“Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit. Touch it, and the bloom is gone”, says Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest. Now, I’m no exotic fruit but, unlike Lady Bracknell, I’m all for education and learning. Just preferably not the hard way – which is often the way many organisations learn about the importance of professional project management when migrating to Microsoft Office 365. Here’s how to avoid the pain and experience a smooth migration to Microsoft Office 365.

In my role in professional services project management, people come to me with all manner of part-deployed Office 365 migrations. And the story is always the same: despair. Can you help us? they ask. Yes, we reply. But as any seasoned migration specialist will tell you: picking up a part-deployed migration is going to hurt.

The Dangers

Choosing Office 365 is a huge step forward for any business and, when managed well, it’s a game-changer. However, you MUST have a clear and precise plan for delivery. If you don’t, you’ll leave your company like Britain in the wake of the Brexit vote: in complete disarray. We’ve said we want to do this, but what next?

The key points of failure

Technology analysts at Bloor Research tell us that a massive 38% of cloud migrations fail. So where does it all go wrong? Here are four reasons that I hear nearly every week:

In the wake of HM Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2016, cyber security is shooting up the agenda of small-medium organisations. According to the report, the most severe breaches can now cost small-midsize businesses as much as £310,000 – nearly three times the 2014 figure of £115,000. This blog looks at four critical ways cloud IT can help keep your data and business secure in our increasingly mobile world.

1. Manage who can access what data

A big challenge for organisations today is how to maintain control over business applications, across datacentres and public cloud platforms. Why is this? It’s mainly down to the increase in the number of a) employees bringing or choosing their own devices (BYOD) for work and b) the number of available Software as a Service (Saas) applications.

Identity and access management technology addresses this challenge directly. It protects you right across your cloud applications and on-premises deployments. It helps with two key areas:

Managing, monitoring and reporting on access to business resources

It protects access to applications and resources across the business, allowing additional levels of validation such as multi-factor authentication and conditional access policies. It also monitors suspicious activity with advanced security reporting, auditing and alerts.

Keeping employees productive with self-service and single sign-on

Rather than having to wait for helpdesk assistance, you can select which employees can self-serve tasks like resetting a forgotten password or requesting access to applications. At the same time, this frees up IT support resources.

This technology also features single sign-on, which means your people only have one username and password to remember. Plus they have a consistent experience from every device.

2. Manage your mobile devices and applications

The BYOD trend means employees are working from anywhere on any device and still want to access all their usual business resources. The challenge for IT administrators is how to enable this whilst at the same time protecting corporate resources from unauthorized access or use.

Application and device management technology is available either from the cloud or on-premises. It allows for remote wiping, for example, should a device be lost or stolen.

A few other things you can do:

• Deliver and manage apps across all main devices and operating systems – such as iOS, Android, Windows and iPhone – from a single management console
• Encrypt data, reset passcodes and lock devices
• Deploy apps automatically for new devices, and allow users to install apps easily from a self-service company portal
• Automatically deploy certificates, WiFi, VPN and email profiles once a device is enrolled, allowing your people to access corporate resources seamlessly – with all the appropriate security configurations
• Prevent data leakage by restricting actions such as copy, cut, paste and save

3. Detect dormant cyber threats before they strike

Cyber-attacks and threats are growing in sophistication, frequency and severity. Today, it’s possible for an attacker to infiltrate your network and remain unnoticed for more than eight months. Worryingly, most attacks use compromised user credentials and legitimate IT tools rather than malware. Cloud technology helps you find these attackers before they can do any harm.

It uses intelligence and deep packet inspection technology to automatically analyse, learn and identify normal and abnormal behaviour surrounding users, devices and resources.

