Businesses can purchase Microsoft 365 licenses through Les Olson Company. We’re able to match the pricing offered by purchasing directly from Microsoft. We charge for licenses monthly, but there is an annual commitment. Assuming you’ve met your annual commitment, you can fluctuate licenses at your convenience, or cancel service at any time.

When you purchase your licenses through Les Olson Company, you get the product portfolio that Microsoft intended when they designed the Microsoft 365 portfolio. There are no limitations to portal access, and the Admin Centers have full control for use with a partner or self-administration.

Simplicity is often overlooked as an advantage to your business processes, but when it comes to billing, the less vendors you have to work with, the better. If you’re already a Les Olson Company client, or planning on becoming one, you can receive one bill from Les Olson Company for all of your office technology, including Microsoft 365. With billing through Les Olson Company, we can offer Payment terms, Check, PO, and Credit Card on approved credit accounts so you gain additional flexibility over purchasing through Microsoft or GoDaddy.

You can get started with Microsoft 365 in a few minutes, and can easily link domains from Registrars and hosting companies like GoDaddy without the hassle of signing up through them and having their unnecessary contracts.  In addition, Les Olson Company offers Managed IT Services. This is a great option to help support the administration of Microsoft 365 for businesses that don’t have an in-house IT staff. If your business already gets Microsoft 365 directly from Microsoft, we can switch this in just a few minutes without any interruption in service, allowing greater flexibility and streamlining your office technology.

Our Microsoft 365 Pricing:

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Should you Purchase Microsoft 365 Through GoDaddy?

GoDaddy is a popular vendor to acquire Microsoft 365 through, however, there are some critical limitations you should be aware of before you decide where to purchase Microsoft 365 licenses. Microsoft 365 is available without a contract, but this is somewhat of an illusion as most businesses sign up under introductory pricing, only to be renewed on a long-term contract (2-3 years). In some cases these contracts are billed upfront for the entire term, which can increase costs if you have fluctuating license needs.

GoDaddy severely limits access to the self-administration features that are normally offered with an Microsoft 365 plan. For example, the Exchange Admin Center is not available via the GoDaddy portal, which limits features and configurations of Exchange. There are situations where a migration would be necessary in order to gain these features. Their portal gives your business fewer options, encouraging the purchases of additional products outside of Microsoft 365 to fill in the gaps.

(There have been numerous complaints of single sign-on issues) related to the GoDaddy portals and token-based authentication conflicts. Key Functions are missing, like SharePoint administration and Exchange Administration. Every time you have to sign in to a Microsoft site, you will be redirected to a new window for GoDaddy Authentication. There are also known issues with having multiple domains linked to one account without purchasing additional licenses per domain. Businesses cannot self-administrate all features, however, it has been reported that working through GoDaddy’s customer service for help with this is difficult. If your business decides to cancel Microsoft 365 through GoDaddy, you will not be able to receive a refund for unused months of the platform.

Les Olson Company is your source for Managed IT Services in Utah and Las Vegas. We’re here to help you get the right Microsoft 365 solution for your business.[/cz_title][cz_gap height=”60px”]

Thermal Comfort

Did you know that human physiology and cognitive functioning is less effective outside of normal core body temperature levels? It’s important to remember that thermal comfort is affected by activity. Seated activities, like participating in a meeting, result in lower body heat production than other activities.

Research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory indicates that performance declines by 2% for each degree ABOVE 77°F and by 4.7% for each degree BELOW 70°F. The ideal temperature for a meeting room is between 68°F and 77°F, depending on the participants. This is why it’s ideal to provide access to meeting room temperature controls. Giving team members control over their personal thermal comfort can increase productivity. In fact, West Bends Mutual Insurance Company found a 2.8% increase in claims processor performance when employees were provided with control of over-desk temperature.

The bottom line is that if you expect your employees to have a successful meeting, you need to realize that temperature has a profound affect on memory, creative thinking, concentration, and other cognitive functions. We recommend leaving it up to the meeting participants to determine the optimal temperature for their group. In addition, meeting organizers should consider the ideal temperature for the entire group, rather than their own personal preference.

Lighting

Humans are incredibly sensitive to light. Our circadian rhythms, sleep patterns, physiology, health, and moods are all controlled by daylight. When the sun goes down, it triggers a release of melatonin, which tells our brains it’s time to sleep. A lack of daylight in an office environment can have adverse affects on alertness and mood.

A report by WGBC outlines the benefits of daylight in offices, concluding that workers in offices with windows had and average of 46 minutes more sleep per night compared to those with windowless workspaces. Additionally, being seated close to a window increased focused work by 15%, that’s no small jump in productivity.

When designing your meeting spaces, it’s important that it has a balanced mix of daylight, ambient lighting, and ceiling/wall illuminance. However, you shouldn’t forget to consider the quality of the lighting you choose to include in your meeting room. Consider the type of light and the color spectrum, as some lights can be harsh and can work against your goal of creating an optimal workspace.

If meetings are essential to your office workflow, you should prioritize a space in your office that has windows, and invest in quality lighting. Pleasant lighting can have positive affects on social behaviors like cooperation and creativity, as well as speed, accuracy, and comprehension of reading. In our opinion, good lighting wherever possible is well worth the cost.

Tools for Effective Collaboration

Many meeting rooms only have basic tools for presentations, and phone calls. The worst part of any meeting is watching the organizer scramble to set up their presentation, find the correct cables, and connect remote participants. A study by Total Economic Impact found that it takes an average of 10 minutes to set up and get a meeting started. One of the best things you can do to foster productive meetings is make sure your team has easy-to-use collaboration tools at their disposal.

