How Louisville Geek is using SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 Applications to assist during the COVID-19 pandemic

Like many of you, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way we do business. “Healthy at Work,” Kentucky’s phased plan to reopen the economy, has left many small businesses confused about the specific actions we all must take to comply with state regulations. 

We certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, but have carefully studied the state and local rules and compliance requirements needed to remain open, and have shifted our policies to remain compliant. We know that many of you are also navigating through these new realities to sustain your business operations, so we’d like to share a few things that we’ve built to help us comply with these regulations while using many of the same Microsoft 365 apps that we’ve used since our inception. If you are an active Microsoft 365 subscriber, most of these tools are already included in your subscription, but if you need assistance, you can always contact us for assistance. 

Daily Temperature Checks 

The state of Kentucky requires all entities to require employees to undergo daily temperature and health checks. Using Microsoft Forms, we built a simple temperature logging form for our employees to use before they can enter our facilities. When an employee logs his or her temperature and submits the form, we built a Flow using Power Automate, which notifies our HR department via push notifications and emails. The results are stored in a secured cloud environment, using Microsoft Azure. 

Technology used: Microsoft Forms, Power Automate (Flow) and Azure

Communication and Resources 

In the midst of all this chaos and uncertainty, anxious employees are depending on their leaders for information, support, and guidance.  

When it became clear that this virus was here to stay, we decided we needed a central location to store all the latest news and information surrounding COVID-19, so we built a SharePoint communication site that is solely dedicated to all things related to the coronavirus. The Intranet site is only accessible to Louisville Geek employees, and it includes the latest news, links, forms, calendar, and other relevant information.

Meetings and Collaboration 

You’ve probably heard plenty about Microsoft Teams by now, and for good reason. If you’ve ever visited our office, you’ve likely witnessed a meeting taking place in one of our 5 conference rooms. Collaboration has, and always will be the backbone of Louisville Geek. Unfortunately, the days of piling into a conference room to strategize seem like ancient history, as the majority of our meetings are taking place on Microsoft Teams, which allows us to collaborate in real-time. The ability to communicate via phone, chat, or video from anywhere with an internet connection has been crucial to our business over the past few months.