Our Microsoft 365 support services can be the right choice for your enterprise to:
· Access to expertise. Even with a well-trained IT team of your own, the odds are that it may not have a dedicated expert who specializes in support and administration of the Microsoft 365 environment.
· Be cost-effective. You don’t need to hire dedicated professionals, with our support services you can access qualified expertise as you need them.
· Improved efficiency of an IT team. While your team may have the capability for handling daily maintenance of your Microsoft 365 environment, do they have the capacity? Using our support services can free up your in-house IT team to be better equipped to focus on supporting the core business activities.
What do we get out of doing support?
One of the focuses when we add a new consultant to the Support team, is that they are "people" person first and foremost, with great interpersonal skills - because for us, it's all about the genuine, personal connection. The explosive use of Teams over the past twelve months has been great, as so many our clients are now using video calls and we get to "meet" the people we've been emailing or phoning, sometimes for a long time. We like to make our clients feel they're involved in a one-on-one conversation, not just another ticket in the queue. After all most of us contact a service desk ourselves from time to time, and we know how we would like to be treated.
Our support services have pride-of-place at Sharing Minds, because once a project is delivered, support step in and manage the on-going service health and relationships. Our success in providing top-flight support has been a driver in making our clients' staff advocates for further enhancements as their organisational needs morph over time.
Our day to day activities of supporting our customers also has the added advantage of stretching us technically. While we excellent at most of Microsoft 365, and especially SharePoint or Dynamics, even the last two products have features and functionality that we don't work with on a regular basis. Those questions from left-field which have us scratching our heads and searching like crazy as we look for the most current blog or TechNet article on the impact of Sensitivity Labels in Teams - well you get my drift.
Work from home? Yes, work from home. While it's been the go-to over the past 12 months with COVID-19 (and even more recently as the past week for much of Australia), because we are primarily remote support to our local, interstate and national clients we were able to enjoy the flexibility of WFH and support them as they do the same. Sure we get to enjoy our shiny, new, office - but having the flexibility to run a script from home of an evening, or to flex time to accommodate a family crisis is a big bonus.
Rob Bayly is Sharing Minds Support Lead. With over 15 years’ experience in IT development, support and management of databases, intra/internet, business systems and e-commerce, Rob’s wide range of skills, knowledge and outstanding customer service are just a few of the reasons he’s greatly valued by our clients.
Commonly asked questions in Support
What's the difference between a folder and a library?
There is often some confusion by users of SharePoint regarding "what's a folder" or "what's a library". Both are design elements to help organise your files - and it comes down to basic function: You can have folders in a library, but not the other way round. Think of libraries as the filing cabinets, and folders as the inserts holding your invoices, contracts etc. Each library can be used to store multiple document types (i.e. Invoices or contracts), or just the one. If necessary you can set specific permissions on libraries.
OK, then why then why use metadata instead of folders?
- Folders are great visual sorting aids, but they get messy once you get past 2 or 3 levels of nesting (think "where is that folder Joan created?")
- Setting specific permissions on nested folders is a security nightmare.
- You can't easily search on folder names either.
- While using metadata (or tags like document type or category) on documents may appear messy, that is everything in the one bucket or level, you can use the metadata to search, filter or group.
- With folders, you get a default view of the current folder level, or the list of document in the folder.
- Using metadata, you can create an almost unlimited number of views by whatever properties you have setup (i.e. documents by date, by customer, by project, etc.)
- Change - it's difficult to change a complex folder structure, but it's easier to change metadata.
So what next?
Getting the right support is critical for making the most of your Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure environment, with a premium Provider who delivers meaningful value. Finding the balance between using your in-house resources vs. bringing in specialist support can be challenging to navigate. So, to make it easy, we’ve streamlined our support packages to fit different usage levels:
» 1-500 users (small to medium enterprise)
» 501+ users (large enterprise)
At Sharing Minds, we understand that different organisations require different levels of support, so that’s why each of our packages include tailored support hours for your needs.
Managed support services help by simplifying IT operations and improving the productivity of your environment. If you’d like to stay focused on growing your business, why not let us take care of your IT support needs.
Written by Rob Bayly
Practice Lead – Managed Support Services
Rob is currently the Practice Lead for our Support Services in Sharing Minds and has 15 years’ experience in IT development, support and management of databases, intra/internet, business systems and e-commerce, Rob’s wide range of skills, knowledge and outstanding customer service are just a few of the reasons he’s greatly valued by our clients, and a proud member of our top-class team. Rob enjoys working with clients to develop custom UI components and complementary CSS for their sites.