However, many organisations are struggling to implement employee wellbeing initiatives, particularly when employees are based in different locations. When employees are working remotely, it can be difficult to remain connected and monitor the morale within the team. Failing to take action can result in serious consequences, including disengaged employees, widespread low morale, and increased absence rates.

Our app gauge.it was created to overcome this challenge and offer organisations a simple, user-friendly solution. Available on Microsoft Teams, gauge.it helps foster employee wellbeing by helping leaders stay connected to their employees, regardless of location. It empowers employees by giving them the ability to share how they are feeling openly and honestly on a daily basis, providing leaders with valuable insight into team morale and wellbeing.

Our Head of Technology, Alasdair Gauld, recently hosted a webinar discussing the importance of employee wellbeing and demonstrating how gauge.it can help improve it. You can watch the full video below:

If you have any questions regarding any of the topics discussed during the webinar, please feel free to email sales@cloudcoverit.co.uk .

We are currently offering a 30-day free trial of gauge.it. Simply visit www.gaugeitteams.com to get started!

The post How to Improve Employee Wellbeing with gauge.it appeared first on Flyte.

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.

Microsoft Teams is an invaluable tool for us here at Cloud Cover IT – one that is integral to the day-to-day operation of all departments across our organisation. This fourth instalment of our How We Use Teams series focuses on how Teams is used by our Human Resources department to send company-wide communications, handle admin and manage our people more effectively.

Human Resources (HR) operations require regular communication with staff across the organisation, so it is crucial that this communication is easy, effective, and streamlined. This is true at every stage of HR work, whether that is annual leave, recruitment, staff inductions, or communicating crucial information to staff members.

Holiday requests

In the past, dealing with requests for annual leave meant flurries of emails, which led to clogged-up inboxes and general inconvenience all-round. With the holiday planner system within Teams, the process is simple. Once a holiday request is submitted by an employee, an approval form is automatically sent to their line manager, so that requests can be accepted or rejected in a matter of minutes.

Internal communications

Teams makes it simple for our HR staff to share resources across the company and keep employees up to date with the latest information. This has been more important than ever over the lockdown period, when protocol and advice is constantly changing.

Recruitment

When we are recruiting new staff, Teams is invaluable means of collating and controlling the sharing of sharing information about candidates, and for discussions within the team. Specific channels for the recruitment process can be made, so that only the relevant people are included. Once a new employee has been recruited, the communicative capacity of Teams ensures a smooth induction into the company; they can access all the info they need, the people they need to connect with, and tools to carry out their work effectively, all in one place.

Meeting management

Another aspect of Teams utilised within HR is our Meeting Rooms Power App, which automates the scheduling, reservation and display of upcoming meetings and visitors. Developed by our very own Cloud Development team, the app also allows staff to book refreshments and equipment for meetings, as well as automatically notify any members of staff who are involved. With display available across devices and locations, this service promotes flexibility, ease of access, and connectivity for employees across the company.

Returning to work post-lockdown

As we transition back into office working following the Covid-19 lockdown, HV Connector is helping us to keep every member of our staff safe and well. Temperature scanning terminals scan the temperature of each employee at the entrance to our office. If an abnormally high temperature is recorded, access is denied and an instant alert is sent by HV Connector via Teams to the employee’s line manager. Contact can then be made via the terminal intercom to support and advise the team member on the appropriate course of action. In this way, we are minimising the risk of infection in our office and protecting our staff.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

The post How We Use Teams: Human Resources appeared first on Flyte.

Microsoft Teams has been an integral part of our operations since its launch and has proved itself more useful than ever in this current period of remote working. In this third instalment of our How We Use Teams series, we speak to our Digital Transformation team about how the platform helps with their day-to-day activities.  

SPOKESPERSON: DAN GREALLY, PROJECT MANAGER
DEPARTMENT: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

We’re more productive than ever thanks to Teams – as it brings all the powerful tools within the Microsoft stack together in one place. 

The integration of Microsoft Power Automate into Teams allows us to create workflows that automate repetitive, low value-adding tasks. It enables us to manage flows as well as automate alerts, notifications and more. Automating repetitive tasks in this way helps us to allocate our time more effectively. It also speeds up the approval process as when a task has been completed, an alert is automatically sent to Alasdair, our Head of Digital Transformation. Teams is also a major time-saver in notifying team members of new support tickets, as well as taking care of administrative responsibilities like holiday requests. 

Project Management 

We also use Teams for project management purposes. We use the Microsoft Planner app to create a project overview and a list of tasks to be completed. These tasks can then be assigned to specific members of the team in an all-in-one dashboard. This offers a simple and visual way to organise cloud projects and keeps us all on the same page, wherever we may be.  

When it comes to keeping track of our progress, we use a dedicated Product Development channel within Teams. Taking data from SharePoint, this helps us track the number of hours spent working on the project at hand. We can then use Power BI to create clear and compelling visualisations of this data in a way that is digestible and actionable. This enables us to mark project milestones, meet client expectations and stay on schedule for project completion. 

The Knowledge Share channel within Teams is a useful space for everyone to share and discover useful resources, allowing them to learn new things and upskill themselves with the help of their team members. 

