Globally, human rights abuses tear apart lives, families and nations. Ensuring justice and reconciliation — and intervening early to prevent atrocities — is in the hands of the United Nations. But how can the UN know when human rights are in the balance?
Ahmed Motala leads one of the teams at the UN Human Rights Office tasked to find out. In places like Syria, Burundi and Sri Lanka, these teams are part of the world’s early warning systems. Eyewitnesses and field staff collect information and pass it on to human rights officers, who build up a picture of what is happening before calling on governments or the UN to intervene.
“It’s about putting this jigsaw puzzle together,” Motala says.
Motala recently supported the Office’s investigation on Sri Lanka. For over a quarter of a century, the island in the Indian Ocean was embroiled in bitter and bloody civil war, which left as many as 100,000 people dead. Technology was vital for helping him and his colleagues put the pieces together. “We are able to find leads on what may be happening,” he says. With a smartphone, anyone can be a human rights defender. “Often people in very remote places have mobile phones that have a good camera and the possibility of uploading.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, meets with relatives of missing people in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. (Photo courtesy of OHCHR)
The UN Human Rights Office has over 1,000 staff worldwide, working at every level from gathering reports in conflict zones to advocating at the UN Security Council. Technology can overcome physical barriers to access, let human rights defenders communicate securely and help verify reports of abuses. That’s one of the reasons why Microsoft is launching a five-year partnership with the UN to support its vital work in this field.
“New technologies are advancing so rapidly, and companies like Microsoft can advise us on how to use those technologies to protect human rights,” says Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Boosting his staff’s capacity to process data will make for speedier responses. A dashboard that Microsoft is helping to develop and deploy will pull in, process and compare various sources of information. Artificial intelligence and big data analytics can assist in verifying alleged human rights abuses by cross-checking against other data sets as well as searching for additional clues.
“One of the big challenges for us is, how do you develop the tools to gather information when you don’t have access?” Motala explains. With Sri Lanka, despite a UN resolution with a “very clear request to the parties to provide access, they refused — the former president even issued a public statement saying they would not cooperate with the investigation.”
Enter the power of data to find the human rights jigsaw pieces. People sent thousands of photographs and hundreds of hours of video that teams like Motala’s have to assess, along with written eyewitness accounts of what happened. Before placing them into the story, investigators must ask: Are they true? Old images may have been reused, Photoshopped, misattributed or have doctored data.
“What is fake, what is true? That’s a question we ask ourselves on a regular basis,” Motala says. Staff across the UN have received training to gauge photo and video materials to see if they’ve been altered. “We’ll get allegations like that, a video saying this is Boko Haram in Nigeria,” says Scott Campbell of the UN Human Rights Office’s Africa desk. By looking at factors like date and time, identifying the location, and checking weather conditions against records, “you say, well, wait a minute, this is a photo from 1998 in Latin America.”
Once photos are established as reliable, it’s time to place them in a narrative. “A shocking photograph of dead bodies has to be carefully analyzed to see if it discloses any clues,” Motala says. It’s a matter of searching through swathes of data for related images showing an aircraft, a gun, a bomb or a sign of whether the people involved are combatants or civilians. This is both difficult and time-consuming. Technology will be able to help the UN to sort the signals from the noise, identifying relevant points in the ever-growing quantity of digital evidence.
In Sri Lanka, there were allegations that cluster bombs had been used — so an image of a bomblet, for example, could be crucial. “What we are hoping to develop is a tool that will help us categorize photographs,” Motala says, “so if I receive thousand images and put them through the system, I can ask for ‘bomb’ and the system will pull out all the photos showing a bomb.”
All of these methods accompany more traditional tools like processing reports from media and other UN agencies, as well as human rights NGOs. In the age of social media, some clues are also provided by human rights abusers themselves. “Many perpetrator organizations are putting up a lot of information about their own exploits as part of the propaganda war,” Motala adds — and that information also needs verification.
Solving any puzzle is easier if you arrange the pieces first, and one of the first projects of Microsoft’s partnership with the UN Human Rights Office does just that. Rights View is an information dashboard that pulls together information from various sources. The idea was born in a brainstorming session at a UN Human Rights Office workshop on ICT for Human Rights back in 2013, from an idea scribbled by the participants showing the information needed to predict and assess crises.
