Cincinnati Children’s makes tough times easier

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is well known for excellent care and its commitment to the well-being of the families it serves. To reduce strain for parents and make their lives easier, the hospital created the Caren mobile app using Microsoft Azure and Azure services. Parents turn to Caren for help navigating the hospital, getting answers to their questions, and entertaining their children. Using the app lets parents focus more on their families and less on stressful details.

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A Grateful Culture Is A Healthy Culture. Here’s How To Create It.

Many studies over the past decade show a correlation between gratitude and happiness—the more people feel and practice gratitude, the more contentment and joy they experience. We know this is true in our personal lives—and it’s true in our professional lives as well. In his article, “A Grateful Culture is a Healthy Culture. Here’s How to Create it,” John Hall writes about gratitude in the workplace; specifically, how to create an appreciative company culture amongst team members. The first step, writes Hall, is to start with yourself: “Make time to reflect each day on the positive things that have happened to you, what you’ve already accomplished, and what you like about yourself.” While it’s nice to communicate your appreciation to others, it’s not essential that you do so repeatedly. Just by making time to consider what you’re your grateful for, you’ve stimulated your hypothalamus which regulates a lot and affects empathy, social cognition and emotional experiences. It’s difficult to encourage gratitude in your team if you’re not experiencing it yourself. And yes—they’ll know. Read Hall’s entire article for three other ways to create or increase a culture of gratitude.

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Improve Your Brand’s Online Reputation with SEO

In today’s digital world, a positive online reputation relates to much of a business’s success. Good reviews and high scores along with relevant content help consumers find your website. That’s why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be a main part of your online reputation management. SEO involves tailoring your website’s content to rank high in search engines’ criteria—and put you at the top in buyer searches for products and services. It includes identifying and using key words, content optimization, link building, and blog and social media presence. In her article, “Improve Your Brand’s Online Reputation with SEO,” Jessica Wong explains that the “right blog can contribute to your SEO ranking, generate more clicks from the search engine results page and help turn those clicks into sales.” A blog post should have a good mix of search keywords, relevant videos and pictures, and links to and from your page, she explains. Read Wong’s entire article for an overview of the four stages to SEO implementation and the six areas to focus on for improving your brand’s online reputation related to SEO.

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DevOps at Microsoft: Innovating on open source


Microsoft’s .NET Engineering Services team used GitHub and Azure pipelines for a DevOps overhaul from the ground up. Having code on GitHub enabled them to work together with more developers, while Azure pipelines gave them the reliability and scale they were looking for. Watch this video and see how open source makes sense. When you’re ready to innovate, contact us to learn more.

How to Empower Your Employees to Be More Customer-Centric

“Empowerment taps into the potential of a human being to do more than what is typically defined by their job description. Empowerment allows that individual to take initiative, to show courage, and to speak up and to make things better,” writes Phil Geldart, a recognized authority in transforming organizational culture and leadership development. It is especially important in today’s digital business world, because customers expect personalized experiences.

In order for organizations to offer an increasing amount of personalization, they must enable and empower their employees with the trust, knowledge, and permission to do what they know they can do—take care of the customer. In order for the customer-centric business model we strive for to work, your employees must feel empowered to do their part in establishing it. You can’t say you want a customer-centric organization and then continually limit the responsibilities and ownership of your employees. “True empowerment allows you to release the potential of employees at all levels and roles,” adds Geldart. It’s here you’ll see results far greater than you would if you simply instruct them what to do in each scenario. For specific guidelines on how to create a more positive workplace, read Geldart’s article, “How to Empower Your Employees to Be More Customer-Centric.”

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Connecting with 500 million passionate fans worldwide

Since 2014, Real Madrid has been revolutionizing the world of sports with Microsoft as their Official Technology Partner. Their revolution puts the fan at the center of their strategy and seeks to know everything about them to be able to satisfy their needs in the best possible way. They involve great challenges and great benefits for all areas of the Club.

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