On the SPOT - Technology Podcast

In this episode of Buzzkill, Thomas Heinz joins Hunter and Jay to continue the identity discussion. This time, we dig in and talk about the importance of MFA and even uncover a little of the mystery of why it often feels like we’re either getting constant requests for an MFA check or following no distinguishable pattern.

Either way, Thomas, Jay, and Hunter dig deep on this one and try to keep this as non-technical as possible while deep diving into a highly technical topic. Join us, and let us know what questions you have so we can get you answers!

About Thomas Heinz

➡️ ☁️ Thomas started his journey in the IT world with ‘dual studies’ (apprenticeship and studies combined) at Siemens AG. After completion and a few years of application management for Microsoft SharePoint and Project Server at PSoD (Project Service on Demand) he took on a new challenge at AvePoint (ISV and Microsoft Partner) and started his career in the PreSales field.

He really enjoys doing PreSales – the combination of IT and problem solving, talking with people about business challenges is a very good combination for him as he is open minded and always (almost) positive.

Recently Thomas moved on and started at Okta – now he is connecting the right people to the right technology at the right time. ☁️

Connect with Thomas here:

* thomasheinz.net – Tips & Tricks for IT related stuff* Linked In | Thomas-Heinz* Twitter | @TomTomNavigator

July 26-30, 2021, marked the first wholly-in-person conference for the SharePoint community in a l-o-n-g time. While only a couple hundred people attended, the attendees and speakers alike all seemed to agree that in-person was very much missed.

To kick off the live podcast recording, Craig and Jay discussed the conference and some of their presentations, with a focus on SharePoint to SharePoint Online Migration and the importance of Information Architecture as you change versions. The full list of their presentations is below:

* ADM103 – How to Ensure a Seamless Hybrid SharePoint Environment by Craig Jahnke and Jay Leask* ADM201 – The Fun of a Modern SharePoint Migration by Craig Jahnke and Jay Leask* BV301 – What Should I Use and When? (Teams, Groups, SharePoint, and Yammer) by Jay Leask* BV304 – Intro to Viva Insights and Workplace Analytics by Craig Jahnke* OFF106 – Information Governance Strategy in Four Steps by Jay Leask* TMS102 – Getting Started with Teams Live Events by Craig Jahnke* WRK103 – Accelerate Office 365 Success: How to best Plan, Manage, and Control Migration Projects by Jay Leask

They were then joined by Microsoft Office Apps & Services MVP William “Andy” Huneycutt. While we’ve all had to adjust how we work, Andy is a trainer by trade and he’s created a portable production studio which enables him to continue to perform his training classes from home, on the road, or from the local coffee shop.

What’s in Andy’s toolbag? Well, as of July 2021 it includes:

* Camera 1: Sony a6500 with Sigma 30mm f1.4 * Camera 2: Sony a6000 with Sony 18-105mm f4.0* Tripod: DJI Ronin SC with gimbal* Lighting (on the road): Aputure MC * Lighting (at home): Elgato Key Light* Microphone: RODE NT-USB Mini* Gaming Key Switch: Elgato Stream Deck* Audio Video Hardware Converter: Blackmagic ATEM Mini (used to downscale the 4k camera to 1080p for broadcasting)

#OTSTWIT Episode 34 – Live at SharePoint Fest Chicago 2021 with Andy HuneycuttRecorded LIVE, in person, Thursday, July 29, 2021

About Andy Huneycutt

William (Andy) Huneycutt is an Enterprise Collaboration Specialist and Microsoft MVP for Office Apps and Services. He works primarily with SharePoint, Office 365, and Microsoft Teams.

Since 2011, Andy has worked as a training instructor delivering training, consulting, and coaching services to assist information workers in better understanding and successfully implementing Microsoft enterprise collaboration solutions. His experience as a Microsoft Certified Trainer helps him develop effective training solutions for today’s diverse and ever-changing training needs.

Based out of Charlotte, NC, Andy is currently a leader for the Charlotte Area SharePoint User Group www.casug.org. Additionally, he organizes Charlotte SharePoint and Office 365 Saturday.

The Virtual Africa Road Trip includes these great episodes:

* Virtual Africa Road Trip with Oluwatosin Anishere (Tosi) – #OTSTWIT E33* Virtual Africa Road Trip with Olajumoke Toriola – #OTSTWIT E32* Virtual Africa Road Trip with Kazeem Adegboyega – #OTSTWIT E29

This Week’s Episode:

On this episode of This Week in Teams, Jay and I talked with Oluwatosin Anishere (Tosi), a technical consultant for Wragby Business Solutions. Technologies in Nigeria. Tosi is an accomplished Microsoft Certified Trainer and Consultant with ten years of experience specializing in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 Technologies. Her expertise is in administrating Microsoft 365 and architecting Microsoft based Identity, Security and Governance solutions.