Idea for Rights View scribbled by the participants of a brainstorming session at a UN Human Rights Office workshop on ICT for Human Rights back in 2013. (Photo courtesy of OHCHR)
Rights View will draw together internal data from across the various areas of the Office, including information collected by UN Human Rights Office field staff, and external public data, as well as social media. “By bringing this information together, we will be able to better analyze it and to promote action in relation to early warnings of human rights risks,” says Andrew Palmer of the Office’s Emergency Response Section. The overall aim is to “provide a clear human rights perspective on potential, emerging or ongoing crises, and to get the appropriate responses to them by engaging other parts of the UN and the international community more broadly.”
“We’ll also have a simple way of bringing all that information together to more easily produce reports, speaking points and briefings to bodies such as the UN Security Council,” he adds. “And it will enable us to create short, pithy, visually compelling information to have a more immediate impact on the situation.” The tool will also help the UN Human Rights Office to be more efficient at deploying its own staff to emergency situations, he adds. “Having the dashboard will mean there is a single, go-to source for country-specific information, which will ensure that staff hit the ground running.”
And when the Office is unable to deploy staff directly to countries of concern, Rights View will enable the Office to more efficiently monitor, analyze and report on the situation remotely, as the Office has recently done in relation to the human rights situations in southeast Turkey and northern Rakhine in Myanmar. “There is a wealth of information that can be drawn upon to better understand the human rights situation within a country from the outside, and the dashboard will improve our ability to do this,” Palmer adds.
Members of Commissions of Inquiry and fact-finding missions require access to victims, witnesses and sources, some of whom may be in detention centers. (UN Photo/Martine Perret)
Taking action is at the heart of the partnership for Microsoft. “There is a great untapped opportunity for us to use technology in new ways to protect human rights around the world,” says Microsoft President Brad Smith. “Data science and analytics can empower the UN Human Rights Office to both pinpoint the problem and understand what needs to be solved.”
As Microsoft works on new ways to help the UN find the pieces in the human rights puzzle, it reinforces the need for businesses around the world to engage in the issue. “As a global company, our business suffers when people suffer,” Smith adds. “We believe that the business community can be a constructive voice for the protection of human rights everywhere.”
Lene Wendland, who manages the UN Human Rights Office’s business and human rights team, hopes the partnership will blaze a trail. “We are working with Microsoft to also engage with a much broader range of companies to discuss the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which is our main normative framework when dealing with companies,” she says. “Private companies, in their own right, independent of what states are doing, have a responsibility to respect human rights across their operations, but many companies still find implementation of this responsibility to be challenging. Through peer-learning workshops for companies convened together with Microsoft, we want to support companies in overcoming challenges of implementation.”
Policies on non-discrimination, for example, are key. “What we are expecting any company to do is not just look at the obvious ones, but there might be other salient human rights risks, which you only identify if you go out and look for them,” she says. She also points to the wider trend of companies putting human rights at the core of their work, creating valuable allies in an era where many states “don’t always do what they commit to with regards to human rights.”
The power wielded by large companies can be an enormous incentive for everyone to do the right thing. “It’s super important to have corporations of all different sorts involved in human rights in Africa,” says Campbell. “When corporations step in and put up their own obligations around human rights and do that hand-in-hand with the governments of countries where they’re operating, they can be an incredibly strong ally in the human rights movement.”
An early mock-up of the Rights View dashboard.
Getting the right pieces to complete the human rights puzzle will become easier with Rights View. That’s just the beginning. The potential of artificial intelligence and big data analytics is in its infancy: The best intervention from the UN is one that stops the human rights crisis from occurring. And by increasing the digital capacity of human rights organizations, ordinary people will be able to participate even more effectively in human rights monitoring and reporting.
“I believe that Microsoft technology can definitely help advance the UN’s protection of human rights, but so can technology from many other companies,” says Smith. “The more we can generate support, the better the protection of human rights will be served.”
That’s something that’s needed now more than ever.
“In today’s world, the universality of human rights and respect for the institutions and norms, is really being put into question,” Campbell says. “We haven’t been using technology enough, and the Microsoft project will really bring us up to speed.”
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IT organizations put great focus into drawing up their outsourcing contracts, but those agreements alone do not guarantee satisfactory outcomes. Attorney Brad Peterson has seen it time and time again. “Time and money are spent on drafting the contract—often a substantial amount of money. And a tremendous amount of potential value is created in that contract,” says Peterson, partner in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office and leader of its technology transactions practice.
