Filehold – what do customers think?

June 9th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

  • FileHold Document Management Software has all of the essential features organizations need to make their documents secure, organized and compliant right “out of the box”.
  • FileHold delivers essential, document, records and workflow management.
  • FileHold scales to support thousands of users and millions of documents.

Ease of use

The FileHold filing structure mirrors the physical office filing environment. Document cabinets contain drawers that contain folder groups and or folders that contain documents. This familiar document filing approach ensures that users can easily browse for documents in a logical and efficient fashion.

Web browser access

FileHold software can be accessed from anywhere in the world via a web browser. Multiple browsers are supported and all functionality is available including system administration and library administration.

Mobile FileHold

Manage your documents while out of the office with the easiest mobile document management software you will ever use.

Search

Search documents from a simple Google-like search or an advanced search using metadata. Save the searches to create reports whenever you need.

Document viewers

A FileHold Level 1 viewer comes with every registered user license and allows users to see an image of a document without the need to have the native software installed on their computer the viewers work with both the web client and the desktop application.

Microsoft Office integration

Tight integration with Microsoft Office is provided that gives direct access from the document software to: Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Visio.

Records management software

Manage both short and long term working and archived documents. 

Advanced Record retention and disposition policies for both electronic and paper based records are standard in the software.  Document, data and usage history is fully captured to stay in compliance.

Electronic forms (e-Forms)

Metadata information can be extracted from electronic forms created using the standard Microsoft Word tools found in Office or PDF forms.  Once created the form data can be automatically extracted into FileHold metadata when the form is added to the system.

Courier

FileHold Courier allows you to transmit documents for viewing or approving to people inside or outside the document management system. Courier is a “proof of delivery” system where unlike email it is a secure method of sending documents. With email there is no way to know if the documents ever arrived or whether the attachment could be opened by the recipient. With Courier, recipients are notified by email containing a secure link which is then fully tracked and logged in FileHold.

Calendar

Differentiate your daily tasks and become more proficient at accomplishing your document management goals using the FileHold calendar.

Document version control

Document version control software provides: check in / checkout ability to prevent documents from being overwritten or deleted when documents are updated by more than one party. All versions of a document are maintained by the software.

Document scanning and imaging

FileHold ships with scanning and imaging software that support all scanners types to allow organizations to “go paperless”.  Basic and advanced third party scanning software is supported for both simple and complex document scanning operations.  Partner software to process scanned documents, to  look for text using zonal OCR, and pre-populating metadata fields before import into FileHold. This is particularly powerful with standardized forms like invoices as part of the AP process. We offer a complimentary license of this software with installs, which can be installed on multiple workstations, although only one copy can be running at a time.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and indexing

Using the scanning software that ships with the paperless office software users can convert the text on typed paper documents into editable and searchable information using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The information that is zonally OCR’ed can be imported into the metadata fields of FileHold.

Synergy Software Systems can further assist you to further automate your document based processes with our RPA tools

Check documents out / Check documents in

Users are able to check in and check out documents from the software from within Microsoft Office applications, or from the Desktop Application or from anywhere in the world using the web interface.  

Document “tagging” or metadata capture

Capturing metadata or “tagging” (key data about the document) is the key to successful search and document  organization. The software has easy to use controlled document tagging to ensure documents are classified.

Virtual folders

The Virtual Folders feature in the software allows limitless aggregation of documents throughout the library into personal “views“. A Project Manager might have a virtual folder containing project documentation, project legal contract documents, invoices, design documentation and emails even though each document is stored in different locations of the library.

Language packs

FileHold offers two language packs as standard features: French and  Spanish. The user interface can be translated into any language by customers or partners. Some languages that have been translated by customers include Polish, Arabic and Chinese.

Work offline

If you are travelling or out of the office and are not connected to the FileHold document management server, then you can still work on your important documents offline. The software will recognize the document changes and can be synchronized with the Library once you are back online.

Document linking

Document to document linking builds parent or child relationships between documents and allows users to link and organize documents in logical groups.  Linking provides the ability to create document shortcuts to documents frequently needed.

Matter-centric filing (Auto-tagging)

Metadata is automatically applied to a document when added to a specific destination folder.  Matter Centric filing is a feature / term commonly used in the legal industry.

User roles and security

FileHold ships with a choice out of 11 different user security roles ranging from “read only” to “System Administration” to provide an appropriate level of user access permissions for workers at all levels.  Users see only documents that  administrators want them to see.