This technology can:

• Detect malicious attacks in almost real-time
• Uncover abnormal behaviour such as anomalous logins, unknown threats, password sharing or lateral movement
• Identify known security risks such as broken trust, weak protocols and known protocol vulnerabilities
• Provide clear reporting with a single view so you can see only the data you want

Give you recommendations for investigation and remediation for each suspicious activity

4. Collaborate securely – even outside your organisation

This technology allows you to deploy and configure access to corporate resources right across your on-premises environment as well as your cloud applications, while keeping your corporate data protected. You can share corporate information both inside and outside your organisation. So you remain in control of your data, even when it’s shared with others.

It allows you to:

• Follow a document inside and outside your organisation using an encryption policy
• Protect virtually any file type on any device
• Share files safely in email or via your preferred cloud storage services such as Microsoft’s OneDrive
• Choose whether you want on-premises or cloud deployment
• Track your shared documents to learn about document use or abuse.

Remember, you’re only as strong as your weakest link.

To find out more about cloud technologies, check out Microsoft 365 Business, which combines the power of Microsoft’s cloud technologies in one, easy package.

Our founder and CEO Brett Raynes is a big fan of Jim Collin’s book: Good to Great. But what distinguishes a good service from a great one? At Cloud Direct we measure customer advocacy using the Net Promoter Score. How do we achieve those world-class results? Here are our 10 commandments for excellent service.

1. You shall keep communication channels open

Your customers (or clients, or colleagues) must be able to contact you when they need you. Whether it’s because they require a service or have a simple question, you should make sure communication channels are open to them. And let’s face it, there are many communication outlets to choose from.

At the very basic level there’s phone and email – and even web forms. But it may also be appropriate for you to run a customer portal. Most businesses have social media accounts, and you need to monitor this and respond immediately and effectively.

This last point can work a treat if done well. According to Bain, the research and analytics company, a customer who experiences social media engagement in response to a query spend 20 to 40 per cent more money.

But be careful not to spread yourself too thinly. The more contact points you have the more there is to manage.

2. You shall respond in a timely manner – always

Whatever your company policy is for getting back to customer phone calls or emails, make sure you stick to it. At Cloud Direct we designate different response times for different levels of urgency and for the specific services our customer has subscribed to. These have very strict service level agreements (SLAs), which we guarantee.

3. You shall listen to your customer

Customers are ordinary people just like you and me. And they want to be heard. Sometimes all you need do is listen to what they have to say. Avoid jumping in on the defensive – just listen. They may well have a valid point that your business can learn from.

Who knows, if handled well, the conversation could generate more business for you.

4. You shall treat your customer with respect

When dealing with a complaining, demanding, irate or just plain rude customer, be mindful not to lower yourself to their level of behaviour. Avoid expressing anger, impatience or using subjective, emotional language. Maintain your standards and continue treating your customer respectfully and, in turn, they will respect you. They might just be having a bad day and may well regret their bad attitude.

While it’s always unpleasant and certainly not right when people are disrespectful, at the end of the day when you’re mulling it over you can feel satisfied that you behaved well and remained respectful to your customer.

5. You shall not argue with your customer

Be aware that if you do enter into an argument with your customer, it’s a lose-lose situation. Even if you ‘win’, you’ll have alienated them and will likely lose their business irrevocably.

A customer is often wrong, but don’t be tempted to start defending yourself. Think positively by focusing on what’s occurred and how best you can help resolve the situation.

6. You shall honour your commitments

Don’t break your promises. If you offer a guarantee to back up your service level agreement (SLA) then you must honour it. If you say you’ll respond within a certain time-frame then do it. If you say you’ll provide a report on a particular day then do it. People hate to be disappointed in this way so it’s an easy route to ruining what could’ve been a good, long working relationship.

7. You shall do what you say

Similar to the sixth commandment, be aware of doing what you say you will on a day-to-day level. If you say you’ll call them first thing in the morning, then call them first thing in the morning. Trust is such an important factor in service relations, yet it’s so easy to lose if you end up frustrating and irritating your customer who’s waiting for a call that never happens.

