Office 365 Archives

Jun

Zoom is great, but do we actually need it?

Categories: Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Productivity, useful tips

by Tas Gray

As the world went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic and remote work became the norm, Zoom quickly became the go-to choice for online meetings simply due to it's ease of use. The word Zoom has become synonymous with online meetings but many organisations have not stopped to think if it's actually the best choice. It's quite likely that your organisation is paying for a Zoom subscription when you could be using Microsoft Teams instead, for free. Find out of this applies to you and save yourself the unecessary expense. Read more

Apr

How to identify a scam email

Categories: Cloud, Notifiable data breaches, Office 365

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

The number of legitimate-looking emails making their way through to inboxes has increased significantly over the last few months. To help you identify the difference between a genuine email and one that is sent from a scammer, we have put together a quick checklist.

Watch out for grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in the body of the email
Attachments with zip files are a good sign of a problem
Office 365 emails warning of your account being deleted and/or low capacity
Check if hyperlinks go to the right domain by hovering the mouse cursor above them
Check if the sender email address is coming from the right domain

Many scammers will create copies of the Office 365 login page which are almost impossible to differentiate from the real one. Before submitting your Office 365 username and password, always check for the following:

Address bar should have a green padlock and the word secure
For Office 365 login pages, the address bar should begin with https://login.microsoftonline.com/

If in doubt, don’t click on or open anything. Contact the Axiom IT helpdesk to verify the authenticity of any emails you are uncertain about.

Click here to access the free recording of our webinar – “How to secure your business against scam emails & phishing attacks”

Nov

Replace your file server with the cloud

Categories: Cloud, SharePoint Online, Small Business Cloud

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Over your server but confused by the cloud? Here are your options

If you’re reading this you probably already know this, but if your business is still using a fileserver, it’s high time you started looking at other options. With servers being notoriously expensive to maintain and lacking the capability to support the needs of the modern workplace, most businesses – small and large – have decided to move to the cloud to reap the considerable financial and productivity benefits of using cloud storage instead of a server. Read more

Oct

Why purchasing Office 365 is like buying coffee

Categories: Office 365, Small Business Cloud

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Why purchasing Office 365 is like buying coffee

When it comes to purchasing cloud productivity platforms like Microsoft Office 365, many business owners and organisations become stumped about the best way to go about it. With many avenues for purchase and installation, which road do you go down? Do you subscribe to the platform online directly from the Microsoft website? What about those offers you see from telecommunications companies that also sell Office 365? Or do you go with a local Microsoft partner that is also a certified Microsoft Partner? Read more

Sep

Open and Save Adobe PDF files directly to SharePoint Online (Office 365)

Categories: Adobe, Adobe PDF, FAQ, Office 365, Productivity, Small Business Cloud

Tags: How To, Office 365, PDF, SharePoint Online

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Adobe PDF to SharePoint Online Office 365

One of the first lessons we teach people about SharePoint is how to save documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint directly in to SharePoint instead of local folders ie My Documents. With a little bit of practice people find it just as convenient as saving documents to traditional locations such as network drives or Dropbox. The question that usually follows is “How do I save PDF files from Adobe Reader to SharePoint?” – a great question and in this post I’ll show you how.

Aug

Skype for Business PSTN Conferencing to change the way Australians hold meetings

Categories: Office 365, Productivity, Skype for Business

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

With Microsoft recently announcing plans to launch Skype for Business PSTN Conferencing on September 1st 2016 in Australia via Office 365, now is the best time to take advantage of the multitude of benefits that come with using Office 365 to increase collaboration and boost productivity in your business.

While Skype for Business already has lots of handy, timesaving tools like instant messaging and presence to make your work life easier, the launch of the PSTN conferencing element adds another layer of sophistication to the Microsoft offering and is something that has Microsoft consultants talking.

Jun

Why Office 365 multi-factor authentication is the key to strong security

Categories: Cloud, Mobile Device Management, Office 365, Security, Small Business Cloud

Tags: Multifactor Authentication, Office 365 Security

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

With organisations increasingly favouring cloud computing, data security is one of those things that many people know they need to prioritise but often don’t address until it’s too late. Yet with more data being exchanged between devices around the world every day than ever before in history, it’s more important than ever to protect your data against hackers.

Jun

How Microsoft Office 365 solves common problems that plague businesses

Categories: Cloud, Microsoft Office, Office 365, Productivity, Small Business Cloud

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

In our work with businesses and organisations all over Australia, we see the same challenges cropping up over and over again. From budget issues to communication problems and flat productivity, many issues impacting businesses can be addressed with efficient and effective use of technology. Here are four of the problems we see the most, and how Microsoft Office 365 can assist businesses to address these challenges.

