Jessica recaps some of the new and exciting updates from Microsoft Inspire as well as some fun facts she learned by attending the virtual Microsoft Inspire conference this year.
Microsoft Inspire is an annual event for Microsoft partners to introduce and announce new innovations surrounding Microsoft products. As a Tier 1 Gold Partner that specializes in Azure and Office 365, Managed Solution attends every year, and more of us got to attend this year with it being online.
Here are the first top 5 takeaways from this year's event:
1. VPNs are designed for 20% company workload. If your company is using a VPN and experiencing downtime or slowness, it's because these legacy VPNs weren't built to support an entire workforce. That's what the cloud is for!
2. If you have compliance reasons or other reasons where you need an on-prem infrastructure, you'll be excited about this update. Now in public preview is Microsoft Azure Stack HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure). This offers secure virtualization of Windows or Linux systems. This is designed specifically for a hybrid environment and is designed for any workload.
3. Microsoft Lists: If you are familiar with SharePoint lists, those are considered now classic lists and you can refer to these as modern lists. It's an integration of Outlook, Teams and SharePoint and acts as a project management tool and keeps track of all your conversations, emails, decisions, tasks, etc. It's great for your hiring process, event planning or any projects you collaborate with others on.
4. Fun fact: using single sign-on saves a person 10 minutes a day which equals about a whole week of time over a year! Think about everything you could do in that extra week. More productivity + better user experience = happiness.
5. With Microsoft Universal Print you can now print from anywhere in the world to your company printers! Whether you're on vacation or traveling, you can still print to your headquarters.
Watch the video that discusses the first 5 in more detail:
6. Azure Active Directory is now offering external identities. Azure AD is where all your group policies and permissions exist. This is where it's determined what you have access to. You can now do this for people outside of your organization!
7. Endpoint Data Loss Protection is now available. This is specific to Office 365 and protects us when we're on our devices while we're remote.
8. Communication compliance is now available, which scans chats, emails, etc to detect any bullying or harassment. Anything that you determine violates your code of conduct.
9. New Security Integrations are available! No more time-consuming workarounds as Microsoft now integrates with Okta SSO, Symantec, VMware and Carbon Black.
10. Double key encryption for Microsoft 365 which means that Microsoft doesn't even have access to your data that is stored with them. You now control the second key which means you fully control your data.
Watch part 2:
15 Best YouTube Channels to Learn Web Development From
As Written by: Marlon on creativeglobalideas.com
If you are looking for a career in web development or it is simply your area of interest it can be hard figuring out where to start from. You could go for a short course but that will cost you some money. Some courses are expensive than others. Why spend money when you can learn web development at your home? Yes, you can learn web development without ever leaving your house. You can watch tutorials on YouTube and gain web development skills. Here are the 15 best YouTube channels to learn web development from.
We've updated this article for 2020.
As time goes on and technology continues to innovate, the lines have blurred a bit when it comes to ownership between web developers and IT. With so many software platforms available and the rise of the digital marketing trend, marketers, in general, are being required to have more technical skillsets. But let's make sure we understand the differences when it comes to the role of a web developer and an IT specialist, such as a technical engineer.
Technical engineers are IT experts who design, install and maintain computer systems. Their role includes building, configuring, testing, troubleshooting, and maintaining all sorts of systems consisting of the IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, and networks.
Web developers are programmers and can be considered software engineers that build web applications.
Web development could be considered in some cases a very small part of IT. However, we deal with many clients that ask for both, and while our IT staff is amazing, we don't provide web development support. Many IT folks get asked about web development and vice versa for web developers. It's important that they are kept separate. Bottom line, don't bite off more than you can chew.
If we can help you with your IT needs, let us know.
Now that we understand the difference, here it is, the ultimate list of YouTube channels for web development.
PS - we saved the best for last so make sure to check them all out!
This a great channel for beginners to learn the ropes. There are some great videos that will explain everything you need to know about making CSS and about PHP.
