Technology and Economy: Q & A with Sean Ferrel

Technology and Economy: Q & A with Sean Ferrel

Founded in 2002, Managed Solution was barely 6 years old when the 2008 financial crisis hit. Yet, even as a young company we managed (pun intended) to pull through and grow to become the organization you now know today. That is why, today, we're talking about technology and economy.

With that in mind, we sat down to interview our CEO, Sean Ferrel, to discuss the recent economic events and how they pertain to Information Technology and the Tech industry in general. Read on to explore a top-down examination of a post-covid financial climate and gather insight and advice for your business.

 

A Top-Down Look at the Economy

A lot has been a lot going on with the U.S. economy since the pandemic. Recently though, we’ve seen some real negative indicators with bank collapses on a level reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis. As a business leader, could you share some insight with us about today’s current economic environment?

Sean: In the last 3+ years there’s been a lot thrown at businesses. From COVID-19 to hybrid workforces; all the way up to how the housing markets have been affected. When people started to work from home it changed the places where people wanted to live. This drove a lot of inflation in certain areas that didn’t previously have these high-salary workers in the market before.

However, the housing market is one aspect. At the core of it, we could argue that there’s been a supply problem across the board. We see it an automobile makers and shipping components. For example, we rely on other countries for things as simple as [computer] chips. Manufacturers couldn’t get the chips to put into cars so a lot of cars couldn’t be built, which then created low supply, and the big companies with low supply were able to charge more for the commodities and goods we needed.

Even with our food and beverage companies. There was a problem there as well due to the lack of potential employees. So, whether it was auto-parts or workers in factories: businesses couldn’t produce as fast as they [normally] would. The demand for goods was still high, the supply was low, and ultimately people charged, and are still charging, more for their product.

Now, the more supply that these companies create and market - the less demand they might get for the product if it becomes more saturated. Meaning they’d have to bring down their inflated costs.

They also have to pay more in taxes if they produce more of something. So, a lot of companies have kind of sat for a minute and said, “well, we're getting a lot of money for our product than we used to get, so why should we produce anymore just to get taxed more for it?”. Which is why many have continued to drive the same amount of supply out of their organization and the inflation has remained. Of course, there’s more nuance to it, but essentially that’s where we’re at.

I think the reason why we’ll run into the “recession”, however, is simply because the dollar goes less far. Things are more expensive and the only way to combat that is businesses paying their employees more. This is challenging and leads to businesses charging their customers more and it becomes a very vicious cycle. One that, unfortunately, will eventually come to a head when businesses can longer afford to pay their employees more and will likely automate their processes instead, or they’ll have to downsize. So, I do think there will be more layoffs coming.

What’s interesting though, we all read about the layoffs at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. It wasn’t because the companies were doing poorly -- they have more cash in the bank than ever. It’s merely due to the fact that their demand is going to go down because of people’s dollar’s not going as far.

 

2008 v. 2023

How do you feel our current economic situation compares to that of 2008?

Sean: Compared to 2008, it’s a very different market. Back then it was the way banks were lending with negative amortization loans. Essentially, saying “we're going to loan you for this half a million-dollar house -- which you probably couldn't afford with your salary this much money -- and in three years we're going to increase your interest rate adjusted from an initial 5% or 4% interest rate up to 12%.

That increased the cost of the mortgage and people just got wiped out really fast. They couldn't afford it and hence we had a huge market where things were foreclosing, people didn't have the money and they borrowed against the home and their credit was tapped.

In today’s world though, people have been making a lot of money. It’s been a good economy for a long time, and I don’t think people are tapped credit-wise at this point, so we’re not going to see a big downturn where people are liquidating everything they have. But we definitely need to see some changes happen.

 

The Tech Industry

From your perspective, what are the main shifts the economy has had on the tech industry?

Sean: In the whole tech-sector; you have four things that happened in the workplace:

  1. Hybrid Workforce
  2. Heightened concern for cybersecurity
  3. Workplace culture shift
  4. Increased interest in the cloud

What I see there is a problem in general with “can technology solve it?” one, but two, “does the workforce for technologists -- like the people that we employ -- have the skill set”?

Technology has sprawled a ton, so it’s almost impossible to find enough talent out there to keep up. There's a huge lack of it from security talent to cloud talent, etc.

