Let's celebrate the Fifth of May with tacos, tequila, and Skype for Business!
Cinco de Mayo represents the day the Mexican Army, against all odds, defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla. Now, people around the world take this day to appreciate Mexican and latin culture. The best way to celebrate? Use Skype for Business tools to increase your efficiency and make more time for margaritas and mariachi bands. Check out these 5 awesome foundational tips for Skype for Business, as written on bettercloud.com, with quick tutorial videos.
Schedule a Skype for Business Video or Audio Call Straight from Outlook
Since becoming part of Office 365 in April, Skype for Business has integrated with Lync and made scheduling video and audio calls a cinch. Straight from your Outlook calendar, you are able to schedule Skype for Business calls both within your calendar and within an invite. For those of us who need a demonstration or reminder, the video below will show how to create a Skype for Business meeting using both Outlook 2013/2016 and the Outlook Web App.
Share Only What You Need to Share with Others on Your Skype Meetings
Now that you know how to schedule a Skype call, here’s how to launch the meeting and share your screen with other participants on the call. Screen sharing is a feature of corporate calls that many of us have come to expect and Skype for Business provides several different content sharing options. Shareable options include your whole desktop, a certain application, a PowerPoint presentation, or event an attachment. Check out the video below.
Just Need to Chat Real Quick? Make a Skype for Business Direct Call Instead of a Video Call
While you can make a video call, you can also just use audio (and let’s admit, we all have bad hair days and may not need to be on camera for every meeting). In Skype for Business, users can easily make phone calls from their computer and connect with colleagues. For those work from home days or weeks on the road, making a direct call in Skype for Business can be the ticket to get work done.
Who’s in Your Skype for Business Address Book?
Skype for Business contacts represent the people you know, do business with, and communicate with. If you’re just getting started with S4B or you need to expand your circles, you can add people to your contacts list, whether they’re in your organization or outside of it (with some limits, based on your administrator’s settings).
An Instant Message in Skype for Business Can Do the Trick for a Quick Question
And then there’s times when you just want to send a quick message. If you’ve got something to share that doesn’t warrant an email, send an instant message with Skype for Business. The basic steps to send an IM will be intuitive for most users: simply double-click on the name of the contact you want to send a message to, type your message, and press your Enter key to send.
Now that you've learned 5 useful tips in Skype for Business, it's time to celebrate! Bring out the sombreros, cook up some traditional Mexican dishes (or just grab some take-out from the local food truck), and take a shot at the Mexican Hat Dance. Cinco de Mayo is the perfect day to celebrate and appreciate Mexican culture, so enjoy this Fifth of May!
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The Hidden Microsoft Edge Features You Didn’t Know About
It’s hard to switch browsers when we’re comfortable with what we’re used to. But knowledge is power and it’s healthy to know your browser options.
Microsoft Edge is the new browser available in Windows 10. Here is a video that provides an overview of features you may not know about!
And in case you’re interested in other Edge details, here’s research that shows how Edge is faster than Chrome, how it’s incredibly secure, and how Cortana can help you with your web browsing experience.
Everyone is busy these days, sure, but research shows that most people are wasting chunks of time throughout their day, whether it's fiddling with the latest tech toy or responding to every email that lands in their inbox.
For those in the technology field, time management is an even tougher task, says Laurie Gerber, co-president of Handel Group Life Coaching. "IT people have this added thing that people constantly need them. It's always an emergency," Gerber says.
More importantly, Gerber says these folks are spending precious time on tasks that don't match up with their priorities and responsibilities.
If that sounds like you, it might be time to get tough -- with yourself. To enhance efficiency, you must set personal ground rules and stick by them, Gerber says. Here are six simple workday hacks from other IT pros that can crank up your productivity.
Focus on the biggest tasks
Joe Klecha, CTO at the Detroit-based tech firm Digerati and a fan of author Stephen Covey, says he follows Covey's advice to dedicate time first to "big rocks," followed by "pebbles," "sand" and "water" -- with rocks representing the highest priorities and water the lowest.
"If you reverse and start with water, you can't fit in the rocks, the big priorities," Klecha says. "So for me it's knowing that the most important things that need to get done are always in focus and always have my attention."
