SquarePlanIT

We love supporting the Kiroli Foundation and the City of West Monroe's Pet Mayor contest! Make sure to get your nominations in before the deadline!

Plumber’s term is almost up… who’s got the paws for the job? 🐾

The City of West Monroe’s 2nd Annual Pet Mayor Contest is here, and nominations are officially OPEN!

This friendly competition raises funds for the Kiroli Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing West Monroe’s parks and bringing our community together through events like the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival and Christmas at Kiroli.

Nominate your pet October 6–30 for $20 per pet. Then, get ready to hit the campaign trail! Gather your favorite photos, write a fun campaign slogan and rally your friends, family and neighbors. Voting opens on Election Day, November 3, and continues through November 13.

The winning pet will receive an honorary title, plenty of hometown recognition and a prize package generously provided by The Neighborhood Vet! Thank you to The Neighborhood Vet and Square PlanIt for sponsoring this year’s contest and helping us celebrate our community’s pets while supporting our parks.

Think your pet has what it takes? Nominate your candidate and find the full contest rules at https://wmpetmayor.com/

Not every employee account has the same level of access to your data and systems.

Some changes can affect your entire business.

That's why you should know who has administrator privileges, whether they still need them, and how those accounts are being protected…

For years, the biggest complaint about meetings has been what happens after they finish.

🤔 Who was supposed to do what?
🤔 What decisions were made?
🤔 Where did someone write the notes?

Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into solving those frustrations in Teams.

A new update is bringing AI powered notes into face to face meetings. Even if you're all sitting in the same room, Teams can capture key discussion points, action items and decisions as they're happening.

I think that's a much more practical use of AI than asking it to generate content for the sake of it.

Often, we don’t need more information, we need to stop losing the information we already have, right? How many meetings finish with everyone agreeing on the next steps, only for people to remember them slightly differently a week later?

Having an accurate record can save a lot of follow up emails and avoid those awkward conversations where everyone is convinced they heard something different

The update also includes a few smaller improvements that will probably make life easier.

Teams chats are becoming easier to organize, guest invitations will come from the organizer instead of a no reply address, and Microsoft is continuing to add more controls so you can decide when AI should and shouldn't be involved.

As AI becomes part of more workplace tools, you shouldn't feel you have to switch everything on.

Some meetings will benefit from AI generated notes.

But others may involve confidential discussions where you'd rather not use them at all.

So having a choice is important.

It’s good that Microsoft is working on removing the small frustrations people deal with every working day.

What's the biggest frustration you have after a meeting finishes?

How many times have you typed almost exactly the same email? “I’m away until...”

“Thanks for getting in touch...”

“I’ve received your message and will come back to you shortly...”

Most of us have a handful of replies that we write repeatedly ‍

Microsoft is going to make that a little easier in Outlook.

Instead of relying on a standard out of office message that gets sent to everyone, it’s introducing more flexible automatic replies based on rules that you choose.

For example, you could send one automatic reply to customers, a different one to suppliers, or trigger a specific response when an email contains certain words or comes from a particular sender.

That might sound like a small update, but I think it’s one of those features that could save people a surprising amount of time ⏳

The best technology often takes away the boring, repetitive jobs so people can spend more time on the conversations that need a human touch.

There’s a balance to strike, though

Just because an email can be automated doesn’t mean it should be.

If someone has taken the time to ask a detailed question or explain a complicated problem, a generic automatic reply probably isn’t going to leave the best impression.

On the other hand, there are plenty of routine emails where a fast, consistent response is helpful.

Acknowledging an enquiry
Confirming you've received information
Sending the next steps in a process

They’re the sort of repetitive tasks that software should be taking care of.

I also like the direction this says Microsoft is heading in.

For a while, many of the Outlook updates seemed to revolve around AI. Useful in some cases but not always solving the problems people have.

This feels much more practical.

It's focused on making everyday work a little smoother.

If you could automate one email you send every week, which would save you the most time?

Artificial intelligence can save a huge amount of time, but not all business information should be shared with public tools. Protecting your proprietary data is vital.

SquarePlanIT helps you establish safe guidelines for using advanced tech in the workplace.

Scammers often succeed by looking like someone you already trust. Paying attention to sudden changes in communication platforms is crucial for your safety.

SquarePlanIT keeps your business informed and protected against impersonation attacks.