8. You shall nurture your customer relations – not sell to them

Too often sales and marketing teams err down the path of sales and ‘lead generation’ without first looking to their customers to make sure they’re happy with their existing service and they’re getting the most out of it. This is where your customer success team is key. It’s their job first and foremost to make sure the customer understands what they have bought to the extent that they’re leveraging this service to the fullest across the business. If that box is ticked, they should be only too happy to trust you enough to buy more services from you if appropriate – or at least keep their business with you.

9. You shall apologise if you make a mistake

In the words of Alexander Pope: “To err is human, to forgive is divine”. We all make mistakes, and if you do make a mistake, don’t try denying it or covering it up. That’s a sure-fire way of losing all credibility as your customer will (quite rightly) doubt your professional integrity – which is much worse than making a mistake. Mistakes can be rectified. To rebuild trust is an entirely different matter.

So admit your mistake, apologise and fix it. Again, this can be an opportunity to strengthen a relationship. How people deal with mistakes is a real test of moral fibre, so you could end up bringing your relationship to a whole new level, opening more doors for your business.

10. You shall train and empower your staff

This is the linchpin to successful customer service. When your staff are well-trained they will understand their role in the business, their levels of authority and feel empowered to make well-informed, useful decisions. For example, our staff are constantly trained so they can develop to their fullest potential. Not only does this help you keep good people, but it also helps if you want an Investors in People (IIP) accreditation, for example. Our training programmes are one way we annually maintain our IIP gold status and were finalists in their first-ever IIP Awards in the Employer of the Year category.

So there you have our top 10 behaviours of a great customer service business. If you found that useful, you might like this: The top 10 reasons why our customers stay with us.

If you need support or consultancy in choosing, migrating, deploying or managing Microsoft Office 365 cloud technology, feel free to review our support services:

It’s no secret that a customer-centric business is a successful business. Yet some of the statistics I’m sharing with you here tell a story of frustration and alienation amongst many customers who say they often feel like stuck records and are missing the personal touch.

What your customers and industry experts think

1. Your customers’ experiences will dictate your business success

• In 2016, 89 per cent of businesses will compete mainly on customer experience compared to 36 per cent four years ago. (Source: Gartner)
• 92 per cent of organisations that consider customer experience as a differentiator offer multiple contact channels. (Source: Deloitte)

2. Your customers are just not that into you

• By 2020, the customer will manage 85 per cent of its relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. (Source: Gartner)
• 89 per cent of customers switched brands once or twice in the last year. (Source: NewVoice)

3. Your customers feel like stuck records

• 80 per cent of customers say that companies do not have the context of their last conversation. (Source: Marketwatch)
• 56 per cent of customers have to re-explain an issue when speaking to customer service. (Source: Harvard Business Review)

4. Social media: this time it’s personal

• When companies engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, those customers spend from 20 to 40 per cent more money with the company than other customers do. (Source: Bain)

5. You get no second chances

• 78 per cent of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. (Source: American Express)

6. Help your customers help themselves

• 83 per cent of online shoppers need support to complete a purchase. (Source: eConsultancy)

7. Smart customer service is mobile

• 75 per cent of consumers think companies should make answers to all their common questions available via smartphones. (Source: Synthetix)

So how does a business build or maintain a personal touch in this brave new world where we all rely so heavily on technology? How can we use technology to our advantage to help support our customer service goals?

Find out how Office 365 can help you build more profitable customer relationships through more engaging communications in this 15-minute webinar video from Microsoft: “How to connect with your customers.”

If you need support or consultancy in choosing, migrating, deploying or managing Microsoft Office 365 cloud technology, feel free to review our support suite options for business users and IT administrators.

High productivity levels are essential for strong business growth. And, now that time has proven cloud IT secure, even highly regulated organisations are enjoying the increased productivity that comes with Microsoft’s cloud service, Office 365. But what if your business is ensconced in old-school GroupWise for email, contacts and calendar? How do you appease users who fear they may lose out in the migration to Exchange Online?

