The global pandemic era has forced most organizations to rely on virtual meetings and other remote collaboration tools to carry on with operations. With security concerns around Zoom meetings and other platforms, Microsoft has established Teams as the trusted remote operations resource for business.  Microsoft Teams, which fully integrated with the MS Office 365 suite, is a central communication and collaboration hub that enables remote teams to chat, meet, call one another, and collaborate on documents while working from anywhere with an internet connection. New to Microsoft Teams? The quickest way to put your best foot forward is to learn how to host a Microsoft Teams' virtual meeting and how to share your screen in that meeting. These simple but [...]

Microsoft Teams is a powerful and versatile platform that can help businesses continue to explore what it means to work from home. As a central hub for chat, meetings, video conferencing, calling, and project collaboration, Teams can help your team stay connected and productive in this time of continuous adaptation.  In our free guidebook, Pivoting your Business to a Remote Work from Home Strategy during COVID-19, we highlight the importance of reducing what the Harvard Business Review calls “affinity distance,” which is made up of intangibles like values, trust, and interdependency. The key to maintaining company culture during this mass work-from-home era is reducing the affinity distance.  Microsoft Teams is an effective resource for keeping your organization’s affinity distance in [...]

January 22, 2018 -- It’s taking up valuable real estate on your keyboard, but what does it do? The Microsoft Windows Logo key is your ultimate shortcut to interfacing with Windows.  Here are the top 5 killer Windows keyboard tricks that will make you feel like a genius…or at least make you feel a bit more efficient. Windows Keyboard Trick #1: The Windows Key by itself Pressing the windows key by itself works the same as clicking the small Windows logo on your taskbar.  It will pull up your list of applications and shortcuts.  Depending on how you have your start menu configured, you can also access videos, photos, and more. Windows Keyboard Trick #2: The Windows Key + D [...]

December 11, 2017 – It’s becoming more and more common to bump into people who telecommute to perform their jobs.  It may be full time or just a few days a week, but it’s a growing trend in Denver and Boulder.  In fact, the latest data lists Boulder, CO as the #1 telecommuting metro in the nation overall.  And in the large-metro category, Denver is ranked #2 (Austin, TX hold the #1 spot).* But telecommuting and providing work-from-home options are more typically provided by larger organizations.  Large companies provide telecommuting options for their employees 12% of the time, with small business only providing these options 5% of the time. But this trend may be shifting.  Midsized businesses (those with 100-500 [...]

October 9, 2017 - One of the best ways to boost your productivity is improving your desktop organization. And in this case, we mean your physical desktop organization. It’s time to ditch the post-it notes and scraps of paper and capture your to-do items in a simple task list. Many of us are using the robust Microsoft Outlook platform but few are using it to its full potential. A great way to get more from the program (beyond email and calendars) is by using Outlook Tasks. Getting Started with Microsoft Outlook Tasks Outlook Tasks have been around for years, but you’re not alone if you’ve never tried it…. it’s amazing how few people use this valuable functionality. There are entire [...]