Companies, that are built to last beyond the founder’s lifetime, have one thing in common. They are both efficient and effective. They optimize the bottom-line outcomes by utilizing their resources in a way that is unique, smart, and cost-effective. 

Now in the post-modern contemporary age, we see businesses equipping themselves with all sorts of innovative tools that are not only acting as the support system for the business but also a way to make processes faster, create an ease of access and generate efficiency.  

Traditionally, these high-end productivity tools were employed solely by large corporations, now although the inflection point has passed, Small Medium Business Enterprises ought to deploy these productive suites to remain relevant and thrive. 

The recent induction of Generative AI and Deep Learning mass adoption and rolling out in the consumer markets, its use cases are yet to be explored fully, but it remains foreseen and anticipated that organizations be they small or large will only propel further as leaders if they incorporate it in their core and augmented dimensions of businesses. 

Microsoft being a leader and staunch expert in AI, as is evident from the fact that they have funded the Open AI projects most notably “Chat Gpt”, and it intends to make these features available in their productivity suite. 

 As quoted directly from Microsoft official announcement:   “SMBs are rapidly becoming the new adopters of AI. Businesses are using AI-powered tools for sales and marketing automation and business operations automation. In fact, in a recent survey of 550 businesses with fewer than 200 employees, 72 percent said they are familiar with AI tools, with 48 percent using them daily.” 

And these numbers are expected to grow by far and large sooner than thought! 

Microsoft 365 offers a remarkable range of tools like Customer Voice, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform. These tools empower you to collect valuable customer feedback, streamline your processes, and even automate operations.  

It’s like having a personal assistant who can handle all your administrative tasks, so you can focus on what requires your most attention: running your business. Microsoft 365 is sort of like that personal assistant, but for your SME.   

“There are 11 million SMBs that now rely on Microsoft 365 solutions to help them achieve more than ever.” 

— Microsoft, 2023 

If we scour the blueprint of successful enterprises, we see Microsoft 365 services being avidly used in all of those spaces, enhancing the way businesses operate. From retail to telco to services, Microsoft 365 is helping businesses in every industry thrive.  

Retail businesses around the globe are improving their operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and overall business performance using Microsoft 365 which is essentially enabling them to work better, serve customers better and sell more. Whereas in the service industry, Microsoft 365 helps service businesses give great customer service, work together easily, and make better decisions with their data, so they can serve their customers even better. 

So whether you’re in retail, hospitality, or the booming delivery industry, Microsoft 365 is your secret weapon to deliver outstanding customer service.  

If you’re looking for ways to reach and exceed your business goals, Microsoft 365 is a great place to start. With its wide range of tools and services, Microsoft 365 can help you improve your business in every way.  

Ready to streamline your business for the future? Connect with ITCS today to get your business equipped with Microsoft 365! 

Message Trace in Microsoft 365 is a valuable tool for investigating email delivery issues, tracking message flow, and ensuring that important emails are reaching their intended recipients. It provides a detailed record of the path that an email message takes through your organization’s email infrastructure, from the time it is sent until it is delivered to the recipient’s inbox. 

How do you use this tool?? Below is a step-by-step guide on how to perform Message Trace in Microsoft 365. 

First you need to go to Exchange Admin Center (https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com). 

Then inside “Mail Flow” click on “Message Trace” and then “Start a Trace”.

1. By default, Message Trace will trace all messages. You can filter your trace by sender and recipient email address. 
2. You can select a tracing range in days. 
3. In this section you can filter your message trace by delivery status. Also, if you know the message ID of an email then you can easily put it in this field. Message direction can be inbound or outbound. You can also insert the client IP if you know it.
4. You can select whether to access the report online or download it as a CSV file.

If a message is not found in Microsoft 365 Message Trace, there could be several reasons for this issue: 

Message Hasn’t Reached Microsoft 365: The message may not have reached the Microsoft 365 environment yet. This can happen if there are delays in the email routing or if the message is still in transit. 

Search Criteria: The search criteria you entered may not match the message you’re looking for. Ensure that you’ve entered the correct sender, recipient, date range, or other relevant filters. 

Retention Policy: If the message is older and has been deleted based on your organization’s retention policies, it may no longer be available in Message Trace. 

Hybrid Deployments: In hybrid environments where you have a combination of on-premises Exchange servers and Exchange Online (Microsoft 365), Message Trace may not cover on-premises email flows. You may need to check your on-premises message tracking logs separately. 

Message Trace is a powerful tool that is essential for any IT administrator who is responsible for managing email infrastructure.