What’s the Difference Between the Two?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that helps organizations protect against a wide range of threats, including malware, viruses, and phishing attacks. It also includes features like device management and data loss prevention.

Office 365 E5, on the other hand, is primarily a productivity suite. It includes features like email, calendar, and contacts. However, it also includes some security features, like advanced threat protection and information rights management.

So which one should you recommend to your clients? It really depends on their needs. If they’re primarily concerned with productivity, then Office 365 E5 is the way to go. However, if security is their main concern, then Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the better option.

What Comes With Each?

Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity suite that includes a variety of tools for businesses, such as Exchange Online for email, SharePoint Online for collaboration, and Azure Active Directory for identity and access management.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that helps protect your business against a wide range of threats, including malware, viruses, and phishing attacks. Defender for Endpoint includes advanced features like next-gen protection, detection, and response capabilities.

Key Differences to Note

One key difference between the two is that Office 365 does not include any endpoint security features, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is specifically designed to help protect your business against endpoint threats.
Another difference is that Office 365 is primarily a productivity suite, while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is primarily a security solution. This means that the two products are designed to meet different needs for businesses.

Choosing Between the Two

As a business consultant, it’s important to be able to recommend the right Microsoft product for your client’s needs. In this blog post, we’ve taken a look at two of the most popular options: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Office 365 E5. We’ve compared and contrasted their features so that you can make an informed decision about which one is right for your client.

So, what’s the bottom line? If you’re looking for a comprehensive security solution that includes endpoint protection, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the way to go. If you’re looking for a productivity suite that includes email, collaboration, and identity management tools, Office 365 is the product you need. Trying to decide which one is right for your business? Contact our team of experts today and we’ll be happy to help you make the best decision for your business’s needs.

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The New Commerce Experience will change how partners purchase Microsoft online services including Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Windows 365. Microsoft defines the change as follows

The new commerce experience in CSP is a multi-stage, multi-year transformational journey to deliver a simplified engagement experience that benefits both Microsoft partners and customers.

Essentially, Microsoft seeks to change the way you purchase licenses, with the aim of reducing complexity and offering up cost-saving incentives for longer-term commitments. The new system essentially reduces the pre-existing array of options available and adds additional features to the CSP.

Key Changes to Microsoft NCE

One of the key changes will be moving to subscription-based service which can be over three different durations: monthly, annually, or tri-annually. Here is a breakdown of the different subscription options available to you.

• Monthly. This subscription sees a 20% price increase on current subscriptions and allows for upgrades for mid-level products. Downgrades however will not be permitted. This subscription will be billed at the start of each month.
• Annual. This subscription has no price increase, and payments can be made annually or monthly. Again, upgrades are available, but downgrades remain prohibited.
• Tri-annually. Again, there is no price change, upgrades are available not downgrades are not. Billing can take place monthly, annually, or upfront. The incentive behind the three-year subscription is to protect partners from potential price rises as this rate will be locked in.

Further to the above change, Microsoft will also be increasing the average price of applications and bundles by around 15%. This essentially means that regardless of your subscription method partners will be paying more for Microsoft services and this has naturally found discontentment amongst partners.
Microsoft has sought to justify the application and bundle price rise on the basis that the new value reflects the innovation and improvements to applications, most of which have been immune from substantial price rises. Until now.

The important dates

Here are the key dates that you will need to be aware of;

• January 10th, 2022. The New Commerce Experience launches, and promotional incentives are released.
• March 1st, 2022. All new and renewing subscriptions must now be purchased through the US. Legacy CSP customers will be able to finish their existing subscriptions.
• June 1st, 2022. Legacy CSP customers must now renew the NCE plan to continue their subscription.
• October 1st, 2022. The NCE must now make all purchases and all partner incentives and rebates are removed.

Additional benefits and features of NCE

These additional features will be available from March 2022.

• Home Use Program (HUP) allows employees of organizations who use Microsoft online services to receive a 30% discount on the purchase of certain Microsoft 365 offers.
• Multi-Geo allows organizations to store data in the various geo locations that they have chosen.
• Hybrid Use Benefits (HUB) allows organizations to further capitalize on their Microsoft investment.

Pros and cons of the New NCE

As mentioned, not all of Microsoft’s partners have welcomed the change, arguing that they have not had sufficient time to meet the new qualifications and do not consider it to have been well explained. There also appears to be an underlying thought process that the change benefits Microsoft considerably more than it does its partners or customers. To help you decide on what the change means for you here are some of the pros and cons of the US.

