Archive for the ‘Teams collaboration remote access’ category

The New Dynamics 365 Project Operations – ask Synergy Software Systems, Dubai

January 16th, 2021

Almost a year ago, Muhammad Alam, Corporate Vice President Dynamics 365, shared the vision for a better product for project and service based businesses and industries. In March, Gurkan Salk was named the new General Manager for Project Operations at Microsoft.

Users of Dynamics 365 Project Operations often ask for a better way to collaborate in Microsoft Teams, and a new app experience has now arrived. (December 2020)

There are many ways in which Teams can be used to boost collaboration and efficiency while reducing reliance on email.
Add the Dynamics 365 App to Teams and use Project Operations inside Teams.
There is no need to step out of Teams for anything related to Dynamics work.
This app in general is for all the Dynamics 365 apps built upon Dataverse and the Power Platform, be it the Sales app, Customer Service, Project Operations, or others.
The benefit of working with Project Operation within Teams is the improved collaboration as project execution is in process. Many of the workflows of a typical project require constant email correspondence. That work can now be done via Teams, keeping inboxes clean and ensuring the right people stay informed.

DYNAMICS 365 FOR MARKETING – October 2020 updates

October 8th, 2020

Microsoft understands customer engagement is the key to every business development process. This month, they add meat to their 360-degree view of customers with smart improvements to relationship-building processes and capabilities.

In-Place Editing of Email & Forms. No longer will you have to disengage from a customer journey to create or edit email communications or forms. In-place editing keeps the focus where it should be – within the customer journey. You can also create or edit marketing forms related to an event within the event itself. This one is a big improvement and just makes smart sense.

Enhanced Content-Rich Social Media Creation and Managemetn. The entire social media post creation experience has been redesigned for ease of use, better management across multiple channels and enhanced scheduling features.

A Redesigned, More Efficient Customer Journey Canvas. The new design offers a more intuitive approach to building customer journeys. The experience is further enhanced by no longer needing to hop between the canvas and the toolbox when creating the journey. One of my favorite new features is the inclusion of negative journey paths that allows you to create alternate journeys and follow-up events for those customers not meeting a certain condition (like not opening an email or not clicking on a specified link). This alone is a real game-changer.

Running Webinars within Microsoft Teams. With the onslaught of virtual events, the October release enables you to manage webinars and video meetings in Teams, directly from the Dynamics 365 Marketing platform. You can create and host live events – and integrate them directly into Marketing events. Businesses are already looking for better alternatives to Zoom and other video conferencing platforms and Microsoft is definitely stepping up to the plate.

Expanded Entity Options for Easy Data Collection. Before now, forms had to be connected to a lead or contact. But with the new release, forms no longer need to be mapped this way. Instead, marketers can store form submissions to other entities. and workflows can be created to move the data to where it needs to be.

The entirety of Dynamics 365 October Release is enormous, with updates and enhancements made throughout the entire suite of applications including: Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources, Commerce, Fraud Protection, and Business Central. There are also notable Microsoft Power Platform features in the new release, including substantial improvements for Power Apps developers.

SSD performance degrades over time- prevent this with DymaxIO

September 29th, 2020

Can SSD performance degrade over time and is there a way to prevent this? The answer is YES and YES. the same solution that addresses the inefficiencies of iops in Windows , SQL and VMs can also help you to maintain the performance of your solid state disks.

The reason for this degradation is an undesirable SSD phenomenon called the Write Amplification Factor (WAF), . This is a numerical value that indicates the actual amount of data that was written to an SSD in relation to the amount of data that was requested to be written from the Host (i.e. Windows OS System)

WAF = the data written to the SSD / the data written by the host

For example, an application on the Windows Server system writes out 128kb of data to the SSD, but internally on the SSD, 512kb of data is written on the SSD for this to occur. This will degrade SSDs write performance.

In this example, the WAF = 512kb/128kb = 4 ! This is bad, a 128kb write from the host that resulted in 512kb of internal writes on the SSD

Ideally, you want a WAF = 128KB/128KB = 1

Why does this occur. Unlike HDDs, data cannot be directly overwritten on a disk. On SSDs, data can only be written to erased spaces. When you have a brand new initialized SSD, all of the pages are in a free/erased state, and there is no problem for it to find free/erased spaces to write new data. But as the SSD starts to fill up with data, resulting in erased spaces having to be created that causes the WAF to increase. I can go into more detail on this but will save it for another time. Suffice to say, a higher WAF value means SSD performance degradation.