To move that strategy from theory to practice, Klecha says he has frequent meetings with other executives to ensure he's targeting the organization's most critical projects. And he evaluates unexpected requests for his attention as they pop up.
"A lot are those things that come in on a day-to-day basis and don't ever become a priority but have the potential to distract," Klecha says. "But they're not so immediate in their demands that they can't wait an hour or two or you can't shuffle them off to someone else."
Manage your response time
In the six years that Sri Baskaran has been IT director at Sun Orchard Juicery, the company has doubled its revenue. To keep pace, Baskaran has expanded the IT group, while working closely with his business-side colleagues to consistently meet their needs. Although he wants to be responsive to those he supports, he knows he can't be at everyone's beck and call.
"What I found is, if you answer email as soon as it pops into your inbox, you set the expectation that you're the person who can be easily reached," Baskaran says. Plus, he says, that kind of availability would drain away the time he needs to focus on more critical tasks.
So instead of constantly checking and replying to messages, Baskaran schedules time every day to handle emails and voice mails, a policy he says helps him avoid interruptions.
"If I have to get back to someone, I'll put it on my calendar, schedule time with them to have a conversation," he says, adding that people know -- and he reinforces it in his outgoing messages -- to call his cell number if they need to reach him for urgent issues
Pick the most efficient way to communicate
Although there are multiple ways to communicate with a global team, Greg Davidson, director of the information management services practice at the business advisory firm AlixPartners, says for him the most effective platform is videoconferencing. He points to research showing that most communication is conveyed through body language -- a nonfactor over the phone or through emails.
And video, unlike emails, allows for instantaneous collaboration. "There's nothing like being able to talk in real time with other human beings. It's much clearer, crisper. We get it right the first time if we can look at each other and communicate," Davidson says.
Bryce Austin, CIO at Digineer, a technology and management consulting company, also knows the importance of being a good communicator -- so much so that he's willing to invest in it. "I bought the best Bluetooth [device] I could find so I can have productive conversations and people can hear me," he says.
Get everyone in sync
One of the biggest challenges facing CIOs today, says Lawrence Bilker, senior vice president and CIO at Continuity Logic, is the speed of technological change. "The time from concept to implementation is significantly faster. You have to be aware of solutions, you have to be able to respond to strategies quickly, and sometimes the amount of time allocated to research has gone down," he says.
So, like other IT executives, Bilker says he focuses his team on the highest-priority items and makes sure everyone is on the same page. The leadership team gathers every day for a 20-minute scrum and keeps a shared calendar to track meetings so colleagues know who's available and who's not. And his team uses collaborative platforms such as Dropbox and Box to more quickly come together and hash out plans.
Analyze your time
Savvy CIOs get insight into their own schedules to guarantee that they're as effective as they can be with their time. Baskaran uses time-tracking software called Toggl which allocates time to various projects and lets him analyze how he's spending his time. He says he can then fine-tune his workday hours and "make sure my time is going into the right buckets."
Cletis Earle, vice president and CIO at St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital, takes a similar approach, looking at statistics and monitoring statements, such as network-incidence reports, for ongoing issues that he can get ahead of and free up time he would have spent responding to the same scenarios. "Being prepared for anticipated problems will keep you from being distracted," Earle says.
Handel Group's Gerber advises tracking your time over a few weeks to get a full picture of where you're expending your energy. "Most people aren't doing with their time what they say or think is most important to them," she explains. If your everyday schedule is out of out of whack with your ideal one, then it's time for an adjustment.
"We ask our clients if [their schedule is] in accordance with their vision," she says. "To do that, you have to ask: What's the best use of your time and energy? And you have to figure out why you're doing what you're doing. If you're getting on the help desk because you don't trust your people, that's a problem. If you're on the help desk for an hour a month to stay in touch with needs, that's great."
Don't forget to delegate
Earle oversees a 24/7 IT operation -- a typical scenario for many IT managers. That around-the-clock responsibility has taught him to be as productive as possible during normal work hours so he has ample time in his schedule for his family, including his four children. He says a big part of time management is delegating responsibilities, and that means training his team to handle pretty much any task in the department, including those of the CIO.
"At the end of the day, there's not enough time to do it all yourself," he says.
