Field service management (FSM) has changed in the last two decades. Gone are the days when dispatchers used legacy systems and spreadsheets to track the field service agent’s activities, and field service agents, on the other hand, used pencil and paper to complete their orders. Though these were ‘established’ processes, organizations found it difficult to keep up with increasing customer demands while staying competitive.

Studies show that 70% of people around the world work remotely at least once per week. To accommodate that, most businesses started using enterprise collaboration software to improve remote communications. There’s no reason government agencies shouldn’t follow the private sector’s model, especially since it would offer taxpayers a more efficient public sector.

Regardless of the industry, anyone working with clients will eventually deal with rude or mean customers. These customers can be very tricky to handle. But if you deal with them properly, it can make the difference between a satisfied customer and a lost customer. So what are the best ways to deal with rude customers? And why are customers rude to begin with?

Asking good questions is one of the hardest skills to master. Anyone who’s ever given an interview, participated in a panel or webinar, or even gone on a date knows that an uninspired question can really kill the conversation. When it comes to brainstorming, good questions are everything. We’ve all been in brainstorming sessions that started out fine but quickly lost steam, or that never took off at all.

Showing appreciation for a team member’s hard work is one of the easiest ways to make them feel seen and valued. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of in-product Appreciations. Whether your team is distributed or slowly returning to the office, Appreciations can help you connect, celebrate wins, and bring a little joy to your workday—from anywhere.

We released Zulip Server 2.1.5. This is a security release, containing a dozen cherry-picked changes since Zulip Server 2.1.4.

Frequent logouts are a frustrating experience for users, especially on servers with short session lengths configured. In v5.24 and later, you can enable the configuration setting for extending session length with activity to automatically extend sessions and keep users logged in as long as they are active in their Mattermost apps.

New feature release offers tighter integration with Office 365 and Active Directory and an improved end-user search and session experience. Mattermost Release v5.24 is generally available today. The new feature release offers tighter integration with enterprise tools such as Office 365 and Active Directory and an improved end-user experience for search and session management.