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

The post How We Use Teams: Digital Transformation appeared first on Flyte.

Microsoft Teams is the central hub for communication, collaboration and teamwork for us here at Cloud Cover IT. In this instalment of our How We Use Teams series, we went around the (virtual) office to build a real-life snapshot of how our Sales and Marketing team uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis.

SPOKESPERSON: LANCE GAULD, FOUNDER AND CEO
DEPARTMENT: SALES AND MARKETING

Microsoft Teams is a real asset for our Sales and Marketing team for communicating both within our team and with our external partners. Video conferencing and screen sharing is all very simple, requiring just a few clicks. Plus, improvements are being made all the time. Microsoft recently increased the number of participants who can be viewed simultaneously during a meeting on Teams from 4 to 9, with plans to increase this to a maximum of 49 in the near future. With these virtual face-to-face conversations now part of our ‘new normal’, this has been extremely helpful.

Touching base with everyone via email can lead to long, drawn-out threads that clog up our inboxes and become very tiresome, very quickly. Using Team’s Chat feature, I can send messages to one or more people with just a few clicks. This is particularly useful when working on content for social media, as well as suggesting edits for digital mailers, email campaigns and various other marketing projects.

The fact that Office 365 apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc) are integrated within Teams is a god-send. Documents can be worked on by multiple people simultaneously and are stored securely on the cloud. There’s no more chasing someone for a missing document or wondering where the most up-to-date version has gone, as Teams’ centralised and structured file management system keeps all our crucial resources in one place. Moreover, hosting our data on the cloud like this has eliminated any risk of losses due to physical server failures, as well as the need for us to use a slow, vulnerable VPN connection when working from home. In short, Teams has revolutionised the way we work.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

The post How We Use Teams: Sales and Marketing appeared first on Flyte.

Microsoft Teams is the central hub for communication, collaboration and teamwork for us here at Cloud Cover IT. And we’re not the only ones; since its launch in March 2017, usage of Teams has grown to over 75 million daily active users in April this year.

In this first instalment of our new series How We Use Teams, we went around the (virtual) office to build a real-life snapshot of how our IT Helpdesk uses Microsoft Teams on a daily basis. 

SPOKESPERSON: JIM MURRAY, SENIOR IT ENGINEER
DEPARTMENT: IT HELPDESK

Teams is the connective tissue for our Helpdesk and field engineers to communicate, solve problems and tackle projects together. 

When working remotely on-site, we use Teams to share data, images and information concerning the client’s requirements or the issue at hand. This helps greatly with problem-solving, meaning we can resolve any issues quickly, minimising downtime. Having Teams set up on any device allows for field engineers to have mobile access to all of the tools and company resources they require to get great work done. 

Our custom-built Remote Worker app is invaluable for our field engineers. They begin their day by referring to the Job List which uses data from SharePoint to detail all their tasks. As they attend various locations throughout the day, they can check in and out via the app and tick off tasks as they are completed. Extra information, including job notes, images and location data, can also be added. This is visible by our Line Managers who can ensure all jobs are completed to a high standard. If the engineer fails to check in within a set time, an alert in the form of an actionable adaptive card is automatically sent via a Teams channel to the Line Manager. They can then contact the employee to check on their welfare and provide assistance or instructions if needed. This improves accountability and employee safety whilst also ensuring we always deliver on our promises to clients.

For more information or to set up Microsoft Teams tutorials for your organisation, contact Alasdair Gauld or call us on 0141 280 2882.

The post How We Use Teams: IT Helpdesk appeared first on Flyte.

More than 2000 users set up to work from home; over 2500 support requests processed; no client left without a remote working solution. Safe to say, facilitating the transition to remote working for our community has been a mammoth task for us here at Cloud Cover.

It has taken an incredible team effort, but by pulling together with great spirit, dedication and humour, we have ensured business continuity and provided peace-of-mind for our clients despite all the challenges posed by the current crisis.

It would take thousands of words (and many pots of coffee) for me to describe the countless ways in which each member of our team has contributed to our achievements this month. Instead, as we come to the end of our first month in lockdown, I would like to highlight the successes of two team members in particular – both of which I believe have gone above and beyond the call of duty and deserve a special mention. 

Jim Murray, Senior IT Engineer

In his role in charge of Infrastructure projects, Jim ensured that no client was left without a remote working solution – a truly impressive feat. Jim and the team worked tirelessly to respond to thousands of support tickets, always with a quick turnaround time and a consistently high level of client satisfaction. Jim’s commitment to the role also extended to supporting team members under pressure, helping them to handle the significant spike in support requests received. 

Jamie McBride, 2nd Line Support Engineer

Jamie demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities as head of the Support team this month. His dedication to the role and willingness to help guide our newer members of staff has been invaluable. Moreover, his impressive work ethic and team management skills were instrumental in ensuring that our customer service remained first-class. Maintaining our high standards is tough enough under normal circumstances – but to achieve this during one of the busiest ever periods for the company is worthy of special recognition.

A huge thank you to Jim, Jamie and the entire team for your continued efforts in ensuring our clients can operate business as usual. By offering a sense of normality in their working lives, you are making a real difference for them in these extraordinary times. 

Wishing you all health and positivity,
Lance

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