Managing Microsoft 365 can be challenging for mid-market businesses, especially when it comes to security, compliance, and data protection. Without a clear governance strategy, organizations risk inefficiencies, unauthorized access, and compliance violations.

This guide provides practical insights and best practices to help mid-market companies take control of their Microsoft 365 environment. Learn how Thrive can help your business manage access, enforce policies, and safeguard sensitive data while ensuring compliance with industry regulations. Download now to strengthen your Microsoft 365 governance strategy.

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Understanding Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is a cutting-edge artificial intelligence tool designed to assist users in navigating complex data landscapes, generating insights, and automating tasks. Integrating with Microsoft’s suite of products offers a seamless experience in data analysis, content creation, and more. However, like any AI system, Microsoft Copilot’s performance is directly linked to the data it processes. This highlights the necessity of proper data organization.

The Pillar of Accuracy: Data Organization

Data organization involves structuring and managing data to be efficiently accessed, analyzed, and used by software and humans. Here’s why it plays a pivotal role in achieving accurate results from Microsoft Copilot:

Enhances Data Quality

Well-organized data improves the quality of the information being processed. By ensuring that data is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date, Copilot can generate more reliable outputs. This is particularly crucial for businesses relying on data-driven decisions.

Facilitates Data Accessibility

Data organization makes it easier for tools like Copilot to access necessary data promptly. A well-structured dataset allows the AI to parse through information efficiently, leading to quicker and more accurate results.

Reduces Data Complexity

Organizing data helps simplify complex datasets, making them more manageable for AI tools. Copilot can more easily identify patterns and insights by categorizing and cleaning data, enhancing its analytical capabilities.

Supports Data Integration

Organization is key to integration in an environment where data comes from multiple sources. Properly organized data can be easily merged, allowing Copilot to provide comprehensive insights by analyzing diverse data points.

Strategies for Effective Data Organization

To leverage the full potential of Microsoft Copilot, here are some strategies for effective data organization:

1. Standardize Data Entry: Implement consistent formats and conventions for data entry to maintain uniformity across datasets.

2. Implement Data Cleaning: Regularly clean your data to remove duplicates, correct errors, and update outdated information.

3. Utilize Metadata: Use metadata to provide context to your data, making it easier for Copilot to understand and process it accurately.

4. Adopt Data Categorization: Categorize data logically, grouping similar types of data together, to enhance accessibility and analysis.

5. Ensure Data Security: Protect sensitive data through encryption and access controls to prevent unauthorized access.

6. Continuous Evaluation: Regularly assess your data organization practices and adjust as needed to accommodate new data types or business requirements.

The organization of data is not just a prerequisite but a catalyst for maximizing the accuracy and effectiveness of AI tools like Microsoft Copilot. By investing time and resources into proper data organization, businesses and individuals can significantly enhance the reliability of the insights generated, leading to more informed decisions and improved productivity. Remember, the journey towards leveraging AI effectively starts with the foundational step of organizing your data efficiently. Learn more about Thrive’s Microsoft 365 Solutions here.

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DOWNLOAD our industry brief today!

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Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are prime targets for cybercriminals. An SMM has more digital assets to target than individual consumers, but often less security than larger companies.

In addition, manufacturers rely heavily on technology and data which drive the increased need for productivity, efficiency and Cybersecurity.

DOWNLOAD our industry brief today!

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New and innovative technologies have taken the finance world by storm, aiming to improve financial services, secure data from multiple endpoints and enhance customer experiences – but is the financial industry ready to embrace it?

Financial services companies have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to technology.

DOWNLOAD our industry brief today!

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Microsoft 365 Security Monitoring

Security monitoring and alerts are not inherently a part of Microsoft’s cloud-based collaboration suite. Things like suspicious logins or multiple login attempts, permissions changes, or changes to user settings are logged, but not analyzed. Thrive’s intelligent security software monitors these logs and flags suspicious activity for further review. Depending on the type of event and level of severity, Thrive either quickly blocks the hacking attempt or reaches out to your internal team for further action.

Thrive monitors approximately twenty crucial logs for suspicious activity. Here are some of the top areas of concern.

Suspicious Remote Logins

With a global workforce working remotely, it can be more difficult than ever to identify when a login looks suspicious. While a large number of hacking attempts originate in countries like Bulgaria, Pakistan, and Russia, true workers living in those areas still need daily access. Using geofencing and IP identification, Thrive’s intelligent monitoring software can better pinpoint and block true fraudulent login attempts.