OTSTWIT E33 – Virtual Africa Road Trip: Is Microsoft Teams Captain Marvel?Recorded April 22, 2021 with Oluwatosin Anishere – Released August 07, 2021

Tosi has onboarded over a thousand Engineers in Nigeria, UK and the US that support Enterprise Customers for Microsoft Globally. As a consultant, she leads projects, deliver end-to-end infrastructure management solutions in a cloud environment. She has also been a Mentor at TechStylers and enjoys working with the tech community to help other women aspiring women develop their careers and we explore Tosi’s background, her volunteer work, and her thoughts on Teams in this episode.

Tosi also loves movies and has an interesting take on SharePoint and Teams towards the end of the interview where she tells us that they are like Marvel characters, Captain America and Captain Marvel, they both have superpowers, but use them in a different way to help people.

To learn more from Tosi Anishere, you can find her on LinkedIn.

Complete transcript below:

Jay Leask 0:26All right. Good morning or good afternoon. today are the recording day of this is April 22. It’s probably not going to be April 22 when you’re listening to this, but my name is Jay leask. I have with me as usual, Craig Jahnke. And our very special guests from Nigeria. Oluwatosin Anishere, Tosi, welcome to the this week in teams.

Tosi 0:51Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Craig. Hello. Thank you for having me here.

Jay Leask 0:58Of course, it’s our pleasure. So

Craig Jahnke 1:00when we’re playing for this, it was we’re always excited to talk to new people, like you especially. Yeah, same here.

Jay Leask 1:11So, um, Tosi, thank you for joining us. We’re very excited to talk about teams and your interaction with the industry in Nigeria. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself? And what brings you to talking with us, I guess.

Tosi 1:31All right. Once again, my name is oluwatosin. ensure a technical consultant for Wragby Business Solutions. Technology limited here in Nigeria. I specialize in Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365, also a Microsoft certified trainer, I have actually embedded engineers in Nigeria, in the US and UK, that are supporting enterprise customers. for Microsoft globally.

This Week in Teams, Craig and Jay jump into the April 2021 Microsoft Teams Team product blog where ALL the goodies that were announced for commercial and US Government tenants can be found: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/what-s-new-in-microsoft-teams-april-2021/ba-p/2305291

We also have a quick discussion on Disney’s “Star Wars: The Bad Batch”. In case you were curious, Craig and Jay are both big Star Wars fans AND Disney nerds.

Highlights:

* (02:02) – Break Out Rooms send you back to main meeting function* (4:07) – Teams User Voice moving to the Tech Community* (5:53) – New meeting feature and functionality* (7:38) – Craig side-trips into ALM for Power Apps and Automate* (10:12) – Jay talks about his sessions at the M365 Virtual Marathon* (14:32) – Craig tells a customer story, Jay talks about the importance of engaging end users* (18:18) – Teams and Window 10 Notifications* (20:57) – Jay talks about the GCC for Teams* (24:42) – May the 4th and the new Star Wars cartoon series the Bad Batch, Jay is a big fan…

Full Transcript:

* Jay Leask 0:15Good morning it is may 5 cinco demayo. Revenge of the fifth The day after May the fourth be with you. And interestingly enough, I just read on Facebook this morning 19. This day in in 1970, the state police or National Guard fired upon the student population at Kent State University. And yeah, lots of things happen. And it’s funny how we kind of forget right? What happens?* Craig Jahnke 0:42Yes,* Jay Leask 0:44I know. I went on a tangent. I’m sorry. I* Craig Jahnke 0:47I’m sorry. Yes, obviously not a good day in history for the United States. But hopefully, hopefully, it’ll be picks a new turn in a new, I have nothing. I got nothing for you. Hopefully we’ve improved a lot since 1970s.* Jay Leask 1:02I think we have a lot of ways lots of lots of improvements ago still, but but I think we have so let’s let’s talk about what we’re actually here to talk about, because this has gone off the rails like three times now. So today, may 5, yesterday, I think or a couple days ago, Microsoft Teams team released the What’s New in Microsoft Teams in April 24, April 2021, I thought it’d be a good episode to record while I’ve been struggling to do all the post production on the ones we’ve recorded, which to our guests who’ve been waiting. I’m really truly sorry for keeping you waiting. But in the meantime, a quick episode on what was released in April. So Craig, as you looked through the the blog, was there anything that really stood out of particular interest to you? No,* Craig Jahnke 1:55I think I’m good.* Unknown Speaker 1:57Yeah. All right. Well,* Jay Leask 1:59short episode, have a wonderful day.* Craig Jahnke 2:02Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Yes. So one of the things that I saw that I actually participated in, not us, but I’d like the team meeting rooms has an automatically end and bring you back to the main meeting function.* Unknown Speaker 2:15Yes.* Craig Jahnke 2:16Was really that was that was nice that, you know, all of a sudden, you got a countdown, hey, 10 seconds left. And you’re going to be going back into to the main room, because I know as a presenter and an organizer that sometimes it’s felt like herding cats, right? When I’ve got to get people out, they get in there in conversations, and they’re like, yeah, yeah, we’ll be there in a minute. And then,* Unknown Speaker 2:35and then who knows?