But then the engagement is handed over to a well-intentioned supplier management team that wasn’t involved in the contract and often can’t make heads or tails of what’s in it. “It’s understandable. Contracts are complex and confusing, and relationship managers are selected based on their knowledge of technology or their skill in building relationships, not on their knowledge of how to run a contract,” Peterson says.
Those professionals managing the engagement often don’t understand how their conduct or communication can impact their company’s legal rights, which can cause a number of problems should disputes arise. “The result is that the benefits for which you negotiated hard and are paying great amounts may be lost,” says Peterson. What’s more, disputes may be more difficult to resolve, and those that aren’t becoming costly to litigate, requiring interviewing dozens of witnesses and sorting through thousands of emails to figure out what has happened and who is responsible.
The real value of IT outsourcing is achieved through active governance—not only of the projects in play, but of the communication and interaction between customer and provider. “Protecting the value of the contract after the ink is dry is about motivating suppliers to deliver on their promises,” says Peterson, “and preserving remedies for failure.” Peterson and Robert Kriss, litigation partner in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office recently share some best practices for governing the IT outsourcing contract once the ink is dry.
1. Control your communication
If someone on the customer side isn’t already designated in the contract, send a notice to the service provider at the start of the engagement identifying one employee authorized to speak on behalf of the customer. IT service providers are savvy. If they want to push a change in approach or document through, they will find the employee most likely to sign off on it. By designating one spokesperson, “You avoid the inadvertent but unfavorable change that occur to your contract when lower level people are approached by the provider to approve a procedural manual, for example, that ends up changing the obligations of all the parties,” says Kriss. “That makes it clear up front and in writing who represents and can bind the customer. It’s just good for the relationship and will result in fewer misunderstandings.”
Designating a customer representative enables the IT organization to control messaging, better adhere to the contract, and avoid situations where the communications or conduct of less informed personnel create ambiguity and uncertainty. And when disputes arise, you’ll only have to review the email of the one person whose communication has legal relevance versus dozens.
2. Require the provider to log requests and complaints
In many outsourcing situations, the only obligation of the customer is to pay the supplier. Not so in IT, where engagements required the customer’s contribution or collaboration. “The customer will tend to have obligations, and if the customer doesn’t perform those obligations, those may be an excuse for performance,” Peterson says.
However, should the IT outsourcing provider have a request for the customer or raise an issue of customer performance that it says excuses one of its obligations, it’s important to compel the provider to write the issue down and keep a log of all such problems.
Require a log showing requests and responses on contractual matters.
3. Clarify cloudy terms early
It’s important to keep the written record of the engagement as clear, complete and accurate as possible. When there are projects or situations that the contract does not explicitly address, the customer should clarify them early on and in writing. “That’s the best time to reach agreement because the parties are most open to cooperation at that point,” Kriss says.
If the details of a more granular project isn’t specified in the main agreement, write down a summary of what each parties responsibilities are and have everyone sign off on that before embarking on their work. “If there’s clarity in the written record, the likelihood of the situation getting worked in the context of outsourcing relationship is much greater,” says Kriss. “It matters so much.”
4. Send breach notices right away
Peterson sees customers who endured problems in their outsourcing relationships for years, but had no record of them because they thought sending notices to the provider would create tension or contention. That’s a mistake. Customer should send a written notice of breach or failure the very first time it occurs—and every time thereafter. “This needs to be a standard best practice that a company always uses,” Peterson says. They need not be combative, but rather polite and factual. “If you can establish that pattern, particularly with a single person comfortable sending these notices that are clear and useful, you will establish a much better record,” Peterson says.
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National Small Business Week: 8 Windows 10 PCs great for small businesses
National Small Business Week is in full-swing; here are some great newer Windows 10 devices that can help Small Businesses be more secure and get more done.
This week we recognize National Small Business Week; something that is near and dear to my heart. As someone who worked in a small business myself, I firmly believe that small businesses are the backbone of our global economy and key innovation drivers in the tech industry and beyond. In today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world Microsoft is committed to providing devices and services that help these businesses expand their reach to better serve customers from all over the world.
