[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Office 365 Case Study: PATH

As written on Microsoft.com

Saving lives through innovation and IT 

PATH, a Seattle-based global health nonprofit that innovates better solutions to help the world’s most at-risk groups, also tackled an equally daunting logistical problem: “With a piecemeal infrastructure struggling to keep pace with 38 offices and nearly 1,300 employees, most of whom work in the field in hard-to-reach locations, the organization needed to improve its own technological vitals. In short: “Our global footprint had expanded beyond our investment in IT,” explains chief information officer Erik Arnold.

A global rollout of Office 365 not only standardized its infrastructure; the cloud-based tools helped staff work faster and smarter to pursue projects in the most remote corners of the world—where its life-saving work is most needed. They now

• overcome in-country connectivity issues,

• strengthen coalitions with outside organizations,

• break free of physical IT hardware,

• expand without extraordinary expense, and

• collaborate with colleagues around the world.

“This solution ensures we maximize the amount of our funding that goes directly to the activities that advance our program missions.”  - Chief Information Officer Erik Arnold

Technology overcomes global barriers

Adapting to on-the-ground realities

PATH works in what Arnold generously calls “challenging places”—where internet connection, electricity and even roads aren’t reliable. Office 365 enables staff in remote areas to communicate with other locations, make deadlines and most importantly meet health needs. Mobile access to SharePoint, for example, allowed field staff in Kenya to send invoices and time cards to the Nairobi office, replacing their old system—delivering paper documents via motorcycle and airplane.

Employees can also check out documents to their laptop or mobile device from SharePoint, make edits then check the file back in—all so changes aren’t lost if the internet connection fails. “That feature means our teams in Tanzania and Zambia can use it more easily, helping them buy in to the system,” says Laurie Werner, deputy director of PATH’s Better Immunization Data Initiative.

Building partnerships

“The cloud is the only way our teams can efficiently collaborate not only within the organization but also when we partner with corporations, universities, governments and other nonprofits to build coalitions and partnerships,” Arnold says. “Office 365 is the obvious solution.” He has seen how adding Zambian health officials’ edits in real time to a diagram of health supplies distribution using Visio, flow chart software available at a steep discount to Office 365 Nonprofit recipients, strengthens relationships and streamlines workflow.

Another example: The Better Immunization Data Initiative, which uses data to improve countries’ delivery of vital vaccines, used SharePoint to collaborate on literature reviews, initial assessments and other documents at its onset; now that the project is underway, it provides updates to its external evaluator via the same platform. And because PATH depends on outside alliances—to develop lifesaving medicine and track children’s immunization schedules, for example—these tools are literally saving lives.

Staying flexible

PATH’s footprint is continually changing—it opens and closes offices as needed, moving personnel as they meet milestones and tackle new health crises. “We are cloud first—we have to be,” Arnold explains.

Instead of relying on on-site servers and other hardware, PATH safely stores all data in the cloud for immediate access anywhere, anytime and from any device. “We can move more quickly, scale up teams and spin up new solutions in sites in different countries,” Arnold says. “It’s so much easier when we’re not managing physical boxes and configurations.”

Scaling up

PATH is always evolving to meet the world’s health needs: It has seen double-digit growth for more than a decade. Modernizing its IT system provides scalability without a huge expense. “As a nonprofit, it would be irresponsible to build a large, complex, and expensive IT organization,” Arnold says.

“This solution ensures we maximize the amount of our funding that goes directly to the activities that advance our program missions.”

Collapsing distance and time zones 

“SharePoint reduces my workload but increases our ability to communicate,” says Werner, who manages an international team from Seattle. She has set up alerts when staff from other offices update documents or complete tasks, so she always knows the status of any given deliverable. With all important documentation uploaded into SharePoint, she no longer has to hunt for information buried in her email or rely heavily on conference calls spanning multiple time zones.

“Office 365 gave us an efficiency we didn’t have,” she adds. “We have been able to develop interventions and ramp up our projects more quickly even though our teams are dispersed.” From the Peruvian rainforest to far-flung villages in Myanmar, that means PATH can build healthier communities—and save lives.