We've all been there. You're away from home, and your Android's battery is quickly slipping away. You need to squeeze out all the battery life you can until you can plug in, but that's not for several hours. What's a desperate on the go, have-to-be-connected person to do? Luckily, there many ways you can conserve battery life, whether you're down to almost nothing or looking to keep your Android going longer as a general practice.
Here are nine ways to save battery life whether you're at flying high at 75 percent or lurching toward 10 percent or less.
Shut it down. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location Services, and NFC, that is. If you're not using it, turn it off. Switch on Airplane mode if you're somewhere with a poor signal, so your phone doesn't keep trying to connect.
No really, shut it down. Better yet, power the phone off until you need it again. If you're not waiting for an important call or text, just unplug for a bit. Maybe even read a book!
Why so bright? Your screen can easily devour battery life if you don't pay attention. In those dire moments when you need a battery extension, turn down the brightness a couple notches.
Find the culprit. Look at which apps are taking up the most battery life by going into the application manager and looking at the apps currently running on your phone. Here, you can see how much bandwidth each app is using, and even force stop it, if necessary.
Keep it simple. OK, this is obvious, but it has to be said: avoid using power hungry apps like games and videos, and any app that's powered by ads, thus requiring a network connection.
Join the Lollipop Guild. Or the Marshmallow Brigade? Introduced in Android Lollipop, a power saving mode, turns off haptic feedback (vibration) on your keyboard, dims your screen, and slows down your smartphone. Marshmallow adds a Doze Mode, which kicks in when your device is idle for an extended period of time and keeps apps from running in the background.
Of course, there's an app for that. Download an app like Clean Master or Juice Defender, which help manage power-hungry apps and adjust battery-draining settings in the background to keep your phone running efficiently.
Get to the Rooting of the Problem. Rooting offers battery-saving benefits. First, you can clean up your phone by removing bloatware, and at the same time, you can access apps designed for rooted phones that can help you save on battery life, such as Greenify.
Always bring backup. Finally, get a smartphone case with a built-in battery. You can find charging cases in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes from Mophie, PowerSkin and uNu. Alternatively, you can purchase a portable charger from Anker, PhoneSuit, Powermat, and others.
In the meantime, Android smartphones are becoming more and more efficient, while Google adds more power-saving features to the OS. For example, the upcoming Marshmallow 6.0 update will include Doze Mode, which prevents apps from checking for updates when the phone has been idle for a while, and a Do Not Disturb feature, which, when enabled, lets you choose which notifications come through for a set period of time. Manufacturers have added their own features, such as Samsung's ultra power saving mode, which changes your screen to a grayscale theme and limits app usage.
Fishs Eddy began selling vintage tableware with little more than a cash box and a notepad, but as the business grew, it needed technology that could keep pace with its success. After its IT environment crashed during Hurricane Sandy, Fishs Eddy migrated its email to Microsoft Exchange Online and adopted Microsoft Office tools such as Word, Outlook, and Excel, in addition to OneDrive and Skype. Now the Fishs Eddy team can communicate effectively, collaborate remotely, and take the business to the next level.
Where it all started
Doing dishes has been a real labor of love for Fishs Eddy founder and creative visionary Julie Gaines. Launched in 1986 in a tiny storefront on East 17th Street in Manhattan, Fishs Eddy found its niche selling classic, restaurant-quality tableware discovered in the cellars of old China factories, fading hotels, and long-forgotten resorts all along the eastern seaboard.
The dishes are perfectly preserved pieces of Americana, each a history of a town, a graduating class, a special summer. But it’s the remarkable quality of that “made in America” era that’s truly significant. According to Partner Noah Lenovitz, people still come back and say, “I bought that plate 30 years ago, and I still have it.”
According to store history, Fishs Eddy started out with nothing more than a cash box and a notepad. And while this may have been sufficient for a small retail store at the time, it was hardly a platform solid enough to support what would become a multigenerational family business.
The Fishs Eddy team has seen, lived, and worked through a fast-moving technological evolution. Lenovitz points out, “As our business continued to grow and evolve, it was absolutely critical that our software follow along with us.” Social Media Director and Designer Katherine Yaksich adds, “Microsoft products help us really lay out the foundation for the whole thing.”
