Tag Archives: Microsoft 365

Two free Microsoft apps to increase your productivity

In this article, we look at two free Microsoft apps to increase your productivity, the Microsoft Forms and the Bookings apps. We answer the following questions: What is the Forms app? What are the benefits of the Forms app? What is the Bookings app? And what are the benefits of the Bookings app? (Note: this article was written upon request).

Increase your productivity with the Forms app

The first app we have a look at is the forms app, which officially is called Microsoft Forms.

What is the Forms app?

The Wikipedia gives the following definition: “Microsoft Forms (formerly Office 365 Forms) is an online survey creator, part of Office 365. Released by Microsoft in June 2016, Forms allows users to create surveys and quizzes with automatic marking. The data can be exported to Microsoft Excel and viewed live using the Present feature.”

Microsoft itself describes it as “a simple and powerful app that lets you easily create surveys, quizzes, and polls. With its intuitive interface, you can quickly design and share your forms with others, track responses in real-time and make data-driven decisions. Whether you’re conducting market research, gathering customer feedback, or testing student progress, Microsoft Forms makes it easy to get the insights you need to make informed decisions.”

Microsoft Forms provides a range of features to create interactive forms. Users can customize the background image, add pictures to questions, create sections, and use branching logic. It also offers real-time analytics to evaluate responses and integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications like Excel, SharePoint, and Teams. The app provides free templates and exclusive themes. It allows you to sync the results of your surveys and analyse the responses seamlessly in Excel.

Microsoft Forms is generally available to Office 365 Education customers, Microsoft 365 Apps for business customers, and users with a Microsoft account (Hotmail, Live, or Outlook.com). It is an optional and free app. Forms exists in an app version, which can be downloaded through the Microsoft Store, as well as in an online version, which can be found at https://forms.office.com. In essence, it is Microsoft’s competitor for Google Forms and Jotform.

As a lawyer, you could use the app, e.g., to do surveys among your clients, but also for things like client intake.

What are the benefits of the Forms app?

Microsoft Forms is a powerful tool that simplifies data collection and feedback gathering, with many benefits.

Integration with Microsoft 365: Microsoft Forms can be seamlessly integrated with other Microsoft 365 products. Users can insert quizzes, surveys, polls, and other types of forms into applications like OneNote, Excel, SharePoint, and Teams. This is probably the most important benefit, as it means that it integrates with the products and services your clients use and are familiar with.

Customization: Microsoft Forms offers customization options to create visually appealing forms. Users can choose from professionally designed templates or create their own themes. It also supports multilingual forms and provides powerful data visualization tools. Add themes, images, and videos to align forms with your law firm’s identity.

Real-time Responses: Visualize data as responses come in, with automatic charts and graphs.

Collaboration and Sharing: Share forms via links, embed them on websites, and collaborate with others.

Security and Privacy: Forms adheres to strict standards, allowing control over form access and anonymous responses.

Simple Creation Interface: You can create forms without any coding or design skills. Choose from templates or start from scratch.

Variety of Question Types: Forms supports multiple-choice, text entry, ratings, and more.

Logic and Branching: Customize the survey experience by directing respondents based on their previous answers.

Increase your productivity with the Bookings app

The second app we have a look at is the Bookings app.

What is the Bookings app?

The Wikipedia describes the Microsoft Bookings app as “a scheduling tool and is part of the Microsoft Office family of products. Released by Microsoft in March 2017, Bookings allows customers of small businesses and companies to book appointments with the company.”

In other words, Microsoft’s Bookings app is a scheduling tool that allows organizations to manage appointments and bookings with their customers. It is integrated with Microsoft Teams.

You can have one or more booking calendars. Scheduling bookings is easy and flexible. Attendees can join a booking, with or without a Teams account.

To add the Bookings app to Teams, users can go to the Apps section and search for Bookings. Once added, users can set up their booking calendar and customize the app according to their business needs.

Bookings is available with various subscriptions, including Office 365 and Microsoft 365 plans. It is not available as a standalone app and requires Outlook Web App or Outlook on the web to be enabled. All users of the Bookings app and staff participating in meetings must have a license that supports Teams meeting scheduling.

What are the benefits of the Bookings app?

The Bookings app offers the following benefits.

Integration with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365: The virtual appointments scheduled through the Bookings app are held via Microsoft Teams Meetings. This integration allows for seamless communication and collaboration during appointments. Appointments that are registered in Teams can automatically be added to your Outlook Calendar. Most importantly, because of this integration, it also integrates with the products and services your clients use and are familiar with. In other words, your clients can set up a meeting with you through an interface that they are familiar with.

Flexible and customizable: Bookings can be customized to fit the needs of your law firm. It offers built-in flexibility and the ability to customize appointment details, booking requirements, and service providers. This allows you to tailor the app to your specific requirements.

Features and functionality: Bookings simplifies the process of scheduling and managing appointments. It includes a web-based booking calendar that syncs with Outlook to optimize availability. The app also supports automated notification emails and reminders to reduce no-shows and enhance customer satisfaction. Additionally, Bookings integrates with Microsoft Teams to support virtual appointments via online meetings.

