While the end-of-support date doesn’t mean the product will stop working, it does mean that Microsoft will no longer support the platform.  Using an unsupported on-prem platform also poses a risk of data loss.

What are the dangers of not upgrading?

Security risks

Without Microsoft’s routine security updates and patches, you expose yourself to security breaches from hackers and cybercriminals. Also, Microsoft will not provide support to remediate an attack.

Compliance risks

Your organization’s reputation could come under serious scrutiny, and you could incur potential hefty legal, financial, and operational penalties as well.

Data loss risks

With an unsupported on-prem platform, you risk being unable to recover data in the event your database is corrupted.

Productivity and functionality costs

Newer versions of SharePoint offer features that aren’t available in SharePoint 2013. By not migrating, you are potentially costing your organization valuable time and resources that could be supported by new platform improvements.

What Action Should a Company Take?

Migrating to SharePoint Online, which is part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, can offer benefits such as reduced maintenance and a monthly subscription model based on license type and number of users. Perficient can assist with assessments of your current SharePoint environment, migration planning, and implementation services.

With over 20 years of experience in modern work solutions and business applications, our experts can guide your organization through the migration process. Contact 6th Street Consulting to learn more.

The post How will SharePoint 2013 End of Life Impact Your Business? appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

Microsoft SharePoint Syntex is a powerful tool that businesses can use to improve workplace efficiency and streamline their operations. As a SharePoint Syntex consultant, I have seen firsthand the benefits that this tool can provide to organizations of all sizes.

Here are five of the top benefits of using SharePoint Syntex in your business:

1. Improved collaboration and communication: SharePoint Syntex allows teams to easily share and access documents, making it easier for employees to collaborate on projects and work together effectively.
2. Enhanced organization and management: SharePoint Syntex allows businesses to organize their files and documents in a central location, making it easier to find and manage important information.
3. Increased productivity: With SharePoint Syntex, employees can access the information and resources they need quickly and easily, which can help boost productivity and efficiency.
4. Enhanced security: SharePoint Syntex offers robust security features that protect sensitive information and ensure that only authorized users have access to important files and documents.
5. Scalability and flexibility: SharePoint Syntex is a highly scalable and flexible platform that can be customized to meet the specific needs of your business.

In addition to these benefits, SharePoint Syntex also offers a range of powerful features that can help businesses improve their operations. For example, the tool allows users to create custom workflows, automate processes, and integrate with other business applications.

The post The Top 5 Benefits of Why Businesses Should Be Using SharePoint Syntex appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

What is SharePoint Syntex?

What Are Some of the Benefits of Using SharePoint Syntex?

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SharePoint Syntex could be a valuable addition to your business, helping you to save time, money and transforming your files from passive documents into insightful knowledge.

How Does SharePoint Syntex Work?

SharePoint Syntex uses machine teaching and artificial intelligence (AI) to capture knowledge from your existing documents and to help you process your content automatically.

SharePoint Syntex has two main functions; these functions are document understanding and form processing; these functions transform your existing content into knowledge. Here we will look at each of these functions in more detail:

Document Understanding

Document understanding is used for unstructured documents. Unstructured documents typically feature lots of text, and the data that needs to be captured could be within sentences. Using document understanding allows information to be identified from within the document and to be extracted, even when the data forms part of a wider body of the text.

Form Processing

If you have a structured document such as an invoice, you can train SharePoint Syntex to recognize and capture parts of the document. If you hope to gain insight into specific data from each of your invoice files, the Form Processing function can help you access this data instantly.

What are the Benefits of Using SharePoint Syntex?