On Dev Tips you get tutorials weekly about specific topics. The videos are in great detail and will help you to start from scratch. The creator also shares his own personal experiences which can be insightful for newcomers that have less experience.
This channel covers a wide range of topics from WordPress to JavaScript. It also covers design tutorials and using design and sketch applications. A new video is uploaded twice a week.
If you are looking for Programming tips and courses to learn from then this is the channel for you. You will get to learn a lot from this channel. This is a great channel for beginners as well as people that have had some experience with web development.
This channels covers various topics from coding and design to making web applications. You can learn about 12 different applications from blogs to PINTEREST.
TUTS+ provides a wide array of useful tutorial videos for becoming a professional web developer. This channel covers a variety of topics from the basic to the pro level. You can get it all here.
This channel features courses on coding, CSS, PHP and how to make your own website. You can also learn how to become a great freelancer and earn some money with the skills that you have learned.
This channel will tell you all there is to using the Google web designer tools. Something you should learn if you are looking to be a great web developer.
As the name tells you this channel is about CSS tricks. You can also learn about WordPress and responsive designs.
These were the 16 best YouTube channels to learn web development from. If you are looking to make a name for yourself in the web development world and do not know where to start then this is where you should be headed.
If you found this article interesting, learn more about how we might be able to support you.
On the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, the moon will find itself positioned between the Earth and the sun, temporarily blocking out the glowing disc either totally or partially, depending on where the event is being viewed in the continental United States. Eclipses occur every 12 to 18 months, but this is the first time a total eclipse has been visible in the United States since February 1979.
Millions live within a day’s drive of the 70-mile-wide umbra, or shadow path, that will stretch diagonally through 12 states, from Oregon to South Carolina. Alas, it won’t touch California, but that doesn’t mean residents of the Golden State can’t be part of it.
Los Angeles will see 70 percent blockage of the sun's surface and has a handful of events scheduled for community viewing.
Griffith Observatory
Naturally, Griffith Observatory is hosting a viewing event, featuring telescope viewing from the lawn, sidewalks and on the coelostat (solar telescope) in the Hall of the Sky (note: personal telescopes aren't allowed). Crowds will likely be huge(r than usual), so they're recommending people take the DASH bus from the Vermont/Sunset Red Line station. 2800 E. Observatory Road, Griffith Park; Mon., Aug. 21, 9 a.m.-noon; free. griffithobservatory.org.
Griffith Park
Outdoorsy meetup Mountain Chicks is hosting a solar eclipse hike from the Fern Dell Nature Trail up to the Observatory, a 2.5-mile round trip. Bring snacks, water, sunscreen and a pair of viewing glasses.
Meets at Fern Dell and Black Oak drives, Los Feliz; Mon., Aug. 21, 9 a.m.-noon; free. eventbrite.com
California Science Center
Besides a viewing event on Monday (near the museum's parking structure), the CSC is hosting a two-day Solar Eclipse Festival on Saturday and Sunday, featuring hands-on activities and info about how to prepare to safely view the eclipse come Monday. 700 Exposition Park Drive, Exposition Park (walkway near the parking structure); Sat.-Sun., Aug. 19-20, 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; eclipse viewing, Mon., Aug. 21, 9 a.m.-11:45 a.m.; free. californiasciencecenter.org/headlines/solar-eclipse-festival-days.
Kidspace Children's Museum
Staff from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be on hand to demonstrate how to make a pinhole camera (for safe viewing) and the museum's handing out viewing glasses with the price of admission. If the 70 percent eclipse isn't doing it for you, the museum will be screening NASA's livestream of the eclipse occurring across the United States. 480 N. Arroyo Blvd., Pasadena; Mon., Aug. 21, 9 a.m.-noon; $13. kidspacemuseum.org.
Glendale Community College
Glendale Community College astronomy professors and volunteers from NASA will be around to answer questions at this free viewing event at the college's planetarium. They're also giving away free viewing glasses, or you can learn to make your own viewer. 1500 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale; Mon., Aug. 21, 9 a.m.-noon; free. informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum/content/solar-eclipse-viewing-0.