Pros

• The monthly plan remains incredibly flexible and ideal for companies with high staff turnover or seasonal workers and requirements.
• You can upgrade subscriptions during the month.
• You can lock in an annual or tri-annual rate, meaning you will not be affected by price rises. This can also help with company budgeting. 20% cost saving on annual and tri-annual subscriptions.
• NCE makes it easier to try new products, and utilize free trials and add-ons.

Cons

• The monthly subscriptions incur a 20% price rise.
• You cannot decrease or downgrade subscriptions mid-term.
• Owing to the rising cost of applications, you will inevitably be paying more for Microsoft.

Cancellation period

Finally, it is worth touching on the cancellation period, For any new seat-based subscription orders there will be a 72-hour cancellation and adjustment period. This provides partners with sufficient time to make post-purchase changes or corrections to orders.

We will continue to share updates as more information becomes available from Microsoft regarding MCE.

The post The Latest on Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

In this post, we explore how this Microsoft offering can help your business thrive as we enter the hybrid working era. We discuss some of the pandemic-related working arrangement problems that it solves and how it is enabling businesses to thrive in this new environment.

How Viva Insights Works

Viva Insights offers two broad categories of services:

1. Insights that employees can use personally to let them know how they are progressing with their workflows
2. Manager insights that provide leaders with overviews of their teams.

Personal-level employee insights create recommendations that allow employees to find more balance at work. The software produces a weekly digest, showing users how they spent their time with recommendations for how they can better use it in the future. It also collects feedback on how the worker is feeling, allowing them to correlate their emotions with work, conditions, and hours. Microsoft is even considering adding guided meditation options to help prepare workers’ minds in the morning for the challenges that lie ahead.

After collecting information, Viva Insights generates “actionable recommendations.” These are things that employees can do to improve both their work and wellbeing. Suggestions come from research for trusted sources on best practices.

Manager insights are for managers and leaders. The goal is to provide a dashboard of metrics that they can use to make better managerial and business decisions. The service collects information on things like employee engagement and organizational resilience and, again, provides actionable insights.

How Viva Insights Is Helping Businesses to Thrive In The Hybrid Working Era

Viva Insights is helping organizations adapt to the hybrid working era in multiple ways.

• Oversight over issues that employees face: Viva Insights allows managers to collect data concerning the unique problems thrown up by hybrid working. It also gives managers better visibility of how employees are using their time.
• Improved employee wellbeing: Recent surveys suggest that 90 percent of employees believe that home-working has had a negative impact on their performance, with 34 percent reporting feeling burned out. Viva Insights gives managers a better sense of employee wellbeing and actionable strategies they can use to improve it.
• Enhance understanding of hybrid working productivity: As we enter the hybrid era and jobs become more knowledge-based, it is becoming increasingly difficult to quantify productivity. Viva Insights provides helpful metrics and suggestions that make measurement easier, both while workers are at home and in the office.
• Improving the return-to-work: Viva Insights can provide employers with data that will assist them as people return to the office several days per week. Helpful information could include new employee expectations and tools to compare at-home and in-office productivity levels.
• Better cultural cohesiveness: During the pandemic, companies became less cohesive because of physical separation. Viva Insights offers both data and guidance on how companies can improve relations, even when workers are not commuting to the office.

In summary, Viva Insights is a powerful tool for the new hybrid working environment. Being cloud-based, it is easy to deploy. Considering a move to Microsoft Viva? Contact 6^th Street Consulting today to learn more about how we can help your business thrive in the hybrid work era.

The post Viva Insights (Formerly Microsoft Analytics) Can Help Your Business Thrive in the Hybrid Work Era appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

And companies may not be using remote workers as the key tool to success that they are.

So what makes work-from-home types so special? Studies show one, they’re happier. Two, they deepen the talent pool. And three, get this – they actually get more done, and take fewer sick days!

So how can businesses optimize the full potential of energized remote workforce?

Putting in extra effort to communicate with remote workers

It’s a two-way street. Managers need to be in touch with the remote workforce – not just to keep tabs on employee activity, but to boost morale as well. Employees who aren’t physically in the office need to feel important. Direct communication from managers greatly helps with that.

On the end of the remote worker, they need to make communication a priority.

Video conferencing helps on both fronts, giving everyone the “you are there” feeling, where participants can pick up visual cues they wouldn’t get otherwise.