FIPS compliance

The US Federal Government requires compliance in order to meet security and interoperability standards. Filehold Licenses and passwords are encrypted using a FIPS-140 compliant algorithm to meet full compliance.

Watched folders

FileHold software can be configured so that certain folders on the local computer or network are “watched” by FileHold and then automatically moved into the library. The documents imported into FileHold by the watched folder functionality can be automatically tagged and destination folder pre-configured.

User audit logging and tracking

FileHold tracks and records every user activity to ensure a complete audit trail of document activity in the software.  This document auditing capability ensures compliance and protects intellectual property.

Email

Email documents via attachments or links.

Document subscriptions

FileHold software allows users to subscribe to and to be notified of edits to documents or changes to folders they have subscribed to.  When an existing document is updated or a document is added to a folder, the user receives email notification that the change has occurred, who has changed it, and receives a secure link to directly access the document.

Document naming standards

The software can be configured to automatically create document names to enforce adherence to document or record naming conventions.

Third-party integration

A well documented Web Services API allows direct integration with third party applications and flexible integration with existing back office systems. These web services are available to third parties to provide easy integration with other enterprise solutions and productivity applications.

URL support

Provides the ability to send a secured link to a document, rather than emailing the document and cluttering up the mail inbox. This link can then be clicked on to launch the Web Client or Desktop Client to work on the document in a few seconds.

Document control numbering

This feature provides for the automatic application of document control numbers to documents.

Reporting and document compliance

FileHold comes with many built in reports to give administrators information about the usage of documents and users.

Co-Pilot and Business Central ask Synergy Software Systems

May 23rd, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

This video guides you through the minimal steps necessary to get started quickly in creating a chatbot with expanded natural language capabilities inside of Business Central. Copilot provides AI-powered writing assistance for Business Central users responsible authoring marketing text (product descriptions) on items sold in online shops, like Shopify. With the click of a button, Copilot generates text that’s engaging, creative, and highlights key attributes of the specific item. With a bit of reviewing and editing, it’s ready to publish. Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central help small and medium-sized businesses to bring new products to market faster by producing AI-generated product descriptions.

Corporate Tax Explanatory Guide

May 17th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

The UAE Ministry of Finance recently issued an Explanatory Guide for Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 on the Taxation of Corporations and Businesses (the “Corporate Tax Law”. The Guide provides detailed explanation of each article, the intended purpose of the provisions of the Corporate Tax Law and the executive decisions issued for its implementation.

The Guide explains the policies related to the Corporate Tax regime in the State, based on which the provisions of the Corporate Tax Law were formulated.

FINAL-CT-Guide-English-12.5.23.pdf (mof.gov.ae)

The Guide will assist in understanding the legal provisions and improve the Corporate Tax Law’s readability by companies, businesses and individuals undertaking a business or business activity.

The Guide may be referred to when interpreting the provisions of the Corporate Tax Law and shall be used as a reference guide to understand the provisions and scope of application of the Corporate Tax Law and assist businesses in understanding the tax rules, conditions and obligations through providing some examples that are intended to simplify tax terminologies.

The Explanatory Guide must be read in conjunction with the Corporate Tax Law and the relevant decisions issued by the Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance, and the Federal Tax Authority for the purposes of applying some provisions of the Corporate Tax Law. The Guide is not, and is not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Corporate Tax Law and its implementing decisions. The latest version of the Guide will be made available on the website of the Ministry of Finance as well as the website of the Federal Tax Authority.

There are helpful FAQs here: Corporate Tax​ FAQ – Ministry of Finance – United Arab Emirates (mof.gov.ae)

Corporate tax registration

May 15th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

The UAE’s Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has launched the tax registration for public joint stock companies and private companies to start from Monday, May 15th. Registration will be available through the EmaraTax digital tax services platform. The FTA will send invitations to register using EmaraTax to these chosen organizations via email and SMS. 

Taxable people must register and obtain a tax registration number for corporate tax purposes. The FTA noted that this round will not yet cover free zone people, adding that further announcements will be made when registration opens to them at a later stage.

Taxable people will be subject to corporate tax from the financial year that begins on or after June 1st, 2023. When registration opens, the FTA said the authorities will provide firms and companies enough time to register and comply with legal requirements. Priority will be given to organizations and corporations whose fiscal year begins on June 1st

Copilot in Viva Topics ask Synergy Software Systems

April 26th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

Microsoft Viva Topics applies next-generation AI to empower people with knowledge and expertise in the apps they use every day.

