider is consistently unresponsive and has long turn-around times, then you should sit them down and have a conversation. If things don’t start to change, then it might be time to say goodbye. If they’re not making you feel valued, then be assured there is a company out there that would love the chance to change that!

3. You’re frustrated more often than you’re happy

New relationships often start out great when the IT provider is trying to earn your trust and business. But what about when the honeymoon is over? It’s not uncommon for the quality of service to gradually degrade as they become “comfortable” with delivering subpar support.

If this has happened, don’t be content with the status quo! It’s your provider’s duty to make sure you’re taken care of, so if the quality of service is waning, then let them know how you feel. If nothing changes, then it’s time to move on.

4. You’ve both changed

Sometimes, businesses simply… grow apart. It happens, and when it does it’s best to acknowledge the changes and adjust as necessary.

Do you feel like your IT provider hasn’t grown or scaled with you? If you’ve grown or downsized significantly since you started working with your provider, it might be best to reassess and ensure they’re the best fit. If you’re paying a premium for services you no longer need then look for a company that will meet you where you are and tailor the solution.

Maybe your IT provider changed their business strategy and has shifted focus in industries or services. Examine whether or not the services you need fall within their expertise; if not, then look for someone who is an expert at what you need.

Has customer service quality dropped? Are you dealing with issues and putting out IT fires yourself that aren’t yours to deal with? Whatever the reason for such behavior might be, it definitely warrants a reevaluation on your part.

How to have that difficult conversation

So you’ve checked all the boxes, you’ve weighed the costs, and it’s official: you’re ready to break up with your IT company. Now what?

Well, how you deliver the news is up to you, but maybe these classic break-up lines from Demetri Martin will help:

“Is it hot in here? Or are you just suffocating me in this relationship? Let’s breakup.”

—

“Just wondering, have you been doing pushups with your knees down? ‘Cause I’m not sure this is working out. Let’s breakup.”

—

“Are your feet tired? Because you’ve been stomping on my dreams for a few months now. Let’s breakup.”

Learning to love (your IT provider) again

If your relationship with your IT provider is going well, then stick with it! But if you’re having the issues described above, then simply put, you deserve better—and CCB would love to be the knight in shining armor.

We pride ourselves in delivering tailored support and service for any of your IT needs, including managed services, project services, hardware and software procurement, and much more. So let’s build a relationship and build one that’s made to last.

If you’re interested in seeing what we can do and how it stacks up against what you’ve known, then reach out. Let us know what we can help you with—whether it’s a hardware or software quote, project proposal, or any form of managed IT services, we’ll take care of you.

Make CCB your business partner

Work with an IT provider who will come alongside your missions and goals. Let’s build a relationship.

The post It’s not me, It’s you: Signs You Should Break Up with Your IT Provider appeared first on CCB Technology.