Are you considering SharePoint Syntex adoption for your business? This innovative software has so much to offer business users. Using SharePoint Syntex provides an exciting new way to see the tangible benefits of AI and machine teaching. The best part is you can incorporate AI and machine teaching directly into your business practices. Here are some of the benefits to be gained from using SharePoint Syntex for your business:

• You will be able to access meaningful data quickly without the need to trawl through hundreds of files to find it.
• SharePoint Syntex will help you to save time and boost productivity. Tasks that were previously labor-intensive can now be carried out quickly and easily using leaving your employees free to focus on other jobs.
• If you plan to scale your business, SharePoint Syntex will make it easier. There is no need to spend hours looking for the data that you need; using SharePoint Syntex will enable you to extract the insights you need instantly, allowing you to make informed business decisions fast.
• Metadata can be applied automatically to your documents without the need to code.
• A more recent addition to SharePoint Syntex, which was introduced at the end of 2020, is the ability to add sensitivity or retention labels to your documents. Applying these labels enables businesses to fulfill compliance regulations and to protect their documents.

Learn more about how your business can utilize Microsoft SharePoint Syntex to improve the organization of your files and the efficiency of your Team.  Contact 6^th Street Consulting for an initial discussion with your business.

The post SharePoint Syntex – Machine Teaching and AI for Content Management appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

The new end of support date for SharePoint Server 2010 will not be April 13, 2021, a full six months from the original end of support date.  This includes the following versions of SharePoint and Project Server:

• SharePoint Foundation 2010
• SharePoint Server 2010
• Project Server 2010

What Does the Extension Mean for Businesses?

This extension will provide businesses the time and flexibility to manage their transition plans accordingly.  Microsoft does intend to keep the new April 2021 end of support date without offering another extension.  When support does end, Microsoft will no longer be providing support for problems that occur which includes bug fixes, usability concerns, and most importantly, vulnerabilities that are discovered which may result in security breaches.

At 6th Street Consulting, we strongly recommend that you begin your transition plans well before the end of support date.  Migrations to newer or cloud-based versions of SharePoint can take time, especially if the platform that been highly customized for a specific business, and we expect that there will be a large volume of companies that choose to delay migrations resulting in a flurry of activity prior to the end of support date.

Migrate SharePoint 2010 to Microsoft 365

It is our recommendation is most circumstances that companies migrate their legacy versions of SharePoint 2010 to Microsoft 365.  This provides a multitude of benefits, including going to a cloud-based subscription service that offers best-in-class tools for the modern workforce.

If your company is working with a legacy version of SharePoint 2010 and will need to migrate, contact our office to speak with one of our certified experts.  We can provide specific consulting and migration services that meet the needs of your specific use of SharePoint while ensuring that the migration process is handled quickly and seamlessly from start to finish.

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Now, we’re not going to go ahead and tell you any one of these products will suddenly sooth clashing personalities – BUT, with features in Teams an SharePoint, we’ll open up all lines of communication and get the ball rolling – so you can focus on any personal fouls.

Interface problems that can inhibit teamwork are:

• using too many contrasting tools,
• inefficient meetings
• inconsistent apps

To the first and third points, uniformity is key. If team members are using different interfaces for email, phone calls, file-sharing, calendar setups… anything, you’ll easily hit a road block. SharePoint’s biggest key is creating a hub that ensures everyone is using the same app or model to do something. And when it upgrades – it upgrades company-wide. So you don’t have someone working on model 4, while someone else is plugging away on 6.5.

How can you work as a team if you’re not even in the same game?

Now combine Microsoft Teams on top of that. You already have a uniform workflow, and now with Teams, you can reach a bigger audience, and bring in that interpersonal and interactive side of things.

Now, to meetings. Don’t make them something for people to groan about.

Managers – if you’re in a meeting and find yourself otherwise occupied on your phone or laptop with other things – re-evaluate the purpose of that meeting, and the purpose of you being there. The same could be said for all other employees, if you’re questioning how essential your presence is, maybe it’s time to regroup the meeting set-up. A great tool to help you track meeting productivity is the SharePoint Analytics tool.

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Calling in Microsoft Teams!

Work from anywhere

The single-office concept is becoming obsolete. Sixty-three percent of companies have remote workers, and 55 percent of hiring managers expect that number to grow.

Microsoft Teams puts you all face-to-face in one room with its seamless videoconferencing features. While email and other programs can keep you connected on the housekeeping side, the face-to-face — albeit virtual — interaction is key for morale, interpersonal workplace connectivity and productive discussions.