This week on Buzzkill we talk about Identity Management and its relationship to the modern IT infrastructure with we Stephanie Donahue - a Microsoft MVP and Regional Director and the President at PAIT Group. This conversation is an excellent summary of Identity security and how things have changed, especially with a transition to the cloud.

This week on buzzkill, we continue the IT Security Series with Liam Cleary, talking about Personal Security and how it relates to not only the security of yourself and your family but your organization's data. We hope you enjoy this conversation as we traverse everything from wifi to social media and relate it all to the many important tools and techniques your organization should take advantage.

This is the first episode in the IT Security Series. Check out the rest of the series:

* Buzzkill E12 – What is security? [ THIS EPISODE ]* Buzzkill E13 – PERSEC with Liam Cleary* Buzzkill E14 – Identity Management with Stephanie Donahue* Buzzkill E15 – Intersection of Privacy & Security with Dana Simberkoff

On the heels of the global breach using SolarWinds, we decided this would be a good time to bring Security to Buzzkill. In this episode Hunter and Jay provide an introduction to our IT Security Series. As we explore the topic, we will talk to ACTUAL security experts about why it is so important to plan for security, not only as IT professionals, but as individuals.

In this episode we briefly describe 5 primary types of security that your Information Technology team should have in their security program:

* Personal Security which pertains to people’s personal information or exposure beyond and sometimes including their workplace. A lot of times this pertains to things like what people post on social media or how they manage their passwords.* Operational Security referring to how secure an organization works on a day to day basis, and how much security is built into their standards and processes. This could also include how well the organization does in communicating standards, training and equipping employees to meet them.* Information Security that refers to data or stores that contain, well, information. How are physical or digital files stored? What security exists around them, especially who can access them, but also pertaining to who has the ability to alter or remove them.* Communications Security applying to telecommunications and other methods of verbal and written communication to individuals or organizations. Cyber Security especially pertaining to network security and digitized information.* Cyber security is unique in that it can encompass nearly every other kind of security as well, especially information and personal security. The now ubiquitous nature of online platforms and digital tools for storing information and collaborating across the globe has made cyber security a particularly hot topic in recent years.

While this list is far from exhaustive, it covers many of the main areas of concern for security your organizational assets. We look forward to digging into these topics in more detail in the coming weeks as we bring a series of industry experts to share their experiences.

Published live Monday, January 25, 2021, 12:00 pm Eastern time.

In this episode, we spoke with Amie Seisay about considerations organizations should have when building their IT teams. We had a great time exploring some of the reasons why, when it comes to strategy, communication, change management and other aspects of project implementation, having a diverse team is essential. We all agreed organizations really need more than developers and administrators to get things done. Training, communication and project management skills are fundamentally necessary in getting things done! 

Executive sponsors and leaders who can drive progress

It’s very

important to have someone whose job is to keep their eye on the target and

drive progress. Product owners often excel at these roles. It’s best if this

person is internal to the organization, so they can champion the project and

reduce roadblocks. It’s vital that this person knows the processes to drive

approvals, manage prioritizations and get things done.

 Business Analyst

IT teams

need someone who understands tech and can compare technologies being proposed

with business requirements. A good BA lays everything out for the tech

implementation team and makes it effortless to knock out solutions quickly.

Translations between “what I want” and “what is possible” are essential for everyone

involved to find successful solution. A dev CAN be a BA, but we need realistic

expectations about the time that BA work will take, and communication skills

can outweigh tech knowledge in many cases.

Trainer

You need

someone with experience and good communication skills to help business users

understand how to use technology. “SharePoint is never intuitive” –IT

technologies in general seldom are, even if they seem simple to technologists.

Training is about making sure people feel supported – not running a webinar or

sending an email that will be quickly forgotten or discarded. Gamifaction (ex

SharePoint Jeopardy, Kahoot and Poll Everywhere software tools) can help keep

audiences engaged, and  interactive end user

trainings are a must. Different types of targeted training can help the

workforce empower itself in the future as well. Making sure training target the

right audience with the right experience 

an be very important, for instance – low level, basics; to power users,

and users that may have or earn extra privileges. 