Viva Topics automatically organizes content and expertise into related topics like projects, products, processes, and customers.

Topic cards deliver knowledge just-in-time across Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Office. And topic pages—created and updated by AI—enable experts to cultivate and share knowledge with simplicity.


New features that will free up time and make it easy for people to find information and to apply knowledge – including Copilot in Viva Topics, Teams app, and more.

Copilot in Viva Topics

Use Copilot in Viva Topics, in your organization’s to :

  • share intelligence to distribute best practices and knowledge to everyone
  • – uncover new opportunities b
  • summarise complex topics across multiple connected documents,
  • translate topic pages based on sources even in other languages,
  • analyze connections between what may seem disparate concepts
  • Then validate & augment the source of organizational knowledge to ensure accuracy and credibility.

Expected release for preview insSeptember 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Explore and query your organization’s knowledge graph with relevant people & resources  

Answers in Viva

Copilot is also coming to Answers in Viva. When an employee asks a question, Copilot can:

  • suggest additional details to clarify of the question.
  • recommend existing resources and potential answers.
  • curate knowledge by providing a summary of all the replies and contributors
  • and to brings it all together into an aggregate view with FAQs, experts, and other resources.

These Copilot capabilities will use natural language AI interfaces to improve employee experience

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Copilot can help people provide answers to questions by recommending existing resources and potential answers.

Viva Topics Teams app:

The new Viva Topics app in Teams will be available for all licensed Viva Topics users.
You can now use the Viva Topics app in Teams as a destination to see ‘their’ associate Topics, and knowledge managers can even access Manage Topics and the upcoming analytics tab. You will no longer have to navigate out of Teams to access their Topic Center. The app will also include new Viva components that will allow Viva Suite users to easily transition between Viva apps, submit feedback, and get support.

Updates to this feature can be tracked should reach GA in May 2023.

Multi-Hop queries for Related Topics

This generally available version of Related Topics adds a second layer of connections so that topics that are two degrees of connection away from the focal node are shown. Click on a node to expand the visualization to show more topics connected to that node.

Viva Topics in Feed

Microsoft Feed is a dedicated Feed experience in Office.com and Edge New Tab Page that helps Microsoft 365 users feel connected and up to date on the people, topics, and tasks most important to them-files, meetings, tasks, news, links, people highlights and community posts.

Your Feed, will show you relevant Viva Topics. When a SharePoint object that is already associated with a Topic is shown in Feed items, you will see a corresponding Topic to help you further understand the context and do more. Only SharePoint objects that are associated with an existing Viva Topic are highlighted with a Topic.

Updates to this feature should be GA by end April 2023.

Viva Engage conversations and Q&A on Topic Card as Activity

Viva Topics will be a continuous source of information with Viva Engage conversations and Q&A associated with a topic appear on the Topic Card as new activity.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023.

Verified Topic badges

Mark published topics as verified and add a specific group of SMEs as editors to the topic.

Verification helps readersto identify topics with added reliability.

Topics that are verified are identified by a special badge and indicate the content is reviewed for accuracy and are regularly updated by assigned editors.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in April 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics
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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Topic engagement analytics for knowledge managers

Usage and engagement analytics showing Viva Topics adoption and value will be available to knowledge managers in a new analytics tab in topic center. Analytics will include:

• Unique user counts and Usage counts for:

o Topics activities overall
o By activities like consuming, contributing and sharing Topics


• Detailed breakdown for Topics consumption usage from Topic card, page, search, Topic center cards; Usage count details for;
• Detailed breakdown for Topics contribution activities like Editing and publishing topics, will provide feedback.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Topic Engagement Analytics for Admins

Usage and engagement analytics on topics (views, edits, etc.) to the Microsoft Admin Center for Admins.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Control topic highlights on SharePoint

SharePoint includes a Viva Topics experience that identifies topics on SharePoint pages, news posts and automatically highlights those on the page.

Both page authors and editors can control which topics get highlighted on the page to ensure the messaging and styling of the content is accurate.

A new dedicated space for Viva Topics within SharePoint pages o discover and consume all the topics on the page in a single place without scrolling to look for a highlight.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in April 2023.

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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics
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							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

April 24th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.

