May 28, 2020

Data Migration Process: How Agencies Can Successfully Move Data to Modern Systems

In a recent Accenture survey of IT executives, 58 percent of those surveyed experienced 2 to 3 major IT outages over the past decade. Cloud migration can help prevent outages, increase security protections, and cut costs. When it comes to database migration, some IT pros fear data loss. That's why it's important to migrate to a platform that can handle your data storage needs--like Azure. Contact us today to learn how we can help you prevent outages with a tailored cloud migration plan.

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May 27, 2020

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Technology's Impact on Employee Experience: Balancing Overload Versus Enablement

Adopting technology in the workplace is a double-edged sword. It's key to maintaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace and increasing workplace productivity, but it can also compromise connection and lead to isolation. Check out this article for tips on how to use technology to build a better individual employee experience and a more connected company culture. Do you want help improving communication and teamwork in your company? You've come to the right place. Contact us at Bay Area IT Solutions, Inc.to learn more.

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Northrop & Johnson boosts sales and marketing efforts with Dynamics 365

Marketing technology is not something that has been widely adopted in the luxury yacht industry. Yet, targeting this niche demographic requires precision and little room for mistake. Watch as Northrop & Johnson, a luxury yacht company, implemented Dynamics 365 Sales Pro and achieved a 70% increase on their charter sales. Dynamics 365 gave them a real competitive advantage, providing them with a window into the customer the entire way through the sales cycle. Use this testimonial video to demonstrate to your customers how one company easily implemented Sales Pro and was able to strengthen customer relationships, predict buying behaviors, and be much more precise in their marketing activities.

Give Your Sales Team the Winning Edge: Quick Time to Value with Dynamics 365 Sales Professional

Do you struggle with outdated, legacy sales automation solutions that still place data in silos and prevent your sales team from working remotely? You're not alone! Many SMBs believe that new, cutting edge digital solutions are too expensive and out of reach. Fortunately, there is a better way. Modern digital-first solutions like Dynamics 365 Sales Professional empower sellers to work remotely and access customer data like never before possible. It provides unparalleled customer insights and works seamlessly with the rest of Dynamics 365 and Office 365. Use this eBook to illustrate how Sales Professional is designed specifically for SMBs and delivers improved customer experiences, a better sales process, and usable customer data. For those companies without distinct business units, Sales Professional acts as an extended team empowering businesses to deliver superior digital customer experiences.

View: Give Your Sales Team the Winning Edge: Quick Time to Value with Dynamics 365 Sales Professional

The Network in 2020: Faster, Closer, Smarter

It's no secret that more people, more than ever, are more digitally connected. The underlying network needed to support this connectivity must be faster, closer, and smarter, according to Forbes contributor Steve Alexander. "On-demand content, bandwidth-hungry mobile apps, IoT devices, and new cloud-based applications are driving the need for more bandwidth and network capacity," Alexander writes. He reminds us that "fast ethernet" used to be the descriptive phrase for the network edge, and that over time we have quickly increased connectivity times—because users' needs demand it. This is no exception. "Since its inception, the internet has a been a catalyst for service providers to facilitate faster connectivity, an imperative that will increase over time," states Alexander. Read the entire article, "The Network in 2020: Faster, Closer, Smarter" for valuable insight on why network requirements will continue to align with the need for cloud services.

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May 26, 2020

Customer story: Australian National University pioneers the next generation of genomics research by moving to the cloud

Australian National University is consistently ranked as one of the top 20 genomic research institutions. As pioneers of genomic research, they are growing the number of samples they use. As a result, their data and storage needs are growing, too. That's why cloud platforms like Azure are important for their research. With faster analysis and on-demand scaling, researchers can focus more on their projects and less on IT. Contact us today to learn more on how we can help you save time and scale.

Quiz: How Secure Are You

Take this 10-question quiz to find out if your company is safe and secure or at risk to become a cybercrime victim.

View: Quiz: How Secure Are You

Michelin delivers with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service

Leading tire company Michelin put together a team dedicated to engineering a game-changing experience that would allow customers to bypass the in-store line and reclaim their day. Watch this video to see how Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Field Service allows Michelin to make the customer experience remarkable by allowing customization of Michelin's OnSite app.

Customer Story: Clifton Coffee Recap

From the start, leaders at Clifton Coffee Roasters (CCR) knew they wanted to go beyond just roasting coffee. They wanted to empower other coffee companies to succeed. Now they provide technical support, delivery service, and back-of-house training to coffee shops across the UK, in addition to providing all of the products needed to run a coffee company. But it wasn't always that way. In the company's early days, the team had a difficult time coming together, with employees scattered across the UK and no reliable means to connect them. Once they adopted a teamwork solution to improve internal communication, teamwork became easy and the business took off. The rest is history. Want to take cues from CCR's teamwork game? Contact us for help getting started.