Onward and upward
For many small companies, the decision to move to a single platform, bring disparate systems together, enhance abilities to work collaboratively, and be productive anywhere with internet access, at anytime, comes after a long period of false starts and ups and downs.
For Fishs Eddy, the decision to change the platform for its quintessential New York store came on the heels of a devastating natural disaster—Hurricane Sandy. Lenovitz, who stayed on duty during the storm, says, “We noticed that our technology was all over the place. People had a lot of data on their local computers, some on our server. We didn’t have anything centralized. During Hurricane Sandy, we lost power and our server crashed, and we saw that we really needed to move our data and programs to the cloud—specifically, our email. So we moved our mail to Microsoft Exchange and adopted Office, which helped improve data security and enabled us to work remotely.”
Seamless growth
There’s always room for improvement, and Fishs Eddy is ever alert for those opportunities. Recently, Gaines hired an assistant and immediately got her up to speed with Microsoft Outlook. As Gaines now reluctantly admits, “Before Outlook, my system was index cards.” Now, Gaines no longer double and triple books her appointments. For all the coworkers, vendors, and artists who work with Gaines on a daily basis, it’s a small but wonderful miracle. And it’s been an easy miracle, too. Gaines says, “I find the Microsoft Office programs very intuitive. I picked them up quickly, and everything makes sense.”
Gaines continues, “We use technology and email to pull all the pieces together. There’s a lot of communication that has to happen.” Yaksich adds, “We always need to share documents back and forth via email, so having reliable tools is essential.”
Anytime, anywhere access becomes even more important when the Fishs Eddy team is working on the go. Gaines says, “I’m rarely just sitting at my desk. I’m in the basement, or getting coffee, talking to investors, so I really live on Office.” Lenovitz adds, “We do have our main location here, but our warehouse is in New Jersey. We’re making customer site visits and working on weekends. As a business owner, you have to have your data accessible.”
Security is key
Fishs Eddy is using OneDrive to collaborate in a highly secure environment—a must for the retailer. From artists posting layouts for Gaines to approve to team members sharing next week’s hours or next quarter’s vacation schedules, employees can use OneDrive to take teamwork to another level.
Additionally, with OneDrive, employees can work on multiple devices, because all work is synced and updated in real time. For Lenovitz, it means he can work on designing, sharing, and accepting real-time feedback on a new catalog and be certain that the latest product list really has the most up-to-date products. Gaines says that keeping things moving smoothly with OneDrive is critical to production: “I’m not even in the office. And next thing you know, we’ve designed a collection.”
All together now
With a strong foundation, the team at Fishs Eddy found that work ran more smoothly. Lenovitz explains, “The backbone of our business is the Windows platform. All our warehouses, logistics, and fulfillment, all our workstations use Windows. The great thing about Office programs, whether it’s Word or Outlook or Excel, is their compatibility with all of our our point-of-sale and accounting systems.”
The Fishs Eddy team also uses Office to keep in touch with its wholesale customer base, which has grown from just a handful of customers to a list of more than 1,000 businesses, including several on the west coast. Lenovitz says, “It’s a little difficult to travel there for face-to-face meetings. Skype has really been important, because it makes the meeting more productive. And to see the person’s face and communicate is great for us.”
A bright future
Business moves quickly, and the Fishs Eddy team continues to work hard to keep up. Gaines notes, “As a small business, we’re always a little bit more in survival mode, so we can’t really afford hiccups. We put a lot of very, very deep concentrated thought into everything we do.” Lenovitz says that Office helps the whole team work together to make faster decisions. “I’m a firm believer that you learn from your mistakes but also your successes,” he says. “And sometimes, a decision is easy: nobody ever gets sick of polka dots.”
Going forward, the Fishs Eddy team is confident that using Office tools will help the retailer provide the flexibility and strength to continue to grow as a New York and global staple. “Using Microsoft products helps us collaborate more effectively, which makes our business more successful,” says Lenovitz. Yaksich is also looking forward: “I think Fishs Eddy has a bright future,” she says. “There’s going to be a lot of growth in the next few years, and hopefully new stores.”
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Case Study: Marquette University improves communications with familiar voice and conferencing solution
Marquette University is a coeducational institution in Wisconsin with 11,700 students and 2,700 faculty and staff. The university prioritizes its commitment to providing students and faculty with comprehensive communication tools. As the next step to updating its voice, conferencing, and instant messaging solution, Marquette is moving to Skype for Business and anticipates increased collaboration, flexibility, and adoption, in addition to cost savings.
