The Microsoft 365 Special: Your Questions, Expert Answers

Episode Notes

Transcript

Adriana Linares: Before we get started with today’s episode, I want to make sure and thank our sponsors. Alert Communications, Lawclerk, Clio, and Abby Connect.

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[Music]

Intro: So if I was starting today as a New Solo, I would do something – the entrepreneurial aspect would be – we’re going to have to change the way they’re practicing – by becoming a leader – analyzing one after another – to help young lawyers – starting a new small firm – what it means to be fulfilled – make it easy to work with your clients – bringing authenticity – new approach, new tools, new mindset, New Solo – and it’s making that leap.

Adriana Linares: Welcome to another episode of New Solo on Legal Talk Network. I am your host Adriana Linares. I’m pretty excited. I’ve been planning for this episode for a very long time. My guest is Adam Alexander. He’s an IT and Microsoft Office and services specialist. We have been gearing up for this episode by asking listeners to email, tweet or somehow communicate questions about Microsoft 365, and all the Microsoft services for months. So we’re finally ready to talk about it. And I’m, like I said, pretty excited to have Adam Alexander on today. Hi Adam.

Adam Alexander: Hey. How’s it going?

Adriana Linares: It’s great. Tell us a little bit about yourself before I tell everyone how you and I know each other.

Adam Alexander: Yeah. I’m Adam Alexander. I’ve just been doing IT for probably 20 or so years, started a company in 2011, doing small, medium-size business IT, and specializing in hosting solutions. We’ve been doing this for a long, long time with these solutions before they were even like really a thing. So I got lucky and preempted with what kind of was coming up. So, yeah, we’ve been on it, I think.

Adriana Linares: You have been on it. You and I have been working together for somewhere between eight and ten years. So I don’t do IT work. I do legal technology training and consulting. So when somebody wants to decommission a server or they got a virus, I can’t and I don’t help with that. Thankfully, thanks to a past client of mine, who said I have a great IT guy, you should connect with him, we connected. But right now, recording this podcast over Zoom with video is the first time you and I have ever even seen each other.

Adam Alexander: Yeah. It’s funny. I mean, I was thinking about it. I think it was yesterday, I was testing everything. I’m kind of paranoid about stuff like that, like today I was testing the microphone and all that kind of stuff and getting Zoom up, and I realized, like I’ve known her, like you said, probably eight to ten years and we’ve talked off and on for clients and email and all that kind of stuff, and I realized every time you’ve been to Orlando, we haven’t had a chance to meet. Then your way doing meetings again and all that kind of stuff, and we just like on the phone and we’ve never done a Zoom meeting.

Adriana Linares: Nope.

Adam Alexander: So this is really the first time that we’re actually seeing each other, which is pretty cool.

Adriana Linares: It is. It’s so nice to meet you and somewhat in-person.

Adam Alexander: Yeah.

Adriana Linares: So what happened is this attorney said to me, I’ve got this great IT guy. I’m like, oh, I need one. I need someone to recommend. So right then, whenever that was, I started referring you work that I didn’t want to do or I don’t want to do. You are so responsive and so great, whether it’s me texting you and saying, hey, I’ve got this attorney who’s like really jammed, when do you think you could help them; or it’s a soft intro by email, you have helped so many attorneys. Now you’re not dedicated just to legal, but you have a lot of legal clients, which I appreciate. So you’re familiar with Clio and NetDocs, Microsoft 365 and a lot of the services that law firms use. So I want to thank you so much for always being so responsive, reasonably priced. I’ve never had an attorney or a law firm call me back and say, that guy was overpriced. I’ve only gotten compliments about your service. How big is your team?

Adam Alexander: So now we are three people full-time as far as IT goes.

Adriana Linares: Yeah.

Adam Alexander: Yet, it’s a steady growth. I always say that you’re one of my best sales people. So it’s great to know that, of course, everyone comes back and says — gives us praise and everything. So we’re happy to help and enjoy it. You mentioning that you’re so happy to have an IT person that you can rely on. We are so happy that — I mean everything I know about NetDocs, Clio, CosmoLex is from you, and being able to — and a similar thing is recommend you to our clients when they’re ready to move on to what I would say is a better solution.

(00:05:03)

Adriana Linares: Well, thank you. So we make a good team. I will say this, and to you it’s a thank you, but it’s something I want listeners to be aware of. You are one of the few IT people who pushes cloud services. I feel like a lot of IT people will not push Microsoft 365. Will do crazy things like try to put servers in the cloud, because they’re likely going to make more money themselves for their company that way. I very much appreciate how you will say to me sometimes, I’ve been trying to get them to go to Microsoft 365 forever. Not only is it just better for, but it’s more manageable for you.