Apr

How to manage one of the biggest security threats impacting businesses now

Categories: Office 365, Small Business Cloud

Tags: Mobile Device Management, Office 365, Office 365 Consultant, Office 365 Consulting, Office 365 Migration, Office 365 Security, security

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

While most business owners diligently protect their businesses from theft, fire and damage by investing in security systems, alarms and insurance policies to protect their property and finances, an alarming number of businesses do very little (or nothing) to protect their data.

You probably wouldn’t leave the premises of your business for the night without locking the door, but for some reason many business owners are leaving things like confidential client files, reports containing sale figures, pitch documents, tenders, contracts and sensitive emails open for theft and duplication.

Apr

Take back control of your inbox with these Office 365 email tips

Categories: Cloud, Microsoft Office, Office 365, Productivity, Small Business Cloud, useful tips

Tags: Clutter, email, office 365 groups, Outlook, Skype for Business

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

One of the most common gripes business owners have is email management. Staying on top of emails can be a challenge when you’re short on time and up to your neck in running a business. But if you’re still up at midnight wading through emails or regularly forgetting to reply to emails, then missing appointments or even worse – losing business – then you’ve got a problem.

Dec

Secure Your Business Against Employees’ Mobile Devices

Categories: Cloud, Office 365, useful tips

Tags: access, MDM, microsoft, Mobile Device Management, mobile devices, mobile phones, Office 365, security, tablets

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Built-In Mobile Device Management for Office 365

These days everyone has a mobile device, whether that be a phone or tablet – you might even be reading this blog from one right now. You can view almost anything whilst on the go and this extends to work information. Most of your staff members will probably be accessing their work emails using their mobile devices, and whilst this is an incredibly useful and efficient way to access work information whilst on the go, it lacks the same sort of security that you experience in the workplace on your desktops. Read more

Dec

Soon to be Released – Office 365 Planner

Categories: Cloud, Microsoft Office, News, Office 365

Tags: collaboration, Groups, microsoft, notebook, Office 365 Planner, OneNote, Outlook 2016, Plan, project management, SharePoint, team sites, Trello

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Soon to be realised in most plans of Office 365 is the Office 365 Planner. It is essentially Microsoft’s answer to the ultimate collaborative tool, with the intention of making team projects easy and efficient. It offers a very visual way to organise teamwork, allowing people to create ‘Plans’ with others and then organise and assign tasks within those Plans. You can also share files, message each other and get instant updates about the project’s progress.

The Basic Setup

Each Plan has a Board. On each Board, you can assign Cards. Cards will be associated with work tasks or items, and will have assigned due dates, attachments, categories and conversations. They will display a document or picture (depending on the specific item the Card is associated with) which means the Planner remains incredibly visual, and at a glance you can see which tasks and items you have displayed on your Board. Read more

Dec

OneDrive for Business – New Expiry Feature with Office 365

Categories: Cloud, News, Office 365, Small Business Cloud

Tags: Cloud, collaboration, expiry feature, file sharing, Groups, Office 365, OneDrive for Business, Outlook 2016, sharing links

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

A lot of you will know what OneDrive for Business is and already be putting it to good use within your business. To those of you who aren’t familiar with the platform, OneDrive for Business with Office 365 allows you to save files into the Cloud, meaning that you can access them anywhere and on any device.

OneDrive for Business also allows you to share files with others. The benefit of this is that you can collaborate on an original document simultaneously with mulitple people, rather than sending out copies of a file and then struggling to keep track of which copy contains the most recent updates. There are several different ways to share files through OneDrive for Business. Read more

Dec

Groups in Office 365 – Experience Stress-Free Collaboration

Categories: Cloud, Microsoft Office, News, Office 365, Productivity

Tags: calendar, Clutter, collaboration, email, Groups, inbox, integration, mailbox, microsoft, Office 365, OneNote, Outlook 2016, SharePoint

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Newly included with Office 365 and Outlook 2016 is a feature called Groups. It can be a great way to collaborate within your business whilst providing the same familiarity of Outlook, combined with the powerful security and collaborative features of SharePoint.

One of the most common ways businesses collaborate is simply by sharing documents through email, but there are so many problems with this, as we often reiterate. When sharing documents in this way, you are really only sending a copy of the original file. Any changes made by another colleague on that file will have to then be manually transferred onto the original, and if you’re dealing with several colleagues and copies, it can be a nightmare trying to keep track of the most recent changes. On top of this, sharing copies can often result in chunks of text being accidentally omitted from the final document. Read more

Nov

Achieve Top Grade Security with Information Rights Management & Office 365

Categories: Microsoft Office, News, Office 365

Tags: access, business, Enterprise, Information Rights Management, IRM, microsoft, Office 365, security

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

When running a business, security is vital. Documents saved onto computers or in shared spaces often contain large amounts of sensitive information, and for it to get into the wrong hands could sometimes have dire consequences.