The needs of small business customers are always top-of-mind for Microsoft as we work with our device partners to bring innovative new Windows 10 PCs to market. We talk extensively with small business owners about what they are looking for when purchasing new PCs, and although there are a diverse set of requirements, there are commonalities across the broad spectrum of small businesses such as long battery life, price-point, mobility, and processing power.
Every small business is unique, and there are a wide variety of Windows devices and experiences to meet the specific needs of each of them.
Modern Windows 10 devices built on the latest Intel processors are faster and more powerful than ever before, are more secure thanks to technology like Windows Hello and help people be more productive thanks to new Windows experiences such as Inking. There’s never been a better time to buy a new PC for your business.
Here are eight modern devices that small business owners, who are in the market for new PCs, should take a look at.
One thing we hear a lot from small businesses is that they need mobile solutions that offer the flexibility to get their work done wherever they go. Devices that are thin, light and powerful are a must. Acer’s Swift 7 is one of the first devices that comes to mind when I think of mobility. This beautiful laptop runs on Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, weighs only 2.42 pounds and is .39 inch thin. It includes face recognition for Windows Hello authentication for fast and secure log-on.
Other key features include:
Powered by Windows 10
7th Generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors
256GB or 512GB SSD and up to 8GB of memory
HD webcam with HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging support provides clear, bright and detailed images.
3” HD IPS with Corning Gorilla Glass
Up to 9 hours of battery life
Pricing and Availability: The Acer Swift 7 starts at $1099 USD and €1,299 in EMEA.
This thin and light business laptop boasts a 10-hour battery, and a Mil-STD 810G military-grade, magnesium alloy body that’s solid and durable, despite weighing just 2.3 pounds. Its cutout design lifts the keyboard to a 7-degree angle when open, for a more natural feel when typing. A 14-inch full HD 1080p anti-glare screen fits into a smaller 13-inch chassis, and provides great visibility in any lighting scenario. It features a Windows Hello fingerprint reader for added security and convenience.
Other key features:
Powered by Windows 10 Pro
7th Generation Intel Core i5-7200U CPU
8 GB RAM and 512GB SSD
58” thin and 2.3 pounds
Up to 10 hours of battery life
Fast Charging allows up to a 50% charge within 30 minutes
Harmon Kardon audio
Pricing and Availability: The ASUSPro B9440 is available globally and starts at $999 USD.
The XPS 13 is a fantastic laptop and Dell expanded on that success with the XPS 13 2-in-1 convertible version this winter. 2-in-1s offer the flexibility to use the device as a laptop, a tablet and to put it in tent-mode for presentations, all of which are very appealing for small business people who wear many different hats. The XPS 13 2-in-1 features Dell’s innovative InfinityEdge display that goes all the way to the edge for stunning visuals. Windows Hello is also enabled with fingerprint or coming soon; face recognition.
Other key features:
7th Generation Intel Core i5 /i7 processors with Dynamic Power Mode
4GB and 128GB SSD
3” FHD or QHD+ InfinityEdge display with anti-reflective screen
32-0.54” thin and 2.7 pounds
Up to 15 hours of battery life
Fan-less design
Available in silver or black (vPro only)
Pricing and Availability: Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 is available globally and starts at $999 USD.
This is another great 2-in-1 convertible that appeals to small businesses. One innovative option available is HP Sure View technology – a built-in privacy screen where, at the touch of a button, information on the screen fades when viewing from an angle. This is perfect for business travel when you can’t risk prying eyes in the next seat seeing confidential information. The Skype for Business audio quality is great on this device that features Audio by Bang & Olufsen.
Other key features:
Powered by Windows 10
7th Generation Intel Core i5 /i7 processors
8 GB RAM and 128 GB SSD
3” FHD display
59” thin and 2.99 pounds
Windows Hello fingerprint reader
Spill-resistant backlit keyboard
Up to 16.5 hours of battery life
Optional dock and Wacom AES Pen with APP Launch Button
Pricing and Availability: The HP EliteBook x360 (1030 G2) starts at $1,249 USD.
With Windows 10 and Windows Ink, Microsoft and our partners have made it easier and more intuitive to be creative and productive. Lenovo and Microsoft worked together to make sure Ink really shines on the ThinkPad X1 Yoga that features an in-chassis dock that both holds and charges the pen. The ThinkPad line is beloved by many SMB customers, and with its additional flexibility, power and brilliant 14” display this 2-in-1 is sure to be a new favorite.