Adam Alexander: Right. Simplicity is the name of the game, and what I tell our clients is, if it’s easier for you, it’s going to be easier for us. If you have a really complicated setup, you’re going to call us more and we’re going to have to dedicate more time to you, which creates less room for more clients. So that’s always been the name of the game, is just keep it simple stupid. So that’s kind of the motto. So that’s kind of how I came around to using way back in the day, when 365 was pretty new. I would see file servers that I will — Dropbox is a file server with whatever we do that, and people would look at me, like, no, we need a server. Like the client would tell me, no, we need a server. I’m like, I’ve actually — I might be tooting my own horn a little, but way back in the day, I’ve actually lost clients, because I tell them no. You’re hindering yourself by having a server, and they would kind of look at me and like, no, that’s not the right answer. I’m just kind of like, I mean what do you want me to say.

Adriana Linares: Okay. Sometimes it’s fun to fire a client, because they won’t listen. It’s just not worth the stress. I want to get back to Microsoft 365. Thank God for what was Office 365 and is now renamed as Microsoft 365. I say all the time, it is the greatest gift given to small businesses ever.

Adam Alexander: For sure, a hundred percent.

Adriana Linares: Good. I’m glad you agree. When you have Microsoft 365 and you have the $8 or $12 version, which is going to — what I’m talking about here are Microsoft 365 business packages. There’s a $6 package, which I never tell anybody to get, because it doesn’t allow you to actually download and install Word and Outlook on your computer. You would be using everything online. So that’s never going to work for lawyers and law firms. So then your next two services up is Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, which is $8 a month, no Exchange. If you want Microsoft Exchange, then you’re up at the $12.50. So I’m going to assume that unless you’re a true, true solo, and listeners if you’re a true, true solo, you might get away with the $8.25 a month. But if you’re one attorney and a secretary and you want to be able to share calendars and contacts and have the same domain name and stuff, you’re probably up at the $12.50 a month. So all of that lead up to say, when we are able to get rid of a server, you’re replacing the email service with Exchange from Microsoft 365 in the cloud, and you get storage, which is the other thing you’re using your server for with Microsoft 365. Okay.

Adam Alexander: Yeah. So the $12.50 a month plan includes email along with the software suite for Office, where the $8 something a month only does the software. So if you do need any kind of email, I would still say, go to the $12.50 a month package. If you’re just looking for the software, the $8 is going to be fine, and then you can expand to the higher package later. Yeah, it’s always good, if you’re going to be looking at email, the 365 package is great. It has extra security and everything else included with it.

Adriana Linares: I’m glad you mentioned that, because speaking of email and extra security, right now, I’m getting a lot of attorneys asking me about being able to encrypt their emails. For me, traditionally and historically, email encryption has been a little bit hard because one of the things attorneys never want to do is create any friction in communicating with their clients. Oftentimes, and I hear this from attorneys, those emails end up in spam. So it’s almost as if the emails are overly encrypted, which is not a real thing, but to where it’s being flagged as this isn’t a legit email, because it’s encrypted. Do you find that as well?

Adam Alexander: It is funny, because — so Office 365 for the email side does have a package that can be — it can be either an add-on package that includes encryption or you can buy a higher grade license that kind of is in the enterprise level that includes it. But it does — the way I explain to my clients is imagine if you’ve ever worked with a bank and they send you any kind of documentation, you’re going to get the email that you click on the attachment, it kind of looks like a fake email. It does. You click on the attachment and then it goes to a website and says login. That’s kind of how I explain it to my clients, because pretty much everyone has had to work with a bank at some point and has seen those emails.

(00:10:02)

The thing is really those banks is pretty much the same exact system. So you’re on the level — you can kind of think about it this way. You’re on the level of what the banks use when you’re using like the Office 365 encryption, because they’re using the same systems. They’re using 365 or Exchange servers on their end. So you’re kind of on that level of being a bank as far as security with encrypted emails.

Adriana Linares: The example that I always use is have you refined on your mortgage lately. You don’t do anything with mortgage companies that isn’t encrypted or through a portal. So, okay. The last thing I want to mention about that is what you said, which is Microsoft does have an add-on service for providing you with that encrypted email service. So I don’t want to spend too much time on it. I just want listeners to know, you can talk to your IT person. And I should have said this, you are based in Central Florida, but you service clients all over the place. I’ve even sent your clients from San Diego and Iowa, and you’re super helpful. So, okay. One more thing. I want you to talk about, because if you had the account, which I don’t think I can, how many law firms have I sent you who started with either Gmail or Google Workspace, and you had to convert them to Exchange and Microsoft 365? A lot.

Adam Alexander: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that’s the primary location that they’re coming from for the most part.

Adriana Linares: What I typically tell them, and I just want you to confirm or deny, it’s easy for you to do, because you’ve got the migration services and packages that Microsoft gives you to pull out of Gmail and bring it all in. It’s not $10,000 project to do something like that. Correct?

Adam Alexander: No.

Adriana Linares: And you do it pretty quick, I think.

