Learn what is coming next regarding Software Assurance and keep your organization prepared.
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What is Software Assurance?

Software Assurance is a comprehensive Volume Licensing program that includes a unique set of technologies, services, and rights to help you deploy, manage, and use your Microsoft products more efficiently. Starting next month and continuing over the next two years, Microsoft has announced they will be making substantial changes regarding Software Assurance benefits. Make sure your company is prepared and knowledgeable about what comes next!  

Moving Forward 

Microsoft is making changes to Software Assurance, specifically with Planning Services, Training Vouchers, and 24x7 Problem Resolution Support. In February 2020, Microsoft will begin the phase-out of these benefits, so taking the time to understand the changes and put a plan together is important so you don’t miss the deadlines. 

AIR enables you to run automated investigation processes in response to well-known threats that exist today.
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AIR can help your security operations team operate more efficiently and effectively

AIR is included in the Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft 365 E5 Security, Office 365 E5, and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection Plan 2. With AIR, when certain alerts that you set are triggered, one or more security playbook plans are initiated and an automated investigation begins. During and after this automated investigation process, administrators and your security operations team can look at the details of the investigation, review and approve actions to follow as a result of the investigation, and view details about the alert that triggered the investigation. Read on to find out how we can help and how you can optimize AIR for your organization...

See what Microsoft Kaizala is, how you get it, and how it’s different from Microsoft Teams

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A common struggle for organizations is figuring out the best way to bridge the gap in communication between corporate offices and their firstline workers – the people who work in service or task-oriented roles across a variety of industries such as retail, hospitality or manufacturing. Oftentimes, associates in these roles want a more convenient and secure way to connect with their team, view company resources, and manage their schedules or shift changes. As a solution, Microsoft has developed Kaizala – the messaging app that brings unique capabilities to Microsoft 365, with its ability to connect and engage people both inside and outside of an organization’s directory – including contract workers, vendors, partners, suppliers, and customers.

Sound a little familiar? Microsoft Teams already offers features like instant chat, mobile applications, and even Shifts for firstline workers, so why do you need a Kaizala integration at all? Kaizala was designed to complement Teams – which is why Microsoft recently announced they would be delivering Kaizala capabilities into Microsoft Teams as part of an integrated offering. Read on to learn more about Kaizala, including what it is, how you get it, and how it's different from Teams...

Microsoft 365 licensing comes in different versions - with one for smaller businesses and three for larger corporations. How do you determine which plan is going to add the most value to your organization?

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All businesses share common needs: increasing productivity, working more efficiently, and securing their data. Before smaller organizations were forced to pay for Enterprise subscriptions that had features they would never use, or they would just live without. That’s no longer the case with Microsoft 365 Business —organizations now have their own value bundle.

Now Microsoft is offering Microsoft 365 Business, combining the productivity tools and features of Office 365, with the security of Windows 10. This cost-effective subscription is built specifically for small and midsize businesses to empower their team to be more productive through collaboration while keeping a peace of mind that their data is secured.

When looking at these subscriptions, it’s important to understand the differences between M365 Business and M365 Enterprise E3 because it is not always obvious which option is best for your business. This blog will dive into the comparison of each option to help guide your decision. To start off, why should companies choose Microsoft 365 in general?

PowerApps is a low code/no code suite of apps, services, connectors and data platforms that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for your business needs.

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Using PowerApps, you can quickly build custom business apps that connect to your business data stored either in the underlying data platform (Common Data Service) or in various online and on-premises data sources (SharePoint, Excel, Office 365, Dynamics 365, SQL Server, and so on).

Apps built using PowerApps provide rich business logic and workflow capabilities to transform your manual business processes to digital, automated processes. In addition, apps built using PowerApps have a responsive design and can run seamlessly in a browser or on mobile devices (phone or tablet). PowerApps "democratizes" the custom business app building experience by enabling users to build feature-rich, custom business apps without writing code.

PowerApps also provides an extensible platform that lets pro developers programmatically interact with data and metadata, apply business logic, create custom connectors, and integrate with external data.