With multiple dial-in options, Microsoft Teams videoconferencing reduces communication and geographical barriers.

Enable multi-generational collaboration

Get this – by 2020, people from FIVE different generations will make up the workforce. While having each one represented within your own business can give you a competitive edge, it doesn’t come without challenges.

But Microsoft Teams can simultaneously cater to each generation, by providing a hub to let employees work the way they want. The biggest difference among generations is communication preference and expectations, so Teams makes it easy to foster all forms – phone, face-to-face, email, video conference, or collaborative document sharing.

Maximize mobile work

We don’t need to tell you the office space has transcended the desktop. But what’s happening now – is that mobile work is becoming much more of a priority, than something extra.

As this continues, employees will need a familiar, connected experience across their mobile devices. Microsoft Teams brings all that together by extending the collaboration and communication experiences from the office naturally to those mobile devices. So teams can still work together on-the-go, and while miles apart. The Teams mobile up lets you join calls and meetings, share content, control presentations, reply to chats and conversations and transfer calls and check remote voicemail.

Communicate effectively with outside partners/contractors

Another number for you. Freelancers are expected to make up the majority of the workforce within the next ten years.

So you’ll need Microsoft Teams to keep them active members of your own team.

But there’s an extra step with freelancers – while they are on your team, there’s still a boundary that needs to be set, for cyber security purposes. Teams takes care of that behind the scenes, though, with the guest access feature.  So working across corporate boundaries – both for the freelancer and your full-time employees – is easy and highly secure.
And if there’s a problem – IT can quickly remove guest access.

Engage with a larger team

High engagement = high productivity. BUT – 87 percent of employees are NOT engaged at work? That’s essentially an untapped market for potential growth.
Morale is huge. And yes, that’s something that needs to be fostered outside of the digital world, but Microsoft Teams can help remind you how important that is. Teams has features that keeps workers engaged, but also gives them the flexibility to collaborate the way they want.

As you can imagine, this gets trickier the bigger the company is. One-to-many communications are a breeze with Teams “Live Events.” It takes top-down communication out of the stiff and stale corporate video conference. There are engagement opportunities before, during, and after the event – so everyone is involved.

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Set daily goals

We’re in the era of a constant to-do list. Long term. Short term. At work. At home. But staring at 87 bullet points of things you need to accomplish isn’t going to give you anything more than a headache. But if you prioritize those 87 things, you’ll be in much better shape.

Find out what can wait – but don’t be lazy about it! If you can get it done within 20 minutes, do it that day. Long term project? Find a PIECE that can get done today. Lots to do at home? Again – the 20 minute goal is a good one. Often times we don’t realize a lot of the things we have to do may only actually take 10 minutes.

If you map things out this way, you’ll actually be able to cross things off your list, instead of having them hang over your head.

Set deadlines and hold yourself accountable

This goes hand-in-hand with point one. This one focuses more on the execution of conquering your to-do list – and it’s a bit more solely work-related.

Microsoft has a tool to be your built-in-accountability holder:  Microsoft Project. It allows you to maintain a calendar with multiple moving parts. It also lets you assign deadlines to projects, meetings and tasks – so you’re notified when you’re getting off track.

View Microsoft Project

Take time to save time

Data entry. Standardized emails. Both essentially synonyms for “tedious” and “*groans*” for those who do this manually. But you can actually streamline this process. It’ll take time to set up initially – but it will save you time in the future.

If you’re entering data into multiple spreadsheets, set up macros that can do that work for you. Macros can also help automate email responses.

Create or Run Macros

Batch your small tasks

This one is great when it comes to making sure your day has a productive flow. Think about the things you do throughout your work day – i.e. sending emails, scheduling meeting, updating your website, etc. These things inherently don’t take a lot of time, but if you stretch them out while doing more long-winded products, they might. So instead, set aside a chunk of time to get them all done at once.

