Office Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

Office Tasks to Outsource For Small and Large Businesses

Many people make the mistake of thinking that they can only outsource complicated office tasks such as information technology. There are several other office tasks that can be outsourced and trust me, it is not going to cost you an arm or leg.

Outsource Secretarial Duties

Do you presently run a small one-person office? You will need to outsource secretarial tasks so that you can have the chance to concentrate on the money making aspect of your business. You need not worry yourself silly over carrying out secretarial tasks such as confirmation of appointments, appointment scheduling and travel arrangements. You can simply outsource these duties so that someone else can take care of all the aforementioned duties (and more). Thanks to modern technology, you can hire employees from any part of the world.

Every kind of business sure has very unique functions, and the good news is that these unique functions can be outsourced. For instance, you will find a company that can help you effectively handle your back office operations for your type of business.

Outsource Typing / Transcription Duties

Okay, you are very good at typing, but do you really want to spend precious time converting written words in a particular format when you should be doing other things that will make your business grow? All clerical work that has to be converted into written form in a particular format should be outsourced to an outsourcing firm that specializes in that area of service. For instance, legal notes that need to be converted into written texts need to be sent to experts in that field.

Financial Outsourcing

The field of accounting and finances is a pretty delicate area and not everyone s blessed with the ability to handle their own business finances. There many accounting outsourcing firms that are more than ready to help you handle your financial statement preparation and the following:

• General billing functions

• Pay roll processing

• Legal and medical billing special services

HR Outsourcing

This will also include all the necessary paperwork that is needed to employ and fire a staff. Outsourcing this area is particularly great for small businesses that actually have low hiring rate or turnover rate. You can also outsource the administration of staff benefits as well.

There are so many office tasks that can be outsourced so that business owners can concentrate on their company’s core business. As mentioned earlier, outsourcing these services will not cost you an arm and leg.

Microsoft Office 365 for YOUR Business

Microsoft Office 365

OK, we’ve spent some quality time together checking out Office 365 and what it can do for small to mid-sized businesses in previous posts. Now, we want to take a look at what this cloud-based productivity tool from Microsoft can do for you and your business. After all, it’s your business that you worry about so, as your chosen Denver IT support experts, we should too, right?

Office 365 allows you to pay for the services you use, and nothing more

Microsoft offers a range of monthly subscription plans for their cloud-based productivity tools offering – Office 365. For most of the businesses we work with at North Star, Inc., the P1 Plan will be the most popular. This is the plan Microsoft has designed for businesses with up to 25 employees, with 50 users maximum. The P1 Plan offers full access to all of the most popular Office tools, such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint, for just $6 per month per user.

So, what will you receive for your six bucks a month?

Anytime, anywhere access to – email, contacts, calendars, files, documents, spreadsheets, slide shows and every other Office function on just about any mobile device – including iPads, iPhones, and Android devices.
Ease of use – across all digital environments, with access to Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint.
Enhanced collaboration – on even the largest files. Rather than trying to email huge data packages, Office 365 allows you to create password-protected access to share large, difficult-to-email files within and without your organization. This provides you with a single, easy-to-find location for all versions and variation of every document in your system.
Increased security and enhanced reliability – with Microsoft enterprise-level servers. You no longer need to wonder if your system is secure, since Microsoft handles all of your server needs with enterprise-grade reliability, disaster recovery capabilities, data centers in multiple locations, and a strict privacy policy. This also allows them to offer you a 99.9% uptime, financially-backed guarantee.

Access your email, calendar, and contacts across all digital environments

Powered by Exchange Online, Office 365 provides you with a 25 GB mailbox, with contacts and a calendar that is available virtually anywhere; and is accessible on your iPhone, Android, Nokia, Blackberry, Windows Phone, or use almost any Macintosh computer or PC, with cross-browser support for Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

Fully compatible with Outlook and Exchange Online
Large mailboxes that are easy to use
Professional looking email addresses
Automatic updating of email, contacts, and calendar across digital devices
Check the availability of your colleagues from the Outlook calendar
Antivirus and anti-spam protection
Reduce in-box overload with “Conversation View” feature
Access to other email accounts
A personal email archive

Enhanced sharing and collaboration with Office 365

Office 365 offers improved sharing and increased collaboration within your organization through the use of SharePoint Online. Your people will be able to save directly to SharePoint, or work collaboratively on any document, in real-time, through Office Web Apps.

Create a public website with the built-in Site Designer tool
Share and manage critical documents
Save different versions and drafts in a single location accessible to all
10 GB of SharePoint storage
External sharing with trusted partners
Fully integrated with Microsoft Office
A familiar look and feel with familiar tools

Improved communication and collaboration

Microsoft Lync Online offers next-generation communication in an online environment, allowing your people to make clear connections and collaborate from virtually anywhere at any time. Lync Online provides an enhanced communication experience with IM, audio/video calling, and an online meeting experience that supports audio, video, and web conferencing.