Other key features:
Powered by Windows 10 Pro
7th Generation Intel Core i5 /i7 processors
Up to 16 GB memory and 1 TB SSD
67” thin and 3.13 lbs
Windows Hello face scanner
4G, LTE connectivity
Up to 15 hours of battery life
Pricing and Availability: Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga starts at $1,349 USD.
The LG gram is thin and light at just over 2 pounds, is gorgeous and offers amazing battery life. We worked closely with LG to get the most out of the battery. On the 14” gram, the battery lasts up to 14.5* hours making it an ideal device for mobile professionals.
Other key features:
7th Generation Intel Core i7 processor
Up to 8GB DDR4 Dual Channel Memory
Up to 512 GB SSD
6” thin and 2.14 pounds
14.5 Hours Battery*
Also available in 13.3” 15.6” sizes
*MobileMark® 2014 standard
Pricing and Availability: LG gram 14” starts at $1,199.
Samsung recently announced that they will be shipping their new Galaxy Book 12” on May 23. It’s built to make an impression with a sleek metal and glass design at just .29” thin and light at just 1.66 lbs. The included backlit keyboard-cover is detachable, so you can use as a laptop, or remove the keyboard entirely and use it as a tablet. It also includes Samsung’s Galaxy S Pen, which provides a great Windows Ink experience. With over 4,000 points of pressure, the S Pen is very precise and never needs charging. Go wherever business takes you with a fast-charging, 11-hour battery and its Super-AMOLED display, which gives you a stunning picture for work and play.
Other key features:
Windows 10 Pro
7th Generation Intel Core i5 Processor
8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD
Expandable MicroSD storage (up to 256GB, not included)
12” Super-AMOLED display
Supports Samsung Flow
Includes Backlit Keyboard case and S Pen
Pricing and Availability: The Samsung Galaxy Book 12” with Windows 10 Pro starts at $1,429 USD.
This 2-in-1 convertible is beautiful, lightweight and is an absolute workhorse. It comes with Toshiba’s exclusive TruPen incorporating Wacom Feel technology with more than 2,000 points of pressure sensitivity. And the anti-glare screen coating enables a truly natural Windows Ink hand writing experience. It also has multi-directional microphones that are great for Cortana or Skype for Business conference calls.
Other key features:
7th Generation Intel Core i5/i7 processors
8 GB RAM and 256 or 512 GB SSD
5” FHD 1,920 x 1,080
61” thin and 2.40 Lbs.
13 hours of battery life
Pricing and Availability: The Portégé X20W starts at $1,199 USD.
These devices are only a small sample of the great Commercial and Consumer devices that are fantastic for small business environments. Visit your local Microsoft Store or MicrosoftStore.com to see what else is available.
We also offer a free online tool called the SMB Device Finder that can help you find the best PC for your computing needs. Just click through a series of questions clarifying your unique business needs and device preferences and it will pull up a list of available devices that fit those needs. It will even link you to online resources where you can purchase the devices.
Microsoft will be hosting webcasts, blogging and participating with the Small Business Administration and a number of our partners on different initiatives Throughout National Small Business Week. I joined a podcast earlier this week with USA Today small business columnist Steve Strauss that you can listen to here. Check it out, and read some of the other great content at TheSelfEmployed.com.
We’ll also be offering deals and hosting events for small businesses at our Microsoft Stores across the country. To keep up-to-date on our activities this week, follow the hashtag #WinInBiz
Connect the power of Excel to your Facebook ad accounts with FAME
Facebook Ads Manager for Excel automates your campaign reporting by downloading your ads performance data directly into Excel sheets.
Facebook advertisers frequently rely on the power of Excel to manage their ads accounts and evaluate performance, but exporting multiple Facebook accounts to an Excel worksheet takes time. With Facebook Ads Manager for Excel (FAME) you can quickly run a single report to download data from multiple ad accounts, helping you save time and work faster.
Downloading XLS or CSVs from multiple ads accounts and organizing metrics for custom reports takes a good deal of manual effort. And reports to evaluate ads data are requested with increasing regularity. While it is possible to develop customized reporting solutions using the Facebook Marketing API, these App based tools rarely provide the familiarity or flexibility of Excel.