 [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Georgia State University tackles malware with Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection

By Ren Flot, chief information security officer and director of cyber security at Georgia State University as written on blogs.office.com

As the chief information security officer at Georgia State University, my job is focused on balancing the needs of an academic community—where faculty and students value broad access and flexibility in online research—with the security requirements of a large enterprise. Advancing both these requirements calls for a proactive approach to combating malware. In a threat landscape that is constantly changing, I look for products that can deliver effective protection, while helping us make efficient use of our cyber security team’s time and resources. To meet these needs, we acquired Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection to increase email security for our more than 55,000 students and more than 6,000 faculty and staff.

The cyber security team at Georgia State University had noticed a steady uptick in malware attacks, particularly phishing, and it felt like we were fighting fires every day. The security of our university community in digital spaces is an important priority, so we aimed to get ahead of the problem. It was clear that an additional layer of security was needed. To address the issue, we selected Advanced Threat Protection, because detection and protection against malware attacks would be handled within a Microsoft cloud environment, freeing up time for us to focus on other security and IT tasks.

After deploying the solution to a pilot group, we saw a significant reduction in the number of malicious emails reaching our users, and by the time we completed our implementation, we had reduced the number of emails that got through with malicious content by more than 2,000 messages over a five-month period. Today, Advanced Threat Protection has become an important part of the toolset that is helping us take a proactive stance against malware. This hosted email filtering solution also interoperates very smoothly with our Office 365 email system, providing a highly secure productivity platform.

And implementation was accomplished quickly and easily, with support from Microsoft FastTrack. Our team has also found the management controls and user-based settings available within the solution to be very configurable, an advantage given the range of user groups—faculty, staff and students—that we have to consider in the higher education environment. The Safe Links feature has been particularly useful in our environment, because students share a lot of links while working on projects, and it has performed well at helping prevent inadvertent access to malware through links and attachments. The solution is seamless from a user experience perspective, and the product is unobtrusive, working efficiently in the background.

Georgia State University’s security profile has been significantly enhanced as it relates to email through use of Advanced Threat Protection. Today, we have a solution that is nearly invisible, while providing staff and students a safer environment in which to work and study.

MJHS celebrates nearly 110 years of care and innovation with modern Office 365 workplace

By Stuart Geller as written on blogs.office.com

Since “The Four Brooklyn Ladies” founded the MJHS Health System (MJHS) in 1907, we have grown into one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in greater New York. One of my challenges is to ensure that the values of a nearly 110-year-old healthcare provider are reflected in the 21st-century technology we use. With Microsoft Office 365 cloud-based business tools, our employees work productively in today’s digital world, while preserving the innovative, culturally sensitive healthcare services that are part of our history.

Before we settled on Exchange in the cloud, we used another product as our on-premises messaging and collaboration platform. This system had significant email reliability issues and storage limitations. We needed cloud-based business productivity tools that aligned themselves with the highly-regulated healthcare industry, where we are required to meet HIPAA standards. We evaluated G Suite (formerly Google Apps for Work) but chose Office 365. First, Microsoft signed a Business Associate Agreement, something that Google was unwilling to do at the time. And we were more than satisfied that Office 365 met our strict standards around security and compliance, in everything from email retention to archiving and eDiscovery. We also use Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection that bolsters our defense against malware and phishing emails. It’s great to see Microsoft offerings evolve to keep pace with swift changes in the threat landscape.

At the enterprise level, it’s important to use technology that works in the language of the industry. Our employees are familiar with Microsoft offerings, and the ease of transition to the new business tools was a great incentive for us. Not only does Office 365 ensure that we will always be on the latest version, but the interoperability of the different components of the suite is efficient and effortless, improving productivity.

We pride ourselves on delivering innovative, sensitive patient care in the home. Our mobile health workers carry Windows-based devices and now they can use Office 365 to access the information they need to do their work, without returning to the office. With Office 365, mobile access to all our technology resources is easier than ever, which means more time interacting face-to-face with our clients.

We are seeing increased interest in video conferencing across MJHS with Skype for Business Online, especially for board meetings and presentations. We are piloting the PSTN conferencing capabilities, and we are excited to make the most of the newest functionality, particularly Dynamic Conference Codes, which eliminates overlapping conference calls and protects the privacy of each meeting. By eliminating existing superfluous conferencing solutions, we expect to reduce our costs in this area by 80 percent.

