For the 2nd quarter of our new Feature Release schedule for the HighPoint Magic Portal, we focused on expanding the newly created areas outlined last quarter to make this site as efficient as possible for our customers to use. As a reminder, the HighPoint Magic Portal can be found at https://magic.gohighpoint.com and uses your existing Microsoft Office 365 login credentials. Here are the exciting changes we are announcing in this Feature Release:
Our Self-Help area is crammed full of easy-to-follow support articles to get you started on everything from creating a killer email signature, to configuring a cool background on your Microsoft Teams calls. To help make this area an easy to consume shopping area of ideas, we’ve enhanced our Categories and Tags area on the right side of the screen.
These newly defined Categories and Tags allow you to navigate directly to the area you are interested in learning, helping you get in and out with relative ease as you increase your use of the various Microsoft products.
Want to learn how to setup and Out of Office response? No problem! Simply find the tag for Out of Office, click the link, and your portal takes you to all articles outlining how to set that up within your Outlook client.
Want to color code your calendar to identify critical meetings or tasks? We have you covered here as well. Find the Tag for Calendar and look through the various articles on how to configure your Outlook calendar in ways you never thought possible.
As the number of articles, and software applications increases within your Self-Help area, these Categories and Tags shortcuts will become invaluable to you. Putting the right information at your fingertips each time you use the portal.
This brings us to our next exciting update within the Self-Help center of the HighPoint Magic Portal……..videos!!!
We recognize the fact that many businesses have employees you rely extensively on their mobile devices to use Outlook for email, SharePoint for files, Excel, Word, etc. We also recognize the fact that sometimes reading a “How to” article on your phone can be a massive strain on your eyes.
To help with this, we’ve introduced our first set of video-based instructional content on how to maximize your Microsoft Office experience on a mobile device. With this initial roll-out, we’ve focused exclusively on Outlook for Mobile, but as we build out additional content in future Feature Releases, we will also include videos on everything from SharePoint for Mobile, to Excel and Word on your mobile devices.
To check out our new video-based content, simply navigate to the Tag called “Videos” on the right of the main Self-Help screen.
When selecting this new Tag, you will see our initial batch of videos to click into and run using the instructions provided within the article.
As you will see, all of the videos are easy to consume, with no video lasting over 3-4 minutes in length. This also ensures the steps outlined are quick to implement so you can get on with your business day.
With this Feature Release, we are also announcing a new capability within the HighPoint Magic Portal…..visual Project Updates!! Unless we’ve recently completed a larger project for you, you are most likely unaware that HighPoint employs a formal project management methodology called Kanban. What is Kanban you ask??
Kanban, a Japanese term meaning "visual card" or "signboard," is a highly effective framework for managing work processes and improving productivity across a wide range of industries. Originating from the Toyota Production System (TPS) in the 1940s, Kanban was initially developed as a scheduling system for optimizing manufacturing processes. However, its principles and practices have since been adapted and applied to various domains, including software development, project management, healthcare, marketing, and beyond.
At its core, Kanban is based on the principles of visualizing work, limiting work in progress (WIP), managing flow, making policies explicit, and fostering continuous improvement.
One of the key features of Kanban is its use of visual boards, often referred to as Kanban boards, to represent work items and their progress through different stages of a workflow.
These boards typically consist of columns representing different stages of work, with cards or sticky notes representing individual tasks, user stories, or work items. This visual representation provides teams with a clear and transparent view of their work, facilitating better coordination, communication, and decision-making.
In the future, if your company has an ongoing IT related project with us, you can visually see our status, and if provided with the correct access, actually move tasks or assignments live by moving tiles to reflect any changes in your business needs!
To find the Projects section of your Magic Portal, simply navigate on the left side of your portal to the Account tab. From there, select the Projects menu option below that and “Voila!”, you can see all your open projects with us!
Shown below is a test project we created within the portal to provide you with an example of our Project views for our customers.