Separation of home and office

Nowadays, far easier said than done. But it’s essential. And it prevents burnout. According to multiple studies, you need some sort of down time every day to keep your mind right. Work will likely take up most of your day (especially for those of you reading this), and that’s OK. And it’s great that you’re so connected to what you do. But give that connectivity a time limit. When you’re home with your family, be with your family. Working out before work? Be present in your workout. On vacation? Put all your devices on “Do Not Disturb.” Giving your mind a clear break = more clarity when you get back into work mode.

Only say “yes” to meetings that matter

Aiii, what? Don’t all meetings matter? No. If it’s not organized well or does not have a clear purpose – you don’t have time for it! Make sure you know exactly why you’re included in a meeting before you attend, so you can ensure you’re not wasting your time.

Regarding meetings in general, best practices say make sure there’s a “hard” stop time, and ensure everyone is prepared with a specific agenda before you get started.

Take workout breaks

Physical activity = more productivity! It doesn’t have to be crazy, we know you don’t have time to go take a spin class/shower/change your clothes during your lunch break. But if your office is flexible enough and you have the resources, take a short run or get some cardio in during the day. Still unrealistic? A walk outside. Live somewhere to cold? Be sure to get up and walk around the office.

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As businesses themselves evolve, so does the technology that keeps them going behind the scenes. We know there are a lot of options out there.

SharePoint and Google Drive currently control the market. Both file management platforms are similar at their cores. Users can manage Word, Outlook, Excel and other documents through both platforms. Both use the cloud. Both are user friendly.

Here’s why we think SharePoint goes the extra mile for you.

Functionality

One of the starkest difference between the two platforms is how much more convenient it is to group-edit a document in SharePoint. It allows users to edit documents right there within the program, whereas Google Drive requires you to upload the document to edit it and download it as a Microsoft document when it’s done. An extra step that can inhibit workflow.

Collaboration Simplicity

SharePoint offers automated workflows. That means all edits, feedback, thoughts and approval-granting can all happen on one organized interface. That’s a helpful tool inherently, and it also paves the way for the most experienced of users to manage more complex environments like building websites, managing training sessions and finalizing forms.

SharePoint’s Additional Features

And here’s where SharePoint takes its services to an even elevated level, content management: List. It’s a feature that’s not available on Google Drive. The List feature allows you to organize portions of your data by separating them out into their own section within an Excel file. This is helpful and primarily used for things like managing expenses and creating tax reports. Other benefits include the ability to manage contacts and clients, tracking project tasks and projecting data.

And, as always, 6^th Street Consulting can help you get started, so you can be a master of SharePoint – and, in turn, a master of your expedient workflow – in no time.

The post Breaking down the differences between SharePoint Online and Google Drive appeared first on 6th Street Consulting.

“First line workers are the lifeblood of the world’s largest industries,” says Microsoft’s Farren Roper.

And he’s right. They’re the most physically and directly integrated with the consumer, so they play an imperative role in the communication tree.

“The first line worker is amongst the first to see things and trends and hear from customers,” says Jack Elmore, the Microsoft Product Marketing Director. “And their ability to communicate that digitally and efficiently back to headquarters drives a whole new level of insight many organizations haven’t had previously.”

But so many businesses out there still aren’t using the right tools. Their digital platforms aren’t compatible from the CEO to the first line. But with Microsoft StaffHub, that can all change.

“Microsoft 365 is a complete intelligent solution,” said Andrew Hart, Senior Product Marketing Manager. “It scales across an organization to manage devices on the first line to deliver a digital identity to a first line workforce.”

That digital identity can easily be delivered through StaffHub. It allows first line workers to view schedules, swap shifts, request time off, find information and catch up with the team. From easy-to-read calendars, to message boards, it almost takes the place of another organizational manager.

“As any first line manager knows schedule management swapping shifts accommodating changes is one of the biggest headaches of the job,” says Elmore.

If that’s the headache, think of StaffHub as the pain reliever.  With those tasks taken care of on an easy-to-use platform that can work on any of your first line employee’s devices (and there’s clearly a huge chance that contains a wide variety of tablets, smartphones and computers), managers and executives can focus more on the product and enhancing quality.

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