The Tech Impostors

You may have saw Priority Bicycles featured in the latest Microsoft Teams ad campaign.  In this episode of the Tech Impostors, we talk with Dave Weiner, founder of Priority about how they are using Microsoft Teams to not only keep afloat during the challenging Covid times, but also to excel and take their company to a new level. They say once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget and once you hear the inspiring story of Priority Bicycles, we think you won't forget their story either!

In this episode, we revisit some past mistakes, talk about talking to the dead, and discuss which Office 365 features that, if they were no longer with us, would we miss them? We also do our usual updates and announcements of things you need to know (including a new Ignite!) and introduce a special new segment about looking back exactly 1 year ago to see how far we've come. Also, don't miss our teaser on a very special interview coming up.

 

Show resources:

After You Die, Microsoft Wants to Resurrect You as a Chatbot

Microsoft Teams Roadmap: Prompt to set Meeting Options for Large Teams Meetings in Outlook for Windows

OneDrive: 250 GB file size support in M365

In this episode Jeremy and Matt talk about how Microsoft continued their virtual conference dominance with CES, debate a recent TechTarget article about Teams feature release cycles, and talk a little about the history of Dry January.

Whew!  What a year it has been! The Tech Impostors are back with their obligatory "End of Year Wrap-up/New Year Predictions" show, although this one is probably a lot different than the other shows you may have heard. For starters, while discussing how strange Matt’s dreams have become stranger through this very strange year, we learn that those strange visions may not have been alcohol induced after all.  We also learn that, as many of us can relate, remotely supporting Android tablets for your parents is not easy and is something you would not wish upon your worst enemies.  Jeremy spent too much time on this over the holiday break, earning his Tech Impostor credits for the year. Before we dive into some of last year’s highlights, we stumble upon a new and interesting way to describe a certain number of things. You’ll have to listen to find out what that is! Moving on, we reminisce about how the service and product announcements and updates, as well as their actual release and implementation cycles (much less their actual impact on users and productivity) didn’t always go as planned. Living in a partly cloudy world of uncertainty, fast-moving business requirements, and grandiose sounding product enhancement announcements is tough, but the Impostors are here to help you get through it!  We finish off the episode (and this year) with a toast to better days ahead and share some special holiday beverages to fuel us up for the challenges to come. Happy New Year from the Tech Impostors!

The Tech Impostors are back this time with another special guest, this time with Bryan Greenaway, Sr. Applications Engineer with the Chicago Bears! What is that you say? How does an NFL Football Team use Teams? While technology probably isn't the first word that comes to mind when you think about a football team, we find out and confirm that just about every organization on the planet is achieving more these days with technology. Either by design or by necessity, we are all doing things differently. Case in point - the 2020 NFL Draft. The NFL had to scramble and transform this huge and highly visible in-person event into a seamless virtual experience and everyone involved had to get up to speed very quickly. Teams proved to be a great platform for this high-profile event for a multi-billion-dollar industry and people like Brian, working in the trenches at each NFL team, helped make that possible. Additionally, again as with almost every organization in every industry, the day-to-day work and processes have been transformed. Brian shares some stories of that journey for the Bears with various business processes and the nearly 200 Power Platform solutions they've spun up to date, as well as introducing other technologies around Intune and AutoPilot. We commiserate with Brian on that journey, knowing that it is really just getting started for many of us. As usual, as we talk, we're enjoying some refreshing beverages. It was kind of like we were tailgating before the big game!

The Tech Impostors, just like everyone else these days, know how challenging work has become. The demands are crazy and we all feel the pressure. But what if it was up to you to keep a vital work event and tradition alive that had been going on for more than a century? What if, because of Covid-19, that event was in danger of becoming just a memory and missed opportunity for your organization? You step up! That is what you do! Or, you don’t mention anything about that historical significance to the event team (because, who needs that pressure!) and you just trust that they will come through. That is what our guests Joe Gasper and Dewayne Hyatt from the University of Florida did. Using Teams to create a premier virtual nation-wide conference for thousands of people, they tell us how they pulled this off for the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA). In this episode, Jeremy (@millh0use) and Matt (@thevarnish) learn about their successes and the lessons they learned. We also knock back a few beverages with our awesome guests and find out that “Florida Man” doesn’t apply to everyone in Florida after all (thankfully).