Permissions Changes

Any user with administrative rights can grant or restrict the administrative rights of others, as well as make changes to security settings protecting your organization’s data. When any user is granted administrative permission rights, Thrive’s team is automatically notified. Unless previously notified of the change, our team of cybersecurity experts reaches out to your identified point of contact to confirm whether the change was genuine or malicious.

Changes to User Security Settings

Similar to administrative rights changes, individual user settings are monitored for changes.

A hacker who has already successfully infiltrated your system can add or remove MFA to further block the real user from regaining access and establish themselves as the true account holder. Once the real user is locked out of their account, the attacker is then free to steal as much data and cause as much damage as they can. With Thrive’s security monitoring, actions like these are automatically flagged for more serious review so the account can be quickly shut down.

Multiple Password Resets or Multiple Login Attempts

Brute force attacks are among the most common forms of infiltration, as they are extremely simple and reliable. Relying on users having weak passwords, a program goes to work guessing a user’s password until it eventually cracks it, if the password is simple enough. Oftentimes this software is ‘smart’ enough to fly under the radar and avoid flag-raising account lockouts. Guessing just the right number of times every day, however, typically goes undetected. Thrive monitors for suspiciously high numbers of unsuccessful login attempts to block hackers from ever gaining access.

Targeted Event Monitoring

If you subscribe to Microsoft’s collaboration tools, contact us to talk about expanding your security coverage and improving your cybersecurity posture today.

The post Security Monitoring Now Offered with Thrive’s Managed Microsoft 365 Services appeared first on Thrive.

Microsoft Subscription Model Updates

Microsoft is now offering three subscription models under NCE- monthly, annual, and three-year terms. The details of the three-year plans have yet to be released, but what we do have are the details of the monthly and one-year plans, as described below.

Price Increase

Subscribers to monthly plans who did not opt into a yearly plan prior to March 1st will see a several dollar per-seat price hike on their next invoices. Those who committed to  annual subscriptions prior to March 1st won’t notice any difference in their bill for the next 12 months. 

Monthly costs for the six Modern Workspace plans will change as follows:

Office 365 E1: $8 $10

Office 365 E3: $20 $23

Office 365 E5: $35 $38

Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $5 $6

Microsoft 365 Business Premium: $20 $22

Microsoft 365 E3: $32 $36

Plan and Seat Downgrades

Under the CSP model, yearly commitment users had the ability to downgrade seat plans and even reduce the number of seats they held on a month-to-month basis. Under the NCE plan, yearly or three-year committed seats are not eligible for downgrades or reductions. The ability to freely remove seats and downgrade subscriptions during the plan period is still an option available under a monthly plan, but it comes at a 20% premium.

What Do I Do Next?

If you missed the window of opportunity to lock in your current pricing, don’t panic. While there is no way to reinstate the lower pricing your organization enjoyed previous to this month’s price hike, you do have time before your plan renewal period (or before July 1st, whichever is sooner) to strategize and decide what’s best for your business. If your organization has a relatively stable number of users throughout the year, it might be best to choose a plan(s) for those seats and commit to a yearly contract through the NCE – that way, you will be protected in the event of any future increases or plan changes that happen throughout the year. If your organization has a seasonal influx of workers, it may make sense to keep a portion of your seats on a monthly plan – while the flexibility associated comes at a premium, it wouldn’t make sense to pay for those seats for an entire year when they’re only utilized for a few months. Here are the key dates to keep in mind as Microsoft moves all users to NCE plans:

March 10th: All new subscriptions must be NCE Monthly, Annual, or Three-Year Terms

June 30th: Last day to renew CSP subscriptions for a maximum of 12 months

July 1st: All renewals of existing subscriptions must be done with an NCE plan. 

Your Trusted Microsoft CSP

Thrive knows that budgets are tight, but access to Microsoft’s software and services is vital to the success of your company. Thrive’s team of experts is here to help you navigate these plan changes and price increases to choose the combination of subscriptions that works best for you. Contact us today. 

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The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows. click “OK’ to restart the computer. and then restart the installation

The work around for the boot issue is a quick registry edit: While at the above screen don’t click okay – instead hit Shift+F10, type registry.exe in the command box that comes up and change the value of HKLM/SYSTEM/Setup/Status/ChildCompletion/setup.exe to 3 then reboot. However, we wouldn’t want to do that with every single templated machine that we deploy.

