Microsoft Teams Available for Everyone for Free, Assisting with a Productive WFH/Remote Workforce

As more and more businesses embrace telecommuting, Encore has many options that can help make the transition to WFH (working from home) easier on both the employer and the employee. These solutions allow employees to not only be productive at home, but give the employer peace of mind that they have equipped their users with the tools needed to complete their jobs.

Free Microsoft Teams E1 Licenses

In response to businesses getting set up to handle employees working remotely throughout concerns about COVID-19, which in turn allows teams to remain collaborative and productive, Microsoft is giving away for free its Enterprise conference and collaboration tool for the next 6 months. Microsoft has now started offering a free trial of its Teams premium bundle to all users until September 10^th, 2020. The 6-month trial will specifically provide users with access to an Office 365 E1 license. Teams is a fantastic conferencing tool that allows for video and voice conferencing, file sharing, and hosting of video conferences for up to 10,000 people. This update will remove restrictions for how many users can be a part of a team in the free version of Microsoft Teams. It will also allow users to schedule video calls and conferences.

Microsoft’s EVP and President of Global Sales, Jean-Philippe Courtois, had this to say:

“At Microsoft, the health and safety of employees, customers, partners, and communities is our top priority. By making Teams available to all for free for six months, we hope that we can support public health and safety by making remote work even easier.” (Source)

Windows Virtual Desktops

Instead of having to purchase hundreds of laptops for employees to bring home, why not give them a virtual desktop? Encore can help your IT team implement Windows Virtual Desktops on Azure, giving your users the necessary power and controlled environments to complete their jobs effectively. Windows Virtual Desktop is a comprehensive desktop and app virtualization service that runs in the Microsoft Azure cloud. It is fully integrated with Office 365 Pro Plus and allows your users to work anywhere with available internet access. You can deploy custom, pre-made images for your users so that their virtual infrastructure is the same as what they are used to in the office, allowing them to effectively complete their jobs from home.

Azure Based VPNs

At Encore our Technology Services team has extensive experience with Azure and VPN networking. We would be happy to set up a hub and spoke VPN system in Azure so that your users can access their work resources from wherever they may be located. They can even use VPN clients that you might have set up including SonicWall, Cisco, F5 networks, or Checkpoint. We can also help you move your internal resources to Azure so that in the event of a disaster they can be accessed from anywhere in the world securely.

If you’re interested in learning more about taking advantage of this free trial from Microsoft for Teams premium bundle, please connect with us.