Interlink Cloud Blog

Get the same Security and Compliance Tools but Avoid Paying the Full Microsoft 365 Enterprise Price!

Does your organization have security and compliance needs, but you aren’t ready to pay for everything in the Microsoft 365 E5 Suite? 

This past February, Microsoft added new advanced security and compliance offering bundles to their price list. These packages are great for businesses who are not yet ready to use or to pay for the highest-end Microsoft365 E5 bundle – which runs at $57 per user. The new Identity & Threat Protection and Information Protection & Compliance offerings are designed to provide customers with a bundle of solid functionality without breaking the bank. These new bundles give customers a smaller set of features at a smaller cost. If your business is not quite ready to make the leap to a larger bundle, these new security and compliance bundles may be the right choice; get the features you need without paying more for other features you won’t use right now.

Interlink Cloud Advisors was honored as a finalist for the Best IT Services Award presented by the Cincinnati Business Courier 2019 Innovation & Tech Awards

Every day, Interlink strives to grow, modernize and improve our business and services. We take pride in the services we offer our clients, whether it’s a security engagement, cloud migration, productivity implementation, or managed service outsourcing. Our focus is providing support and guidance through the different complexities of Microsoft’s technologies, funding, and licensing so our clients can get the most out of their technology investments.

On April 4th, 2019, we were honored to be recognized as a finalist for the Best IT Services award at the Cincinnati Business Courier’s ninth annual 2019 Innovation and Technology Awards. This program acknowledges companies in the Greater Cincinnati area that are transforming how we use technology and introduce innovative services and products.

Microsoft Teams has introduced three new ways to help organizations grow by improving the way their firstline workers become digitally connected.

Are your firstline workers valued, connected and empowered in your organization? If not, that may be the factor holding your company back from further annual growth. Firstline workers are people who work in service or task-oriented roles across a variety of industries such as retail, hospitality or manufacturing. Empowering these workers with the digital tools and platforms they need to serve customers, share information and improve productivity creates competitive advantage. Studies have shown that organizations that empower their firstline workers receive huge benefits. Firstline workers consist of more than two billion people worldwide but they are often overlooked in the majority of organizations. However, according to this Forbes & Microsoft Insights study, when firstline workers are given full technology capabilities, greater autonomy and higher levels of information sharing, the company is three times more likely to be a high-growth company. More than 80% of companies see higher levels of customer satisfaction and higher levels of job satisfaction among employees when their firstline workers are digitally connected.

Ready or Not - Microsoft Teams is taking over!
Do You Have a Plan?

There’s a major shift coming up for companies using Skype for Business, and whether they’re ready or not, Microsoft Teams will be taking over. There has been a lot of improvement since Teams first rolled out, and Microsoft announced they would be phasing out Skype. The roadmap for this integration is complete, and Teams is now the go-to solution for collaboration services. However, we know that with this big shift companies will inevitably have questions and concerns.

Upgrading from Skype for Business is more than just a technical migration – it will be a transformation in how your users communicate, and change is not always easy. It's time to start planning your path to Teams today – Microsoft recommends upgrading quickly as possible to optimize your benefits and ease the transition. 

To help you develop a migration strategy and to answer commonly asked questions, Interlink is providing you with an on-demand webinar that you can watch at your own convenience.

Keeping your organization secure is a top priority – so what is credential hygiene and why is it important?

Good credential hygiene means not exposing credentials on a potentially-compromised system when those credentials can be used to compromise other systems. Credentials can be a password, an account’s NTLM hash, or a Kerberos TGT. When these kinds of credentials are hacked, there is the potential for the entire company to be at risk. That’s where Microsoft’s Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) can come into play.