Are you tired of wasting precious time in meetings, only to leave feeling confused and disorganized?

Do you struggle to keep track of all the action items and follow-up tasks that come out of these meetings?

Microsoft Teams has launched a new feature that could solve your problems and boost productivity. 

Meeting Recap is an AI-based intelligent meeting recap feature, available exclusively to Teams Premium subscribers. This innovative feature harnesses the latest in artificial intelligence technology to generate comprehensive summaries of your meetings.

That means no more tedious recaps… but hello to accurate and efficient summaries that capture all the key points from your meetings.

The Meeting Recap feature doesn't stop there. It automatically identifies action items and follow-up tasks, assigns them to team members, and even sets deadlines for completion. This means that everyone involved in the meeting knows exactly what they need to do and when it needs to be done. A great way to improve communication and collaboration within your team.

But it's not just about efficiency. The meeting recap feature also offers customizable options to tailor the feature to your specific needs. Choose what information is included in the summary to ensure that you receive the most relevant and useful information possible.

If you’re not a Teams Premium subscriber, are there benefits of investing in this new feature?

Yes! For starters, it streamlines your workflow, saving you both time and money.

You don’t have to waste hours trying to decipher meeting notes and action items. Instead, you'll have access to a clear and concise summary that you can refer back to at any time.

Additionally, it improves organization and accountability within your team. With assigned action items and deadlines, everyone knows exactly what is expected of them.

Don't underestimate the power of this new Meeting Recap – it's a game-changer for businesses that want to increase productivity.

Don’t wait. If you need help upgrading to Teams Premium, we’re here for you. Get in touch.

Check out the latest BlueCastle IT Solutions weekly tech tip. In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft’s increasing its subscription prices for Microsoft 365 in March. It could cost you up to 40% more. Here’s what you need to know

You don't want to miss this month's eGuide resource.

Access this month's eGuide on our Resources page

Windows 11: The wait is over

​All the benefits of using the very latest version of Windows in your business

After a four-month wait, a brand new version of Windows is finally here. It’s a lot more secure, has better functionality, and has greater possibilities. It also looks beautiful!

New PCs are now on sale with Windows 11, and the upgrade will be available for existing computers early next year.

​Not all machines will be able to upgrade. There are tough hardware requirements.

Check out our new guide so you can see how we've listed them, plus the best benefits of the new Windows, in a brand new guide. It’s written so anyone can understand it.

You don't want to miss this month's eGuide resource.

Access this month's eGuide on our Resources page

Boost productivity, save time and improve customer experience

Most people see Microsoft 365 as the pathway to access Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams.

But there’s so much more to it than that. There are so many apps bundled in, that whatever productivity problem you have in your business right now, the answer could be within 365.

Check out our new guide. So we can tell you all about 10 useful Microsoft 365 apps you didn’t even know you already had.

Productivity is the great goal of business. If you’re a Microsoft 365 user, you have access to a tool that can easily increase your process efficiency. Here’s what you need to know about Microsoft’s Power Automate.

Power Automate is a cloud-based product available to Windows 10 users. The tool, formerly known as Microsoft Flows, brings intelligent automation to business processes. Harness the benefits of artificial intelligence developing workflows and creating data dashboards.

Power Automate hands over mundane tasks and manual processes to robotic process automation (RPA). With RPA you can:

• understand bottlenecks;

• map and analyze processes;

• identify time savings opportunities;

• capture institutional knowledge;

• track important metrics;

• make data-driven decisions;

• empower users to share processes and collaborate;

• break down internal business silos moving data between departmental systems on a schedule.

Power Automate is available online, as a desktop client, or as a mobile application, and for both iOS and Android devices. Best of all, it’s included in your Microsoft cost.

How Does Power Automate Work?

In Power Automate you build time-saving workflows using a low-code or no-code experience. The software offers templates or step-by-step guidance to help create automated workflows.

The secure and scalable technology connects with other Microsoft products, of course. It can also link new and legacy systems and allows users to integrate or create their own connectors.

You might set up a notification in Teams when a new Microsoft Forms response comes in, or when a Microsoft Planner task updates, or configure workflows to move documents between different SharePoint folders, or hand over Excel calculations to the AI.

Don’t trust RPA to do the work on its own? You can set up attended or unattended workflows. Attended workflows need humans to start the task or provide Yes or No feedback at workflow sequence stages.

You might use unattended for boring, time-consuming tasks. Think of the time saved in accounting with Power Automate:

• printing an invoice hard copy;

• creating a new Outlook task to follow up on that invoice in 30 days;

• forwarding the submitted invoice to the next person in the operations chain.

Is Power Automate for Us?

RPA can help any business save time and reduce operating costs. Plus, Power Automate doesn’t work solely in the Microsoft environment. You might connect a Customer Relationship Management tool. Then, you could automate appointment scheduling and trigger file sending from One Drive.

The uses of RPA abound across industries. You might use Power Automate to:

• process forms;

• extract information;

• perform sentiment analysis;

• read business cards;

• classify files;

• track mailboxes;

• orchestrate your pipeline;

• automate auditing;

• manage inventory levels.

Create workflows using templates or design your own with what Microsoft touts as “point-and-click simplicity.” Don’t find it that simple? We can do it for you.

Streamline repetitive tasks and operational processes with Power Automate. Turn your attention instead to areas that grow business and boost innovation. Need assistance setting up the workflows in Power Automate? Our BlueCastle IT experts can help. Contact us today at 860-215-8960!