The problem comes down to a race condition of the specialize phase during sysprep and the way Cloudbase-Init was installed on this template. When installing CBI its common to not use the option at the end of the installer to immediately perform a sysprep operation but that skips some of the logic that it does. To work around that we need to edit the Unattend.xml file as well as change the cloudbase-init service.

1. After the Cloudbase-init installation is complete, run the following in an elevated command command prompt or use services.msc to disable automatic startup of the Windows service

1. 1.    sc config cloudbase-init start= disabled
2. Edit the unattend.xml in C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\ file to enable automatic startup mode of the cloudbase-init Windows service. This command _must_ be set as <Order>1</Order> and the existing unattended cloudbase-init node set to <Order>2</Order> so that the re-enable command runs prior to the unattended instance of cloudbase-init, which requires a reboot.

<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action=”add”>

<Order>1</Order>

<Path>sc config cloudbase-init start= auto</Path>

<Description>Re-enable auto start of cloudbase-init</Description>

<WillReboot>Never</WillReboot>

</RunSynchronousCommand>

1. Perform any remaining customization steps and application installs you need to do. For example we change the cloudbase-init config files to run particular plugins
2. Assuming you use the default install directories then create a batch file in C:\Program Files \Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf with the following”

1. 1. Cd C:\Program Files \Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf
   2. Ipconfig /release
   3. c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /mode:vm /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml

1. 1. Now is a good time to snapshot your VM
   2. Launch an admin command prompt. Navigate to ‘C:\Program Files \Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf’ and execute the batch file to sysprep and shutdown your template
2. Clone this VM and convert to a template or ingest it to whatever tool you’re using. That will leave you with the base VM you can quickly apply Windows patches to in the future and just run the batch script to sysprep next time without having to rearm it.

Note: If you are using dissimilar hardware between where you built the template and when its eventually deployed you may also need to remove the following from the Unattend.xml file <PersistAllDeviceInstalls>true</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>

Here is an example modified unattend.xml

We hope this helps you in your journey to automating the cloud!

Reference Links:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/153f59d4-383c-4008-8f0e-3977dc3b14e5/sysprep-windows-could-not-parse-or-process-unattend-answer-file-for-pass-specialize?forum=win10itprosetup
https://bugs.launchpad.net/cloudbase-init/+bug/1407842 specifically the post from Curt Moore (jcmoore) on 2015-03-08
https://ask.cloudbase.it/question/693/reboot-loop-when-booting-a-glance-windows-image-with-cloud-init/

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This post will cover triggering a flow directly from a SharePoint list or library, for selected items. This can be done using the default OOB Power Automate integration, or by adding custom JSON formatting to create buttons for specific items. I will cover both methods below:

First things first, create a flow with one of the following triggers:

For libraries:

For lists:

Pass in the following trigger parameters:

• Site Address
• List or Library Name

Using the OOB integration:

The list or library you entered in the flow trigger will automatically be displayed in the ribbon. To run it, do the following:

• Select an item from the list or library.
• In the ribbon, click the 3 dots (…).
• Hover over Automate.
• Select the flow name from the menu.
• Select Run flow.
• See screenshots below.

While the OOB method certainly gets the job done and is quicker to set up, it has its inconveniences and limitations. For instance, the number of steps or clicks it takes to run the flow can be a bit much for some users. Understandably so. Selecting an item, then selecting a button from the ribbon menu, then hovering over another button just to be able to select another button that appears, then followed up by one more button to select to run the flow. These days, the less screen navigating, and button clicks the users need to do, the better. That is where the next method has its benefits.

JSON Column Formatting:

This method allows columns to be formatted as a button associated with a specific item. The button will display within the item fields like the rest of the metadata and will open the panel with the Run flow button. Minimizing the amount of clicks a user needs to run the flow.

This method also allows the button to be styled as a link or any way you prefer. Using the JSON formatter. Another neat feature of this method is that you can use conditional formatting based off other columns. In the example below (see screenshot below), the button to run the flow is only visible for items that have an Assigned To. This makes sense for approval workflows. Not allowing approval workflows to be triggered if there is no assigned approver.