Another tip! Quick check-ins are KEY. There needs to be a proactive effort by both managers and remote workers to send brief messages or make brief phone calls throughout the day. That takes the place of the essentially subconscious check-ins in-house workers may get.

Embrace Individualism

While uniformity is necessary to an extent, often – the most effective teams are made up of people with *different* strengths. And remote workers usually bring a slightly different perspective from the outside.

So with remote workers, managers should place more emphasis on their output than their process. Set goals for your remote employees, and let them set out the plan of attack when it comes to how they achieve those goals.

Remote workers also often have an inherent understanding of both when and where they work best, so they’re the most productive when given the freedom to work under those terms (as long as they’re still making deadline, of course). Within reason, giving remote workers flexibility optimizes their contribution.

When remote workers do succeed, they often don’t get the same recognition as in-house employees. So extra effort in positive affirmation can go a long way.

Implement the right tech to make remote workers the most productive

This is where the Microsoft ecosystem comes in. It can be a great tool to ensure the success of the previous two points.

Microsoft 365 as a whole allows the remote worker to physically work on the same system and access the same files in the same manner as all other employees.

Teams, a part of 365, is there to make sure that one-on-one communication is crisp.

Yammer, another part of 365, helps remote workers engage through a social-media type of platform.

The post Remote Workers: Your secret weapon appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Night Owls

These are the ones who get their work done in the evenings, because their days are so full of meeting and other distractions. So closing time means uninterrupted time, and their chance to focus.

Key tools: Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint

They may work out-of-sight, but Microsoft Teams ensures they don’t go out-of-mind. This helps them maintain crucial contact outside of business hours. Meanwhile, SharePoint and OneDrive give them the 24-hour access they need, so they can hit the books when no one’s around.

Jet-Setters

Their presentation is at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Tonight, they’re in an airport with weak Wi-Fi. They need security, accessibility, and the ability to work on or offline on any device.

Key Tools: Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Teams, Mobile Device Manager, OneDrive, SharePoint

With SharePoint, the jet-setter can work on any device. Extremely convenient – especially if one of their devices run out of juice. OneDrive lets them work offline, which is key while they’re waiting at the gate. All of the changes made will automatically update when they reconnect. Microsoft Teams puts them right inside the meeting room from their mobile device.

Road Warriors

These are typically your sales reps. They’re constantly on the road, and don’t often have a spot to access the internet.

Key Tools: Microsoft Teams, Mobile Device Manager, OneDrive

Microsoft Teams give the road warrior timely flexibility. They can check in on their mobile device between meetings to get up-to-the-minute updates from the home base. OneDrive keeps their productivity high, when their signal isn’t. They can upload their files, and share them with the team once they reconnect.

Commuters

For this group, travel time, and the inevitability of opting to work from home on a regular basis can make things tricky. They need be able to securely access files and effectively communicate with people at the office.

Key Tools: Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Teams, Mobile Device Manager, OneDrive, SharePoint

SharePoint gives the commuter access to the most updated company files. So they can check-up on their ride in, or not miss a beat if they’re working from home. With Microsoft Teams, they can shoot a quick message to the office or easily jump in on a video call. And OneDrive lets them co-author documents in real time on any device.

Migrators

It’s 2018. The internet has connected us more than ever. So yeah, it’s highly possible one (or more) of your company’s key assets lives in another country. The biggest key here is eliminating borders.

Key tools: Microsoft Teams, Mobile Device Manager, OneDrive, SharePoint

The migrator needs to coordinate with headquarters. OneDrive and SharePoint let them do so across different time zones. Microsoft Teams ensures they’re always kept in the loop. Mobile Device Manager keeps your data safe. If a migrator loses a piece of equipment, IT can wipe it instantly.

Industry Experts

Bringing in the big guns? You need to integrate them, so they don’t function as an outsider.

Key Tools: Microsoft Teams, Mobile Device Manager, OneDrive, SharePoint

With SharePoint, you can share only necessary files with the industry expert. That way, you keep private what needs to stay private, and you don’t inundate the expert with files he or she doesn’t need.  OneDrive lets them collaborate on their own time, and Microsoft Teams brings them directly into your team’s conversation.

6th Street Consulting is a Microsoft technology firm specializing in user productivity and collaboration on SharePoint and Office365.  Our biggest differentiator is we put business before technology in creating solutions tailored fit to your organization.

For additional information please contact:

Michelle Hollis

michelle.hollis@CulverG.com

(310) 694-3844

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