Microsoft Graph is the gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. It provides a unified programmability model to access the tremendous amount of data in Microsoft 365, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Use the wealth of data in Microsoft Graph to build apps for organizations and consumers that interact with millions of users. Custom applications can use the Microsoft Graph API to connect to data and use it in custom applications to enhance organizational productivity.

Microsoft Graph provides a single endpoint that the app can use to access the required data and to simplify the overall development process.

Organizations store vast amounts of data and intelligence across Microsoft cloud services, but how accessible is the data to users?

For example, a salesperson is setting up a meeting with a customer, wants to easily access files and previous meetings and notes but are those emails and chats between a salesperson and customer easy to find? What people within the organization can the customer contact for support?

Data and intelligence like the following types can be accessed through the Microsoft Graph REST APIs and client libraries:

  • Users and groups
  • Teams data
  • Tasks
  • Files
  • Mail
  • Meetings and calendars
  • Organizational charts

Copilot is an AI-powered tool that uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand users’ requests and provide personalized recommendations, tips, and assistance. Users can ask Copilot questions and get instant answers, guidance, and suggestions to help them work more efficiently.

Copilot is designed to be available across multiple Microsoft 365 applications, including :Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook, and is intended to be context-aware. It ‘understands’ the user’s specific needs and the task at hand. Some examples of this functionality are the ability to point copilot to a word document, and request to create a power point presentation based on the data in the document.

Copilot will also work with tools from the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 products. Copilot for Power Virtual Agents is already in preview.

Copilot enables marketers to create targeted customer experiences and interactions that are informed by data-driven decision making. With access to the natural language data discovery feature in Customer Insights, they can build confidence by validating and discovering customer insights for their marketing strategies. For example, a marketer can ask Copilot how many of their customers fit the profile of currently residing in Washington, DC, who are over the age of 25, who have also attended a promotional event in the last six months.

With just a few clicks, Copilot will present the results of their query, including the number of customers that match the attributes or behaviors, as well as other useful information such as the customer lifetime value, product preferences, or average purchase price.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights removes the barrier of needing to craft queries in SQL to get a deeper understanding of customers, enabling marketers to speed and scale the delivery of hyper-personalized experiences that customers expect.

Copilot in Viva Sales

Automatically generate contextual email replies and meeting summaries with Copilot in Viva Sales, available to Dynamics 365 Sales customers. Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales helps sellers dramatically reduce the time they spend on clerical tasks. AI helps write email responses to customers and can even create an email summary of a Teams meeting in Outlook. The meeting summary pulls in details from the seller’s CRM such as product and pricing information, as well as insights from the recorded Teams call. With sellers spending as much as 66% of their day checking and responding to emails, this presents a significant business upside to give the seller more time with their customers.

. For example, with Viva Sales, Copilot can learn how to connect to CRM systems of record to pull customer data — like interaction and order histories — into communications. As Copilot learns about new domains and processes, it will be able to perform even more sophisticated tasks and queries.

Copilot in Microsoft Viva Goals simplifies goal setting by guiding leaders through the process of creating objectives and key results (OKRs) as well as simplifying goal management across the organization. Copilot can suggest draft OKR recommendations based on existing Word documents, such as an annual business plan or a product strategy paper. Once created, Copilot saves employees time by summarizing the status of OKRs, identifying blockers, and suggesting next steps. Lastly, Copilot can consolidate existing data to generate more comprehensive check-ins so teams can leverage a breadth of knowledge across different sources of truth.

An entirely new experience is Business Chat that works across he Microsoft 365 apps, and your data — your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and contacts — to do things you’ve never been able to do before. You can give it natural language prompts like “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy,” and it will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads.

You will be able to access Business Chat from Microsoft 365.com, from Bing when you’re signed in with your work account, or from Teams.

Copilot will fundamentally change how people work with AI and how AI works with people. As with any new pattern of work, there’s a learning curve — but those who embrace this new way of working will quickly gain an edge. Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 and automatically inherits all your company’s valuable security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes. Two-factor authentication, compliance boundaries, privacy protections, and more make Copilot the AI solution you can trust.

I have only scratched the surface – Teams swept the business world during COVID now Co-Pilot and VIVA integrated across your favourite apps erps and crm systems – we often read about game changing software and paradigm shifts- but this times it’s for real and faster than we realise.

