Office 365 Distilled

IDO,  Microsoft:  Intelligence-Driven Organisation Framework    Deloitte:  Insight Driven Organisation     “Basically almost the same and identical” to be precise.

Understanding the metrics  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/productivity/productivity-score 

The boys eventually start to look at the areas monitored with the productivity Score, ignoring the physical network aspects. They focus on the people aspects to try and make a judgement on the way people are changing.

Microsoft has looked at how people are working but with the context of generating information from the cold hard data figures.  Achieved through a combination of data sets to create a story of change

Comparisons are made between the number of people enabled for a function and the number of people using the tools available to them.

Marijn and Steve are not sure about the way meeting definitions are used in the productivity Score. Where Camera-on gets a higher mark than a meeting without Camera usage by the participants.  However, they like that meetings that include screen sharing have a higher value as this indicates good Collaboration

Tracking the mobility of your users is about using multiple devices for a user and using different applications to edit or view content.

Working through all the pages on the Productivity Score page, Office365Distilled becomes more optimistic about how these tools can judge Collaboration across the enterprise.

Then we move to TOAD or The Oxford Artisan Distillery, where the boys visited a few weeks ago and bought a bottle that is distilled from grains propagated from 300+-year-old seeds.  This drink is truly a great tasting Rye Whisky.

After The first in-person conference for 18 months Steve and Marijn talk about the things they learned from the great list of speakers and people they bumped into and the Whisky tour around the Cotswold and Oxford.  Eventually tasting the Cotswold Peated Cask and an interview with Connor Teague the Events and Marketing Manager for the distillery telling us about the history and plans for this great English whisky brand.

Shout out...

Sarah Fenner  |  Al Eardley  |  Yannick Reekmens  |  Tony Woodruff  |  Alex Kwaskowski  |  Megan Warren  |  Bill Ayers  |  Sharon Weaver  |  Kevin and Al from GreyBeard  |  David Cromca  |  Zoe Wilson  

And all the others that we missed from the list…  thank you.

They talk about what they learned which of course focused on all the bits they don’t know… The main message is that MS teams is huge, but we all knew that.

Steve and Marijn talk about their first Face to Face conference in over a year, this is Commsverse…

Times may be uncertain, but one thing remains true. There’s a simple power in people coming together.  That is why we are committed to delivering an in-person conference this Year. Commsverse is a community conference organised by technology enthusiasts for enthusiasts.

We are a laser focused technical conference dedicated to enabling Microsoft Teams for medium to large enterprises.  We are the event where the best minds in the business gather to share their expert knowledge and experience so that your organization can enable your flexible workforce communication & collaboration using Microsoft Teams effectively & efficiently.

We pick out our favourite presentations that we intent to visit and learn from.

Steve & Marijn   -   www.SteveandMarijn.com

Ever wondered what a Whisky might taste like that has been matured for 7 years at -4 degrees on Europe’s biggest glacier? Episode 66 of Office365Distilled tell you exactly what it tastes like.  If that is not enough reasons to listen to the podcast, then understanding more about user and management buy into the Microsoft365 change and adoption process might do it for you.

We discuss why it’s important to Senior managers to ensure that Awareness if Transparent. That they fully understand the implications at the start and become the strategy ambassadors for the project.

Finally, we mentioned the dreaded word Politics and look at how its important for management to drive the energy of the project ensuring user beliefs and step into providing the vision of the change 

As always there is a hint of rudeness with discussions on how Marijn picks the perfectly sized cigar, but as it is a podcast the joke from Steve about where the cigar goes is lost on the audience.

But then the background to the podcast about setting up those pages is discussed.  Not defining the information that needs to be displayed but focusing on the tips and tricks to building and managing pages… the main 8 pieces of content.

We talk about Dear jeff and how he will be taking our suggestions and immediately adding them to the backlog on the day the podcast is released…  ok maybe not 😉 

A great tip from Marijn about creating a new view in the Site pages library to create a Functional list of the pages to find them back again. Steve reminds us that it is a library with all the features of a library including metadata, grouping, filtering multiple views.

Marijn introduces the way to list the pages in web parts and Steve looks at the fact that the page content is King, presented in a way to make the user go WOW and want to come back and see future changes.

Both podcasts talk about how the Heading anchors are a great way when combined with Quick links and even text links so that users can jump around the page and quickly get to the content.  Steve adds the tip to make sure users can easily get back to the top.

Matt Hurst joins us from Ribbon Communications a sponsor from the Commsverse conference on September 15th for 2 days to talk about what goodies they will be giving away at the conference and what knowledge they will share.

Dear Jeff… can you make a web part that can move within the page as you scroll down and stay within the live window as well as making it possible to pull content from other site collections.

