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Trying to keep you up to date on the latest trends and issues that face us please keep in mind, I don't want to waste your time. Articles will contain generally less than 250 words. Please have a look and give me your feedback. If you want to see the Newsletter archives, there are 5-years available on our Newsletter page., Have a look and by all means, forward to a friend. Thanks. Questions? Send me an email!

Microsoft Enterprise E5

Although in its infancy, Microsoft is in the telephone business. A new subscription level is available from Microsoft. It is the Enterprise E5. It includes everything you already receive with your E3 subscription, but also PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) services like existing phone number integration, Cloud PBX (Private Branch Exchange) telephone features, integration with Skype for Business services, conversation tracking in Microsoft Outlook, voice recording management, administration through the online interface of Microsoft Office 365, online meetings, broadcast meetings, conference calling and instant messaging.  All with world-wide accessibility.

Microsoft says:, "E5 delivers the most comprehensive, most secure Office 365 plan for business ever. E5 customers receive collaboration tools such as Cloud PBX and PSTN conferencing and personal and organizational analytics with Delve Analytics and Power BI, all while getting unprecedented control over their data with Access Control and Advanced Threat Protection".

Although the installation and configuration is not intuitive and a bit cumbersome and some of the features are only configurable using PowerShell (Microsoft’s command-line scripting language), the end result is a communications tool that is part of your Windows and Office environment. At TRI, we just completed our transition. It is still new, so stay tuned for more details as we begin to take advantage of some of the features.

Quip

I had not heard of Quip until I saw that Salesforce acquired the start-up for $582 million dollars. Quip is a web based collaboration tool created by Bret Taylor who has a past with Google and Facebook.  Quip is a Google Wave like tool. Google Wave was a real-time multi-media, multi-user, multi-language document creation and collaboration tool. It was wild and had great potential. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t get it to work. It was short lived. 

Quip performs many of the same functions, is multi-media (without real-time voice and video) and multi-user. But it is much simpler to set up and to use.  Quip combines documents and messages into a single thread. It allows detailed team collaboration using mobile devices. A document can be a word like document or a spreadsheet like document. 

It is hard to imagine how people in different locations can collaborate real-time, some using a computer, some a tablet and some a smartphone. But if you think about a project, contract, forecast or business plan and meet with people allowing members of your team to be at home, at the office or in the field and they are looking at the same information, they can communicate along the side bar and everyone can see who just “spoke”, they can make changes to the document and everyone can see the changes and who made them. In order for Quip to work, you need to invite a team (1 or more) of people. At first glance, it might be a tool you can harness for better collaboration.

The big questions are 1) What will Salesforce do with Quip?  Will they let it grow as an independent product or will they integrate its features with Salesforce CRM diluting its value and what will Microsoft introduce to counter. Microsoft has not introduced a true collaborative tool that is easy to use.

Spreadsheets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAvf4-2HD4o

Pokéman Go

Since I didn’t know what all the hoopla was over this Pokémon Go phenomena, I suspected others might share my lack of real-world understanding. I  noticed the intense connection some children have with this game when my granddaughter in the back seat of my car was glued to the screen while I was driving, she started to instruct me on when to slow down and when to stop. I was of course clueless. You see, we needed to make PokéStops.  Really? PokéStops? Well yes. You see, Pokémon Go is tied into the GPS of the device. As you move through your real world, walking or driving, your Avatar moves through the game's world. Real buildings and places are displayed on the Pokémon map. Police stations, historic landmarks and schools are often a great place to stop.

As you travel, it is your mission to pick up items (like potions and Poké Balls) and seek out wild Pokémon species. You can also go to Pokémon Gyms which are like arena’s where you can do battle.  With practice, you can earn experience points and eventually fighting in a Pokémon Gym, joining a team (red, blue or yellow) and defeating an opponent – a player who already controls that Gym.  It is a Free Game, but does allow for in-App purchase should you need Poké Balls. Nintendo stock has soared as a result.

The game is played by as many as 4 million with 10% of those coming from the United States with Brazil, India, Italy and Turkey close behind. Another feature of the phenomena is the time on-line with the game. A typical Instagram user will stay connected for about 25 minutes. A Pokémon user stays connected (called on App Engagement) for nearly 45 minutes. In a matter of weeks, Pokémon Go active users has grown to near Twitter numbers.

I hope this helps. Keep an eye out for purchases of Poké Balls hitting your credit cards.