MS Azure IaaS TEI Infographic

Curious about the ROI of Microsoft Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)? Have a look at this infographic that shows Forrester's conclusions after six customer interviews and data aggregation for a five-year financial impact. Businesses experienced reduced data center and outsourcing costs, website scale and performance improvements, ease of experimentation through virtualized environments, and developer and testers enhancements. Want to learn more about the potential ROI that could be realized by shifting some or all of your management and operations to Azure? Contact us today.

View: MS Azure IaaS TEI Infographic

May 20, 2020

Creating world-class collaboration in a global team

Teams in today's modern workplace are often multi-office or even multi-continent affairs. As a result, team cohesion can challenge the best managers. In this Forbes article, "Creating world-class collaboration in a global team," learn how Kim DeLine, the COO for Elevate K-12, engages a distributed workforce in her role at the leading live streaming company in the education field. With Microsoft Teams, you can connect across geographical and organization boundaries, run status updates and team building with remote workers via a cloud-based meeting solution, and foster a culture of knowledge sharing. See how important it is to explain the "why" with a multi-cultural office and encourage an understanding of purpose during times of change.

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Seven Signs Your Business Should Move To A New CRM System

"Good CRMs will not make you drool in admiration or write a pretty sonnet, but the bad ones will drive you and your employees crazy." CRM systems are a necessary component of being proactive in managing your business. These seven signs are a great way to assess whether your CRM solution is not just meeting expectations but empowering your organization to focus on putting the customer first. Contact us to learn how you can create connected interactions and improve efficiency for your customers and employees.

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The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Azure SQL Database Managed Instance

According to Forrester, Microsoft Azure SQL Database Managed Instance has the best ROI, with a migration payback in six months or less and a potential 212% ROI over three years. Additionally, Azure's intelligent database offers dynamic scalability that enables your database to transparently respond to rapidly changing requirements, and you pay only for the resources you need, when you need them. Azure works with your on-premises investments so that customers use their same skills when they migrate, using familiar tools and features. All of this, along with easy and free migration tools, makes Azure the best fit option for your cloud needs.

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Leerwerkloket combats unemployment with Dynamics 365 Sales Professional

Watch this video and learn how Leerwerkloket—a Netherlands-based career counseling organization—upgraded to Dynamics 365 Sales Professional, which gave them the ability to turn data into useful insights. Leerwerkloket provides services to those who are unemployed, as well as seeking a career change. They offer personalized advice to all candidates looking for new jobs. A significant reason they chose to upgrade to Sales Pro is that it's a cloud application running in Microsoft's own data centers, which is fully compliant with government standards, such as GDPR. Since the upgrade, Leerwerkloket can now gather relevant and critical data to report back to their government.

May 19, 2020

Cloud migration essentials: A guide to migrating servers and virtual machines

Migrating servers and virtual machines has never been easier. With the right tools and processes, your migration project can be fast and friction free. You can reduce costs immediately and have more resources to drive cloud modernization. With the right tools and people, you can have the modern IT infrastructure you want and need. At Bay Area IT Solutions, Inc., we have an experienced team and the best tools to help you migrate quickly and effectively. Contact us today to learn more.

View: Cloud migration essentials: A guide to migrating servers and virtual machines

Unblocking Workplace Collaboration: 5 Tools and Strategies

Did you know that up to 80% of workers' time is spent on collaborative activities like responding to emails and attending meetings? This guide to promoting a more collaborative workplace culture outlines common communication breakdowns in the modern workplace and provides strategies to help customers communicate and collaborate more effectively.

View: Unblocking Workplace Collaboration: 5 Tools and Strategies

Digital Transformation in the Oil & Gas Industry: Combining Azure Cloud-Based Services

Our third Lizo video shows how utilizing Cosmos DB, SQL Database and Cache for Redis is advantageous for a company managing large volumes of data. The outcome: increased operational efficiencies and improved visibility in predictive maintenance. Watch this video for another quick look at how Azure drives business results!

Containers 101

Containers allow you to run multiple applications on the same operating system kernel, unlock ultimate productivity, and provide a standardized environment for development, QA, and production teams. At Bay Area IT Solutions, Inc., we want you to have the freedom and productive environment your developers need to achieve more. Contact us today to learn how we can modernize your workplace IT infrastructure with tools like Azure.