Windows 10 21H2 end-of-service (EOS)

April 10th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

Microsoft recently reminded its customers of the Windows 10 21H2 end-of-service (EOS) on June 13, 2023. It will affect editions released in November 2021 such as: Windows 10 Home, version 21H2; Windows 10 Pro, version 21H2; Windows 10 Pro Education, version 21H2; and Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, version 21H2.

These editions will no longer receive security updates after June 13, 2023.” reminds. Customers who contact Microsoft Support after this date will be directed to update their device to the latest version of Windows 10 or upgrade to Windows 11 to remain supported..

Microsoft noted that the June 2023 security update of Windows 10 21H2 will be the last one it will receive. This EOS signals the stop of updates for version 21H2, especially the security and monthly quality updates. This will expose users to possible issues without necessary future security patches and bug fixes.

Encourages users to get Windows 10 22H2 (Windows 10 2022 Update) or upgrade to Windows 11 available since November 2022 for users running Windows 10 20H2 or later via Windows Update. Microsoft said it would also push the update to consumer and non-managed business devices running Windows 10 20H2.

To help keep you protected and productive, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of reaching end of servicing. This keeps your device supported and receiving monthly updates that are critical to security and ecosystem health.”

Power BI and end of support for Windows 8.1

April 6th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

After almost 10 years, support for Windows 8.1 ended on January 10, 2023. Consequently support for Power BI Desktop on Windows 8.1 will stop on January 31, 2024.

After that, Power BI Desktop will only be supported on Windows 10 and newer.

The January 2024 release of Power BI Desktop for Report Server will be the last release to support Windows 8.1, and this version will only receive security updates until January 2025 per the Modern Lifecycle Policy.

Public preview release of the Asset Management mobile app for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

March 29th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

Asset Management is an advanced module for managing assets and maintenance jobs in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. Asset Management integrates seamlessly with several other finance and operations apps.

The new mobile app is available for all commonly used mobile platforms, devices, and form factors.

The app enables maintenance workers to review their assigned jobs, mark tasks as complete, enter notes, and log the time and materials consumed. Other staff can use the app to quickly file maintenance requests by scanning a barcode, entering notes, and submitting photos.

The Asset Management mobile app is built as a Canvas app in PowerApps, and doesn’t require any additional licenses to use. The app leverages the security roles already established in Supply Chain Management to grant the appropriate users access to the maintenance request and/or job management functions as needed.

System requirements

To run the Asset Management mobile app, you must be running Supply Chain Management version 10.0.32 or higher.

The app is available for all commonly used mobile platforms, devices, and form factors.

Microsoft Releases SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Update 23H1

March 17th, 2023 by Stephen Jones No comments »

Microsoft Releases SharePoint Server Subscription Edition Update 23H1

  • The update adds support for the SharePoint Framework version 1.5.1 development platform, with support for “modern web technologies and tools.”
  • Microsoft “recompiled SharePoint Server Subscription Edition with the newest Visual C++ compiler: Visual C++ 2022.”
  • Microsoft also added four new PowerShell commandlets that “will replace the functionality of the ‘stsadm.exe -o variationsfixuptool’ command.”

The update supports private key management of SSL/TLS certificates in SharePoint Server farms, which allows the certificates to be ” dynamically updated when the certificate assignments change.

Microsoft added “wildcard host header binding” for web applications that share the same TCP port, which means that organizations can now shorten DNS names using an asterisk.

With this update the sharing function in “lists, document libraries, pages, or site contents” follows the modern sharing dialog box convention . However, Microsoft also added the option to its Lists column totals view to make it look more like the “classic” SharePoint approach.

The Quick Chart modern Web Part can now get data from a SharePoint site’s List or Library, which previously wasn’t possible.

The File Picker now supports more file types, namely “PDF, TXT, MP4, M4V, MP3, OGG and WAV.”

SharePoint Server 2019 and AMSI Support
Microsoft announced that it has integrated the Windows with this update (AMSI) security capability into SharePoint Server 2019 with its March 2023 cumulative update. This capability is “designed to prevent malicious web requests from reaching SharePoint endpoints.” It will examine incoming Web requests and block the malicious ones.

AMSI lets applications and services integrate with any AMSI-capable anti-malware product present on a computer.

AMSI was added to SharePoint Server SE back in November, and is now available in SharePoint Server 2019. “This feature will also become available to SharePoint Server 2016 customers later this year,” Baer indicated.