Hybrid working has become the norm for many in the past 18 months, with the added flexibility and reduction in commuting time providing a better balance through the working week. The Cloud Cover IT team are no different, with many moving to a hybrid work pattern. However, John decided to take hybrid working a step further- upping sticks from Glasgow and settling in the North of Skye. He’s now 5 months in, has acquired some four-legged friends and is loving it. Here’s his 5 month update.

According to Google Maps, I now live 239.9 miles from the Cloud Cover IT office in Glasgow.  If I decided to leave the car and walk to work, they reckon it would take me 69 hours.  If I were to join the company “Cycle to Work Scheme” it would apparently take me 18 hours and 52 minutes- not taking in to account the 20 years since I’ve been on a bike.

Anyway, I think it’s fair to say that’s pretty far.

I’m also far from most things now.  The nearest shop is 6 miles away.  The nearest pub 8 miles.  And the nearest pub worth going to around 25 miles.

I’ve been a “city boy” all my life, from Glasgow to London to Oxford and back to Glasgow. I had never imagined myself breaking up fighting chickens or nursing sick animals back to full health. That was never anywhere in my plan.

And yet, here I am. 5 months in and loving it.

There have been some flaky Teams calls, but we’ve all had those right?  The Internet connection here is (considering I’m essentially in the middle of a field) pretty good. 

I have had a laptop die on me which would usually be considered a complete disaster, though upon realising that I’m finally practicing what I preach- keeping all my files in OneDrive and SharePoint; making sure my DevOps was up to date; and any Power Apps stuff is in the Power Apps Studio- it ended up being a relatively painless hurdle. Luckily, I had another laptop that I could use until my dead one was sorted, but had I needed one shipped it would have arrived the next day. 

And so essentially all I lost was my Football Manager save.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d only spent 6 years as Hellas Verona Manager and guided them to the Serie A title and Champions League final 2 years in a row, so it was a hard one to take.  But at least in real life, I genuinely lost nothing.

I’ve been around long enough to have accumulated boxes of external hard drives with backups of everything, and the gut wrench when one is dropped somewhere and everything stops working is a feeling you don’t forget easily.

I’m still pretty astounded at how, without really thinking about it, I’ve switched from having everything saved on my machine to automatically having it in OneDrive. Anything that has had to be shared with the rest of the team, hundreds or thousands of miles away, has found it’s place in the relevant Teams Channel or SharePoint site without any real effort on my part.

I know a lot of people have a reluctance towards new technology.  But I genuinely don’t think that there has to be any fear.  There maybe has to be a little change in mentality, but once you start it all just happens without having to think about it. For me it is as seamless as it’s possible to be, whether it’s having the OneDrive client on your machine or syncing Document Libraries in SharePoint for easier access.

Being out of the city and so far from everything definitely has its challenges, I’m not going to deny that.  If you forget that pint of milk at the shop, you can’t just wander down and get it and if it’s a Sunday you’ll be having black coffee.  But in terms of keeping in touch with the Team at work, and being able to keep in touch with family, I’ve said it before, Microsoft have absolutely smashed it.

And while M365 wasn’t able to save my Football Manager career, I certainly wouldn’t have been able to make the move somewhere so remote without it.

If you fancy making a big relocation like John but just don’t know where to start when it comes to IT, or you would just like to improve your system productivity and make your data more accessible and secure, get in touch with the team!

The post Remote Working- 5 months in appeared first on Flyte.

Well, a very wise human probably once said that we should never try to write what has already been well illustrated in an infographic so…

Between Windows 365 and AVD, organisations have two awesome options to explore; what suits best depends on individual drivers and required use case.

From conversations with customers so far, the following appear to be key considerations:

Unique Use Case

Windows 365 offers a dedicated, personalised Cloud PC for each licenced user with organisations choosing from available Cloud PC SKU specifications. AVD can deliver pooled desktops for users which share the underlying compute power, and can also be used to stream an individual application rather than a full desktop.

