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April 2020 Newsletter

Channels

vFire

Yammer

RightFax

Guide

Help

Census

 

Introducing Private channels in Microsoft Teams

teamsPrivate channels create specific, focused spaces for collaboration within your teams.

How it works: Only the users on the team who are owners or members of the private channel can access the channel. Anyone, including guests, can be added as a member of a private channel, as long as they are already members of the team.

When do I want to create a private channel?

You might want to use a private channel if you want to limit collaboration to those who need to communicate for a specific project, without having to create an additional team to manage.

To determine whether a private channel is needed, consider these following questions

Channels

When a private channel is created, it’s linked to the parent team and can’t be moved to a different team. Additionally, private channels can’t be converted to standard channels and vice versa.

Dive deeper into private channels.

How do you know if you’re in a private channel?

A lock icon indicates a private channel. Only members of private channels can see and participate in private channels that they are added to. If you are not in an existing private channel, you will not see it listed in the Teams menu.

 

Each team can have a maximum of 30 private channels and each private channel can have a maximum of 250 members. The 30 private channel limit is in addition to the 200 standard channel limit per team.

 Who can create private channels?

By default, any team owner or team member can create a private channel. Guests can't create them. The ability to create private channels can be managed at the team level and at the organization level:

  • On the Settings tab for a team, team owners can turn off or turn on the ability for members to create private channels.
  • As an admin, you can use policies to control which users in your organization are allowed to create private channels.

What happens when a team member leaves or is removed from a team?

If a team member leaves or is removed from a team, that user will also leave or be removed from all private channels in the team. If the user is added back to the team, they must be added back to the private channels in the team.

If a private channel owner leaves your organization or if they are removed from the Office 365 group associated with the team, a member of the private channel is automatically promoted to be the private channel owner.


 

vFire successfully transitions to the Cloud

Big picture: IOT has made changes to vFire, the ITSM system that manages support tickets, requests, SOP's, workflows, etc., as a first step to a new and improved system. 

Phase I: The first phase of the vFire Next Level project was completed during the last weekend of April, successfully transitioning the production system from on-premise to the Cloud.

vFireAccording to the Service Management team, vFire Core and vFire Customer Portal (VCP) are available for use via the internet for the first time. This access will be secured by Single Sign-On and Multi-Factor Authentication. For now, you still need to use your state computer to access Core to ‘work’ calls because vFire still requires the client to be installed. 

Note: Customers can still access the customer portal via any browser.

Other than the Service Management team’s internally-developed Quick Launches (customer verify and resolution approval), all features and functions of the system behave the same as it does on-network. Due to the nature of how the internally-developed Quick Launches operate, they are NOT available unless you are on-site or on VPN.

During the vFire upgrade to ASM scheduled for Quarter 3, 2020, Quick Launches will become available off-network. 

What's next:

  • Phase II - Upgrade from Alemba’s vFire to Alemba Service Manager (ASM) is estimated to begin in Quarter 3, 2020. No more client installations! 
  • Phase III - Develop/Implement ASM Health Dashboard (SPoG) is estimated to begin in Quarter 4, 2020. This will help IOT improve monitoring of their data center servers and major network devices and allow us to respond more quickly to performance-related issues. 

 


 

Join the community in the state’s Yammer Group

The WorkSmart 365 Yammer Group provides a place for you to ask questions about anything related to WorkSmart 365 or Office 365.

Yammer

What is it: Yammer is a community conversation tool for all State of Indiana employees. It is an interactive message board where you can ask or answer questions or seek advice from others on how to solve problems.

Yammer groups can be open to all employees or locked down to invitations. Dozens of groups already exist, explore what’s out there by going to yammer.com.

One active community is the WorkSmart 365 group which discusses training and workshops for everything Office 365, including Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. 

You can find all information about Yammer and joining the community on the Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways site.

Once there, click the drop down arrow on Join Our Communities along the top navigation. Click on Yammer Group. 

Yammer group

 

 



Moving to a web-based RightFax client 

The Unified Communications team at IOT has been working to move to the web-based RightFax client, versus having an installed application. The web environment is now ready and IOT’s RightFax web services can accommodate more concurrent users and traffic.

rightfaxFor the time being, locally installed clients will remain until a full conversion to the web-based client is ready. 