Do SSDs degrade over time?

The answer is YES but this has to do more with the SSDs filling up over time. Some recommendations on the web advise to keep free space on SSDs anywhere from 10% to 30% to avoid this degradation. With less free space on a highly I/O intensive system, a couple of things occur:

-There are less free spaces to write to, extra overhead may have to occur like block erasures to allow the new updates to occur. This increases the WAF – Not a good thing.
– With less free space, file data may get spread out to different locations on the SSD. For example, in the best case, 10 pages of file data that is being updated are all on the same block.
– When the block needs to be erased to be updated, then just that one block needs to be updated. If those 10 pages are on 10 different blocks, then in the worst case, those 10 blocks have to be erased and re-written – More overhead and a higher WAF.

The result is

➣SSDs are overprovisioned. For example, a 1TB SSD actually contains 1.1TB of data space. This extra space (seen only by the SSD internals) helps to allow the WAF to remain low.
➣SSD Garbage collection and Trim. Both of these processes include freeing/erasing spaces in the background so new writes can occur quickly on these newly erased spaces.

How doies DymaxIO™ help with SSDs Degrading?

DymaxIO has technology to keep the WAF low.

The patented IntelliWrite® technology enforces efficient Sequential Writes to occur rather than smaller Random Writes from the Windows Host. Sequential writes are more likely to place data in the same blocks which can decrease the WAF

Optimization engines keep the free space contiguous when needed on the host logical side. This will help enforce larger sequential writes to occur which decrease the WAF.

There are also a few more benefits of enforcing larger sequential writes.
– Sequential I/Os out-perform Random I/Os on storage, both HDDs and SSDs, so this ensures you are getting the optimal performance from your storage.
– Keeping the WAF low and writes lower on the SSD helps to extend the lifetime of the SSD.

IntelliWrite technology in DymaxIO does both of these functions automatically
– Keep sufficient free space on your SSDs
– Enforce Sequential Writes rather than Random Writes.

Fix at the source. 2X SQL application performance, accelerate Windows throughput 40+%, extend hardware life 2 to 3 years, reduce timeouts, crashes, and more. A software solution to software problems Just install, DymaxIOno code changes, no reboot necessary.

Call Synergy Software Systems 0097143365589

Why software update is important – the latest patches from Microsoft monthly ‘Patch Tuesday’

September 16th, 2020

There many reasons from performance to new features to compliance and to support new ways of working.
However, with the huge sophisticated increase in cybercrime, unpatched and out fo date software versions are most vulnerable.

As part of this month’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft today released a fresh batch of security updates to fix a total of 129 newly discovered security vulnerabilities affecting various versions of its Windows operating systems and related software. Of the 129 bugs spanning its various products — Microsoft Windows, Edge browser, Internet Explorer, ChakraCore, SQL Server, Exchange Server, Office, ASP.NET, OneDrive, Azure DevOps, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Dynamics — that received new patches, 23 are listed as critical, 105 are important, and one is moderate in severity.

Unlike the past few months, none of the security vulnerabilities the tech giant patched in September are listed as being publicly known or under active attack at the time of release or at least not in knowledge of Microsoft.

A memory corruption vulnerability (CVE-2020-16875) in Microsoft Exchange software is worth highlighting all the critical flaws. The exploitation of this flaw could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code at the SYSTEM level by sending a specially crafted email to a vulnerable Exchange Server.

“A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Exchange software when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory,” Microsoft explains. “An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts.”

Microsoft also patched two critical remote code execution flaws in Windows Codecs Library; both exist in the way that Microsoft Windows Codecs Library handles objects in memory, but while one (CVE-2020-1129) could be exploited to obtain information to compromise the user’s system further, the other (CVE-2020-1319) could be used to take control of the affected system.