Available IT Resources

Windows 365 is a complete Microsoft service with Cloud PC’s simply provisioned from within Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). AVD does require expertise to set-up and manage, but for the same reason is highly flexible and can be configures to support more complex requirements.

Pricing (aka cold hard cash)

Windows 365 operates on a fixed user subscription price model which gives a predictable cost which organisations can plan and account for. AVD on the other hand operates a consumption-based price model meaning costs can vary depending on resources utilised.

In summary, both Windows 365 and AVD are powerful solutions which both very much have a role to play; as with most technology buying decisions, the best solution depends on your requirements.

At Cloud Cover IT, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by talented Microsoft technologists who have more experience than they often care to mention. Our mission is focussed around supporting organisations with their digital journeys and supporting you to make technology decisions which benefit and empower you.

The post Blog: Windows 365 vs Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) appeared first on Flyte.

Hybrid work requires organisations to adopt digital solutions which empower employees to feel connected and able to collaborate effectively from wherever they are working – at home, at the office, or on the beach! This type of flexible working lets us do more, opening a world of possibilities for people everywhere.

A recent study conducted by Microsoft, Work Trend Index, reviewed responses from more than 30,000 people in 31 counties and the findings were interesting:

• 73% of workers want flexible working and remote work options
• 67% want more in person collaboration with their teams post-pandemic
• 80% of managers say they expect more flexible, work-from-home policies to be introduced post-pandemic

These results show the demand for both flexibility and collaboration in the workplace. In turn creating what is being established as the ‘hybrid working paradox’. This paradox stems from the demand for remote working but employees wanting more in person collaboration. There is a growing need to support hybrid working polices including, but not limited to:

• introducing a hybrid working policy;
• establishing technology to enable collaboration;
• ensuring employee wellbeing.

We’ve seen first-hand that hybrid working creates opportunities and creates new demands on IT departments and companies across the world. From getting remote offices set to continuing to grow businesses, owners have had to implement procedures that maximise flexibility without compromising security; all while supporting the demand for new solutions.

The hybrid working paradox has been a key generator in the increasing interest from many business owners around Cloud Productivity.

But it still poses the question, what is cloud productivity?

Cloud productivity is empowering your employees to drive business forward using cloud services and applications. This involves creating a digital workplace, communication portals, and enhancing collaboration in the cloud. The ultimate aim: to make staff more productive during the working day.

Cloud productivity is about bringing services together to give users the best tools, service and applications to be more productive and achieve more while keeping company data safe and secure.  Microsoft 365 Suite excels at this with both the 365 traditional stack (SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Office apps, etc.), as well as Microsoft VIVA and soon Windows 365.

So what does this mean for business owners?

Cloud productivity can save businesses time and money by boosting productivity among staff, increase collaboration, empowering employees and promoting innovation from within. We look at a few key drivers that we’ve seen cloud productivity brings to businesses:

Productivity

In recent years, businesses have been presented with a productivity crisis. It presented a real concern, but many businesses opted to increase collaboration through cloud systems. Systems that were once only accessible from being in a physical office space can now be accessed remotely and securely. This means staff can get their work done whenever the need to rather than being restricted to the 9-5.

For example, say you have been working on a document and your colleague needs to review and make amends. This will lead to several versions of documents often with ‘version X’ at the end of the file name and copious amounts of emails. With the cloud, real-time collaboration speeds up with process and eliminates frustrations about what version you’re working on. This leads to an increase in productivity to get the document finalised.

Automation

Inextricably linked with Cloud Productivity is automation and the redundancy of paper-based processes. By automating tasks, employees often feel more empowered to focus their attention on the tasks that are not always a high priority.

Paper-based data entry, like new start forms, require an individual to fill out a form on paper then an employee adds the data to a database. A digital form submission with the same questions with automatically uploads to the database would filter out the data input required in a paper-based system. Therefore, automating the process and increasing productivity by empowering employees to focus on meaningful tasks.