Adam Alexander: Yeah. As long as the information is there, as long as we have the logins for what we need, we can usually do it the same week, that same weekend coming up.

Adriana Linares: Typically, people want to do this, because they started with Gmail or they started with Google Workspace, which is the equivalent of Microsoft 365 from a Google world, and then they realize they’re paying for two services, which I don’t necessarily undo that every time I get a firm that’s got Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, because if you’ve been used to it and you’re using Gmail and Google for email, but you’re still — it can kind of work. But at the same time, keep it simple stupid. So if you’re looking to streamline, you’re going to want to move your Gmail email over to Exchange and Office 365. I want everyone to hear out loud. You don’t lose your emails. You don’t lose your contacts. You don’t lose your notes and you don’t use lose your appointments. You’re able to move everything.

Adam Alexander: Yeah, and that’s why it’s important to have a good qualified IT company, do it, because yeah, you can go start a 365 account and have email. But getting the old email, and not just the email, because we’re talking about Gmail itself. If you’re using Outlook, your contacts and calendar is a kind of everywhere. So it gets a little muddy how the transition works, but there are ways to do every single possible outcome. So that’s why it’s good to have some who has kind of seen it all and done it a million times.

Adriana Linares: And done it, which is what I appreciate about you.

Adam Alexander: Has the process down, yeah.

Adriana Linares: Yeah. That made me think of something, which is, and on top of the fact that you’re moving for your email service provider, you’re probably affecting your domain where your website is, which is really another reason you want somebody who knows what they’re doing to help you with this transition, because you also don’t want to bring down your website and keep you off from working. I’m going to ask you one, last question just before we take a break, because it’s about that time, and that’s the difference between a personal Microsoft 365 account and a business or work account. Can you just quickly explain the difference between the two? And I’ll say this, it’s okay to have both. You and I both agree that if you are a business person, you should have the business side for your business. But what’s the difference between the two?

Adam Alexander: So the personal account is usually going to be — a lot of people start with the personal account, because they just think, okay, I’m a small law firm. Let’s say, like your example, I’m using Gmail. I just need some Office software installed on a couple computers. So they go, they join the personal account. Maybe start using a OneDrive that’s included with it. But that’s kind of where it stops. So, let’s say, now you’ve got five people and they all want to use OneDrive. Well, now you can’t separate them and add — well, here’s a financial stuff that I don’t want the receptionist to see, all that’s kind of out the window. Everyone has the same files all the time forever. So the business account you’re getting into a per user set up to where the receptionist can have just the shared files for the company in her OneDrive, where the owner can have financials and business, critical information that’s separate from everyone else. So usually what I’d say is, if you haven’t started the process yet, start with a business license, because you don’t have to do this kind of thing in the background where you start a business account, but you still have this personal account that’s running your software.

(00:15:00)

If you start the business account, you can do the software and add email later, add services later, and not have to do this whole dance with the personal and business accounts and logins.

Adriana Linares: Migrating and stuff.

Adam Alexander: Yeah. Like we had mentioned too, as a business owner, it might benefit you to keep the personal account just for OneDrive and keep your personal and your critical information on the personal one, just to be sure absolutely that no one else can see it.

Adriana Linares: That’s what I do. So listeners, if your Microsoft 365 users, look in your system tray, which is a little area in Windows, and I don’t think they’re a different color on the Mac. I think they’re the same color. But if you’re a Windows user, look down in the system tray where the time and the date is, if your cloud for Microsoft OneDrive is gray, that is a personal Microsoft 365 account. If it’s blue, it’s a business Office 365 account. Now, I have both. So I’ve got two little clouds. I actually have three clouds, because I also have a Microsoft 365 account for San Diego. So I actually have three different Microsoft accounts logged onto my one computer and on my Mac. This is not different. Cool, little nerdy tips for you Adam, I just learned that you can have only one personal Microsoft 365 account. But up to nine business ones on the same computer. Did you know that?

Adam Alexander: I didn’t. That’s actually really interesting.

Adriana Linares: Isn’t it?

Adam Alexander: Especially, like you’re saying, you have all these different organizations you work with, so you’ve got to keep them separate. That’s perfect.

Adriana Linares: I do. So that means I have Outlook that has a mailbox for LawTech Partners, Adriana, and it has a mailbox for Adriana at San Diego. They’re separate. Back to the personal versus business OneDrive. I keep all of Adriana Linares’ files, mortgages, medical files, tax returns, all that in my personal. Everything related to LawTech Partners and my professional life that pays me is over in my business OneDrive account. I do that one for my mental sanity to not have folders next to each other where I might accidentally drop files from a client into my tax folder, but also for security purposes. So if I do get hacked, maybe only half my world gets hacked, not my whole world. Okay, well, so far so good. Let’s take a quick break. Listen to some messages from some sponsors, and I’m going to be right back with Adam Alexander.

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