Business.com named Microsoft Teams the best video conferencing service in 2020: “What truly makes this service appealing is its integration with other Microsoft Office applications. If you already use Word, Excel and Outlook, integrating Teams into your workflow is a simple process. Considering everything you get access to, this is one of the most affordable video conferencing services we found in our research.” Businesses don’t need a chat feature or other stand-alone services—they need to be able to perform their tasks while having access to their files—they need integration. This is what Teams provides, and at an affordable price.

View this video and see how integration and affordability enabled the education department in New South Wales to put a device in every pair of hands.

At Microsoft’s annual Build developer conference, there were several updates announced for Microsoft Teams. According to veteran participant and Forbes contributor Patrick Moorhead, the integration of Teams with Microsoft Power Platform “was the biggest story out of the conference this year, as it turns Teams into essentially a full-blown platform. With the lack of developers globally, I think this combination could enable some very powerful capabilities.”

Power BI is also getting further integrated into Teams, notes Moorhead. Users will be able to import and share reports, or merely charts from reports, from the new ‘Share to Teams’ button in the Power BI portal. “Additionally, when a chart is shared to a Teams conversation it will now include a rich thumbnail preview, and an adaptive card that Microsoft says will enable users to take action on said chart,” writes Moorhead.

There’s lots more to take note of for the improvements around Microsoft Teams and its far-reaching capabilities. Read Moorhead’s entire article, “Spotlight on ‘Teams as a Platform’ at Virtual Microsoft Build 2020” for an overview of these developments.

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Greater security at lower cost with the expertise and power of Microsoft security solutions. Learn more about simplifying and fortifying with Microsoft security.

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Windows Virtual Desktop is the only cloud-based service that delivers a multi-user Windows 10 experience, optimized for Office 365 ProPlus—which means you can deliver a virtual desktop experience and remote apps to any device with cost advantages previously only possible with server-based virtualization. Here’s all you need to know about WVD.

Kennametal has invested heavily in Microsoft cloud technologies as part of its digital transformation journey to reduce costs, increase productivity, and empower workers to deliver superior results for their customers. In this video, see how they utilize Microsoft Azure cloud platform and services to Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications to Microsoft 365 productivity, security, and mobility tools. Kennametal believes that Microsoft resources will help the company fulfill its business promises.

With a massive shift from working in-office to working remotely, Microsoft made updates to make it effortless for users to work with Windows Virtual Desktop. Learn what steps Brad Anderson, Vice President for Microsoft 365, and his team took to make the program easier for customers to use.

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If you’re reading this, then chances are that getting easy access to clean, running water isn’t an issue for you. But for around 43 percent of the world’s total population, this simply is not the case. For them, obtaining the drinkable water they need to sustain their families requires hard work and commitment.

To make matters even more critical, most of them live in rural areas in which farming is their main source of income. This means that any available water must be carefully distributed between their crops and family, an exhausting situation that can take all day just to keep a small patch of land in farmable condition.

Such is the case for Monica, a Kenyan farmer who every day must assume the roles of mother of four, farmer, merchant, and housekeeper just to make ends meet. In this video, you’ll learn how she managed her dwindling water supply to keep her farm yielding, family fed, and trade at the local market—a situation that was soon to improve dramatically thanks to modern technology.

How do you create brand loyalty? In other words, how do you make customers trust your business based on objective reasons that go beyond just brand recognition? To be fair, there is no single answer to this question, but if we’ve learned anything from the digital age, it’s that giving your customers unwavering support and optimizing your products based on their feedback can go a long way to ensuring a business’ survival.

So how are today’s leading enterprises gathering data to obtain accurate insights into their customers to create new products and services? And, more importantly, how can your organization learn from their success to disrupt the market and become a top player in the industry?

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View: Expand your service portfolio by leveraging real-time customer data. Learn more about Azure IoT.