It might seem like you have control over who’s accessing your documents by keeping everything in shared spaces, like Network Folders or Dropbox for example, and only sharing files with the relevant and trusted staff, but it’s not 100% secure. Who’s to stop someone who has been granted access from saving these shared files onto their computer? Suddenly anyone with access to the same computer can easily obtain and manipulate the documents. Read more

Nov

In-Place Hold with Office 365 – The Best Mailbox Security Feature No One’s Talking About

Categories: Backup & Disaster Recovery, Microsoft Office, Office 365

Tags: deletion, eDiscovery, email, In-Place Hold, inbox, legal, mailboxes, microsoft, Office 365, storage

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

It’s not uncommon for businesses to legally have to provide upon request years and years’ worth of emails, perhaps to prove or disprove fraud allegations, or in the case of your business being audited – yet searching through thousands of messages for relevant content can lead to complete chaos.

What then happens if a member of staff accidentally deletes a couple of messages? It’s so easily done, but a lapse in concentration or the mis-click of a button could result in future legal issues, or problems within your business if there is a severe loss of data. What happens when the deletion isn’t quite so accidental? Most business owners and managers will have let a member of staff go under bad terms. Before you have time to remove their authorisation, what’s to stop them from causing havoc in return, perhaps altering or deleting entire mailboxes? Read more

Nov

7 Reasons to Use Skype for Business Instead of Regular Skype

Categories: Office 365

Tags: business, Lync, Microsoft Office, Office 365, Outlook, SharePoint, Skype, Skype for Business

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

Most of you reading this will already know what Skype is, and if you’re not already using it professionally within your business, you probably do use it to stay in touch with friends or family. It’s a fantastic way to communicate with people on a personal level, being able to instant message, video call and easily share small files.

So what is Skype for Business?

Essentially it has all the key elements included with regular Skype but with plenty of added features to make it the tool you never knew you needed for effective business collaboration and communication. Here are just 7 of its features that will highlight why you should be using Skype for Business over regular Skype. Read more

Nov

Introducing Skype for Business – The Collaboration Tool You Never Knew You Needed

Categories: Office 365

Tags: business, Clutter, collaboration, email, microsoft, Office 365, Skype, Skype for Business

Comments: 1

by Tas Gray

There’s no doubt about the fact that email is an effective method of communication for the workplace, and of course this is why it’s the primary tool used within businesses to correspond both internally and externally. However, this has meant email has become severely overused and our current comfort in using a very familiar method is keeping more convenient and efficient means kept in the shadows. One of the most common issues amongst businesses is the immense overload of email clutter received, which can take hours to sift through – valuable time that should be used on more important matters. Read more

Nov

Minimise Email Clutter with Yammer – The Social Network for Business

Categories: Office 365

Tags: business, collaboration, communication, email, microsoft, Office 365, social media, workplace, Yammer

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

If we were to stop for a moment and consider the ways we interact outside of work using smartphones and social media we would very quickly realise that our work communication methods are truly dated. In most small businesses I consult with, email is still the most heavily utilised and often the only method of digital communication. Contrast this to how we communicate in our personal lives and it’s a world apart. When was the last time you emailed a friend to ask a question? You probably sent them an instant message or left a message on their Facebook page. How about the last time you organised a group event? Chances are you used a Facebook group or event in favour of a group email. So why aren’t we doing this at work? Read more

Oct

Introducing OneNote – The productivity tool you can’t live without

Categories: Microsoft Office, Office 365, Productivity, Small Business Cloud

Tags: collaboration, microsoft, notes, Office 365, OneNote, organisation, productivity

Comments: 1

by Tas Gray

Humans have been keeping notes since long before computers were invented, mostly with the help of pen and paper. And while this is a simple, effective approach we believe that with technology there’s a better way. That’s why in this post I’ll introduce you to OneNote – the most powerful, easy to use note taking app that’s included with Office 365. Read more

Sep

The new way to manage cloud apps in your business

Categories: Office 365, Small Business Cloud

Tags: access panel, active directory, cloud apps, microsoft, Office 365, Windows Azure

Comments: 1

by Long Tran

On average, the typical small business in Australia uses 14 different cloud apps.

Trying to remember login details and managing who can access each cloud app is difficult, even for the most organised business. In most cases, businesses will simply share accounts and passwords because managing it any other way is difficult and time consuming.

May

Email Problems your Business will solve with Office 365

Categories: Office 365

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by Tas Gray

At Axiom IT, one of the biggest challenges we see small businesses facing is email. Exchange Online, the email service included with Office 365, solves many of the common challenges we encounter. In this post I cover the most common email issues that Office 365 can solve for your business.

Jul

Speed up your Office 2013 Click-to-Run deployment with OEM Pre-installation Kit

Categories: Office 365, Technical

Comments: No

by Tas Gray

If you work with Office 365 then chances are you’ll encounter a situation where deploying Office 2013 ProPlus from the portal is very slow. Typically this happens when the client has a slow internet connection or a large number of workstations.

All posts in Office 365

Over your server but confused by the cloud? Here are your options

The Basic Setup

So what is Skype for Business?