The Tech Impostors are back and are finally getting down to the heart of what really matters - Bourbon!

Jeremy (@millh0use) and Matt (@thevarnish) are joined by a special guest Matt Bishop, IT Manager from Four Roses Distillery and we learn more about our two favorite things: Technology and Beverages. 

After a brief story about how Jeremy nearly burns down his house and neighborhood, we get right into a super fascinating discussion with our guest on how Four Roses Bourbon is leveraging the services in M365 to maximize their business. Who knew that distilleries used this kind of technology? It really shouldn't come as a surprise, but it turns out Four Roses does and is doing it really well! We learn that, thanks to Matt and his team in the IT department, Four Roses was already on a solid path to digitally transform their operations before COVID-19 and since then, they have been able to pivot quickly and respond and grow to meet the demands.  (Spoiler alert: the demand for bourbon and other beverages has only increased of over the past 6 months, thanks to the stresses of this "new normal"). From Machine Learning apps in Azure, to the ATP and other security features in M365, to just a better handle on communications and collaboration through Teams, Four Roses is nailing it!

Tasting Notes for Four Roses

Distillery: Four Roses Distillery

Appearance:  Small but mighty, with a broad application of M365 Services in play

Aroma: Balance of subtle fruit and spices, with a lingering sense of optimism and adventure. Positioned to succeed in the future.

Taste: Crisp fruit, caramel, vibrant spice. Inventive and pushing the boundaries of what a traditional distillery does, while keeping a sharp eye on security and operations.

Finish: Mellow, long and pleasant. This historic distillery will not only endure, it will thrive with an embrace of powerful cloud technologies.

You want to do what? With a laser what? The Impostors are back talking about all things Teams, tech, and totally trivial. After a brief run in with what may or may not have been a militia, Jeremy found out that going out for a drink is more dangerous than ever. Then, we find out the skinny on how you can virtually attend an NBA game and, if you are lucky, sit two seats away from Shaq! Teams meetings are providing a great new virtual experience for fans who miss sports.  The technology just works and people are just using it!  But be aware - some features may not be a part of your licensing! The Impostors look at the Advanced Communications Add-On for Teams and has a little heartburn on the costs and the murky communications about what is included and what is an add-on cost. And don't get us started with nagifications!  We settle back down with our usual focus on some interesting beverages and learn that if you try to buy some of these limited release beers, you may get mustered out. Matt goes off the rails with one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer but manages to not sing (and there was much rejoicing). Still, things got a little awkward when the Impostors started talking about branding trinkets.

Double Digits, Double the Teams Announcements, Double the FUN! The Impostors continue their quest to talk about the massive list of recently announced updates to Teams and how those might impact the work we all do. With our 10th show, we run down Teams for your personal life, account switching, suggested replies, the reflect message extension, and some of the forthcoming devices for Teams. There are a lot of unknowns associated with some of these since they may not yet be released, but we let our imaginations run a little wild and rely on our experiences to envision how these new features will work in our day-to-day work lives. We're getting pretty good at this! Know what else we're getting better at?  Podcasting! Know what else we were already good at? Having beverages. We share some of what we're having, including a key-lime hazy ale and an old standby IPA. We also discover that when you put stuff in French bottles, the cost goes WAY up!

The Impostors are back with a monster of a show as we highlight a slew of recent or upcoming updates to Microsoft Teams. After a brief discussion of ongoing plumbing projects, we dive into how we see these latest updates impacting business and organizations in the future. As a bonus, Jeremy continues his fascination with all things peanut butter and Matt wrestles with a double monster.