The fear: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

Scientists have linked the “bird in the hand” effect with what psychologists call the “endowment effect”, where we overvalue what we have and undervalue what we don’t have. Where this occurs in business and trade, the economic repercussions can be devastating. At best productivity and growth slump, at worst, the life is squeezed out of them.

For users of GroupWise who suspect they’ll lose out in a move to Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online, here are eight common myths that we can release into the depths of yesteryear. While a couple of these arguments may’ve worked against Exchange on-premises, for Exchange Online all arguments are now void.

With Exchange…

Myth #1: there’s no future-proofing or infrastructure flexibility

With cloud services, such as Exchange Online, this issue becomes irrelevant. The very nature of cloud services means your solution is hosted in the cloud so infrastructure, operating systems and servers are no longer your concern. Instead, you can access Exchange Online using a web browser on any computer. Mobile apps allow seamless access to mail on any computer with an internet connection, or from multiple devices like tablets and smartphones, including Windows Phone, iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices.

Myth #2: it’s often difficult to upgrade

With Exchange Online you’re automatically given the latest software versions and security updates available. Not only is it not difficult, but you don’t even notice it going on behind the scenes. You just get on with your work. It’s an enterprise-level solution that requires little investment and management overheads. Instead, you get all the capabilities of Exchange Server without the need to buy, upgrade or manage hardware – you just pay a monthly subscription.

Myth #3: you won’t get cross-product collaboration

You can, if you want to, simply migrate your email and not your calendar or contacts. Office 365 will work regardless. That said, it makes more sense to move calendars and contacts to the cloud so users can access them securely wherever they are, exactly as they would in the office. So they’ll have access to global address lists, tasks or shared calendars to schedule meetings, book meeting rooms or other resources.

Myth #4: you’ll need lots of storage space

Exchange Online gives you 50GB mailboxes and the ability to send messages up to 150MB in size, so your staff can always be productive and part of the team, wherever they are. In the Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E5 Plans, Exchange Online includes archiving and legal hold capabilities, plus unlimited inbox storage to meet compliance needs. Data loss prevention (DLP) policies and digital rights management also help make sure sensitive data isn’t emailed outside your business.

Myth #5: you’ll miss out on a home view in Outlook

Like GroupWise home view, Office 365’s SharePoint acts as a personal productivity cockpit. Users can design it to work the way they want it to, pulling in web pages, data feeds and teaming folders. Furthermore, they can share and collaborate on documents, and access them securely from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Myth #6: you don’t know who’s accepted an appointment

Exchange Online has a feature that allows you to see exactly who has accepted or declined meetings, marking their response in the calendared meeting.

Myth #7: you can’t retract a sent email

Just as GroupWise would allow you to delete an email before it gets opened, so can Exchange Online; Message Recall will delete the email from the recipient’s inbox. To avoid a rash ‘send’ in the first place, you can also set up a delayed send rule, say for one minute, which could be just about enough time for a moment of better judgement.

Myth #8: your most used folders and contacts aren’t at your fingertips

Again, untrue. In Outlook, you can set up your ‘favourite’ folders. And Office 365’s Skype for Business pushes your most frequently contacted associates to the top.

If your business is no longer constrained by purely office-based work, productivity could increase by 30 to 40 per cent, according to research published by Microsoft.  Being able to do business anywhere is a key capability for 2016 that Office 365 addresses with bells on. Here are 10 ways Office 365 keeps your business mobile and increases productivity.

“Work is something you do, not somewhere you go.” ~ Laurie Coots

1. Office 365 is in the cloud – with OneDrive hosting service

Gone with the wind is the need for a physical onsite server or a contract with an offsite host. With Office 365, Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud hosting service gives you 24/7/365 access to business email and projects. You can be seriously competitive – ready and able to respond to any request and meet any deadline.