The boys shout out lots of respect to those with the skills that can visualize a stunning page and the difference between the technical skills of building the page and the design aspects of creating beauty.

Movie tags are included that perfectly describes how we bend Microsoft365 weaknesses as Marijn says “Nature always finds a way” 

Some new features are discussed around collapsible sections which are rolling out… but you can ignore this if needed because apparently ‘We are not that kind of podcast 😊

The podcast disagreement is about the Page web part that inserts a line… Steve hates and Marijn loves… before finishing with some Dear Jeff moments for improvements.

Finally, we get to Whisky, which turns out to be very special, suggested by our regular listener Sven, created by a German Kirsh maker.  The boys tell a confusing story of this whisky because it is so surprisingly good and it expands the taste horizon of Steve and Marijn.  Bu the agreement is that they should not have been surprised because of the source of this whisky.

And this time Steve tries to do the ending and gets hijacked by Marijn.

A split decision on subjects for Episode 63 sees Steve and Marijn bring both their ideas together.  Looking at the key structures that build content architectures, Sites and Structures, Governance and Processes combined with Marijn’s thoughts on the 5 reasons that Business transformation fails and looking at how you can plan for failure and identify the solutions for success.

Opinions vary in this podcast with the usual disagreement on Architecture coming first but we hope the different opinions, thoughts and discussions help you work out what’s best for you.

The boys disagree on the readability of URLs and naming convention for Sites Marijn is a believer in identifiable and named url’s and whilst Steve is a believer in a Code or number for the Intranet, we look at the pro’s and con’s of a readable url.    

The One-Inch Party is defined as 3 days before Commsverse with a reminder that September 12th is the Office365 Distilled One-Inch party and September 15th and 16th is Commsverse the Hybrid MS teams conference.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is discussed and the involvement of Leadership to support the solutions around RBAC and Steve identifies some of the difficult steppingstones for success which will change but solid processes and dynamic groups make this a real success possibility.

A blended whisky again is selected to finish off the podcast with an independent bottler taking great whiskies from the lowlands creating ‘The Epicurean’ blended whisky from Douglas Lang. 

Have you set up Secure Score??  Office365Distilled takes a high level look at improving your secure score and the big items that you can implement to move your score from the low percentile to more than 60%.

“but how does this effect the user?” Is a question that Steve and Marijn cover. We do know that adding security is a balance with the inconvenience cause with additional authentication and speed reduction through encrypting content etc. 

Mark Vale and Martin Boam creators of Commsverse join us to provide some background about how this Hybrid conference is designed to focus on networking and deep diving into MS Teams over 2 days at Mercedes-Benz world in the UK 

Peer comparison in Secure Score is discussed which is a great way to judge your figure against representative peer companies and how settings today will not consistently keep your percentages up because accessing secure score is important to ensure a high level of security.

Secure score can manage your tasks and projects around security and allows you to mitigate the risks if your DLP for example is managed by external tools.  Defining who can see, read, and edit secure score is important to ensure the right people have appropriate access.

Alerts are discussed that will set some policies which check various aspects of the user experience for those users who forward their email to external accounts or remove their Junk Email folder.

Whisky raises its head as usual and we move east with a blend from Japan and Steve forgets the the name of the recent Sherry Bomb Whisky he tasted on his journey to appreciating Sherry whisky and then Marijn introduces a Japanese Whisky finished in Rum barrels from Okinawa. 

EP61 is a unique episode because amazingly Steve and Marijn finish on time! Whilst looking at the MS Team announcements.  We discuss Jeff Teper’s keynote from European SharePoint conference and how he positions Microsoft365. 

The future of collaboration is discussed looking at Fluid capabilities with such great excitement and the boys discuss recent announcements within MS teams from build.  

Advice on becoming a MS teams Rockstar is included as well as a slightly longer discussion on Kilchoman Experimental Casks… which we of course had to taste!!

Steve and Marijn dig down into collaboration for this special episode of the Offcie265 Distilled podcast.  The 60th Episode meaning 60 subjects discussed and 60 whiskies tasted.

30+ years ago you only had the ability to share a network drive holding files you and the team needed.  Today you have co-authoring, Sharing, Document templates, Improved search capability, live sharing of content and integration of voice, Video and Content.

We look at the Corporate Collaborative Roadmap and route your organization needs to take along with the investment of tools, time, and resources to move forward.

How do you measure the work and return on investment as you roll out the M365 services and deliver collaboration to your organization?  Steve and Marijn tell some stories in EP60 of office365 Distilled around the Roadmap to deliver collaboration.  Starting from over 40 years ago when a network drive was all that was available through to full collaboration.

Finally, we tell you one of the best Whiskey stories to emerge over the last few years that created a very special whisky.  The story and the whisky combined bring you the best whisky tasting yet from the boys of Office365Distilled with the help of Uncle Nearest!