Facebook Ads Manager for Excel, or FAME, allows advertisers to build their report templates in Excel and dynamically download rich performance data directly into sheets. Data can be combined from multiple Facebook ads accounts without manual integration . And information can be refreshed weekly, or as often as every 15 minutes, to ensure your data is always up-to-date.
FAME is available for free in the Microsoft Office Store. The FAME add-in seamlessly integrates with Excel 2016 to provide reporting capabilities.
Sign in with your Facebook account, and you’ll be able to create and download reports. Pre-designed templates help you quickly pull down common metrics, or customize your reports to deliver exactly what you need to know.
Facebook Ads Manager for Excel requires Microsoft Excel 2016. To download FAME from the Office Store complete the following steps:
Open Excel 2016 on your computer.
Click the [Insert] tab.
Click [Store] to go to the Office Store.
In the [Search] box, type “Facebook Ads Manager” and then click <MAGNIFYING GLASS ICON>. You should now see Facebook Ads Manager for Excel in the list.
Next to Facebook Ads Manager for Excel, click [Add].
thyssenkrupp transforms its home mobility solutions business with Microsoft HoloLens
As written on blogs.microsoft.com
With its customized stair lifts, thyssenkrupp has long helped people with physical limitations live comfortably and independently in their homes. Until recently, the process of selling, designing, building and installing the lifts was time-consuming for the company, with a laborious system of labels, cameras and manual data entry.
But with Microsoft HoloLens, thyssenkrupp is revolutionizing its home mobility solutions business, making the process faster, easier and more helpful for customers.
“With this partnership with Microsoft, thyssenkrupp will transform homes to make life better,” says Thomas Felis, vice president of innovation at thyssenkrupp Elevator Americas. “That is a game changer.”
Mechanized stair lifts must be customized for individual staircases, requiring precise measurements that used to contribute to long delivery times.
But today, a thyssenkrupp salesperson can use a mobile HoloLens solution to quickly measure a staircase during an initial visit and automatically share data with manufacturing teams and accounting systems via Microsoft Azure. Sales reps can also now show customers a visualization of what the lift would look like in their home, helping them feel more confident in making what can be an emotional decision.
“Selling, manufacturing and then installation — it all takes quite a while,” says Inge Delobelle, CEO of thyssenkrupp Access Solutions. “People need a quick solution. With HoloLens, we started saying, ‘Let’s look at how we can measure stairs differently, so it’s quicker.’ But that was just the very beginning.”
The wearable holographic computer makes it simple to scan a staircase, measure each step and save data. But being able to share data in real-time with different teams has improved the entire process, leading to quicker sales, design, manufacturing and installation. With Microsoft HoloLens and Microsoft Azure, thyssenkrupp now delivers its products up to four times faster than before.
“There’s plenty of potential, and whomever we discuss this with comes up with a new idea, and that’s what’s so great about it,” Delobelle says.
This week, thyssenkrupp and the Microsoft HoloLens team will be at Hannover Messe to showcase digital transformation with mixed reality — and its power to enhance productivity and customer satisfaction.
“Digital transformation reimagines people, data and processes within an organization to accelerate business impact and to create value for customers,” writes Lorraine Bardeen, general manager of Microsoft HoloLens and Windows Experiences, on the Windows Blog.
“Increasingly, that digital reimagination includes deploying HoloLens into core workflows.”
Today, we’re excited to announce Data Visualizer, a new Visio feature that automatically converts process map data in Excel into data-driven Visio diagrams. This update, which is available to Visio Pro for Office 365 users, helps reduce manual steps while giving business analysts even more ways to create process diagrams in Visio.
Automatically create process diagrams from Excel data
Diagrams don’t always start in Visio. They often begin as hand-drawn sketches or—in today’s data-driven age—in Excel. Using Data Visualizer, business analysts can represent process steps and associated metadata in a structured Excel table and quickly convert that information into a visualized Visio diagram. You can do this by either using a premade Excel template or an existing spreadsheet of your own design. The premade templates—there’s one for basic and one for cross-functional flowcharts—provide a sample mapping table to populate with diagram metadata. The table includes predefined columns for process step number, description, dependencies, owner, function, phase and more. You can also customize the table with your own columns to meet specific business requirements.