So, companies are struggling to find the right IT people who aren’t over-charging for the cost of their labor because, again, the employee-cost has inflated. That’s why now there’s this notion of Do More With Less. Technology and economy, obviously being closely interwoven in this concept. 

 

Doing More with Less (Technology and Economy)

Could you tell us what “doing more with less” looks like?

Sean: I think one question is; are companies ultimately building tools that are easier to manage by bolting them together? For example, Microsoft owns Microsoft Azure (the cloud).

They also own the operating system within the cloud, which is windows. Then they own the productivity software we all use, which is Office 365 -- and in that you have your communication tools like Microsoft Teams, collaboration hubs like Microsoft Viva -- all the way down to the computer with Windows operating system.

With that, they can control the market from a cost perspective and drive down costs for these suites of products. Not to mention, more Microsoft people in general are probably out there in the world studying and learning.

Making it a little bit easier to find people who do work in that area. And at the ultimate goal; it's easier to manage the process and the technology by consolidating into one or two platforms as opposed to having many, many vendors.

It’s similar to security too. Everybody's coming to market with amazing security tools that do detection at the endpoint or do secure app management to secure applications in the world. But now there's a lot of them and there's not enough resources out there to ultimately manage many different types inside of one business.

So, that's where the big picture of the project-based work consolidation is happening. You have more talent to manage better and more control & cost optimization by consolidating these infrastructures. Today's technology and economy are extremely closely related so business leaders need to emphasize having the right technology for their companies.

 

The Role of Managed Services

Could you speak about how this all ties into managed services and IT outsourcing? What benefit, if any, could customers gain from these types of services and solutions during this time?

Sean: As I mentioned before, you have the whole thing around hybrid and remote workforces. There are two things that happened:

  1.  Shifted working hours
  2. Changing workforce (great resignation)

Where previously companies had one IT person in the office. That’s not the same anymore. If people are working from home, they're working 24 hours a day. There's not really a regular 9 – 5 anymore.

That means the calls are coming in more than ever. The person who worked internal IT doesn't want to be the person hanging on the phone taking those calls all day every day and it’s not like they can run into anyone’s house to get everything set. That’s why we see technical call-based Help Desks becoming more and more popular. So, outsourcing will continue to grow in a bad economy. Outsourcing and centralizing the tools that are being managed by companies.

The second reason why outsourcing is becoming bigger, is due in part to the great resignation. With the inflation of salaries and expense of increased employee turnover, people are looking at companies, like Managed Solution, instead.

 Beyond that, when it comes to enhancing security, making their users more productive, or having collaboration tools move into the cloud -- many companies are finding that the traditional IT teams are not always tooled up for this. That's why we're seeing more companies outsourcing a lot of that strategy as well; to help them build a long-term footprint that looks at the total cost of ownership. They’re asking organizations like us, “How do we optimize costs and better productivity for my new hybrid workforce of users and make sure we’re secure?”.

For us, it's a nice place to play in the industry right now, being sort of the managed service provider who outsources all this stuff and the consulting arm to be able to go out and help build the future architecture.

 

Advice to Fellow Tech Companies

We’ve established that the economy today is different than it was in 2008, but one thing they have in common is their negative impact on people and businesses financially. As a business leader who came out of that, do you have any advice or words of comfort for fellow tech companies like Managed Solution?

Sean: For tech companies like ours, it’s always been a good thing to have multiple vendors on your website such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Dell, etc. A lot of the traditional sense has been that those are kind of like VARs, or ‘value added resellers’, who could resell all these products and services.

But my advice, is that you’ve got to pick a horse. Make sure you understand what suppliers (Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, VMware, Cisco), are building that understand the economic climate. If cost is a big factor and businesses are having to do more with less technology, who's building the technology in one stack of products to ultimately give you all the tools that you need to be successful?

Consolidation is really where I think all businesses should try to head and are trying to head right now. So, ultimately, as it pertains to technology -- I think picking that horse that you think is going to be best in the race is key. Technology and economy is a huge conversation right now. Technology and economy are both make or break aspects for businesses today.