View: Containers 101

A day in the life - sales with Microsoft Teams

April, a sales rep, is looking to grow her company's Midwest customer base. See how she starts her day finding a lead in Microsoft Teams and then uses Dynamics and Power BI to dig out connections that turn that lead into an opportunity. By 5pm she now has a new resource to amp up more sales opportunities in the region. Check out this infographic to see what deal building looks like with Microsoft Teams!

View: A day in the life - sales with Microsoft Teams

May 18, 2020

Help customers bring teams and resources together with Microsoft technology

Digital teamwork tools are changing the way teams do business: Today, more than 30% of businesses use advanced communication tools in conference rooms. With Teamwork solutions from Microsoft, you can facilitate better communication among your teams by using cloud-based email technology and calendaring services. You can also ensure that your teams are aligned with web conferencing and group chat. And that's just the beginning. Contact us to see how your company can benefit from our enterprise-grade communication technology.

View: Help customers bring teams and resources together with Microsoft technology

May 13, 2020

Why a modern IT infrastructure is the cornerstone of data-driven enterprises

A solid IT platform is paramount for data-driven businesses. IT infrastructure, the foundation upon which datasets run, is key to the most basic and even the most sophisticated analytics capabilities. In this article, you'll read how updating networks, analytics tools, and data management resources, can prepare enterprises for the future of IT. At Bay Area IT Solutions, Inc., your future is important to us. That's why we want to help you adopt the best solutions on the market. Contact us today to learn more.

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Five Benefits And Three Challenges Technology Can Bring To Global Companies

By now, you know that technology brings numerous advances in communication for your teams, but are you familiar with the most specific benefits teamwork technology has to offer? This article asserts that communication technology translates to faster communication, enhanced efficiency, and profit boosts for your employees, all essential components to connecting your teams and resources. Check out this article to learn more.

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According to a recent survey, more than 90% of customers said they would consider taking their business elsewhere rather than work with a company that uses outdated technology. The solution? A single, integrated system that can grow with you. Let us help you assess your current solution and help find the right system for you.

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It's 2020. Do You Know Where Your Digital Future Is?

In most of our homes, we utilize and depend on the cloud in multiple ways every single day—think online banking and shopping, social media, email and doorbell video cameras. "It might be the first time in history that our habits at home have outpaced how we function at work," writes Tyler Bowman in his Forbes article, "It's 2020. Do You Know Where Your Digital Future Is?" Bowman addresses three main lingering concerns in the corporate world, including generational divide. "Millennials are driving a market disruption that many CEOs are grappling to embrace," Bowman adds, however, that this difference does not need to result in irreconcilable work practices and values. His suggestions for embracing the disruption support his main point, which is it's just a matter of time before our cloud utilization at work catches up to our already existing cloud dependency at home. Read this article for interesting perspective on the corporate cloud in 2020 and beyond.

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May 12, 2020

Customer story: Chevron's Azure migration journey

Chevron does business in over 30 countries around the world. With a distributed workforce and data coming from all over, they needed a solution to simplify, modernize, and secure their aging IT infrastructure. Chevron used Azure to convert legacy infrastructure to off-premises and automated their disaster recovery efforts. Watch this video to see how they also dropped infrastructure costs and improved security.

Climatec powered by Microsoft

Since 1975, Climatec has been a leading provider of energy solutions and building technologies. As the company grew, it found it needed a single, all-encompassing solution to connect multiple offices, adapt easily to business processes and support employees out in the field. Climatec chose a Microsoft solution for field service to help it organize and automate business processes while also equipping employees with the data they need to deliver exceptional customer service. Bringing in the right technology to enable employees creates better customer experiences. Let us help you drive intelligent optimization and empower your organization.

Introducing Microsoft Threat Experts

Microsoft Threat Experts is an additional layer of expertise and optics Microsoft customers can utilize in Microsoft 365 to augment security operations.

Customer Story: Clifton Coffee | Bring Teams Together

Before switching to Teamwork solutions from Microsoft, employees at Clifton Coffee Roasters (CCR) would physically print out all documents, fill them out by hand, and then bring them into the office, where they would get scanned and entered into a computer. Sounds tedious, right? Powered by Microsoft, CCR team members communicate better than ever. Now, their team members stay connected from almost anywhere in the world they are individually located. With flexible communication tools like Forms, employees can contribute and work together on shared documents from personal devices. No printing or scanning required. Check out this video to learn how CCR connected their teams and resources with help from Microsoft solutions. And contact us to learn how you can too.