Connect with colleagues and customers instantly
Make professional presentations from anywhere
Conference calls and meetings
Check status and availability of colleagues quickly and easily
Communicate with anyone suing Office 365 or Windows Live
Communicate with anyone using Microsoft Outlook
Connect with Exchange Online

Manage Office 365 from a single, easy-to-use interface

Managing Office 365 is accomplished from an intuitive, web-based portal accessible only to those you designate. It was designed for organizations without an IT staff, with simple navigation and low-tech solutions; allowing you to easily establish user accounts, assign various roles others, and configure the services you will be using.

A simple, user-friendly admin interface
You control access to all data, critical and otherwise
Set up separate user accounts for each employee
Add administrators to help you manage the system
Administer your public website
Control costs by controlling the number of users
Full access to Microsoft support 24/7, 365

You might also enjoy our other articles on Microsoft Office 365

Collaborating in Office 365: What Is Microsoft Teams?

How many times do you get pulled into a lengthy email thread with a group of co-workers? Are your team communications hard to document and scattered among multiple programs? How can your work group more easily collaborate, chat, and share important files and resources? Your solution is Microsoft Teams. Teams is a cloud-based collaboration tool that is part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite of applications. The core capabilities of Microsoft Teams include:

Creating and managing work groups
Communicating through chat/instant messaging
Connecting with audio calling
Launching impromptu or scheduled video meetings
Sharing files and links
Documenting work and resources
Simplifying access to other Office apps

With Teams, work groups within an organization can collaborate on content across different devices (laptops, tablets, and smartphones), and across multiple platforms including Windows and Mac. In addition, with Microsoft Teams, a team can also invite outside partners such as vendors, service providers, and consultants to participate in the collaboration and conversations as well as the sharing of resources. This is a big plus to productivity and project management.

Better Than Slack & Google Hangouts

At its core, Teams is a chat-based workspace that features group and private/instant messaging, with threaded and persistent conversations. Although Teams competes with similar products like Slack and Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams is more robust, is included with Office 365, and connects with other Office 365 applications including Excel, Word, OneNote, Planner, and SharePoint. This integration with other Microsoft Office programs creates a more fluid, seamless portal and experience.

Note: If your organization is currently using Skype for Business for instant messaging, it’s likely you will see a move to Teams as Skype for Business has a sunset date (end of life) in 2020.

Customize with Channels

Teams are made up of channels which can be organized by topic, projects, or departments. Channels are quite flexible as they store meeting history, chat, shared files or resources, and other communications that can be easily searched. In addition, each channel can be customized with tabs for apps such as SharePoint, Planner, OneNote, as well as files and other shared resources. Planner is an easy-to-use Office 365 application to create to-do or action items for members of a workgroup and then track progress of each action for a project or team.

Communicating with a specific channel member or even the entire team is also easy with @ mentions. Fortunately, the Activity tab in Teams makes it simple to catch up on all your unread messages, @mentions, replies, and more. Like other messaging services, Teams communications can also include emojis and GIFs, an essential part of any business communication <grin>.

Video & Voice Meetings

Within a team-based messaging thread, you can easily schedule voice and video meetings or launch a quick impromptu meeting with little effort. Teams meetings can even be scheduled from Microsoft Outlook. Regardless of the method used for scheduling meetings, these are be synced with Outlook to keep you on track. Video meetings can be launched with specific contacts or within a channel and it’s easy to create a recording of the meeting. Microsoft Teams includes a cool artificial intelligence (AI) feature called blur background. With such a mobile and remote workforce, this tool lets you eliminate a cluttered or unprofessional background of a call while still engaging with each participant on the call.

Microsoft Teams Resources

To save time working with Microsoft Teams, grab a handout of Teams keyboard shortcuts at http://thesoftwarepro.com/teams.

How to Reduce Wastage of Office Stationery and Supplies – Some Useful Tips and Tricks!

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” – Benjamin Franklin (One of the Founding Fathers of the United States)

One of the primary concerns of most businesses and organisations is being cost effective and ensuring that the company funds are put to good use. The right way to achieve this is not by reducing procurement but by reducing wastage and misuse of office supplies and stationery, which can actually punch a big hole into the company funds and increase overhead costs in the long run.

The two main areas of office supplies that are generally more prone to get wasted are Stationery and Paper Products. However, the good news is that all one needs is just a little bit of caution and care to curb this wastage. That’s why; starting today, let’s make conservation a habit not just for environmental causes but even in the office as well.

Keep a Check on Office Stationery to Reduce Wastage!

Without anyone to manage and keep an eye on office stationery, their consumption can often go out of hand. Appointing an in-charge for managing office supplies and stationery is a good idea to ensure that they are not being misused.

a) This way it will also help you understand which office supplies are most in-demand and which lie at the bottom as redundant resources, to help you order appropriately the next time.

b) Instead of simply handing over office stationery every time an employee asks for it, keep a track in an office stationery register. With this step, once the numbers are in front of them, employees will automatically get conscious of borrowing office stationery like pens or notepads too often and will try to use them judiciously.

c) As a more frantic measure, you can also assign specific office stationery and their respective quantities for each employee per month based on his or her role. So if everyone knows that they can get only three pens or one marker in a month, they will take care to not lose it.