 


If you’re interested in speaking to one of our team members for more tech-guidance? Contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Want more resources or interested in more tech content? Head over to our blog page! Technology and economy is a huge conversation right now. Be sure to keep up with us to stay in the know!

How IoT Is Benefiting Business and IT Departments

The Internet of Things (IoT) is on a fast track to change pretty much how the entire world operates. The IoT market is seeing a boom by improving the supply chain management to defining the concept of a so-called smart home and everything else in between. Estimates point to an enterprise IoT expenditure of over $520 billion by 2021. It is more than double what it was in 2017.

Also, over a third of all companies are seeing an added 1,000 "shadow IoT" devices attached to their networks. Shadow IoT means that employees are bringing their smart devices to work. Statistics also show that nearly half of businesses already use digital assistants (Amazon Alexa, Google Home, etc.) and smart TVs in the workplace.

The financial, healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics sectors are seeing the most use of IoT integrations. Nevertheless, IT departments across all spheres of business are implementing it into their systems.

Predictive Maintenance

Even though predictive maintenance is usually associated with manufacturing, you can also use it in the data center, such as for hard drive read-write heads. Similarly, machine learning can predict if one or more servers are about to go down. It means that its workload can be relocated in time, while the server is taken offline, repaired or replaced, so there will be no operation interruptions or the risk of data loss.

Reducing Costs

The IoT also benefits businesses by improving their overall energy efficiency. Several years ago, Google began making use of information collected in its data centers to improve energy consumption. It managed to reduce its cooling costs by 40%. Also, expect further improvements as these systems, aided by machine learning, will become even more efficient with additional data. Many other companies, in different industries, can follow in Google's footsteps and use machine learning to lower their energy consumption costs.

Virtual Assistants

Many IoT devices and smart virtual assistants are becoming ubiquitous in the office. And aside from them streamlining how employees navigate the digital environment, they are also helping with the physical one as well. These devices can predict when employees need something, even before they ask. If, for instance, staff members have to pass through an access control mechanism, a wearable smart device could automatically open the door when they walk up to it. These also help improve security.

For some healthcare organizations, for instance, the Weka Smart Fridge will come in handy. This portable IoT-enabled fridge will automate vaccine storage and dosage dispensing. It also includes remote monitoring, ensuring that the vaccines are at the right temperature, as well as inventory tracking.

Improving Conference Rooms

Another means by which IoT helps businesses optimize their processes in the modern workplace is to indicate which conference rooms are available and ready to use. Even if a reservation-style system exists in many organizations, it doesn't guarantee that each of them is in use. So, instead of having employees run around the building looking for a vacant room for an impromptu meeting, IoT devices can recognize which rooms are unoccupied.

Some technologies can measure phone signals or use infrared tools to detect if or how many people are in any area. By using radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, companies can also tell who the individual occupants are. Depending on the size of the business or the industry they are in, this implementation could prove quite useful.

Takeaway

While these are only a few examples of how IoT is benefiting businesses in the 21st century, the limitations are set only by one's needs and imagination. If you want to learn more or are looking to leverage these technologies, contact one of our trained specialists. Managed Solution is at your service!

The Role of the CIO

Today, it’s both a challenging and exciting time for CIOs. The role of the CIO previously was to lead the information systems and data processing departments. Today, however, the responsibilities and skill sets of a CIO are drastically different. CIOs are not there to worry about how to keep all those systems connected while saving money by moving to the cloud. Today, they have a more prominent place in a business’ strategic decision-making and are in a position to do a lot more.

CIOs are there to drive the thinking and resulting strategies regarding what to do with all the compiled data. They find ways to take the business forward by getting maximum value from the data on hand.

What do CIOs bring to the table in today’s highly-competitive and tech-focused business environment?

What is the Role of a CIO?

A CIO is in the executive position that deals with the IT needs of an enterprise. The role can’t portray with an exact description. Today’s CIOs are distancing from operational responsibilities, and their part includes:

Collaboration platforms, big data analytics, cloud computing, mobile computing, IoT, and AI are new challenges that CIOs now face. Their focus has shifted to data security, service analysis, and market reach.