Besides these, two remote code execution flaws affect the on-premises implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365, but both require the attacker to be authenticated.
Microsoft also patched six critical remote code execution vulnerabilities in SharePoint and one in SharePoint Server. While exploiting the vulnerability in SharePoint Server requires authentication, other flaws in SharePoint do not.

Other critical flaws the tech giant patched this month reside in Windows, Windows Media Audio Decoder, Windows Text Service Module, Windows Camera Codec Pack, Visual Studio, Scripting Engine, Microsoft COM for Windows, Microsoft Browser, and Graphics Device Interface.

Vulnerabilities marked as important reside in Windows, Active Directory, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Internet Explorer Browser Helper, Jet Database Engine, ASP.NET Core, Dynamics 365, Excel, Graphics Component, Office, Office SharePoint, SharePoint Server, SharePoint, Word, OneDrive for Windows, Scripting Engine, Visual Studio, Win32k, Windows Defender Application Control, Windows DNS, and more.

Most of these vulnerabilities allow information disclosure, the elevation of privilege, and cross-Site Scripting. Some also lead to remote code execution attacks. In contrast, others allow security feature bypass, spoofing, tampering, and denial of service attacks.

Windows users and system administrators are highly advised to apply the latest security patches as soon as possible to keep cybercriminals and hackers away from taking control of their computers.

For installing security updates, head on to Settings → Update & security → Windows Update → Check for updates or install the updates manually.

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Microsoft Lists now in Teams – ask Synergy Software Systems

September 8th, 2020

Microsoft Lists, a new product based on SharePoint Lists, is now generally available through the Microsoft Teams service for both business and government users, Microsoft announced this week. Besides Teams, Lists is also slated for SharePoint Online and the Microsoft 365 Launcher application.
Mobile apps for iOS and Android are expected to be released around the end of the year.
Lists in Teams Availability
Lists in Teams availability depend on the sort of Microsoft 365 updates an organization elects to receive. The feature started rolling out in August to tenants getting “targeted” update releases, according to Lincoln DeMaris, a Microsoft principal program manager on the Microsoft Lists team, in an interview published by Microsoft on Monday.
The application more likely will arrive in Microsoft 365 tenancies in early September, and will get finalized in mid-October, according to Daniel Glenn, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, in an Aug. 8 “365 Message Center Show” podcast.
Lists wasn’t there in Teams when I checked the Apps menu. However, when it’s available, Lists will get added by default for all Teams users unless IT pros block it, according to this Microsoft help document. Data used with the Lists app are stored in an organization’s “SharePoint Online team site,” the document explained. Permissions associated with Lists in Teams apparently get controlled via SharePoint List or Library permission controls that IT pros may set.
Lists Capabilities
Microsoft Lists is different from other Microsoft list programs in providing user-friendly templates to help create lists. Within Teams, it’s possible to chat about the lists using a pane on the right side. Lists also can be created from Excel workbook files, if wanted.
Microsoft’s premade Lists templates include:
• Patients
• Loans
• Incidents
• Issue Tracker
• Event Itinerary
• Business Trip Approvals
• Team Contacts
• Asset Tracker
• Project Planning
• Onboarding Checklist
The first three lists (Patients, Loans and Incidents) are described as being new “industry-specific templates.” It’s also possible to create new lists by scratch, or create a new list using the formatting of an existing list.

End users can change the views in how the list information gets presented. Some views, though, such as “calendar views, gallery views and rules” are yet to come, according to DeMaris. While end users typically create lists within an organization, they also can create personal lists. DeMaris suggested Microsoft was working to address possible organizational governance issues associated with this personal lists creation capability.
Lists is powered by the same technology Microsoft uses to power SharePoint Site designs, DeMaris explained. That circumstance means that some of the same sort of customization options available for SharePoint Sites may be coming to Microsoft Lists, as well, he suggested.
Organizations using Lists in SharePoint Online don’t need to migrate them to SharePoint Lists because they are basically the same thing, DeMaris noted.

Modernise sales with Synergy Software Systems.

August 13th, 2020

Did you know that 55% of sales reps think their company’s sales tools are an obstacle instead of a facilitator?

Technology has rapidly changed the way customers buy. Customers now have more options on how when and where to buy, access to greater amounts of information, and communication channels have multiplied. As the complexity of sales increases, managing the sales process across multiple accounts can be challenging for sales teams. To better manage this complexity and help their sellers get more done, innovative organizations are modernizing their sales productivity.