Collaboration

Most of all, the benefit of cloud productivity is the collaboration it enables. With a bank of data at our fingertips, there is greater transparency on key figures and data. For example, we can identify, in real time, if we’re on track to reach monthly targets. The instant accessibility to data means employees can collaborate and work to fit the team’s and business’ needs productively.

Solving the hybrid working paradox is one task that is company led. It means letting go of the ideals of the past and listening to employees. From meeting the needs of working from home/ in the office, to implementing technology such as cloud services to manage collaboration and productivity needs. In the hybrid era, employees will drive companies forward in a way we’ve never seen before and work is fast becoming something we do, rather than somewhere we go.

If you’re interested in developing a cloud strategy suited to the needs of your business, get in touch with our team:

The post It’s a hybrid world after all appeared first on Flyte.

The last 18 months has further expanded the marketplace’s insatiable appetite for cloud-based solutions, and Microsoft did not disappoint at Inspire.  

Introducing Windows 365; hybrid Windows for a hybrid world

For me, the most exciting update from the event was the introduction of Windows 365 which is scheduled to officially launch in early-August. 

Being dubbed ‘desktop as a service (DaaS)’ – because what’s new technology without a new acronym – it looks set to be another huge enabler for the compounding snowball which is hybrid-working.  

So what actually is it?  

Simply put, it’s a virtualisation service which provides windows desktop, and first and third party applications to users with both PC and non-PC hardware. Even simpler, its streaming of a Windows 10 (or soon Windows 11) powered PC.  

This can support BYOD (bring your own device) policies, and due to its ‘zero-trust architecture’ organisations can do this with piece of mind that it’s been secured by design from the ground up. With Windows 365, people can work from anywhere, on any device, as long as you have an internet connection.  

Microsoft talked a lot about Windows 365, but never talked price. Very rarely does a corporate behemoth with a $2 trillion dollar market cap do this because you’re going to be wowed by the cost-efficiency later. However, with pricing due to be confirmed in the coming days we hold out hope that the price won’t deter organisations from utilising this potentially game-changing platform.  

Microsoft also announced further enhancements to Microsoft Viva and several key security service additions amongst other things. You can access a full round-up via the link below: 

In a time where the appetite for technological change has never been greater, Microsoft continue to lead the pack. As always, reach out for a chat about how the Cloud Cover IT team can help you leverage technology to achieve your goals.  

The post Microsoft Inspire 2021: One man’s opinion appeared first on Flyte.

ShiftPlan is simple. It’s a responsive resourcing portal to align skilled resources with capacity gaps in your establishment, on-demand. We’ve designed ShiftPlan alongside Riverside TMA as one secure, integrated, cloud-based solution making it easy to use and implement. 

But what does it do? 

ShiftPlan allows you to manage resources your way. It allows you to connect with staffing resources directly so you can pick who you hire, validate your timesheets and pay staff directly. 

With three dedicated portals – Administrator, User and Operator, these portals empower your local authority to engage in opportunities and fill temporary shortages. 

The Administrator portal controls access to the system, typically sites and users, and provides visibility of activity and reporting. 

The Operator portal enables a dedicated point of contact to enter details of their requirements and to view and select the right candidates for the job. 

The User portal has been designed to empower candidates to take control of their availability, engagement opportunity and timesheet recording. All in one place! 

Why should I use ShiftPlan? 

ShiftPlan is easy to use. We’ve listened to your aches and pains with previous systems so ShiftPlan has been designed to save time and avoid complicated systems and training. It’s a system that works for you. 

You can integrate with APIs. We understand you will have existing tools that work well for you, so why not create a seamless experience. ShiftPlan can be integrated to other software easily. 

It’s cost effective. Hire and manage staffing resources for a fixed monthly fee with no recruitment costs or limits to hiring numbers. There’s no hidden fees. 