Business needs
Marquette University is a private Jesuit college in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with 8,400 undergraduate students, 3,300 graduate and professional students, and 1,200 faculty. There are 11 different schools and colleges within the university that offer a comprehensive range of majors. Marquette is a nationally ranked institution with notable designations as a Changemaker Campus and the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
Marquette is an early adopter of technology and aims to provide students and staff with comprehensive communications solutions that include voice, conferencing, mobile, and instant messaging capabilities. University students and faculty rely on these solutions every day: professors conduct remote classes; students from the business school interview for jobs out of state; the IT team works with vendors outside of the university; and various departments use videoconferencing for events and meetings. “We like to stay current on technology, if not on the cutting edge,” says Dan Smith, Deputy CIO of IT Services at Marquette University.
In 2012, Marquette deployed Microsoft Lync Server 2013 to begin hosting its own conferences. At that time, the university started to retire its private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system and installed voice over IP (VoIP) to reduce costs and provide a wider range of communication options to the campus community. Its goal was to complete the PBX migration by summer 2015.
The university also hoped to increase adoption of communication tools by providing a solution that was familiar to users. It wanted to improve flexibility and productivity with more mobile and video use and encourage students and staff to communicate more easily with people off campus. However, users were only able to use VoIP to communicate with outside partners who were federated in the same system.
“Trying to get solutions that let students and faculty communicate with people outside of Marquette has always been a challenge,” says Victor Martinez, Windows Team Lead at Marquette University.
Solution
Skype for Business was the natural next step for Marquette. It offered similar functionalities as Lync 2013, in addition to the intuitive interface of the Skype client that many students and staff were already familiar with.
In early 2015, the IT services department at Marquette began the process of upgrading Lync Server 2013 to the Skype for Business Server 2015. The migration went smoothly as the IT team mirrored the production environment, which included servers and full functionality.
“It was like spinning up a side-by-side environment with our current environment. We were able to move users as needed, and then add additional users as we became more confident with the new solution,” says Martinez.
The university has been working toward retiring its PBX system for the past three years. Now in its final phase, it began migrating users directly from the PBX system to the Skype for Business Server, and is rolling out the Skype for Business client to the migrated users.
Marquette currently supports 330 users on the Skype for Business client, and it has already prepared an additional 30,000 accounts that are licensed and ready for use—enough to support all current staff and students, and new enrollments for the upcoming academic year. Marquette also expects to support 4,000 to 5,000 phones on the Skype for Business Server.
Marquette sees the new Skype for Business client as a hybrid between the consumer Skype client and Lync 2013. “The changes aren’t as drastic as we thought they might be. The overall place where you go to do things or look for things has basically stayed the same. There’s a continuity that people will see as they go from Lync 2013 to Skype for Business.”
Benefits
By moving to Skype for Business, Marquette anticipates increased user adoption and collaboration and improved flexibility. It also continues to reduce overall telephony costs by migrating users from its previous PBX system directly to Skype for Business.
Increased adoption and collaboration with familiar interface
Skype for Business offers the capabilities of Lync 2013 plus the familiarity that many users already have with Skype, meaning the campus community will be more likely to use the new solution.
“Some of the UI that you see within the Skype for Business client now mirrors the Skype interface on the consumer client,” says Smith. “We expect to see more widespread adoption as people can easily find and communicate with other Skype users and bring them into conversations.”
It will also be easier to collaborate with students, partners, and vendors outside of the university. “Now we can communicate with people worldwide who are using Skype while we’re on campus using Skype for Business—connecting this way is really powerful,” says Martinez.
Improved flexibility with mobile and video capabilities
Marquette believes users will start taking advantage of the Skype for Business mobile app that includes video, audio, IM, and content viewing and will provide the flexibility that students and faculty need to get work done anywhere, anytime. While desktop clients have dominated traditionally, that is likely to change at Marquette as many students are heavy mobile users.
“We’re going to see a lot more people use mobile and tablet devices to access Skype for Business for presentations and videoconferences,” says Martinez.