To access column formatting, do the following:

• Click on the dropdown of the column you want to format.
• Hover over Column settings.
• Select Format this column.
• See screenshot below.

To add custom JSON, do the following:

• Select Advanced mode.
• Paste in the code.
• Select Save.
• See screenshots below.

In my example above, to get the light-blue button with white text and have it show only on items when the Assigned To column is not empty, use the following code:

{
“$schema”: “https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json“,
“elmType“: “span”,
 “customRowAction”: {
“action”: “executeFlow”,
“actionParams”: “{\”id\”: \”546e42c3-23fc-41fa-950f-6f7331e7edce\”}”
},
“attributes”: {
“class”: “ms-fontColor-themePrimary ms-fontColor-themeDarker–hover”
},
“style”: {
 “border”: “none”,
“background-color”: “lightblue”,
 “color”: “white”,
“padding”: “5px”,
“border-radius”: “20px”,
“display”: {
 “operator”: “:”,
 “operands”: [
{
  “operator”: “==”,
  “operands”: [
“[$AssignedTo.email]”,
        “”
    ]
},
 “none”,
 “flex”
   ]
},
  “cursor”: “pointer”
},
“txtContent”: “Notify Assigned To”
}

As a pointer for creating your own custom JSON, a neat little hack I find very useful is to use the design mode OOB conditional formatter to intuitively add rules and conditions. This generates JSON underneath, and that JSON can be used as a starting template for add your own customizations to. It is much easier to start with JSON that your SharePoint list already recognizes than it is to start from scratch or find solutions online that need to be completely restructured.

To accomplish this, do the following:

• Select Manage rules.
• Select the column to base your condition off.
• Select the operator of the condition.
• Enter the value the operator should look for.
• Switch to Advanced Mode.
• Copy out the code that was generated.
• See screenshots.

That concludes the pot.

The post Run Flows Directly from SharePoint List/Library Using JSON Column Formatting appeared first on Thrive.

Microsoft offers both OneDrive and SharePoint in its suite of services, and while these file management platforms have plenty in common, there are some key differences between the two, with distinguishing features that help drive business efficiencies.

Ensure a proper approach to file sharing, collaboration, and document management, with Thrive’s customized recommendations of how to deliver a complete file management solution.

Are OneDrive and SharePoint One and the Same?

OneDrive and SharePoint assist in file management, with any documents and data safely stored in the Cloud, giving users the ability to view documents, make changes, and see the version history of the document itself.

Made for those on the go, they both offer mobile-friendly features and syncing of files across devices. With OneDrive and SharePoint in Microsoft Office 365, files are stored in the Cloud, and it’s easy to sync either OneDrive or SharePoint files to a computer.

Think of OneDrive as the best choice for individual employees. Employees can create a document privately, work on a first draft, and manage projects yet to draw in the larger team. SharePoint allows employees to take that next step, uploading a personal draft from OneDrive so the larger team has access to the file. Administrators can set up permissions, too, giving access only to authorized team members. Now, multiple employees can comment, edit, and make changes to the document within the SharePoint system, so everyone is kept up to date with the latest progress.

Working solo? OneDrive is the way to go. Bringing a larger team in for the conversation? SharePoint access will drive productivity.

What are the Key Differences Between OneDrive and SharePoint?

With OneDrive, users have a personal account which keeps them in full control of files they create and upload. Only when a larger team needs access to the file will it be shared from OneDrive, which is a Cloud-based offering.

SharePoint is designed as a work process management platform, and while through Office 365 it offers Cloud capabilities, it can become an on-premises solution, as well. SharePoint allows administrators to create team-specific sites, going beyond the basic personalized interface of OneDrive. These team-specific sites may include easy-to-use dashboards, calendars, project updates, and task lists, ensuring seamless collaboration among all users.

Another major SharePoint advantage is the ability to customize internal team sites and outgoing communications. For example, admins can update an employee portal using the SharePoint interface and team-shared documents. Thanks to SharePoint’s CMS application, it’s easy to update a customer-facing website, too, with the ability to publish documents directly to the site.

Organizations have choices to make when it comes to OneDrive and SharePoint, but the reality is that using a combination of both will benefit businesses. To discover how to best utilize OneDrive and SharePoint and better understand Cloud and on-premises options, get in touch with the experienced team at Thrive today.

The post Microsoft OneDrive vs. SharePoint: Which Platform Do I Need? appeared first on Thrive.