CIO: Skills and Qualifications

Typically, CIOs have degrees in information systems, software engineering, and computer science. Besides an IT background, an essential factor for landing a CIO role is - experience. Employers seek people with a minimum of 5-year experience in IT management as well as business acumen. The essential skills for the CIO position are – leadership, strategic planning, project management, software development management, change management, relationship and network building, and financial and business acumen.

Does Every Company Need a CIO?

With outside consultants, cloud-based tools, and gumption, a small business with basic tech needs can survive. However, that’s only temporary, as every company comes to a point when somebody other than the CEO needs to make IT decisions. This point is at a unique moment in your growth, and you’ll need to answer questions like:

To ensure that your IT lead has an equal and active role in deciding what’s best for your enterprise, you need a CIO that has worked outside of a digital environment, who has navigated a corporate environment, and who can help bring the clout of the C-level title.

With new technological advancements, the CIO position continues to evolve; fueled by several significant trends that are coming our way and are mutually reinforcing each other. These trends are IoT, DevOps, and Big Data (paired with analytics and machine learning). The CIOs are the ones who should be driving these areas forward, knowing both tech and business trends. Certain key areas, such as agriculture, insurance, law, biotech, and healthcare are much affected by technology. There, CIOs are left concerned with the increasing expectations placed upon them.

When looking to hire a CIO, be sure to check whether they are qualified, skilled, and experienced enough for the position. On the other hand, your enterprise may benefit from fractional CIO services. These services deliver a flexible tech solution that evolves and adapts to meet your evolving needs. Contact Managed Solution to help you evaluate your business needs.

 

Blurring the Lines Between CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, and CIOs in the Digital Age

With the rise of the Digital Age and the Internet of Things (IoT), the business environment is going through a series of disruptive changes that seem to alter the most fundamental aspects of the economy. It would seem that almost nothing will remain as it was before. The traditional hierarchical system begins to break down, as seen with most of the start-ups today.

These examples presented here are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the disruption brought forth by today's technological revolution.

The implementation of new technologies has taken center stage, as of late, meaning that the bridge between business and IT is closer than ever. And as a consequence, the lines between CEOs, CTOs, and CIOs are also beginning to blur. So, what are the responsibilities of these three positions?

CEO - As the most senior corporate, executive, or administrative officer, the CEO is tasked with looking at the big picture items regarding company growth.

CTO - The chief technology officer, or sometimes known as the chief technologist, is tasked with all technological and scientific issues regarding the organization.

CIO - The chief information officer, on the other hand, works with traditional information technology (IT) as well as all computer systems that support the enterprise's goals.

CFO - The chief financial officer is responsible for financial affairs within the organization. The modern CFO is using emerging technology for more strategic planning.

Does your business plan for 2019 include how your organization can best leverage technology? With technology becoming so prevalent in companies and their successes and growth, the relationship between the CEO/CTO/CIO/CFO etc is growing stronger.

The Merger of Roles

Looking at these simple definitions and together with what we mentioned previously, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that these three roles within an organization begin to overlap. As technology is becoming a significant factor in an organization's growth and efficiency, it only stands to reason that the CEO will also have to consider it.

Similarly, the CIO and CTO positions are also evolving in response to this digital transformation of the business landscape. This shift is represented by how CIOs view their roles within a company. In 2017, for instance, only 20% of CIOs still saw themselves solely in their traditional roles of managing IT operations. That number was down from 27% the year prior.

By comparison, around 50% of CIOs are more focused on implementing new systems and aligning them with the company's business goals - a figure up from 45% in 2016. Also, 31% lean towards a more strategic focus, spending the majority of their time on various business innovation and growth activities.

At the same time, however, the business side of an enterprise is becoming more tech savvy. With an overall increase in digital literacy and programming skills, it's becoming increasingly apparent that these roles are overlapping in certain areas. It was Brook Colangelo, EVP, and CTO at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who once said in a tweet that “Everybody is a technologist and everybody in technology is in the business.”

In other words, these business leaders need to forsake the traditional way of doing things and take advantage of these skill sets. They need to create an environment in which employees are empowered to innovate, thanks to today's many digital technologies.