SQL Server and Azure SQL Database GDPR Guidance Paper

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in European law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside of these areas. To meet General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements, Microsoft has implemented technical (tooling) and organizational measures (processes) to ensure that data processing is in accordance with GDPR privacy regulations. The actual path will be different for every organization, but general resources are available in a Service Trust Portal that Microsoft has created for customers to get started. This white paper provides a good overview of GDPR and includes many links to sites with more specific information for associated topics. Contact us if you have questions!

View: SQL Server and Azure SQL Database GDPR Guidance Paper

May 6, 2020

5 Roadblocks Holding Back Your Data-Driven Goals?

"Data offers us so many competitive advantages--time savings, customer insights, increased efficiencies. It helps us better target our customers, personalize our marketing efforts and create new products our customers really want." When companies learn how to fully-utilize data to drive organizational decision-making, that's when the magic happens. In fact, organizations embracing digital transformation generate an average of $100M more income each year. Let us help you get started.

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Why the cloud? Why Microsoft Azure?

Is the cloud secure for my apps? Which apps make sense to run in the cloud? Can I trust my business-critical app to a cloud vendor? You want to head to the cloud, but naturally you have questions. You may also wonder why customers choose Microsoft Azure for their cloud migration. One reason is unparalleled innovation: you can maximize your productivity with fully managed services such as App Service, Azure SQL Database, and global on-demand Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Your focus should be driving your business priorities instead of worrying about running data centers. Want to know the other reasons to choose Azure? Have questions? Bay Area IT Solutions, Inc. is ready to help you!

View: Why the cloud? Why Microsoft Azure?

Develop 'Security Champions' For Successful Enterprise Security Scalability

What steps have you taken to create an internal team of security champions to support your security strategy? The idea is to create "front-line support". @iiamit writes, "These advocates know their businesses better than any of my security engineers could, and they are deeply embedded in their organization's culture. And, as a result, they can provide the best context for security decisions. Our role is to equip them with our services and security expertise."

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Migration to Microsoft Azure: A technical overview

As part of its digital transformation, Canada's Capstone Mining needed a hybrid environment. It started shifting workloads to Azure for better scalability and resilience. But they didn't do it alone; they had help along the way. At Bay Area IT Solutions, Inc., we are industry experts ready to help you transform the way your company does business. If you're in the market for a cloud solution to upgrade your IT infrastructure, contact us today to learn how we can help.

View: Migration to Microsoft Azure: A technical overview

May 5, 2020

Is your company secure?

Microsoft 365 and the intelligent cloud can help you protect, detect and respond to today's modern security landscape. As a fully integrated, end-to-end solution, Microsoft 365 helps you address new risks and opportunities and drive digital transformation to empower everyone from the executive office to first-line workers. Contact us to get started today!

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Crash course in Office 365: How it can help you grow your business

Your customers are probably already taking advantage of Office applications like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. But do they know that Office 365 gives them the capability to access content from any device, or allows them to leverage the power of AI to create more impactful content? Check out this guide for more on how Office 365 can help your customers protect their sensitive data and accomplish more in their workday.

View: Crash course in Office 365: How it can help you grow your business

Top 5 benefits of moving to the cloud now

Migrating your IT infrastructure to the cloud has a ton of benefits. Whether you're looking to improve security and become GDPR compliant, cut your total cost of ownership by 10.25%, or promote teamwork and innovation by integrating AI capabilities, the cloud provides a solution to your IT problems.

View: Top 5 benefits of moving to the cloud now

Redefine service through Connected Field Service

Dynamics 365 for Field Service enables businesses to move from reactive to proactive field service by bringing together IoT and AI with Field Service. It leverages advanced analytics, machine learning and the Internet of Things to move organizations from a costly break-fix model to a never-fail service model. Redefine service with Dynamics 365 and enhance your customers' experiences. Contact us today to get started!

View: Redefine service through Connected Field Service

Create a connected guest experience with Microsoft technology

Employees who work with outside companies save time and money. With Teamwork solutions from Microsoft, they can easily share workspace, which results in $759,493 saved over three years. That's huge! Now, you can deliver a cost-effective solution that will allow you to easily work with teams outside of your company. And, you can secure and preserve company data when sharing information with external users. Check out this infographic--which shows industry trends, pain points, and proof points--to learn more.

View: Create a connected guest experience with Microsoft technology

May 4, 2020

Digital Transformation in the Oil & Gas Industry: Collect and Monitor Sensor Data

At oil and gas facilities, data from sensors and cameras must be collected, analyzed and visualized economically in order to keep operations running smoothly. Watch this Lizo video to see how the Power BI application allows remote decision-making—significantly reducing overhead cost and achieving operational efficiency.