Tech Tips for Working Remotely During Covid-19

Article by Arif Noori | March 16, 2020

With COVID-19 spreading rapidly around the globe, many businesses are having to rapidly shift to working from home as much as possible. Due to the abruptness of the transition, some organizations have been ill-prepared — especially the ones that don’t already have a work from home policy. We’ve compiled this list of free tools that you can use to help you work independently and collaboratively with your team. Some of these free tools are available for non-profits and educational institutions but these tips may be of use for any industry. Every organization is different, so you’ll have to choose according to how your office works best.

Microsoft Tips for Office

Our Commitment to Customers During COVID-19

Article by Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Office 365 | March 5, 2020

With COVID-19 continuing to impact people and countries around the world, teams everywhere are moving to remote work. Earlier this week, I posted a letter from Lily Zheng, our colleague in Shanghai, detailing her team’s experience using Microsoft Teams to work from home during the outbreak. Lily’s team is one of many. Here at Microsoft in the Puget Sound, we’re encouraging our teams to work from home as much as possible, as are many organizations in this region. And we expect this trend to continue across the world. At Microsoft, our top priority is the health and safety of employees, customers, partners, and communities. By making Teams available to as many people as possible, we aim to support public health and safety by keeping teams connected while they work apart.

Making Teams available for everyone

Teams is a part of Office 365. If your organization is licensed for Office 365, you already have it. But we want to make sure everyone has access to it during this time. Here are some simple ways to get Teams right away.

Individuals

If you want to get started with Teams, we can get you up and running right away.

• If you have an email address through work or school, sign in using this link. We’ll get you into Teams in no time.
• If you’re using an email address like Gmail or Outlook, you can sign up for the freemium version of Teams by following this link.

IT professionals

The self-service links above work great for individuals, but if you’re an IT professional who wants to roll out Teams centrally, here’s what to do.

• If you work for a business that isn’t currently licensed for Teams, we’ve got you covered with a free Office 365 E1 offer for six months. Contact your Microsoft partner or sales representative to get started today. (Note: the same offer is available in the Government Cloud, but not available in GCC High and the Department of Defense.)
• If you work in education and want to set up teachers, students, and administrators on Teams, use Office 365 A1. This free version of Office 365 is available to all educational institutions. Sign up by following this link.

Shortcut of the Week

Google COVID-19 site and “coronavirus tips” shortcut to Assistant offer latest updates

Article posted March 24, 2020 by mobilescout.com

Coronavirus pandemic is accelerating and so is the fear among the people and during this period it is very necessary to enlighten ourselves with only the right information. In some countries, this virus has taken thousands of lives and shut down the businesses and industries, ultimately harming the economy. Health authorities have been updating their respective resources so that we could get accurate information and save ourselves from this deadliest disease.

Several tech companies are participating too so to build easily-accessible platforms from where you could get the necessary details, including symptoms, preventions, and news as well. Microsoft Bing, Google Search, and many others have been building ways to keep us updated and aware. Google recently launched a new site on coronavirus to feed us all the information related to the pandemic. The site offers tabs, including Overview, Symptoms, Prevention, and Treatments. On the right side, you would find the Help & Information with several links to WHO and CDC. On the left, you would see links to Health information, Data & Insights, basically, everything that you should be aware of during the pandemic.

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