For this, we recommend the Windows Collaboration Display from Sharp. This interactive display is truly “plug-and-play”. A USB-C cable connector makes it easy to connect quickly and easily, so your team can get started sooner. Integrated collaboration tools, such as Office 365 and Microsoft Teams will allow your meetings to be more collaborative than ever. The touchscreen capabilities give you the ability to draw and annotate directly on the screen with a pen-on-paper experience, making your presentations more engaging.

Device sharing is also effortless. Users can wirelessly connect their own devices to the display their own content. Up to five devices can be connected simultaneously, ideal for dynamic workgroup discussions and interactive meetings.

In summary, if you want to create an optimal meeting environment in your office, you need to be thoughtful about the technology you make available, while providing room temperature control, and optimal lighting. All of these factors can have a profound impact on how much your meetings will benefit your organization.[/cz_title]

Transitioning to Remote Work with Microsoft Teams

Enabling remote work is now more important than ever. Even after things return to a relative sense of normal, remote work will likely remain a vital part of business operations. Whether there’s a health crisis or not, giving employees the tools needed to stay productive and connected from anywhere is a smart strategy. Our choice for remote collaboration is Microsoft Teams, a solution we use throughout our own organization.

A Better Way to Stay Organized

Microsoft teams allows your whole team to stay in touch, no matter where they are. Not only is this perfect for remote workers, but also for organizations with multiple locations and departments, as well as employees that travel to various locations to perform their duties. With Teams you’re able to access files on OneDrive, have online meetings and calls, chat with a few co-workers, and more. The Teams mobile app also helps you connect and collaborate from anywhere with a smartphone. You can download the app for iOS and Android devices to begin accessing your Microsoft Teams features on the go.

Set up Channels for Your Team

Your Team is the group of people you choose to set up in Microsoft Teams. It can be your whole organization, or a smaller group of people within a department. The feature that really helps kick your team’s productivity up into high gear is Channels. Channels keeps your team from getting overwhelmed with disorganized information, files, and conversions. You can set up as many channels as you need for a single team, each dedicated to a specific project, topic, or even department. This is where the real work happens, so make sure you take advantage of Channels. You can use your channel to share files, chat, hold meetings, and much more.

Collaborate on Files

You can attach files to your messages via the attach button. The files you attach will appear under the Files tab, so your whole team can access, view, and edit them.

Have Fun With Your Teammates

Teams allows you to add GIFs to your messages. This feature might seem a bit silly, but this little feature really helps you stay connected with your co-workers on a more personal level, especially while you can’t be together. To add a GIF, simply select the GIF button under the message box and insert the one you want.

Easily Transition a Chat to a Video Call

If you’re typing back and forth on chat with a co-worker and realize your efforts would be better served through face-to-face interaction, it’s easy to turn your chat into a video call. All you need to do is select the video call option from your chat. From there you’ll be able to chat over video and even share screens with each other.

Never Miss a Thing with Activity, Notifications and @Mentions

You can customize your notifications in your account settings so you’re always in the loop. Notifications include personal mentions, channel mentions, team mentions, chat messages, replies, likes, reactions, highlights and more. You can choose how you want to be alerted to each type of notification so you don’t get bombarded with notifications you don’t want, while never missing the ones that are most important.

You can see all of your notifications in one place under the Activity tab. Under this tab you will see an activity feed with a summary of all activities pertaining to you. You can filter activities in your feed to only show certain types of messages, mentions, replies, etc.

If you want to be extra certain to get a co-worker’s attention, you can use the @mention feature. In your message box, simply type @ and begin to type their name, then select their profile when it pops up. They will specifically get a notification when tagged.

Pin Channels for Quick Access

Search around less for channels. You can pin the channels you work in most often. When you do this, they will appear under Pinned at the top of your list so you can access them quickly and work more efficiently.

Set Custom Tabs

If you’d like to give your team easier access to files, and other tools they use frequently, you can set up custom tabs. To do this, select the + symbol at the top of your chat or channel.

There are many more great features in Microsoft Teams, but these are just a few to help your business start making the most of this great tool. If you’re looking for an excellent remote collaboration tool, we highly recommend Microsoft Teams. That’s why we use it for our own team. Get a no-obligation consultation.[/cz_title][cz_gap height=”25px”]

Hand sanitizer may be in short supply right now, but it’s not hard to get your hands on free tools to help your employees telecommute. Microsoft, Google, LogMeIn, and Cisco have all announced that they will help businesses by providing free tools to support working from home during the Coronavirus outbreak. These tools will allow remote workers to hold virtual meetings and chat with their coworkers while working from the safety of their homes. Let’s go through the solutions available to you, and how you can get them if and when you determine they are needed.

Tool: Microsoft Teams

Duration: Free for Six Months

What it does:

• Online Meetings
• Voice & Video Calling
• Instant Messaging

Tool: LogMeIn – Emergency Remote Work Kit

Duration: Free for Three Months

What it does:

• Meet and Collaborate with GoToMeeting
• Host Presentations with GoToWebinar
• Remote Access to Work Computers
• Provide Web-based Technical Support with RescueAssist

Tool: Cisco Webex Enhanced Free Licenses

What it does:

• Video Conferencing
• Team Messaging & File Sharing

Tool: Google Hangouts Meet

What it does:

• Video Calls
• Live Streaming
• Screen Sharing & Presentation Features

With technology changing the way we all work, telecommuting is becoming more common every day. Perhaps recent events will speed up the rate of adoption as businesses recognize the benefits of empowering a mobile workforce. For now we urge business owners to start creating a plan to “future-proof” their work environment.[/cz_title][cz_gap height=”30px” id=”cz_62034″]