What is RightFax?

Rightfax is a digital faxing utility that replaces conventional fax machines. With a RightFax account, you can easily send faxes from any popular web browser. RightFax is versatile too, you can quickly attach most types of documents, PDFs and images.  If you or your department need to receive faxes, they can be received as emails, redirected to a network-attached printer or saved in a network folder. It is extremely economical and is a much lower cost solution than a physical fax machine or MFD device using an analog phone line.

There is currently no additional cost for RightFax, and it can be requested by Voice Coordinators.

 

 

 

 

A go-to guide for working remotely

house

IOT has put together a complete work from home starter guide to help state employees work remotely.

  • Why it matters: There is a lot of documents on how to use IOT tools to work remotely, but they are spread out. The home starter guide puts all the critical information in one spot.

IOT help documentation, including the starter guide, is available on help.iot.in.gov. The guide is intended to provide a guideline and basic instructions for remote workers.

Resources that are detailed with instructions include:

  • Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Connection Methods             
  • Virtual Private Network
  • Windows Virtual Desktop
  • Remote Desktop with Citrix          
  • Troubleshooting

What do I absolutely need: The following will be required to access all of the state resources in the above document, regardless of connection method:

  • You must have a valid State of Indiana network account with a current (non-expired) password.
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) must be set up.
  • You must have a stable high-speed Internet connection OR a cellular phone with hotspot capability. The State will not provide home Internet connections to employees and these remote connection methods will not take the place of an Internet connection.
  • You must have access to at least one of the following web browsers.
  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer
  2. Mozilla Firefox
  3. Google Chrome

Please note that other browsers, such as Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge, may work but are not officially supported by IOT.

For all other questions you may have regarding working remotely, visit help.iot.in.gov.

 

 

 

Help.iot.in.gov

Why it matters:

IOT developed a site with in-depth FAQs (help.iot.in.gov) for products that may be utilized during remote work.

Moving forward, this is the primary channel where IOT is posting customer-facing support documentation.

The goal is to enable as much end-user self-support as possible.

For the past month, the page views at help.iot.in.gov have soared past 20,000, and continue to grow.

If there are questions about remote work, you'll find the answer here. 

Due to the potential of having sensitive information in the answers, these are behind authentication. Any state user should select Sign in with Microsoft on the left side of the screen. 

sign in


 2020 Census: Working with GIS

The Big Picture: Indiana’s census results influence policies that impact the everyday lives of real people, including decisions made in education, transportation, infrastructure, social services, health and housing.census

 The 2020 Census in Indiana is supported using geographic information systems (GIS) from state and local government.  GIS software and related geospatial technologies improve data collection, analysis, and dissemination and enable agencies to build accurate, authoritative, actionable data.

Mapping is generally recognized as one of the most crucial activities of a census. The 2020 Census will determine congressional boundaries, and provide demographic data that will drive resources, services and decisions that will have major impact on communities for the next decade. Results also help determine the allocation of billions of dollars in funding that the State of Indiana and local communities receive from the federal government.

The importance of Indiana’s Census is reflected in our communities; as an example, data from the last decennial census were used to distribute more than $675 billion in federal funds in one year to states and local communities for health, education, housing, and infrastructure programs. 

Detailed population information is critical for emergency response in the wake of disasters. It helps to understand hotspot areas, particularly in rural areas where data based on population counts creates a clearer picture for resources and impact. Similarly, demographic details from the census assist public health personnel in everything from tracking disease outbreaks, like COVID-19, to combating the opioid epidemic, and improving child health.

The Indiana Geographic Information Office (GIO) aided in the data collection and coordination of data sharing which helped Indiana prepare and respond to data needs by the US Census Bureau leading up to the 2020 Census launch.  This data helps show local boundaries, as well as new growth and changing populations. Indiana’s population and framework has changed since 2010, and our Indiana GIO and the GIS community are happy to support the count which will drive decisions and resources for the next decade.

 

 


 

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