Conclusion

Forms and bookings are two free apps that function as add-ons to Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365. They are easy to use and make doing things like taking surveys and booking appointments easy. An additional benefit is that these are both Microsoft apps, which means your clients do not have to familiarize themselves with yet another platform. Instead, they can interact with you in a familiar environment.

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Microsoft CoPilot for Lawyers

Microsoft has started integrating generative AI in its products and services. In our previous article, we talked about SharePoint Syntex. In this article, we have a look at its much talked about CoPilot. What is CoPilot? What can it do? What are the benefits of CoPilot? And what are the benefits of Microsoft CoPilot for lawyers? Finally, we look at the availability of CoPilot.

What is CoPilot?

Microsoft Copilot is a new AI assistant that can help you with various tasks across Windows, Microsoft 365, Bing, and Edge. It is an AI-powered productivity tool that uses large language models (LLMs) and integrates your data, e.g., with the Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps and services. It can answer your questions, generate content, suggest actions, and more. Copilot provides real-time intelligent assistance, enabling users to enhance their creativity, productivity, and skills.

CoPilot is not just one product or service, and that has led to some confusion. Microsoft has made different versions of CoPilot available, depending on your needs and preferences. At present, there are three versions that are most relevant.

First, there is CoPilot in Windows. This is the basic version of CoPilot that comes with Windows 11. You can launch it by clicking on its icon on the taskbar or by pressing the Windows logo key + C. CoPilot in Windows can help you with common tasks such as searching the web, organizing your windows, and adjusting your PC settings. You can also ask CoPilot questions and get relevant answers fast. For example, you can ask “What is the capital of South Africa?” and CoPilot will show you the answer along with a map and a link to learn more. CoPilot in Windows is being rolled out gradually and will be available in both Windows 10 and 11.

Next, there is the Microsoft 365 CoPilot. Let me first point out that there is some inconsistency in the use of the name. If you have Microsoft 365, a version of CoPilot will work alongside popular Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. But the name is typically used more specifically for the CoPilot version for enterprise users of Microsoft 365. This is the premium version of CoPilot that requires a license for Microsoft 365 E3 or Microsoft 365 E5, and a separate license for Microsoft 365 CoPilot. (Read: you will have to pay extra). You can use the Microsoft 365 CoPilot setup guide in the Microsoft 365 admin centre to assign the required licenses to users. You can use Microsoft 365 CoPilot, e.g., to generate summaries of long documents in Word, create charts from data in Excel, design slides from keywords in PowerPoint, schedule meetings from emails in Outlook, and collaborate with teammates from chats in Teams.

Finally, there is Bing Chat (which was just also renamed to CoPilot): This is an online version of CoPilot that uses Bing as the search engine. You can access Bing Chat by going to bing.com/chat or by clicking on the chat icon on the Bing homepage. “Bing Chat puts the power of AI into your online search”, is how Microsoft puts it.

What can it do?

You can use Bing Chat for various purposes such as travel planning, community organizing, comparison shopping, or anything you search for on the web. You can use Bing Chat, e.g., to find the best deals on flights and hotels, get recommendations for local attractions and restaurants, join or create groups for common interests or causes, compare prices and features of different products or services, or explore any topic you are curious about.

Microsoft 365 Copilot can assist you in creating, editing, and improving your documents, emails, presentations, and more. It can help you write faster, better, and more confidently by generating text, suggesting edits, providing feedback, and offering insights. You can use it to create documents, emails, presentations, reports, blogs, and more. It can suggest content, format, style, and grammar based on your data, the Microsoft Graph, the Microsoft 365 apps, and the web. It can even catch up on email threads by getting a summary of the conversation. It can also answer your questions and provide relevant information from trusted sources.

The latter also applies to Bing Chat and the version of CoPilot that comes with Windows. It is a wide purpose generative AI tool that can answer questions, write texts, program code, etc. It can transcribe meetings and summarize the discussion using simple language. It can generate text and images based on your prompts and topics. It can turn documents into presentations or vice versa.

What are the benefits of CoPilot?

Microsoft identifies several benefits CoPilot offers. It can help you save time and effort by automating tedious tasks and generating content faster. It can assist you in learning new skills and improve your writing by providing feedback and suggestions. It also helps you unleash your creativity and explore new possibilities by offering diverse and relevant ideas.

What are the benefits of Microsoft CoPilot for Lawyers?

More specifically for lawyers, Copilot offers the following benefits. It helps to research legal topics and find relevant information from reliable sources. It assists in drafting contracts, agreements, and other legal documents with accuracy and clarity. And it can help you communicate effectively with clients, colleagues, and judges by using appropriate tone and language.

Availability of CoPilot

There is a lot of uncertainty about the availability of the different versions of CoPilot.

According to Microsoft, Copilot is currently available in the US, the UK, and select countries in Asia and South America. However, due to Europe’s privacy protection laws, Copilot is currently unavailable there. Microsoft aims to expand its availability beyond the initial regions, and is in negotiations with the EU.