Sales force automation and AI capabilities enable sellers to better manage lead. These intelligent solutions accelerate deals with an end-to-end, immersive experience for opportunity management; and integration with familiar tools—like Dynamics, Teams, Excel and Outlook—into their workflows to help increase collaboration and productivity.

– Focus on what’s most important and tailor interactions with your customers
– Streamline seller workflows, and get more done with integrations with familiar tools, like Office 365, that make work easier and faster
– Start with a sales solution that meets your needs and grows with your business

All of this means that sellers can spend less time on administrative work and more time meeting and communicating with customers, which leads to better solution design, more deals, higher revenue, and happier customers.

Please contact us to learn more about how Synergy Software Systems can help boost your revenue through modernizing your sales productivity with the latest automation tools.

callus on 0097143365589

No change to end of life support for Ax 2012 – plan your migration with Dynamics Gold Partner Synergy Software Systems

May 11th, 2020

Coronavirus tis impacting many IT project for Dynamics AX customers migrating from legacy versions of Ax 4/2009/2012 to dynamics 365.

Be aware that extended support plans for Dynamics AX 2009 Service Pack 1, AX 2012, and AX 2012 R2 are due to end on October 12, 2021. AX 2012 R3 users have until January 10, 2023. And Microsoft is advising customers these dates will remains in place, at least for now.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided this statement:

There is currently no plan to extend support further; however, we continue to monitor market needs including impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic related to support for Dynamics AX 2009 and Dynamics AX 2012.

So while the legacy versions are robust they will increasingly be incompatible with the latest versions of operating systems and browsers, and SQQL database and be increasingly vulnerable to malware and cybercrime. The coronavirus pandemic is affecting projects in many ways especially for global projects, for example: travel/quarantine, lockdowns and curfews on working, the need for remote collaboration, and e learning, and for global rollout more use of local partners.

There is no immediate end in sight so projects and timelines will be impacted for at last another year in which case we strongly advise you start your preparations for migration as early as possible. there is mush to consider: the on premise vs on cloud decision is now of greater importance, environmental sizing for cloud or on premise needs is significantly different as is new licensing and features for D365, new security set ups, code and data migration, project methodology via LCS , budgetting and project planning all take a lot of time.

The new challenges are accelerating different ways of working and some Business Process re-engineering should also be considered- e-commerce, Robotic Process automation, Lean manufacture, cross platform and application processes, self service, vendor collaboration, Customer portals, increased use of smart phones and mobiles from bar cod e driven WMS operations to Advanced analytics on your phone anytime anywhere any devices. To compete needs omni channel tailored services – there has never been a greater need for increased cost control, efficiency, and customer service. Start the process now while you can – as deadlines get nearer there will be backlog of customers seeking to upgrade and shortage of available resources both internally and externally.

TEAMS -75 million users -ask Synergy Software Systems, Dubai

May 1st, 2020

The use of Microsoft Teams has surged more than 70 percent since March with the massive global shift to remote work requiring increased online collaboration and video conferencing. .

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the n updated figure for daily active users (DAU) on Wednesday of 75 million.
The 75 million DAU follows a 44 million figure for the same metric as of March 18.

“As work norms evolve, organizations are realizing they need a comprehensive solution that brings together communications, collaboration and business process — built on a foundation of security and privacy,” Nadella said.

Nadella said that Teams had more than 200 million meeting participants in a single day in April. He also said those same participants racked up more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes.

“Microsoft Teams supports multiple communications modalities in a shared workspace. It is the only solution with meetings, calls, chat, collaboration with the power of Office, and business process workflows — in a single, integrated user experience — with the highest security, as well as compliance. Teams keeps all your work and communication — conversations, documents, whiteboards, and meeting notes — in context. It helps people collaborate inside and outside meetings, making them more efficient and effective while reducing fatigue,” he said.

“Twenty organizations with more than 100,000 employees are now using Teams, including Continental AG, Ernst & Young, Pfizer and SAP. Just last week, Accenture became the first organization to surpass half a million users,” Nadella said.