Recently, the IT department has received more requests for video support. Because Skype for Business provides messaging, audio, and video apps from a single solution, Marquette can offer students and staff new ways to collaborate, both internally and with users outside of the university. “A lot of external users already use Skype, which makes the experience of joining our meetings a lot easier,” says Martinez.
Continued cost savings
As part of Marquette’s migration process, it moved its telephony system from a physical connection to a virtual connection through Session Initiating Protocol (SIP). By moving to a SIP connection, Marquette saved approximately $125,000. “Disabling the ports on the PBX system saves us money as we continue to move this project forward,” says Smith. To date Marquette has saved approximated $95,000 in PBX costs.
Marquette is meeting its commitment to provide cutting-edge communications tools to student and faculty, without making additional investments in its IT infrastructure. The university was able to utilize its existing hardware for its new communications solution. “Skype for Business doesn’t require different hardware than what we currently have,” says Martinez.
Consumers know Dr. Oetker as their favorite baking goods, cereals, and pizza brand. The German food company is rapidly expanding and is using Skype for Business to bring employees in 40 countries closer together. Using Skype for Business, employees develop products, interview job candidates, and provide tech support more efficiently and often without time-consuming travel. The software works well with the other Microsoft tools staff use every day, and conversations are more secure within the corporate IT infrastructure.
Dr. Oetker is a household name in Germany and is fast becoming one in 40 other countries. In business since 1891, Dr. Oetker ranks among the leading branded goods companies in the German food industry, with its baking powder, cake mixes, frozen pizzas, cereals, and snacks as well as dairy products. It is headquartered in Bielefeld, Germany, and employs more than 11,000 people.
Needed: one tool for everything
As the company expanded globally, Dr. Oetker shored up its technology tools for communicating and collaborating. “The Dr. Oetker brand prides itself on quality, and achieving consistent levels of quality when manufacturing products all over the world is impossible without tight communications among global teams,” says Frank Pickert , Senior Executive Manager IT Services at Dr. Oetker.
“The company had standardized on Microsoft Lync Server 2013 as its technology lingua franca, but that software was limited to communications within the company and with partners that also used it. The human resources (HR) staff members could not use Lync Server 2013 to interview job candidates, so they ended up using third-party web-based conferencing products that were outside the governance of the IT department.”
“We had to pay for multiple tools, employees had to learn different tools for internal and external communications, and we didn’t have control over the conversations that happened on these unsanctioned tools,” says Christian Plitt, IT Manager, Infrastructure and Shop Floor Solutions at Dr. Oetker. “We wanted one tool for everything.”
A tool that everyone knows
Dr. Oetker found that one tool in Skype for Business Server 2015, the successor to Lync Server 2013. “We really like Skype for Business because of its full integration with the Skype consumer product and the ability to search for contacts in that product,” says Kathrin Worner, IT Specialist, Infrastructure and Shop Floor Solutions at Dr. Oetker. “Our employees and outside partners immediately knew how to use it, and this was not the case with other tools that required a big investment in user change management.”
“By using Skype for Business, we can bring colleagues together who would probably not otherwise meet.… This is very useful in helping people feel like they’re part of the same organization.”
-Christian Plitt, Dr. Oetker, IT Manager, Infrastructure and Shop Floor Solutions
Also, Skype for Business is under the control of Plitt’s team, unlike the other collaboration solutions that employees had been using. “With Skype for Business, our data resides on our servers,” Plitt says. “It’s critical that we keep conversations about strategy, pricing, new products, and other topics confidential.”
To date, about 200 employees at Dr. Oetker already use the Skype for Business client, and the company plans to roll it out to all 3,000 employees who are currently licensed for Lync Server 2013. “Skype for Business use is spreading by word of mouth,” Worner says. “We’ve received very enthusiastic feedback. It’s become an indispensable part of daily communication for the teams that use it.”
Better collaboration across global teams
Here’s a sampling of how various Dr. Oetker teams are using and benefitting from Skype for Business:
Human resources. The HR department uses Skype for Business to conduct video interviews with job candidates. Previously, these interviews were performed as regular phone calls, and the addition of video has been significant. “It’s very important that our HR staff members see the candidates to get a better sense of each person’s demeanor,” says Plitt. “It’s a big advantage for candidates, too, to see who’s on the other side. Loyalty and long-term relationships are a core part of our culture, and this starts at the beginning, with hiring. With video interviews using Skype for Business, we can set the appropriate tone with prospective employees.”
