The Bay Area IT Experts

First, it’s important to understand Microsoft’s situation. Retaining a customer costs much less than actively seeking new ones, meaning that they aren’t going to want to lose their existing customers.

Microsoft has implemented a three-step process that is designed to help their customers have as much time as possible to decide whether or not they are serious about letting their subscription go. Here are the three steps.

Step 1: Expired

Following the expiration of your subscription, you have thirty days where Office 365 is still available for use. Any installed applications can still be launched, and you can still access additional solutions as well. Microsoft won’t remove any of your data from its servers. Admins can still add services or applications during this time, as well as back up any data. A global administrator can renew the subscription at any time during these thirty days.

Step 2: Disabled

After the first month has passed, your subscription status changes to Disabled, which remains in place up until the 120th day. This means that only administrators will have access to the admin portal and to back up any data that Microsoft has stored on their servers. Regarding the rest of your users, they might not have access to as many services and solutions. With access to their Office 365 accounts blocked, your users will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, unable to get their work done, access their email, or access OneDrive for Business. Locally installed applications will only offer limited functionality, and you won’t be able to edit or save your files. The global administrator still has access to the option to resume the licensing subscription at this point.

Step 3: Deprovisioned

After 121 days, administrators lose access to any data that remains on the servers. No backups can be taken, and any applications or services rendered will be inaccessible. At this point, Microsoft will start to remove your data from its servers, which you can have sped up through a process called deprovisioning. If your business wants to continue utilizing Office 365, new subscriptions need to be started.

Let Us Help Manage Your Office 365 Subscriptions

To keep lapses in your subscription from preventing your productivity, 415 IT can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (415) 295-4898.

There are actually a couple of methods you can use to do so. First, we’ll review how to use your mobile device’s built-in File Manager.

Using the File Manager

Chances are, your device came preinstalled with file management software. To find it, open the app drawer. You will then want to open a specific application. Based on the device you have, it may be called Downloads, My Files, or File Manager. Accessing this application, you should see at least one folder for your internal storage. If you’ve expanded your storage with an SD card, you will see that as well. While your Downloads are probably going to be in your internal storage, your settings might be sending them to your expanded storage. Once you’ve located your Download folder, access it. There, you will see a complete list of your downloaded materials. While they will initially be sorted in chronological order, you can change this to your preference.

Your other option is to utilize the Google Chrome application.

Finding Downloads in Google Chrome

Accessing the Chrome browser application on your device, tap the three-dot button at the top-right corner. From the menu that appears, select Downloads.

There, you will find your list of downloaded files, which you can filter through using the hamburger menu button and selecting your desired file type. If you need to find a particular file, Chrome allows you to search for it using the magnifying glass button.

When data is so important to us today, it helps to know where to find the data you’ve accessed. Are there any other smartphone tips that we should share? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Scrutinize Your Security

Before you implement a new solution, be sure to consider your organization’s cybersecurity needs. Ask yourself if it’s something that you can implement without compromising your organization’s security. Cyberattacks can create a considerable financial burden for your business. After all, a business is still a business, no matter what kind of data it stores or how large its workforce or client base is. It might lessen the damage done, but it’s certainly not any consolation for still exposing data to threats--especially because the data stored by businesses tends to be sensitive in nature. You need to do everything you can to make sure that any solution you implement can be done so without your data being placed at risk.

Consider Your Data, Too

You also need to be aware of what your data is telling you. If you leverage enterprise resource planning solutions to provide insight into your organization’s functionality, you can use this information to improve your operations. Therefore, you should pay attention to whether or not the solution you want to implement will actually be beneficial. You should still be careful, however, about leaning on your data to make all decisions, as there might be too many concepts in motion to provide accurate data. You might even wind up implementing a solution that does exactly the opposite of what you want it to do. In other words, you want to know which data is valuable and which won’t yield results.

Reflect On Your Business

Any new system you implement for your organization needs to fit properly from an operational standpoint. To this end, you need to understand your current systems and workflows. Consider how the solution you want to implement will benefit the current state of things. Will it resolve critical workflow issues? Will it save time and resources? Will it scale according to your future needs? All of this must be considered, as well as how accessible support is. The last thing you want to do is to implement a solution that doesn’t have support readily available when it’s needed most. Finally, be sure to consider how your employees will react to the new solution, as it will only be effective if your employees are able to leverage it to their advantage.

Consider All of Your Options

Before investing in any solution, be sure to consider not just what you have in your office currently, but other solutions on the market. After all, there’s no reason to purchase that new network switch if a better, more dynamic option will be available in three months. Of course, it’s not always this simple, as you need to consider the costs of new technology, implementing the solution itself, and any kind of operational costs that are associated with it. If waiting on the solution isn’t going to create a detriment to your business, then perhaps that is the more cost-effective option.

Of course, certain regulations might force your hand, and you can’t let an outdated solution put you at risk of failing a compliance audit. What we like to recommend is to lay out everything that’s needed to be known in a cost-benefit analysis. 415 IT can help you identify this important information. To learn more, reach out to us at (415) 295-4898.