It’s secure. All your data is protected as the software complies with the highest standards of security. 

Ready to get started? Email the team today:

For more information, visit https://www.myshiftplan.co.uk/ 

The post ShiftPlan: Manage your supply teacher workforce appeared first on Flyte.

With Microsoft Power Platform, users can be empowered to gain insights and interact with data in a manageable way and eliminate manual tasks with integrated processes. Power Platform allows your business to craft solutions and empower your staff to drive the business forward with data.

Power Platform consist of four key areas:  Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Power Virtual Agents.

Power Apps

Turn ideas into solutions by enabling and empowering your team to build custom apps that solves business challenges.

Power Apps provides a low code development environment for building custom apps for business needs. It allows for simple integration and interaction with existing data and offers web and mobile application so ensure all apps built can run on all devices.

People use apps in every area of their lives, and businesses are no longer an exception. Power Apps eases users into app development with a simple interface so that it is accessible to everyone, not only developers.

Watch: Introduction to Power Apps

Power Automate

Boost business productivity and get more done by giving your team the resources and ability to automate organisational processes.

Power Automate lets users create automated workflows between applications and services. This helps to automate repetitive business processes such as data collections, administrative process, and decision approvals.

Similar to Power Apps, Power Automate is designed to allow every user the ability to produce workflows to automate tasks with little to no hassle.

 Power BI

Make informed, confident business decisions by putting data-driven insights into everyone’s hands.

Power BI (Business Intelligence) is a business analytics tool that delivers insights for the analysis of data. It can share insights through data visualisation in reports and dashboards to make for fast and informed decisions. Power Bi can scale across any and all organisations as it has built in governance and security allowing businesses to focus on using the data rather than managing it.

This element focuses on business data and allows users to display it in ways that makes the most sense to them. The dashboard function could replace meeting to report on company metrics such as sales, KPI’s or department performance.

Watch: How Power BI can transform your business

Power Virtual Agents

Easily build chatbots to engage conversationally with your customers and employees – no coding required.

Power Virtual Agents enables anyone to create chatbots using a guided, no-code graphical interface. There’s no need for data scientists or developers! It minimises the IT effort usually required to deploy and maintain a custom solution by empowering users to build and maintain their own conversational solutions.

Users can enable chatbots to integrate with Power automate to kick start processes helping end users received a ‘customer journey’ of sorts.

Microsoft’s Power Platform is all about giving your team the ability to create solutions that accelerate business. Together, the Power Platform allows you to work together to meet challenges effectively by analysing data, build solutions, automating processes and creating virtual agents. The ability to connect with Microsoft Office 365 and build end-to-end business solutions leaves you with endless possibilities.

The post Power Platform: Powerful alone, better together appeared first on Flyte.

23, 24, 25…

Okay, I was just setting a timer.  Now, I’m ready to start. 

Since the late 1980’s a growing number of people have been getting more done using a simple method that promotes short periods of uninterrupted, focused work with structured, timed breaks in between the work periods.  Developed by Francesco Cirillo, it is called the Pomodoro Method and is named after the tomato shaped kitchen timer that he used to time his own work sessions and breaks. 

The Pomodoro Method has both grown in popularity and has even spawned a number of variations on the theme of structured work and break periods, mostly because it is both simple and, it really works. 

Team members have used this method across the business for years and, when one of the Cloud Cover IT developers suggested making a native Microsoft Teams App to enable the Pomodoro Method through Teams, we couldn’t wait to getting the project up and running. 

For the uninitiated, The Pomodoro Method has six simple steps: 

1. Select a task (trying to do two things is a sure way to achieve neither) 

2. Set your timer to 25 minutes and start.  

3. Work (Ideally uninterrupted and without distractions) 

4. Stop when the timer runs out and set the timer for a 5 minute break 

5. Repeat for a total of four work / break cycles 

6. After four cycles, take a longer break of 30 – 60 minutes then repeat 

One of the big themes over the last year has been the dramatic change in work practices for many and the different distractions and priorities that people have to deal with when home working.  Another is the importance of a new focus on wellbeing and specifically, wellbeing at work. 