We use it – how about you?

Callus to learn more: 0097143365589

6-Month Extension for aging versions of Microsoft end-of-support dates.

April 23rd, 2020

When Microsoft products reach their end-of-support dates (known as the end of “extended support”), they continue to function, but Microsoft stops issuing free patches. Security updates stop arriving, which could pose problems for organizations. In response to the “current public health situation,”. Microsoft announced this week that support deadlines that were due in May now fall toward year’s end.

Microsoft’s announcement on extending the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement legacy Web client by two months also noted that Microsoft will be “simplifying the ability for Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Commerce customers to pause updates for an extended period.” However, the document just states that subscribers can pause for “up to three consecutive updates,” without further elaboration.

Microsoft announced earlier this month that it was delaying ending support for the older Transport Layer Security protocols versions 1.0 and 1.1, until the second half of 2020. The switch will have an affect on Microsoft’s browsers and Office 365 products.

Office 2010 Support Still Ends in October
Microsoft issued a reminder that Office 2010 for Windows and Office 2016 for Mac both will reach their end-of-support date on Oct. 13, 2020. They aren’t getting extensions. These Office users face an additional problem, namely that Microsoft plans to end the connections of those products with various Office 365 services on that same Oct. 13, 2020 date. Users should shift to newer productivity-suite products, Microsoft advised.

Microsoft’s announcement:

Also, as previously announced, after October 13, 2020, customers will need to have Office 365 ProPlus,[1] Office 2019 or Office 2016 to connect to Office 365 services. Microsoft will not take any active measures to block legacy versions of the Office client from connecting to Office 365 services, but these older clients may encounter performance and/or reliability issues over time. For related Office client support timelines, see the Office support dates matrix.

Microsoft is planning to rename Office 365 ProPlus as “Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise” on April 21. This along with other Office 365 name changes, were announced last month.

Remote wrorking through covid-9 and beyond with Teams and Windows virtual desktop

April 13th, 2020

Recent world events such as the 2020 COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak highlighted need for workers to have access to their tools as well as their colleagues without being able to go into the office.

Large corporations have asked their workers to stay home to reduce the spread and risks associated with the virus.

This is one of the features of the cloud we don’t need to be on-site to be working. Emails, software, documents, etc. are now accessible from anywhere.

This has led to a new concern that businesses have: how to collaborate effectively? For example to communicate to and within a specific group, about a specific project on a recurrent basis; and you might need to return to have conference calls, or team presentations, and to collaborate on documents and also view emails to keep track of all that has been shared and done for that particular project.

FlexJobs reports an increase of 44% in remote work in the United States over the past five years and a 91% increase over the past ten years.

In Canada, 47% of employees work outside of their office for half the workweek, and 39% work mostly from home.

On a global scale, 56% of companies allow employees to work remotely, and 52% of employees do so at least one day a week.

With today’s changing business climate, companies need to optimize their capability for remote work. This will ensure they can support their employees in any circumstance, whether there is a sudden crisis that requires remote work, or they simply want to make the option of flexibility available to their employees.

Microsoft Teams. Teams is a chat-based collaboration tool that provides global, remote, and dispersed teams with the ability to work together and share information via a common space. You can utilize cool features like document collaboration, one-on-one chat, team chat, and more. Microsoft Teams is also fully integrated with many other Office 365 services, such as Skype, SharePoint, Exchange, and Yammer.

Its what we use ourselves.

Some core capabilities are included in Teams:

Chat – Enjoy public and private conversations with your teams. The deep integration of Skype video into the application brings you popular social features, such as adding emojis and custom memes to your discussions.

Hub – Teams offers a shared workspace for the various applications in Microsoft Office including PowerPoint, Word, Excel,
Planner, OneNote, SharePoint, Delve, and Power BI. This feature gives you and your teams the option to work natively without having to stress about toggling between applications as you try to get projects completed.

To start using Microsoft Teams, contact us for a subscription them log into your Office 365 Portal with your credentials, look for Teams under the list of add-ins. Click on it to log in and configure the settings.
we even give you a Synergy fast start guide.