Reuse and Recycle Paper and Paper Products!

Another highly misused and wasted office supplies are paper. According to the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. Surely, most of us can make do with a little less! While paper is recyclable, don’t you think it’s a better idea to cut down on its wastage at the primary level as even for recycling, the paper needs to be collected, transported and processed, which, in-turn is an additional expense.

a) The first thing to do here is to educate and create awareness amongst employees. You can start a ‘Save Paper – Save Trees’ campaign at your work place, rewarding employees who strictly follow this practice.

b) Use one-sided paper that’s no longer needed to make notes and rough drafts instead of using fresh paper, post-its and notepads every time.

c) You can also use paper once shredded as packaging supplies to protect fragile items while shipping.

d) Save printer paper by encouraging employees to print on both sides whenever possible.

e) Likewise, you can re-use envelopes, packaging supplies and cardboard boxes that your company has received.

Even small measures taken at the right time can lead to big changes. We hope following these simple yet effective tips will help reduce wastage of office supplies in the long run at your workplace!

Benefits of Switching to a Paperless Office

People who run their own business can appreciate the benefits of switching to a paperless environment. In a paperless office, the access of information is usually through storage devices and computers, thereby eliminating the use of paper. Among the many benefits are less trash, more space, more savings, and improved participation in making our world a better place to live in.

1. Less Trash. In a paperless environment, everything is electronic. The amount of paper needed is almost 0% or literally very minimal, but there is no change with how business is being done. Records-keeping is still intact, exchange of information is still on-going. The concept of less trash stems from the fact that since everything is in electronic form, anything no longer needed could be simply deleted. Paperless offices rely on robust tools to ensure that data storage is kept securely and for the longest time possible. For example, the use of online fax service versus the traditional fax machine. Faxed documents are kept as PDF or TIF files and are stored either on the online fax servers or the office computer, and printer only when needed.

2. More Space. Since there will be no need to physically file documents, the space consumed by big filing cabinets can now be freed up or used for something else.

3. More Savings. Typical offices have an on-going budget for paper and ink or toner. Adding to this would be the cost of maintenance for the hardware needed for printing. In a paperless office, all these expense will be considered savings. Going back to the previous example, with online fax service, the business could save on the cost of the additional phone line for fax machine, hardware maintenance, fax paper and toner. Online fax allows the sending and receiving of messages and gives the business an option to print out copies only when needed.

4. Environment Friendly. All around the globe, one of the resources being extremely consumed is paper. We all know that paper comes from trees. And while people could continue to plant trees, one very important thing to note is that it takes a very long time to grow them. Recycling paper is not the only means of caring for our environment. What better way to converse than not using it at all? In a paperless office, all transactions are done electronically which makes paper less needed and can therefore be eliminated.

Discount Office Furniture: Not Inferior Quality Furniture

Inferior is a term that is usually attached to discount furniture because whenever we hear that something is available at a discounted rate, we assume that it is of inferior quality. But this is not always the situation since even low rate furnishing items can come in the best possible quality if they are purchased from a proper place. Contrary to popular belief that discount furniture is a cheap variety of furniture, they are budget furniture. This means that this type of furniture represents excellent value for your money, and even if they do not come in the best quality they are not of inferior quality. So, if you are in need of furnishing items for your office but cannot afford to buy the best quality items, it is better to choose discount office furniture.

There are two reasons why people choose bargain furniture – those who are starting new offices require furnishing items but cannot afford to spend a lot of money and those who want a new look in furniture need these bargains in order to get hold of the correct type of furniture. These office furniture businesses generally sell high quality furniture at reasonable rates and everything depends on your bargaining ability. If you can bargain well you will be able to purchase discount office furniture at low rates.

Hard economic times force even those people who can purchase furnishing items to look for bargains. The best thing about these bargains is that they enable the customers to shop from home through online research. You can study the size, finish, appearance, functionality, quality and comfort of every furnishing item before choosing one. Then there are the deals which are available in the weekend newspapers and furniture store websites. Once you come across the advertisements on these deals, you can go ahead with them since they sell high quality discount office furniture at reasonable rates.

If you do not find the idea of purchasing furnishing items from deals or through other such mediums, it is best to haggle. You do not have to go for a formal bargaining spot to purchase items; instead select some store which does not sell any fixed rate items in order to buy items at low rates. So, if you are good at bargaining you can definitely get hold of a good quality collection of furniture at cheap rates. Moreover, if you want to purchase discount office furniture, it is better not to settle for the big names in the furnishing world since that might not offer you the results that you are in need of. So put aside the furniture retail giants, instead go for the small independent traders, private ads and the auction shows since they are the source to these furnishing items which are sold at cheap rates. Even the discounted furnishing items can do wonders if you manage to select and purchase the impeccable and good quality items available at the cheapest of rates.