 

Enhancing information rights management in Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps

Enhancing information rights management in Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps

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Finding the balance between protection and productivity is critical to any organization. With the increased distribution of data, organizations need sensitive data to be born protected. This is why we invest in Azure Rights Management to help you protect information in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world.
Information rights management (IRM) is now supported everywhere in Office Mobile as we are pleased to announce that we are extending Azure Rights Management to the Word, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps for Android. You are now able to open, read and review rights-protected emails and Office documents on any device—whether it runs Windows, Mac, iOS or Android.
Other upcoming enhancements
We are hard at work building several other new features and enhancements to make the IRM experience even better for Office 365 subscribers in future updates.
These planned updates include:
Visit the Azure Rights Management website and read the product documentation to learn more. If you already use Azure Rights Management, make sure you update your Android devices with the latest versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint today so you get all the new functionality we have released.

Managed Solution is a full-service technology firm that empowers business by delivering, maintaining and forecasting the technologies they’ll need to stay competitive in their market place. Founded in 2002, the company quickly grew into a market leader and is recognized as one of the fastest growing IT Companies in Southern California.

We specialize in providing full Microsoft solutions to businesses of every size, industry, and need.

7 simple calendar tricks that will level-up your team’s productivity

7 simple calendar tricks that will level-up your team’s productivity

What’s the secret to maximizing productivity and efficiency? There’s no single silver bullet, but one sure-fire way to make gains is with calendar tricks that will keep you organized and focused. From scheduling “no meeting” time blocks to integrating mobile so you never miss a meeting—the art of calendar optimization is crucial.

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Here are seven simple calendar tricks you can use to bring your productivity to the next level:
1.Schedule “no meeting” time blocks—Instead of multitasking, set aside time without interruptions. “When people multitask, often they do multiple things badly,” says David Sanbonmatsu, University of Utah professor of Psychology. “A lot of times, the people who multitask the most are the worst at it…it’s individuals who lack impulse control.” (From Forbes.)
2.Set out-of-office (OOO) time—Identify blocks of time on your calendar as “unavailable,” “not working” or “OOO” if you’re not working a certain day or are traveling.
Pro hack: If you have a regular non-work appointment or commute time when you’re unavailable, schedule it as recurring OOO time. To do this in Outlook, just open the meeting you want to set as recurring and on the Meeting tab (in the Options group), click Recurrence. Select your desired frequency, set options for the frequency and click OK.
3.Connect your calendar on your mobile—It happens to everyone: You’re not on your laptop and a meeting runs late, you forget when and where your next meeting is and you end up shuffling in with a flurry of apologies five minutes after the next meeting begins. Integrate your calendar on your mobile device to stay up-to-date on all your meetings.
4.Install buffer time—Whenever possible, schedule an extra 10 minutes on either side of every meeting, so that you have enough time to clean up from the current meeting and then prepare and set up for the next meeting. This will also help you avoid the feeling of “running” from meeting to meeting.
5.Schedule breaks—When you’re completing tasks like a do-it-all, it’s easy to plow through and work till you’re fried. “Getting up for a few minutes and getting our blood flowing and some more oxygen to the brain is a necessary piece of the work day,” according to the Huffington Post’s Healthy Living team. Schedule breaks into your calendar to avoid burnout and boost creativity and let your calendar reminders hold you accountable.
6.Set check-in reminders—As major deadlines approach, schedule check-ins with reminders for benchmarks along the way. This avoids end-of-project stress and ensures you’re checking off tasks before they’ve passed. Include team members on your calendar reminders to encourage team check-ins as well.
7.Integrate business contacts—Simplify inviting business contacts by integrating your calendar with your contact list.
Pro hack: You can add a contact from an email message in Office 365. Open the message so that the person’s name is shown in one of these lines: From, To, Cc or Bcc. Right-click the appropriate name and click Add to Outlook Contacts. A new window opens, where you can fill in the details you want and then OK when done.
Use your calendar to stay on top of your day by optimizing organization and ultimately making you more productive. For more productivity tips learn how to work smarter in the cloud. To ensure you and your team are more connected get the eBook: “Collaborate, Anytime, Anywhere.“

Is your company’s data secure?

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Is your company’s data secure?