Product development. Dr. Oetker has cross-geographical teams all over the world in product development, marketing, customer support, IT, and other areas. These teams use Skype for Business to work together more efficiently. For example, although product development teams can’t use Skype for Business to taste products, they can collaborate more closely when manufacturing the same product in different countries using regional ingredients. The marketing team at headquarters can see pizza boxes and other packaging that different regional teams propose and make sure that they comply with corporate branding standards. “With Skype for Business, we increase knowledge transfer across the company, from person to person and team to team,” says Pickert.
IT. The company’s IT Services team works worldwide, providing technical support wherever there are Dr. Oetker employees. Communication and collaboration is key for this team so that it can provide good, consistent IT support for employees. Recently, this team needed to connect a new pizza plant in Canada to the corporate network and had three months during a cold Canadian winter to set up the necessary IT infrastructure and train the local staff. “We ordinarily would have had to fly team members to Canada for several weeks, but instead we used Skype for Business video calls to handle most of the prep work remotely, which minimized the time that the team had to be away from their families,” Pickert says.
Executive staff. Dr. Oetker executives have fully embraced Skype for Business and now use it to stay in closer touch with their far-flung staffs. “Our executives use Skype at home, so having Skype for Business at work is a big advantage for them,” Worner says.
Plitt is excited about the role that Skype for Business will play in mobile scenarios, such as supporting the company’s hundreds of sales representatives. By outfitting all salespeople with a camera-equipped laptop or tablet PC, Dr. Oetker could help them react faster during the sales process. They could quickly place video calls with corporate support teams to resolve sales blockers or even show supermarket product placement to marketing colleagues to optimize merchandising.
Video is particularly valuable in an internationally operating company, because meeting participants can see facial expressions and reactions of other participants, which helps bridge cultural differences. “By using Skype for Business, we can bring colleagues together who would probably not otherwise meet,” Plitt says. “For example, it’s very difficult for employees in less developed or more remote parts of the world to fly to Germany for meetings. With Skype for Business, they can participate in international meetings and meet their colleagues, and this is also very useful in helping people feel like they’re part of the same organization.”
Dr. Oetker even foresees using Skype for Business with consumers. “At baking fairs and other events, or from their homes, consumers could meet a Dr. Oetker baking expert over video chat and ask questions,” Plitt says. “Skype for Business opens up new communication channels with our customers.”
Consistent interface
In addition to the ease-of-use advantages that Skype for Business offers, Dr. Oetker appreciates the fact that Skype for Business works so closely with the other Microsoft desktop tools that employees use every day. “Microsoft is one of our two strategic software partners,” Plitt says. “We use Microsoft Office and SharePoint Server, and all our desktop computers run the Windows 7 operating system. When we upgrade to Windows 10 and the latest version of Office, Skype for Business will be part of that whole picture and help our employees be more productive. It’s of enormous value to our employees to have consistency across desktop tools and be able to switch quickly and easily from one to another.”
Pickert adds: “As we continue to grow internationally, we’ll use Skype for Business to make it faster and smoother to integrate new employees and offices into the business. Because it’s so easy to set up communications with new employees, we can make them part of the company right away. This helps the business be more agile and responsive to local customers and markets.”
Less time-sapping travel
While Dr. Oetker cannot estimate Skype for Business–related travel savings at this early stage, the company does have a new policy: before purchasing an airplane ticket, all employees should ask themselves, “Could I use Skype for Business for this meeting instead?”
“Communicating using desktop tools saves our people a lot of time, which is more valuable than the actual travel costs,” Plitt says. “Travel kills a lot of productivity, and we can recoup those hours by taking widespread advantage of Skype for Business.”
As Skype for Business use expands across the company through grassroots adoption, the Dr. Oetker IT staff is already eager for upcoming features. “One of the reasons we chose Skype for Business is the fact that Microsoft is innovating in ways that no one else can match,” Plitt says. “A good example is the Skype Translator technology currently in beta testing with consumers. This has the potential to completely change the communications landscape, especially for companies like ours with colleagues in 40 countries.”
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