Once the table is populated, Visio’s wizard helps you complete the remaining steps to transform your Excel data into a Visio process diagram. If you customize the premade template or create one of your own, the wizard helps you map certain flowchart parts, like swim lanes and connectors. The resulting diagram is linked to the Excel table, so if the underlying process data is modified, the diagram updates accordingly. Likewise, shape modifications in Visio are preserved if the Excel data changes.
Additionally, analysts can save their Visio diagrams and the underlying Excel mapping table as a single package using the “Export as a Template Package” feature. These packages can be shared and reused by others, eliminating the need to recreate the same diagram from scratch while encouraging process consistency across the organization.
No matter your preference—whether creating diagrams from a template or your own spreadsheet—the underlying Excel data travels with the related Visio Pro for Office 365 file, helping ensure your team always has the latest diagram version.
For More Information on Microsoft and other Cloud Solutions, Contact Us at 800-208-4037
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Mitchells & Butlers boosts service with managed mobile platform
Mitchells & Butlers wanted to deploy iOS, Android and Windows devices that run service-enhancing apps to its staff at 1,600 establishments. Before doing so, it needed a mobile device management framework to remotely manage 15,000 devices. The company subscribed to Windows Intune, integrating this with Microsoft System Center 2012 R2. Using the devices and apps, it expects to improve customer service, increase site managers’ efficiency, and reduce costs.
Network Assessment & Technology Roadmap
To Learn More about Professional Services, contact us at 800-208-3617
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New Microsoft tools integrate LinkedIn data directly into Dynamics 365
Microsoft announced some significant integrations between LinkedIn, the professional social network it bought last year for over $26 billion and Microsoft Dynamics 365, the company’s CRM and ERP suite.
It was clear that when Microsoft paid that much money for LinkedIn, it had plans to use that data in other Microsoft products. Those ideas began to emerge last summer with some Office 365 integration announcements, but now we are starting to see some direct links (if you’ll pardon the expression) to try and leverage LinkedIn as a kind of lead generation and recruitment engine for Microsoft’s enterprise products.
Microsoft is also announcing a tool for HR pros called Dynamics 365 for Talent, which gives Dynamics 365 ERP users, the ability to search for new talent directly from LinkedIn’s Recruiter and Learning solutions, and manage employees from recruitment throughout their time with company.
Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie, executive vice president for the Cloud and Enterprise Group at Microsoft points out in a blog post announcing the new integrations that there are already connections between Dynamics 365 and Office 365 products. The next logical step it would seem would be to build similar connections to LinkedIn, especially for sales. “Sales Navigator with Dynamics 365 will dramatically increase the effectiveness of salespeople by tapping into their professional networks and relationships, giving them the ability to improve their pipeline…,” Guthrie wrote.
Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research says this opens the door to social selling where you can track connections between people at your company and the target company. He offers an example to illustrate the concept:
“How do you find out who knows whom inside a company? Traverse your Office 365 data, your [Dynamics 365] CRM database and your LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and you realize Joe and Abdul have known each other since university days. Let’s put Abdul on the sales call,” Wang explained.
He says this solves a long-known problem where companies were trying to kludge together solutions to make these different technologies work together. Now, Microsoft is doing it for them.
“Microsoft has been focused on integrating its acquisitions and the LinkedIn to Dynamics 365 [to] Office 365 is the latest [iteration]. Customers already use these three products in disparate fashion spending time doing arm chair integration. What they’ve been looking for is the ability to take the data and insights in these three products and put them to work,” he said. This announcement should give them that.
Certainly finding talent and recruiting has also been a major use case for LinkedIn well before Microsoft bought the company, and the new Talent tool is about providing a direct integration with Microsoft’s HR management functionality in Dynamics 365. The new tool provides the ability for HR to source, recruit, onboard and retain employees while taking advantage of the data and tools inside LinkedIn, according the blog post.
Brent Leary, a partner at CRM Essentials sees this integration as a starting point that could become more automated down the road. “I think generally this is a good first step in bringing LinkedIn and Dynamics 365 together and it hints at the potential LinkedIn-Dynamics 365-artificial intelligence has for sales folks looking for automated relationship insights,” Leary told TechCrunch.
Both of these solutions will be available in July.
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Idea for Rights View scribbled by the participants of a brainstorming session at a UN Human Rights Office workshop on ICT for Human Rights back in 2013. (Photo courtesy of OHCHR)
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