And by consolidating other third-party providers, for mobile device connectivity, archiving and eDiscovery capabilities, we have further simplified our administration and significantly reduced our overall costs. With Office 365, these types of services come standard, and once again allow us to acquire great functionality with a reduction in costs.

The Four Brooklyn Ladies could never have imagined how much healthcare would change in the past century. However, it’s great to know that with IT tools like Office 365 we can ensure that their core values of cultural sensitivity, service and compassion are still at the forefront of our service to the community.

Bringing Office 365 to new markets

By Tom Batcheler as written on blogs.office.com

4 Tech Topics That Are Better Than the Usual Thanksgiving Dinner Talk

By Kelly Cronin

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday that fills our bellies, lets us relax, and of course reunites us with family.  Over dinner you get to share stories and experiences with your loved ones, but sometimes you also have to hold your tongue during heated political debates and never-ending interrogations from your Aunt. If you want to avoid the usual "Are you seeing anyone yet?" questions, try starting an educational discussion on these sweet new technology-related topics (plus they'll finally make you seem smarter and more "with it" than your hot-shot cousin).

1) Microsoft Teams

Microsoft just released a new collaboration tool for business teams.  The new chat-based workspace in Office 365 brings together people, conversations, content, and the tools teams need to achieve more together.  Teams has a variety of features that users can take advantage of to keep on track with projects, meetings, and documents.  You can add new "Teams" that let you create places to talk about anything you need to, a place to upload documents, and schedule a meeting with the team.  These teams can also link with your Office 365 groups and will automatically include OneNote notebooks, tasks from Planner, and meetings scheduled in Outlook.

Learn more about Teams

2) Mixed Reality

 In a rush of new virtual reality gadgets, the Microsoft HoloLens has revolutionized the holographic experience by mixing virtual reality and augmented reality.  You can show your family members some videos of the HoloLens that don't even seem real.  Check out this demo of how the HoloLens could be used here.

The mixed reality experience is giving users the creative world to use the HoloLens for education, business, art, and of course just for fun.  Western Reserve University uses the HoloLens to teach students anatomy.

Watch the video

3) Outlook Customer Manager

Outlook on Office 365 recently added a Customer Manager feature.  Outlook Customer Manager gives you a complete view of your interactions with each customer, helps you track tasks and deals in progress, and surfaces timely reminders. You can stay on top of customer relationships right from Outlook, with no need to install or learn separate tools. The information in the timeline is automatically gathered from the email, calendar and call log data from your Office 365 environment, minimizing the need to manually enter data about your customer interactions.

4) Systems Center Configuration Manager

With System Center Configuration Manager, you can now manage mobile devices using on-premises Configuration Manager infrastructure. All device management and management data is handled on-premises and is not part of Microsoft Intune or other cloud services. This type of device management doesn’t require client software since the capabilities that Configuration Manager uses to manage the devices are built into the device operating systems.

Read the full list of updates here

Enjoy your Thanksgiving meals, and try to keep your relatives talking about some neutral topics rather than openly saying who they voted for this year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kroton does its homework and chooses Office 365 over Google Apps for Work

As written on whymicrosoft.com

When Kroton merged with another company to become the largest private educator in Brazil, it embraced the enormous responsibility of providing the best possible education to more than a million students across a large and vastly diverse country.

With the merger, Kroton found itself divided between two cloud environments, Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps for Work. It had to choose just one, to help unify the company, reduce costs, and provide students with the very best experience.

So, Kroton did its homework. Its IT team spent three months evaluating the Microsoft and Google cloud offerings, resulting in a 50-page report of findings. In the end, Office 365 made the grade. “We performed a very deep analysis,” says Mauricio Oliveira, the IT Infrastructure and Technology Manager at Kroton. “It was clear that Office 365 met all our requirements and in many cases delivered far beyond them.”

With the start of the 2015–2016 school year, 1.4 million Kroton students, teachers, and staff throughout Brazil are using Office 365, and the company has ambitious plans for things like an innovative job placement service, virtual team assignments and projects, and new operational efficiencies—all to make Kroton the best it can be for its students.