Caltech
On the college's Beckman Lawn, Caltech is hosting a viewing party with solar telescopes, eclipse glasses and a livestream from the path of totality. Astrophysicists will answer questions and the event is free and open to everyone, kids included. Beckman Lawn, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena; Mon., Aug. 21, 9:30 a.m.; free. caltech.edu/content/solar-eclipse-viewing-party.
Your local public library
In the days leading up to (and including) the day of the eclipse, County of L.A. and LAPL branches are hosting a slew of events, from lawn viewings to an astronomy workshop at the Malibu branch to a galaxy ring-making workshop at the Lancaster branch. Check out the schedules of events here: colapublib.org/eclipse and lapl.org.
MS Paint fans rejoice: The original art app isn’t going anywhere – except to the Windows Store for free!
Today, we’ve seen an incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia around MS Paint. If there’s anything we learned, it’s that after 32 years, MS Paint has a lot of fans. It’s been amazing to see so much love for our trusty old app. Amidst today’s commentary around MS Paint we wanted to take this opportunity to set the record straight, clear up some confusion and share some good news:
MS Paint is here to stay, it will just have a new home soon, in the Windows Store where it will be available for free.
Paint 3D – the new app for creativity, also available for free with the Windows 10 Creators Update, will continue to get new feature updates. In addition to the new 3D capabilities, many of the MS Paint features people know and love like photo editing, line and curve tools, and 2D creation are in Paint 3D.
So, thanks for all the MS Paint love, keep the feedback coming via the Paint 3D app, and keep creating!
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Last week, the Managed Solution team joined thousands of other Microsoft partners for Inspire – Microsoft’s annual world partner conference in Washington D.C. As a premier partner, Managed Solution is in the top 1% of Microsoft Cloud Service Providers worldwide and fully aligned with Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
It is the one time of year when Microsoft invites partners from around the world to celebrate this past year’s successes, unveil changes with insights, and offer best practices with advice for how to empower customers and enhance end user experience in a digital world.
The week is composed of a daily keynote by a Microsoft executive, followed by hundreds of learning sessions. Several topics are discussed, such as: How do you bring out critical thinking and creativity in the workplace? How do we create dynamic teams that come together to service a customer in different ways?
As a complete, secure, and intelligent solution to empower employees, Microsoft 365 now rolls together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security into a single secure package to help end users be more productive while increasing protection.
With more than 100 million commercial monthly active users of Office 365, and more than 500 million Windows 10 devices in use, Microsoft is in a unique position to empower employees to be creative and work together, securely. To address the commercial needs from the largest enterprise to the smallest business, Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Business were introduced.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Meeting the requirements of the European Union’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by May 25, 2018 is a pressing topic for many organizations worldwide. In Microsoft’s effort to provide customers with helpful GDPR compliance resources, they have been hosting webinars and discussions around how the Microsoft Cloud, including Office 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, and Azure data services, Enterprise Mobility + Security, and Windows 10 can help customers on their GDPR compliance journey. They have backed up their commitments through their contracts and by sharing their experience, as well as other partners’ experiences, with their audiences along the way.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, discussed the advent of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. It is his belief that soon everything will become multi-device and AI will be intrinsic in every application built. Nadella spoke about the four main goals of digital transformation: the empowerment of employees, the engagement of customers, the optimization of operations, and the transformation of products.
“We’ve just skimmed the surface of how much support – sales tools, product training, case studies, sales teams, etc. – Microsoft has created to help its partners succeed. Today, MSPs around the globe are struggling with some of the same issues that we do. Addressing those issues is precisely why SNAP & Stratogator have such a bright future, not just in the U.S.” - Susan Kuruvilla, CEO, Managed Solution
Two New Tools to Optimize Cloud Spend & Operational Efficiency
With Microsoft's “all-in” strategy to help customers move to the cloud, the Microsoft Inspire conference was the perfect opportunity for Managed Solution to launch two new tools that empower MSPs to govern their cloud adoption, as we move towards digital transformation, and ensure their customers are receiving the best price for these cloud instances. Chairman and Founder of Managed Solution, Sean Ferrel, launched and demoed these tools at Booth #103 on the exhibit floor at the conference.