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Keeping data secure is pivotal to the success of all organizations. Office 365 Enterprise E5 Plan is Microsoft’s most secure productivity solution ever—offering industry-leading security and compliance features. Microsoft’s cybersecurity intelligence and machine learning capabilities help protect against unknown malware and detect anomalies quickly to allow a rapid response.
In addition, Office 365 meets many industry and regulatory requirements and helps organizations respond to legal issues with machine learning that quickly identifies relevant content for eDiscovery.
Organizations improve visibility and control with Office 365. Administrators can set control policies, discover “shadow” IT, control data access and gain critical insights into threats.

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Introducing Microsoft Stream

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Introducing Microsoft Stream: the secure destination to manage and share videos for businesses of all sizes

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Video is one of the most powerful ways we connect, communicate and learn today – breaking down geographic boundaries and bringing a distinctly human element to digital interactions. Myriad platforms exist in the consumer space to upload and share live or on demand in a matter of seconds. As one of the most consumed and shared content types on the internet, video is increasingly an important part of our personal lives. We believe video can – and should – be just as impactful in the workplace.
Today we are announcing the free preview of Microsoft Stream, a new business video service that democratizes access to and discovery of video at work. Starting today, anyone with a business email address can sign up for the preview in seconds and begin uploading, sharing and tagging videos in their organization. By taking the “work” out of managing video storage and security, Microsoft Stream enables organizations and their employees to communicate and collaborate with video more easily.
Earlier this year we announced our new approach to business apps and our ambition to remove barriers, encourage innovation and ultimately empower everyone in an organization with better ways to get work done. Microsoft Stream builds on this vision, enabling business users to harness the power of video to achieve more at work.
Today at preview we are delivering the following features and capabilities that make video management and sharing within an organization easy, collaborative and social:
•Sign up in seconds: Get started with Microsoft Stream in as few as five seconds with easy signup and no credit card requirements.
•Easily upload and organize your video: With easy drag and drop capabilities, upload your videos and organize them by either starting a channel or contributing to a channel based on team, group, topic etc.
•Discover relevant content: Enhanced content discovery through “trending” videos powered by machine learning, as well as search by hashtag, most liked videos and other key search terms.
•Watch anywhere, on any device, anytime: View videos in Microsoft Stream on all your devices from anywhere, anytime.
•Secure video management: Manage who views your video content by determining how widely to share within your organization, and to what channels. Secure application access is enabled by Azure Active Directory, a recognized leader in identity management systems, to protect sensitive corporate content.
•Follow what matters: Follow channels to see content you want in your Microsoft Stream homepage.
•Engage with content: Socialize videos by sharing via email, “Like” your favorites and embed videos to webpages within your organization.
Many Microsoft customers have already started to embrace the power of video for their business using Office 365 Video. Microsoft Stream builds upon the learnings and success of Office 365 Video, and over time the two experiences will converge, making Stream the de facto video experience in Office 365. During the preview of Microsoft Stream, there will be no changes to the Office 365 Video experience. We will share more details on future enhancements closer to general availability of the Microsoft Stream service. Learn more about what Microsoft Stream means to Office 365 customers here.
This is only the start. We believe video is going to be truly transformative in the workplace. We see video being a core content type across all solutions we use at work today. We want to share a sneak peek about how we imagine Microsoft Stream evolving:
•Deliver corporate broadcast seamlessly: Increasingly the way organizations are communicating and connecting is through live video. We believe that Microsoft Stream portal should be the destination for both live and video on demand.
•Intelligent video search: We believe true power of video will be realized once we are able to search within the video. Leveraging capabilities such as audio transcription and face detection, we can enable deep search, empowering employees to find relevant content faster.
•Make video part of your business apps and workflows: With the ability to integrate Microsoft Stream with other business apps like PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, SharePoint and other line of business applications, we see great opportunity to leverage the richness of video across apps.
•IT management capabilities: We recognize the critical role IT plays in managing content and user access to internal content. We plan to enable IT to manage access and settings like granting and assigning channel and video access, remove and monitor content and manage what is viewable to specific groups in the organization.
•Microsoft Stream App Ecosystem: We believe our partners will take Microsoft Stream experiences to the next level. Using Microsoft Stream APIs, partners will be able to create custom applications and make them available in AppSource, Microsoft’s marketplace for business applications we announced earlier this month.
We hope you share our excitement for the possibilities in video Microsoft Stream can open up for you and your businesses.

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