Erwin Bierens

Knowledge is Power

Etiquette in Microsoft Teams: Best Practices for Virtual Communication

2023-05-05 3 min read Microsoft Teams

While the popularity of remote work and virtual communication is still increasing (Microsoft Teams is having 280 million active users), it’s important to understand the proper etiquette for using Microsoft Teams or any other virtual meeting. Whether you’re participating in an online meeting, sending a direct chat message, or posting in a team channel, following these best practices can help you communicate effectively and more professionally.

Be punctual for virtual meetings. Just as you would arrive on time for an in-person meeting, make sure you are ready to join the virtual meeting on time. Log in a few minutes early to ensure your equipment is working properly and to allow time for any technical difficulties. Nothing so frustrating as “do you hear me?” Or “wait my headset is empty”.

TIP: set your default setting for meeting to 50 or 55 minutes instead of the full hour. This will give you some proper time to get prepared for the next meeting.

Short meetings

Continue reading

Microsoft Loop: A new interactive app in Microsoft 365

2023-04-03 3 min read Microsoft Loop

Microsoft has introduced Microsoft Loop Link, an interactive app that enables collaborative work on task lists, tables, and notes. Loop Components can be used in chats, Teams, emails, or documents, facilitating joint work across various Microsoft 365 apps. The app was announced during the 2021 Microsoft Ignite event and is now being introduced as Preview in Microsoft 365.

While Microsoft 365 already allows document collaboration, Microsoft Teams and OneNote sharing, Microsoft Loop addresses the issue of task tracking across different apps. Through Loop Components, users can conveniently create and share tasks across Microsoft 365 apps, including Outlook, OneNote, and Teams.

In this blog post, i want to show you arround in Microsoft Loop and howyou can use it in your daily work.

Continue reading

Anywhere365 - Troubleshooting your SharePoint application

2023-03-30 3 min read Anywhere365 Sharepoint

If you work a lot with Anywhere365 you are familiar with the core setup and how configurations are being handled (by caching), so if you clear the caching while rebooting the UCC’s and all kind of strange error’s show up (i.e. new agents not visible, IVR changes not showing) there are a couple of items that can be your nightmare:

  • App Secret
  • Permissions on Anywhere365 SharePoint site
  • SharePoint global Settings

I’d like to take you through how I would approach this.

Continue reading

Microsoft Teams Client Redesign: Improved Performance and Efficiency.

2023-03-30 5 min read Microsoft Teams

After testing for some months with the public preview of the new Microsoft Teams client it’s finally announced (march 27, 2023) for public preview (FYI, at least for Windows only right now).

So, what’s new? The most obvious is a redesign, but there’s a lot more going on underneath the hood. Teams has been rebuilt using different coding languages that have made the app much more efficient. Microsoft says that the new Teams app is loading 2X faster, enables you to join meetings 2X faster and is using 50% less memory.

These are some of their findings on new Teams speed and performance improvements.

  • Install app up to 3X faster
  • Launch app up to 2X faster
  • Join meetings up to 2X faster
  • Switch chats/channels up to 1.7X faster
  • Consume up to 50% less memory
  • Consume up to 70% less disk space

The new teams client

Going beyond the core technology upgrade Microsoft also invested heavily on performance, stability, ease-of-use, and greater flexibility. Below a summup of these investments:

  • Rearchitected video rendering pipeline
  • Large scale meetings
  • Multi-Account / Multi-Tenant
  • Streamline App Installation (MSIX)
  • Harden Security
  • Get what you need (Partial Data)
  • Moving from Polling to push notifications
  • Optimize Memory
  • Expand Performance infrastructure and tooling
  • Embrace Open Source
  • Accessibility
Continue reading

Microsoft Teams Busy on Busy end user setting

2023-03-17 2 min read Microsoft Teams

Managing incoming calls is an essential part of effective communication in today’s fast-paced business world. Microsoft Teams provides users with the ability to manage how incoming calls are routed when they are busy in an existing call or meeting. This feature is designed to help users stay connected and productive, even when they are engaged in other activities.

To manage incoming calls in Microsoft Teams, users can navigate to their Calls settings and choose from a range of options. These options include allowing calls to come through, playing a busy signal, or redirecting the call based on the user’s unanswered call routing preference.

Busy on Busy settings

Continue reading

Review: Logitech Zone True Wireless Earbuds

2023-03-01 4 min read Review

Anyone who spends a large part of the day video conferencing knows what it’s like: headset head. Unpleasant, but a decent headset is still the best tool for good sound quality. The built-in microphone on a webcam just doesn’t compare, not to mention the annoyance of feedback caused by poorly placed speakers on your desk or loudly colleagues.

Logitech Zone Buds

Logitech promises with the Zone True Wireless Earbuds a set of in-ear headphones that delivers immersive experiences that help you sound clear, stay connected and confident. The company has done two years of research and development for this. By using three microphones per earbud (6 in total), voice sounds are separated from ambient noise (advanced beamforming). One of these microphones is inward-facing and uses the recorded vibrations (bone conduction) to isolate the speech signal even better.

After testing a week with the Logitech Zone True Wireless earbuds this is my experience.

Continue reading

Your account is blocked when signing in as guest in Microsoft Teams

2023-03-01 2 min read Microsoft Teams Azure Active Directory

If you’re running into trouble trying to sign in a guest user to your Microsoft Teams team, you’re not the only one.

Today, i encountered an error that left me scratching my head. After some investigation, we were able to identify the problem and resolve it. In this blog post, I’ll share my experience and show you how i went about troubleshooting the issue. Specifically, I’ll walk you through the steps i took when a previously added guest user was unable to sign in, receiving an error message each time.

Your account is blocked

So if you’re looking for some tips on how to troubleshoot guest user sign-in issues in Teams, please keep reading!

Error message: Your account is blocked

Continue reading
Older posts