Technical

Diversity

There are

people out there who have done “all the roles” but it’s demanding,

overwhelming, and easy to burn out when you are given so much responsibility in

the form of unrelated tasks. It’s very hard to focus if you’re the jack of all

trades.

 You can’t have single-person dependencies – it’s

important to have multiple technologists on a project to help a variety of

opinions. This ensures you have more brainpower to get through any obstacles

that may come up, as well as makes certain your team does not get bogged down

with many unrelated tasks.

Amie’s team has someone who’s job is to keep up with updates and new solutions. In the long term this saves tons of effort, as understanding what features are available or soon will be can prevent teams from having to go through development efforts only to find that a solution was already available by other means.

 Consultant

You NEED a

consulting role – and you need to treat them like a consultant. They need to be able to give you

constructive feedback and you need to be willing to listen.

This week on

Buzzkill, Jay and Hunter discuss what it means to successfully roll out

technology in today’s climate. We discuss traditional IT success criteria,

budget and time, but then dig into adoption and value. We posit that a modern

IT rollout must consider adoption and value across the entire project, from

planning through implementation to training and metrics.

Finally, we define

success as including the following three success criteria:

* Traditional Success: Was it completed on time and within budget?* Adoption: Are people using the new solution? This is quantifiable over time and should not be a one-time measurement.* Value: Is there both perceived AND quantifiable value shown?

One big question

that comes up time and time again: how do you prove value?

This requires

understanding and planning. Understanding of what the GOALS of the project are

– can we compare licensing of old product vs new?

Is this project

going to make a job easier? For whom, and how? Let’s use that information to

figure out some ROI.

Is this a Security

solution? Perhaps there are studies and examples of the cost of NOT

implementing this solution.

Perception is in

question too. If something is effective at securing information, but people do

not understand the reason they have to spend an extra 20 seconds performing

multi-factor authentication, your perceived value may be much lower.

Another way to define value is through surveys & the feedback loop. However, you need to stay away from open ended questions. From survey to survey you should ask the same questions; while you can add and remove questions, this changes your tracking over time. Also, explain the scale clearly – you do not want any chance of someone selecting 1, which may mean the worst result, but meaning 5, the best.

We’d love to hear how your organization is approaching technology rollouts these days – do you see a difference between now and 5 years ago? 10? Do you see them providing a clear understanding of value?

This episode explores important aspects of communication, including how communication between IT and the organization is vital both to implementations and ongoing operations.  

Though the stereotype of the cynical, introverted and sheltered IT admin may have some legitimacy, there are increasingly many kinds of people IT. Though this means there may be more sociality and better communication skills among IT members than in years past, it’s still very important to hone in on and improve IT communication skills on a regular basis. 

Think about the message you are giving.  

It’s important to understand that users generally know very little about what the solutions IT implements do, how they do it, and why they are being deployed-until we communicate these things to them. They need explanations for what a solution is doing-if something is going to happen, what are the implications of that action? How does it help them be productive and what does it mean for how they are working? 

When we use words like “platform” and “new methods of communication” we need to follow up with an explanation of what we are talking about so those that do not have an understanding of technology can be well prepared to get the most out of the tools they will be expected to use.  

Likewise any guides or training materials need to explain their topics well, and using a vernacular their business users can easily absorb. Think about the conference presentation you see- which ones go over well and which ones to you really absorb information from yourself? Up beat, relation content is best even when addressing technical topics. No matter what the implementation tyou rarely have to start from scratch with information- pull information from presentations… use information that explains things to end users in ways they can understand (but be careful not to plagiarize!).  

Do more with less 

Why go to all this effort? It’s vital to understand that the more your users get what’s happening and understand how to do things the right way to begin with, the less clean-up, IT tickets and compliance issue will come up later. By some estimations, good training can save you more than 10x a return on time in the future if you invest in it well now.  

In these explanations, remember- balance detail with the value they will get out of it.  

If you give too little detail, users will make assumptions, find workarounds, or even bypass your processes to do what they need to do- not always because they don’t care, but often times because they don’t understand or the processes is simply too complicated for them to work within.  

There is a balance though- as if you give too much detail or the information is simply to overwhelming for users, they will not be able to wrap their heads around it in such a way that actually helps them get things done. Remember always to communicate the value behind the implementation and the ways their lives will be easier if they do the right thing.  

Remember to always keep your eyes on the prize.  

As with so many things in IT and in life, none of this is super easy and it can take lots of time to do well. In the end, after years of experience and so many conversations with others in this IT community, you can be confident that the questions you will avoid with good training and communication will justify the energy you spend.