Chris A Watkins - Business

One Drive for Business synchronisation issues We had all hoped that the One Drive for Business synchronisation issues were dead and gone with the introduction of the new sync client. Alas No – There are still issues, and while these are not so serious as before, they still can cost your organisation hours in lost work time and IT support. The main problem seems to arise after a user changes their O365 password. If the user employs multiple devices the password change doesn’t always replicate properly. So, while the machine on which the password change was made may be okay, other devices report synchronisation problems and asks that credentials be entered in order for ODFB to work. Okay so far, but the enter credentials dialogue fails to work (see https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/154/t/425024 ). I suspect that this is because the credential dialogue app does not have sufficient permission to make the changes. And the permission setting may have been reduced in MS securit...

The New Computer Age and the Small, Medium Sized Business So, here’s the critical question – ‘Can I really save large amounts of cash swapping PCs and local networking for budget tablet computers and the cloud?’ Let’s face it reliable tablet devices can cost as little as £70 and printer/scanners can be had for as little as £40. That’s a low overhead and if you can get away with minimising expenditure to that level why doesn’t everyone jump on the bandwagon? In fact that does appear to be the trend, - ‘Windows-based PCs have fallen from a 95% market share a decade ago to 90% today, according to Morningstar. That's thanks to the rise of mobile devices and software from competitors like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Google (GOOGL, Tech30).’ - http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/21/technology/microsoft-earnings/index.html Computer experts and advisors will caution that any start-up business should factor in capacity for expansion, redundancy to cover equipment failure and a whole h...

So, here’s the critical question – ‘Can I really run the whole of my business just using a budget tablet computer, a mobile WiFi (MiFi) router, a smartphone and a printer/scanner?’ Let’s face it reliable tablet devices can cost as little as £70 and printer/scanners can be had for as little as £40. That’s a low overhead and if you can get away with minimising expenditure to that level why doesn’t everyone jump on the bandwagon? In fact that does appear to be the trend, - ‘Windows-based PCs have fallen from a 95% market share a decade ago to 90% today, according to Morningstar. That's thanks to the rise of mobile devices and software from competitors like Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and Google (GOOGL, Tech30).’ - http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/21/technology/microsoft-earnings/index.html Computer experts and advisors will caution that any start-up business should factor in capacity for expansion, redundancy to cover equipment failure and a whole host of add...

O365 is a tremendous resource. It can serve a business better when SharePoint on-line libraries are used as a repository for files and documents on which collaboration is required. Instead of circulating documents for input by different users, simply save them to a SharePoint library where selected personnel can access them for update. Office 2016 will save by default to a wherever the current document was opened from, even if that is SharePoint or another cloud resource. If the document is new, Office 2016 will revert to ‘Save As’ mode and ask the user where to save. If a document has been opened from the local machine, the user will need to use ‘Save As’ in order to redirect the save to SharePoint. Using ‘Save As’ Click or tap ‘File’ in the top left corner of the Document window   And select ‘Save As’. The user can select from here the resource they want to save to. The most important resources are the top items under the ‘Save As’ logo, these are the clo...

The take up of Office 365 is huge , and it is growing by the day. But, what is driving this growth?     Read the reports being published, search the web, listen to the newly emerging 'experts' and the main attraction is that O365 offers very much lower cost per user than conventional local area network. The savings are derived from -   1. Large amounts of free cloud storage per user license.   2. Bundled Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point etc.).   3. The O365 suite is web based and may be accessed by almost any machine that runs an Internet browser, so many users don't even need a full blown PC to use it.     Sound enough reasons for any business to start planning a move to Office 365. However, a good IT service provider or consultant will advise customers of the many issues to be taken into account at the start of any such planning.     The first of these is that Office 365 is SharePoint ...

Business System Interfacing with O365 We all use business systems, these are the software items we employ, like payroll software, accounting software and industry specific applications that make sure we run our businesses within a framework of rules. We can't do without them in many cases as the software vendor spends megabucks ensuring that the checks and balances within the software keep us on the legal and moral straight and narrow. This means licencing particular users within the organisation to use and maintain them and this in turn sometimes leads to situations where a few users, or sometimes one user, becomes 'keeper of the key', holding business vital data that only they can access or disseminate. Most business systems offer reporting functions where selected business essential data can be extracted and distributed to none licenced operatives for use outside the system. Such data is often extracted in some form of textual flat file, such as Comma-Separate...

Throughout my life, in both business and personal spheres I have found that individuals seeking answers invariably look for 'silver bullet' solutions.     In a recent post on LinkedIn a n Influencer wrote that she had been asked the question ' Who is the most powerful person you ever met? '     The question was posed by a 17 year old and the author guessed that the answer being sought was the name of some sort of X-Factor figure, This strikes a cord with me. Throughout my life, in both business and personal spheres I have found that individuals seeking answers invariably look for 'silver bullet' solutions. This applies to all generations, 'Boomer, X-Gen and Millennial, it applies to individuals of all levels of intelligence, and to individuals at all levels of authority.     The desire for someo ne to appear, like a genie from a lamp, wit h either ' the answer' to a problem , or ' the power' to solve the problem, or...