For life's little interruptions, use Windows + F4 to mute yourself in #Skype4B.
When it's time to speak up, use it again to unmute.
Microsoft researcher Jamie Shotton honored as one of MIT Tech Review Innovators under 35
Jamie Shotton at Microsoft Research Cambridge is among the latest MIT Technology Review’s Innovators under 35, a distinction that goes to exceptionally talented young innovators whose work the editors believe has the greatest potential to transform the world. Previous winners include Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Shotton was among the researchers who played a key role in bringing Kinect to market. The system has been a differentiating feature for Xbox, and it’s also been used in countless other areas, from improving healthcare to making meetings more productive. Shotton has continued to build on that work with a more recent project called Handpose, which aims to track hand motions to millimeter precision.
Find out more about Shotton and his work over on Inside Microsoft Research.
Details of the next round of incentives for Office 365 (O365) adoption have been released, and there’s one big change for customers.
Microsoft has unveiled the Fiscal Year 2016 incentives, which will kick in for customers who purchase new licenses after Sept. 1 of this year, in order to spur O365 adoption and deployment. For customers who purchase O365 licenses from July 1 through Aug. 31, a bridge period with similar benefits is available as well.
Here is what you need to know about this year’s FastTrack offer, and why you should prepare your IT environment before you contact Microsoft.
Remember those incentives?
This isn’t the first go-round of O365 incentives. They’re very similar to benefits Microsoft offered last year, with a few tweaks.
Historically, because the previous fiscal year’s FastTrack offering expired on June 30 and the next incentive round didn’t begin until September, customers that purchased O365 licenses in July and August found themselves in limbo. To remedy that problem, Microsoft developed an “early bird” incentive, and has set aside money to help organizations offset the cost of their deployment.
In essence, customers that purchase at least 150 eligible O365 licenses, and in that two-month window, can work with a Certified Microsoft Partner to manage their deployment of O365 workloads, and in doing so can offset the total cost of moving to an O365 environment. Once the customer and partner complete the due diligence of the deployment, the partner will submit a funding claim to Microsoft to partially offset the costs of the organization’s O365 adoption – a process that could save organizations five figures off the total expense, for example.
After this round of “early bird” funding, FastTrack Adoption Offer benefits launch Sept. 1, and customers who purchase a minimum of 150 licenses between Sept. 1, 2015 and March 30, 2016 are eligible. Once a customer activates its tenant, Microsoft will contact eligible customers within 30 days of the O365 license purchases to discuss the FastTrack onboarding options, which help activate core workloads such as Office Pro Plus, SharePoint, and Skype (to name a few) into the cloud. Like last year, Microsoft will offer offsetting funds to reduce the total cost of deployment to qualified customers.
Finally, a marriage of FastTrack and Mail Migration
A key change in this year’s incentive program is that Mail Migration is now a core service offering as part of an O365 FastTrack deployment; Microsoft’s engineering teams will migrate mail accounts and data to the cloud for qualified customers, in addition to onboarding key workloads such as Office Pro Plus and SharePoint.
But take note: Customers need to do their own preparation for the mail migration, which may include a cleanup of Active Directory, streamlining on-premises and cloud mail services, or remediation of other third-party applications. Microsoft will migrate a qualified organization’s mail to the cloud, but organizations are responsible for completing certain checks and processes before the migration can begin.
By Krish Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Blue Jeans Network as written on huffingtonpost.com
There's no denying that meeting other human beings face to face is valuable when you need to communicate nuance, make an impression, learn or collaborate. Think about it, we've all been in THAT meeting. The meeting that never seems to end, in which you resort to biting your tongue, or surreptitiously surfing the web, in order to stay awake and maintain sanity - all the while knowing your inbox is filling up and project deadlines are creeping closer. Here are five surprisingly simple ways today's most prominent and creative business leaders circumvent the meeting doldrums to get the job done -- supported by data taken from over five million online meetings courtesy Blue Jeans State of the Modern Meeting Index.
Sandberg Says: Make it Quick!
Facebook dynamo Sheryl Sandberg has a lot on her plate. According to recent data, women "lean in" to meetings, attending 10 percent more of them than men. However, Sheryl manages by keeping meetings short and to-the-point. If it only takes 10 minutes to go through a meeting that was scheduled for an hour, the meeting's over in 10 minutes. People seem to be picking up on this time-saving strategy to shrink meeting duration whenever possible. The data shows that the meeting sweet spot is just over 30 minutes.
Bezos to Team: Get it while it's hot!
Amazon's Jeff Bezos keeps meetings small. By only ordering two pizzas to feed his attendees, Bezos has found the magic pizza party number to draw the right sized crowd to his meetings. This simple and effective tactic limits meeting participants to the crucial voices and avoids the analysis paralysis that can set in with an over-saturation of opinions. Keeping meetings small has led to quality meetings and enough pizza to go around!
Nadella Says: I'll See You Friday - or - Skip it!
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants to stay abreast of issues and push performance aggressively. To that end, he meets with his senior leadership team every Friday to coordinate progress. Though meetings are getting shorter and smaller, Nadella's frequent meeting style fits the national trend. Along with more frequent, more meaningful meetings Nardella empowers his staff to save time by avoiding unnecessary meetings, encouraging them to skip meetings if they really don't need to be there.
No Meetings Wednesday - Try Tuesday Instead!
Facebook started a trend of startup companies declaring a "No Meetings Wednesday" policy - and they were on to something, Blue Jeans' data shows that the most popular day of the week for a meeting is actually Tuesday. Also jumping on the trend to stop meeting madness is technology company Asana, who recently implementing Wednesday as a "flow" day focused on productive work without interruption and reports that the results carry over to other days of the week, too. The most common time of day to meet is 3pm, which should also provide a change of scene and access to a fresh cup of coffee, given that mid-afternoon is commonly considered the energetic low-point of the day. No matter the day or time, scheduling that considers the priorities and demands of invitees will improve the likelihood that your meetings will be well-attended by bright-eyed colleagues.
Meetings - Punk Rock Style
Conventional corporate culture can be stifling, especially in B2B environments. Take a page from former punk rocker turned security software CEO, Timothy Eades, and resist the pressures of meeting norms. Eades isn't afraid to stand apart from the crowd in favor of being an individual, quoting Joey Ramone on punk rock leadership: "To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am.'" As the person who calls the meeting, you have the opportunity to set the tone. Punk rock meeting management should shake things up with nonconformist ideas, the freedom to wear a costume to communicate an idea, and maybe pipe in your favorite Green Day song to get the groove going. The point is: it's your show.
Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/krish-ramakrishnan/from-pizza-to-punk-5-ways_b_7977790.html
Managed Solution is hosting Roadshow events to demo the new features in Windows 10 and show customers the latest products that connect your people, processes, devices, and data securely across your company enabling you to stay ahead in today’s mobile world.
At the forefront of these business profitability products is Windows 10, organizations will use the end-user-enhancements in Windows 10 across Office 365 & Skype for Business to drive revenue.
Considering the extremely quick pace of development from the release of the Insider Preview to GA (General Availability), there are some considerations to keep in mind when making the migration to Windows 10.
We have been busy testing Windows 10 and one thing we have found is that while it's pretty awesome (you’ll love the new features!) not all applications we work with day to day are ready for the new software.
We are getting to know the behavior of Windows 10 so we could make the transition smooth for our customers and reduce day-to-day troubleshooting.
We can help out with the cost too! Microsoft is offering dollars to jump start businesses into Office 365 and we can use those funds to Upgrade you to Windows 10 at the same time. (If you're already running Office 365 ask us about our cloud incentive dollars)!
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