Never again worry about office closures or operational interruptions or incidents

2. Data is encrypted and highly secure, meeting industry standards and regulations

On top of encryption, your data is stored on Microsoft’s physically secure servers, which are also protected with continuous threat management and security monitoring. Additionally, Office 365’s controls are approved by EU data privacy authorities. In 2014, Microsoft became the first cloud provider to receive approval from the Article 29 Working Party, an independent advisory body established by the European Parliament to focus on data protection. The ruling confirmed that Microsoft meets the high standards of EU data protection legislation so, regardless of where data is stored, it’s protected to a standard approved by EU authorities.

3. It’s accessible on multiple devices, anywhere

Each Office 365 user can sync their license to up to five different devices, including any PC/Mac, and any iOS, Android or Windows device. Video-conference from a laptop in your sitting room, edit a presentation on your tablet on the plane or check up on emails at your favourite coffee house.

4. You always have the latest version of applications and software

Office 365 has all your old favourites such as Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook. It also has SharePoint, where you can manage projects, share documents and collaborate with your team – all in real time.

5. You get a serious amount of storage for mailboxes and files

No longer need you worry if a ginormous file will clog your inbox of if your physical exchange server is approaching capacity. With Office 365 cloud storage, you get exchange mailbox storage of 50 GB, and one TB of file storage. Store and back up all of your large, critical files online and access them anywhere.

Office 365 also increases business productivity because of these five awesome things.

6. Communication is sophisticated and fast

Keep your teams up-to-date of everyone’s whereabouts and activities with shared calendars and instant messaging. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you can all keep in touch.

7. Teams can collaborate on projects with SharePoint

Be confident that you and your team are always working on the latest SharePoint versions of ongoing projects. You can:

• Plan and monitor projects using shared calendars, task lists and other tools
• Design and automate workflows
• Develop your own business tools like a company survey, blog or even Intranet
• Connect and create with SharePoint’s co-authoring and video-conference features

8. Social: Yammer and Skype for Business increase employee engagement and productivity

If you want your employees to bond and even become friends, Office 365’s Skype for Business (formerly Lync) and Yammer, a private social network designed for businesses, will help do just that. With increased communication on a more social level, employees can enjoy a stronger sense of belonging, which is proven to improve employee engagement and productivity. We can personally vouch for that at Cloud Direct, where we make great use of Yammer and Skype for Business. Since we introduced it to the business, employee engagement has increased and remained consistently high.

9. You choose the plan that suits your business

Pick from a selection of Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription plans and customise features to serve your business size and needs.

10. ROI: you save on travel costs, IT support and software – and gain in productivity

In terms of basic cost savings, Office 365 saves you spending money on hardware, third-party software, additional IT support and unnecessary travel costs. A 2014 HBR-Verizon survey report showed that, of companies that had moved email and data to the cloud, nearly two thirds (61 per cent) recorded increased employee productivity.

To stay competitive on today’s changeable business waters, we’ve got to sail very tight ships. Businesses need to be able to extend their reach and grow efficiently, which means keeping a keen eye on costs. This blog outlines how Office 365 can help businesses trim costs to beat the weather and win the race in five easy manoeuvres.

With Office 365 you can…

1. Lower your costs and hang on to your capital because with Office 365 you DON’T need to invest in:
   • Server hardware for Office 365 applications (such as Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business and OneDrive)
   • SSL certificates
   • Upgraded network infrastructure to support new servers
   • Basic level backup and disaster recovery
   • Basic anti-spam, anti-virus or security software
   • Server space, power and cooling costs

   Instead, Microsoft has all that covered for you. And if you’re a highly regulated business that requires the highest levels of security and business continuity, we can help with that, too. We’re ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 accredited and have been helping highly secure businesses stay that way for years.