Microsoft Teams was built for today’s diverse workforce. The methods that organizational teams use to communicate and collaborate has gone through immense changes over the years; traditional hierarchies are dying out leaving room for flatter organizational structures and thus making the rapid flow of information and communication even more important. Teams provides you with an open, digital environment that makes work integrated, visible, and accessible across the board. With Teams, everyone around you will always be in the know.

At the core of this and every other service delivered through Office 365 are the 3 famous G’s:

Governance – Features like E-Discovery are added to ensure the applications are secure and meet various compliance requirements.

Graphs – Everything you do inside the Office 365 Suite is captured as a signal for content discovery across applications.

Groups – You can create groups made up of internal or external users, and then collaborate with the same group and access products in the Office 365 Suite.
Teams is already a part of the Microsoft Group, thus making all your data and communications accessible through Microsoft

Graph and Office 365’s centralized governance and management console. This is where Teams makes integrating solutions easier for you – it belongs to a robust platform. You’re not signing up for the average stand-alone solution.

Microsoft Teams provides a versatile conversation experience. You will be able to enjoy persistent threaded conversations. Looking at it from a broader point of view, every conversation you have within Teams automatically becomes information assets and are saved. These assets are searchable via Microsoft Graph. These conversations are visible to everyone on your team, but you also have the option of launching private discussions.

Additionally, Team’s deep Skype integration brings you video and voice capabilities plus a wide variety of modern visual communication tools that will help increase engagements with your team members. You are able to communicate with items like GIFs, stickers, emojis, and custom memes.

The ability to meet virtually is an important and cost-effective feature for businesses today. Teams gives you a view of your scheduled meetings, the timing, the subject, and a list of other persons who’ll be attending.

About 24 bots with a variety of functionalities are available to help increase productivity. There’s the T-Bot, which can answer most basic and frequently asked questions about Teams, Polly Bot for polling co-workers, Statsbot for delivering scheduled reports via sources, such as Salesforce and Google Analytics, and Growbot, which allows the exchange of kudos with your co-workers.

When you become a full member of an Office 365 Group, you experience the full depth and breadth of Office 365: PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Planner, OneNote, SharePoint, Delve, and Power BI. Teams was constructed around the idea of leveraging the maximum capability of Microsoft Graph. So, your workgroups and teams can have the ability to share insights, intelligence, and data anywhere within the Office 365 suite.

Available on both Android and iOS (audio only), Teams provides a simple and easy-to-use app that allows you to chat with your team via text, have a voice conversation, or a video meeting.

Teams gives you a platform with options for extensibility and open APIs with general availability. Through the leveraging of Microsoft Exchange’s Connector model, Teams can provide you with updates and notifications from third-party services like GitHub and Twitter.

Security is another area in which Microsoft Teams stands apart from its competitors and ensures your peace of mind. You will always be provided with cutting-edge security and compliance capabilities when you use any of Office 365’s platform services. Your data is encrypted while in transit and at rest. Teams and all other Office 365 services meet compliance standards including ISO 27001, HIPPA. SOC 2 and the EU Model Clauses. Teams is also a part of Microsoft’s global network of data centers which is said to have a transparent operational model. Your Teams account is provisioned within Office 365 and managed via the Admin console.

Windows Virtual Desktop
Windows Virtual Desktop makes it easy to access your desktop from anywhere because it is stored on a remote server, rather than being installed on a single device. You can access all Windows applications, programs, email, and data that are stored on the virtual desktop, no matter where you are. And this means you can sit at home and work as usual, no matter what is happening in the world.

Hosted on Azure, WVD is the only virtual desktop that has been created for Windows 10 and optimizes Office 365 ProPlus. It offers a multi-session Windows experience, and once deployed, you can easily access it using any browser.

WVD:

Windows Virtual desktop allows multiple users to connect to the same virtual machine and have a virtual session together
– Makes it possible for a user using a local desktop to also log into a virtual desktop
– Is inexpensive
– Offers the same enhanced, multi-layered security Azure provides, with a private VPN network so employees can access sensitive data and information
– WVD offers full flexibility and the ability to maintain continuity of work, whether an employee is stuck home with a sick child or forced into isolation due to a pandemic.

Through Teams we are still able to process you inquires and provide supoport.
call us to learn more: 0097142265589