1. SNAP: Cloud Service Marketplace that evolves with the market and offers new services, bundles, and SKUs for your cloud sales organization. Customize and offer the selection of cloud services that your team needs to drive customer sales.
2. StratoGator/AzureGator: Cloud Service Brokerage Platform where aggregation of top tier cloud providers in the Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) space will be compared against one another based on three pillars: cost, management, and reporting. Providing a user friendly centralized marketplace for Channel Partners allowing them to reduce overhead by 30-40%.
Ferrel also shared how these tools provide the customization MSPs need to support and sell to their customers both within and outside the cloud. These tools finally give the managed services provider the control they need and their customers want over their Microsoft products, streamlining their ability to align with the changes and vision of the tech giant.
“Microsoft is super-successful right now, yet still changing. That's an indication that they're future-focused and have a vision for where this is all headed. They're not complacent which inspires us to continue to innovate.” - Tina Rountree, Director of Sales, Managed Solution
Transformed Through Digital Technology
During Microsoft Inspire, partners shared stories around the ways that they are using Microsoft solutions to improve their communities as well as bring about positive change in the world. Working closely together allows us to build and go-to-market with innovative solutions for the long-term journey for our customers – as Nadella stated in his remarks, we create a strong local impact that ultimately has a profound global impact.
“With increasing digitization, where every part of our society and economy is being fundamentally transformed because of digital technology, the opportunity is greater than ever before," Nadella said, relating his vision back to his partner audience. "Being in this industry, being in this [Microsoft partner] ecosystem, the opportunity is tremendous.” -Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
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Microsoft Store showcases local art in New York City
The flagship Microsoft Store in New York is collaborating with renowned artist Tabor Robak to showcase original artwork created for the store’s exterior culture wall. Using his own unique style, Robak will develop an exhibit that will be displayed for fans and passersby to experience interactive design at the store on Fifth Avenue.
“Art is a significant part of what makes New York City’s culture so unique and we aspire to empower creativity at Microsoft,” says Florin Gale, Microsoft Stores creative director. “We’re excited to host work from a local artist that is representative of the community – and transform the culture wall of the flagship Microsoft Store into a visual illustration of the area. We’re excited to bring his artistic expression and perspective to life on Fifth Avenue.”
The digital artwork will complement the architecture of the storefront by emphasizing depth, movement and color variation. The culture wall serves as part of Microsoft’s vision of being an integral part of the local New York City community and the vibrant Fifth Avenue area. The flagship Microsoft Store opened at 677 Fifth Ave. in 2015.
Brooklyn-based Robak will show his artwork beginning in late March. As a digital artist, Robak is known for his abstract art that leverages digital technology to create images that are vivid and unique with cinematic sensibility, inspired by everyday use of the digital world. His work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the world and is in the collections of major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
“I’m so excited for the opportunity to showcase my work at the Microsoft Store on Fifth Avenue,” says Robak. “People from all over the world come to New York City to create art, and I hope this installation is one that can inspire other creators to continue innovating.”
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Buy or Bye? Why Customer Service is Increasingly Key to Retail Success
Today’s retail customer is always shopping around - in store, online, on the phone. And in a 24/7 global marketplace where it’s becoming increasingly difficult for retailers to differentiate on price and product availability, more and more it’s becoming customer service and the customer experience that means the difference between buy, buy, buy and bye, bye, bye.
For customers, expectations are up. According to Microsoft’s Global Multichannel Customer Service Report:
•more than half (59%) of the 4,000 consumers surveyed have higher expectations for customer service today than they did a year ago.
•97% say customer service is important to their choice of or loyalty to a brand.
•and 62% have stopped doing business with a brand this year due to a single poor customer service experience.