Let us first have a look at the availability of CoPilot outside of the EU.

Since Microsoft Copilot will be integrated among different Microsoft products, the release dates differ.

  • Copilot started rolling out on Windows 11 on September 26 through a Windows 11 update.
  • Copilot began rolling out to Bing and Edge about two months ago.
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot began rolling out for enterprise customers on November 1 and will roll out to non-enterprise users at a later date. The enterprise version supports several languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and Chinese Simplified. More languages are planned to be supported over the first half of 2024.

Within the EU

Officially Microsoft 365 CoPilot for enterprise users is not yet available within the EU. However, several enterprise users who have their information hosted on Microsoft Azure servers within Europe have reported that Microsoft 365 CoPilot for enterprise users is available to them.

Copilot in Windows is in limited preview available in Europe, meaning that it is not fully functional and may have some bugs or errors. Copilot for Sales is also available in preview, meaning that it is still under development and may change over time.

Microsoft has stated that it will comply with both the EU and the UK data protection laws and will ensure that its customers can continue to use its services without disruption. Microsoft has also announced that it will offer a new option for its customers in the EU: the EU Data Boundary. This option will allow customers to choose to have their core customer data stored and processed within the EU only by the end of 2022. This option will cover Microsoft 365 CoPilot as well as other online services.

If you are interested in trying out Copilot in Europe, you may be able to bypass the regional restriction by running `microsoft-edge://?ux=copilot&tcp=1&source=taskbar` in the Run Command box. However, this may not work for all users and may violate the Digital Markets Act that disallows market monopoly. And you do so at your own risk.

 

 

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Using Teams and SharePoint in Law Firms

Upon request, we will have a closer look in this article at using Teams and SharePoint in law firms. In previous articles, we already talked about running your law practice in the Cloud with law firm management software. We also highlighted how Microsoft 365 was an essential part of that. (It was still called Office 365 at the time). For optimal results for a law firm, Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the recommended solution.

Since the pandemic started, Microsoft has been steadily improving Microsoft Teams. By now, it can be used as the central communication and collaboration hub of your law firm. It consolidates the available Microsoft 365 tools and streamlines business processes by offering team members a centralized location for all files, documents, and firm information. It allows law firms to share critical communications with their clients and their entire team, quickly, efficiently, and securely! It also enables seamless collaboration for all projects, from in-depth cases to day-to-day work by using SharePoint with other Microsoft 365 tools.

Teams as your communication and collaboration hub

You can use Teams as the dashboard from which you coordinate your communications and collaboration. Teams seamlessly integrates with the other Microsoft 365 apps, like Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, but also with apps like Planner or To Do. Outlook allows you to directly access the ‘Conversations’ of the Teams site, so you can manage all your saved emails through the Outlook interface. Teams comes with its own video chat for virtual meetings, which can be recorded and shared. The free MS Bookings app allows to easily set up meetings. But note that integration between Microsoft 365 and your law firm management software is essential. So, make sure this is the case.

One of the main benefits of using the Teams / SharePoint combination lies in its collaboration functionality.  Your team and clients can share documents and collaborate on them, securely and in real time. It is perfectly possible for several people to simultaneously work or comment on the same document. And because this solution is perfectly scalable, it can be used by law firms of any size. Worth noting is also that collaborating on a SharePoint server is more secure than sending documents by email, and therefore a better solution.

Using SharePoint also offers other benefits

It comes with built in version control, where it keeps track of all changes to a document, and where you can see the full history of all versions. Needless to say, it also automatically keeps backups of all those versions.

SharePoint also offer in depth-search functionality. You can perform searches on the full text, but also on meta data. It even comes with optional wiki functionality, and its search and KMS functionalities can be further extended with third party add-ons.

Important is also that it is easy to use Microsoft 365 in a way that is compliant with EU privacy legislation. All law firms that use its software have to do, is choose local European servers as their Microsoft 365 servers. As there are no other intermediate servers involved, you are completely compliant.

Security considerations

in its articles on the annual Legal Technology Survey, Law Technology Today explicitly recommends using cloud-based solutions like Microsoft 365 as it is the most secure solution, both for law firm communications and for file sharing / storage. It notes “Many (if not the majority of) law firms that favor on-premise or hosted solutions to cloud-based platforms will cite security as the reason they refuse to move their data to the cloud. But the truth is, cloud-based solutions are considerably more secure than on-premise or hosted software.”

After all, Microsoft encrypts all data transfers as well as all the stored data, which are encrypted at both disk and file level. In other words, the data you share inside SharePoint is secure, and it is more secure than keeping your data on a local OneDrive. (Microsoft 365 administrators are recommended to switch off synchronisation with a local OneDrive to reap the optimal benefits, including enhanced security, from using the SharePoint & Teams combination).

In short, using Microsoft 365 Premium Business edition offers you a centralized and secure communications and collaboration hub, which maintains client privacy as well as legal compliance. It improves the productivity of your law firm by allowing you to collaborate more effectively, from anywhere you have Internet access.

 

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