2. Get the latest tools without CapEx investment
   • Get access to the latest versions of the Microsoft productivity tools automatically, with no CapEx investment
   • Get automatically upgraded to the latest server products (Exchange, Skype for Business etc)
3. Avoid over-spending on IT hardware and software
   • No need to invest and over spend for hardware or licencing capacity that you don’t need
   • Increase/decrease your monthly licensing according to your business requirements – this helps you align your IT costs with your forecasted usage
4. Control your costs
   • You can scale your costs as your business changes – for example you may need to ramp things up August through December, and then decrease licenses come January
   • Great for businesses with seasonal or temporary workers
5. Spend less, get more
   • If you’re looking to move to Office 365 we can offer you free email migration until the end of March 2015
   • If you’re an existing Office 365 user and would like a few hours of consultation from our professional services team, please get in touch

Do business faster and better with cloud technology

20 years ago a ‘rush order’ meant overnight delivery. After-hours calls were recorded on an answering machine. And a growth strategy was measured in years.

Today, business moves faster. Communication is immediate and 24/7. Innovation happens overnight and anything is possible. Yet, it can also feel overwhelming. How can a small-medium business possibly keep pace?

This is where the right technology enters the picture. The advances that are transforming the business world are the same tools that you can use to transform your business. With cloud services and mobile devices, you can quickly adapt to change and expand your business efficiently, without expanding your budget.

Prepare your business for growth

At the point when your business is ready to grow, you can’t afford for your technology to hold you back. When a customer knocks on your virtual door to buy your product or service, you need to open it – immediately.
Buying and setting up new hardware can take weeks. But in the cloud, growth can take minutes. With Office 365, you can quickly equip new employees with the tools that they need without a lengthy deployment process. Plus, with per-user licensing, you can meet the demands of your workforce, pay only for what you use and support hundreds of different mobile devices.

Adjust to changes in customer demand

Need more storage? More support for your applications? Maybe you need to address seasonal fluctuations rather than long-term growth.

With a cloud hosting solution, such as Microsoft Azure, you can use services and apps – and add new ones – on an as-needed basis. For example, you can quickly expand file storage and apps such as order processing, stock and payroll in late August to handle a busy season from September to December; and just as easily reduce capacity in January to conserve costs. Instead of paying year-round for technology that is often underused, you pay only for what you’re actually using in a given month. And there are no costly delays or large capital investments when you change capacity, be it using Azure to host mobile apps or implementing a new customer service.

Expand beyond your walls

You can also use technology to expand your reach, work faster and be more productive.

Start with your employees’ devices. Are they all running Windows? If not, your workers might be wasting time struggling with different experiences across their devices. Standardising on one platform, such as Windows, will improve employee productivity, while allowing for broad device choice, be it based on personal preference or job function.

What about the applications running on your devices? Are they cloud-based? Move to Office 365 and your employees will still get the same Office experience that they’re used to, whichever device they use, whether it happens to be an iPad or an Android-based device.

And you can easily manage these devices and provide more secure mobile access to company data, through cloud-based device and PC management solutions like Microsoft Intune and Office 365.

In a nutshell

We know that the world is moving faster than ever. With the right technologies in place, you can grow effectively, respond quickly to seasonal fluctuations and outpace the competition.

Cloud computing growth is set to continue into 2016, according to new findings.

A report published by Technavio predicted that ability of cloud-based solutions to outsource work to third-party organisations will help to boost take-up of cloud technologies.

However, the cloud computing market still remains quite fragmented and this is mainly due to the presence of numerous small, medium, and large players, which are providing more innovative solutions to the market all the time.

The research also predicted that in the US, the cloud computing market will grow at the compound annual growth rate of around 24 per cent by 2020.

In the teaching sector in particular, the report claimed that cloud computing plays a vital role in reducing the costs of building and maintaining the infrastructure associated with the traditional form of teaching.

When it comes to cloud technology, the public sector will be responsible for the majority (66 per cent) of the total market share by 2020.