Yet, despite these increasing expectations, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, customer satisfaction is on the decline from a survey high set two years ago. Some attribute this to the economy, theorizing that brands were putting more focus on customer service then when consumers were spending less and every dollar meant more.
But now that consumer spending has rebounded, service is starting to fall back as a lesser focus instead of springing forward – a point of relaxation that could prove costly as PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Retailing 2020 report raises the stakes for the future of retail:
“By 2020, we believe the need for a unified consumer omnichannel experience will be complicated by the need for nearly perfect execution,” predicts PwC. “However, expert use of business intelligence tools, coupled with a profound understanding of shoppers’ needs and experiences in real time, may make omnichannel a realistic goal.”
Are We There Yet?
Where do customers think retailers are right now with their omnichannel goals? According to the TimeTrade State of Retail 2016 report, not very far. Only 26% of consumers feel that retailers today are providing a consistent customer experience across all channels (web, email, social media, call center, in-store, mobile and text).
And a historically strong service hub seems to be causing a major disconnect. Fifty-one percent (51%) of consumers said that the call center was the channel they felt was doing the poorest in terms of customer service compared to 26% in store, 23% social, 21% text, 20% web, 19% kiosk and 18% email. (According to the same report, only 5% of retail decision makers are making the call center a top priority in channel improvements. Social media was actually the top channel priority in this survey.)
Getting There…
So how can retailers go from where they are and how consumers perceive them today toward that 2020 vision of omnichannel consistency? Here are three areas of focus:
1.Awareness: Not just collecting Voice of the Customer feedback, but reacting to it and acting upon it is key to retailers moving forward. Many brands are doing this today as a way to turn the corner and improve.
2.Accessible knowledge for both agents and customers: Investment in a consistent knowledge source that can be used to deliver real-time knowledge both internally across agents and employees and externally to customers across channels, devices and locations is a must-have investment for an omnichannel future, not just for retail, but for all industries.
3.Proactive, predictive, personalized insights and intelligence: Empowering customer service with the insights to acknowledge and react to trending issues and then proactively reach out to customers across channels with information could not only significantly increase customer satisfaction, but radically change and assist the call center by reducing historic volume, strain and frustration. Greater customer intelligence that is many times shared only between sales and marketing could also help service lead the way in more personalized engagement when it matters most for retention.
The same PwC report says “Retail brands in 2020, we believe, will have three key attributes: consistency, intensity and accuracy. Let’s bring service into the mainstream to help deliver on this 2020 omnichannel customer experience vision.
Managed Solution will partner with your organization, align goals, and deploy Dynamics CRM hand-in-hand, ensuring we create a solution specific to your unique business needs. We have developed a proven deployment and migration strategy for our clients deploying Dynamics CRM to make sure that your transition is simple, smooth, and stable. For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.
Microsoft has been investing in the promise of artificial intelligence for more than 25 years — and this vision is coming to life with new chatbot Zo, Cortana Devices SDK and Skills Kit, and expansion of intelligence tools.
“Across several industry benchmarks, our computer vision algorithms have surpassed others in the industry — even humans,” said Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Research group, at a small gathering on AI in San Francisco on Dec. 13.
“But what’s more exciting to me is that our vision progress is showing up in our products like HoloLens and with customers like Uber building apps to use these capabilities.”
When Bill Gates created Microsoft Research in 1991, he had a vision that computers would one day see, hear and understand human beings — and this notion attracted some of the best and brightest minds to the company’s labs.
Last month, Microsoft became the first in the industry to reach parity with humans in speech recognition. There’s also been groundbreaking work with Skype Translator — now available in 9 languages — an example of accelerating the pipeline from research to product. With Skype Translator Microsoft has enabled people to understand each other, in real time, while talking to others in all corners of the world. But what about the dream of face-to-face, real-time translation?
Using this new intelligent language and speech recognition capability, Microsoft Translator can now simultaneously translate between groups speaking multiple languages in-person, in real-time, connecting people and overcoming barriers.
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