So, very soon, we will be offering a free download of our Native Teams app for anyone wanting to use the Pomodoro Method in their working.  It might well be the first Teams App that you have added to the platform so, if you would like to learn more about how we developed it and, see how to find and install apps into your Microsoft Teams, why not join us on our next Lunch and Learn on March 30^th.  You can book a place on it here: Eventbrite

That’s my timer just gone off! Time to boil the kettle.

The post Power Apps: Pomodoro appeared first on Flyte.

Application development can seem like it can take forever to come to fruition but with Power Apps, this is not the case.  Power Apps accelerate the development through pre-built templated and drag-and-drop functionality to make it customisable for your needs. It’s as simple as that!  

Innovation for everyone 

 Power Apps has modernised workplaces by removing barriers that keep ideas in the boardroom. It enables users to take those ideas and turn them into applications. No matter what the skillset, employees can add value to the business quickly and securely by developing innovative applications to reduce inefficiencies and solve everyday business challenges.  

Accelerating your business growth  

Connect your applications to your data at the touch of a button. React quickly with real time insights and utilise your data. Data is integral to business growth and as companies do more with data, the more advanced they become.  

Bringing AI into your workplace

The Power Platform allows you to automate manual processes with AI-infused complements that enable you to leverage built-in intelligence and discover actionable insights. With over 50% of work activities, globally, having the potential to be automated using current technology, why would you not want to invite AI to the table?  

Ultimately, Power Apps is a platform for innovation. It’s about embracing technology to better business processes and empower staff to implement applications. It’s driving forward change and, it has never been easier.  

With low-code and high productivity at its heart, Power Apps can minimise cost and support rapid change. You can build without risk and clear the way for innovation.  

Our next Lunch and Learn will demonstrate the possibilities within the Power Apps platform, not one to be missed! Join us on Tuesday 30^th March at 12noon. Sign up today to secure your spot: Eventbrite

The post Power apps: Changing how we work appeared first on Flyte.

The world has changed dramatically over the last year and Teams has enabled many businesses to keep trading in some way.  From a technology point of view the concept of staff being able to work from anywhere was always going to happen, COVID-19 just pulled it along a little bit quicker.

But now, and we should caveat that this isn’t the case for all industries, users have the ability to access all the files they need and all the applications that are required for them to do their tasks, from anywhere they have an internet connection.  Teams makes that process easier than it has ever been before.

We know that everyone has their quibbles over how it does things or about its small idiosyncrasies but in our opinion, Microsoft have knocked it out the park with Teams.

We’ve had conversations with different people who prefer to use Zoom for their video conferencing or meetings, and we acknowledge Zoom may have a better video conferencing experience, but Teams is far more than a communications application. It does and IS so much more than Zoom.

It has been described as a “single pane of glass”.  An application that pulls together data and information from other applications and presents it in a familiar way.

Teams brings together all the best parts of Microsoft from:

• Skype For Business for communication through instant messaging and video calls,
• SharePoint to handle document management and data storage
• Custom business applications through Power Apps
• Reporting with PowerBI
• And perhaps the most obvious thing is the tight integration with Office 365, it works seamlessly with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. All the apps you need!

While collaboration platforms like Slack may have developed a whole library of plugins over the years, the momentum is most definitely with Teams.  How do we know that? It’s clear from the Microsoft Teams Users:

Since we last did our webinar series, daily Microsoft Teams users has grown exponentially. Teams is Microsoft’s fastest growing business application ever (ZDNet) and it’s developing features that will help you in your day-to-day operations. So it’s about time we had a catch up!

The post Microsoft Teams: It’s time for a catch up! appeared first on Flyte.