Need to know podcast–Episode 83

In this episode I’m joined by a real SharePoint and Office 365 rockstar (who also happens to be an MVP) – Benjamin Niaulin.

Benjamin shares his insights and experiences from the recent Microsoft Ignite Conference. We then deep dive into the new Office 365 Groups and how important they are becoming to the service overall. Finally, I couldn’t let Benjamin escape with out providing some guidance around SharePoint migrations.

A huge amount of value in this episode from a doyen of the community, so don’t miss it. You can listen to the episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-83-benjamin-niaulin/

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send me any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show. I’m also on the hunt for some co-presenters so if you are interested on being a regular part of the show please contact me.

Resources

Microsoft Ignite on demand – http://channel9.msdn.com/events/Ignite/2015/

Blogging comes to Delve – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/05/blogging-comes-to-delve.html

New OneDrive Sync client – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/05/more-onedrive-information-from-ignite.html

Mobile device management – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/05/mobile-device-management-has.html

Offline Azure backup – https://blog.ciaops.com/2015/05/offline-azure-backup.html

Sharegate – http://en.share-gate.com/

Sharegate blog – http://en.share-gate.com/blog/

Benjamin Niaulin – https://twitter.com/bniaulin

Webinar on Office 365 Groups – http://en.share-gate.com/blog/groups-for-office-365-webinar

Benjamin’s wrap up of Microsoft Ignite – http://en.share-gate.com/blog/ignite-collaboration-in-a-modern-workplace-transformed

Office 365 data import now in preview

As I spoke about in a previous post, Microsoft has started started to roll out the ability to import data like PST files directly to Office 365.

If you have the first release enabled on your tenant you may now see the Import option appear on your administration menu on the Office 365 portal. Select that will take you to the above page.

You can then elect to Ship the data on physical hard drives or Upload files over the network.

All of the information about this new option, which is still in preview, can be found at:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn948519(v=exchg.150).aspx

It is expected that we will soon see the ability to not only upload PST data but also data to SharePoint and OneDrive for Business via this method. This is going to make it a lot easier to get large volume of information up to Office 365 much quicker than before.

Blogging comes to Delve

The more I see of Delve in Office 365 the more excited I become. Why? Firstly, Delve is HUGE point of differentiation between Microsoft and its competition. Secondly, it provides powerful yet simple insights for average users into the vast array of information sources they have in Office 365. Delve quickly integrates information from SharePoint, OneDrive, Email, Yammer and more in a single pane of glass and prioritises that based on your interactions. It also allows you to not only view your Delve but the Delve of others in your team to see what they are up to.

Delve is also become the central location for information about you in Office 365. It contains your profile information, who you are and what you do in the business. One of the options that you can now incorporate in your Delve profile, as you can see above is a blog. This new Delve blog features replaces the old one from SharePoint and provide a much easier way of creating and sharing your thoughts.

When you select the Start Writing link, Office 365 will take a minute or two to set up your blogging platform. From what I can see it creates this a dedicated SharePoint Site Collection at:

https://tenantname.sharepoint.com/portals/hub/loginname

In a short order of time your blogging platform is read and you can create your first post. The editing platform is currently very simple (which is great) and very, very reminiscent of the new Office product, Sway (also coming to Office 365 soon). The easier it is, the more likely people will use it. All editing is now done directly in the browser (or the mobile app).

You basically create a title and add a banner. Then you type some text for the body as well as featuring a document from SharePoint that is embedded in your post if desired. This potentially allows you to use more detailed formatting if you need. This is great since if you wanted to be really visual you’d include a PowerPoint or potentially a Sway when it come to Office 365.

You then Publish the post when you are ready and there you have your first blog article.

Posts will now show up in your Delve activity feed, as seen above, that will also be made available to others in your team via the magic of the Officegraph technology that is powering Delve.

One of the big advantages of Delve is that you will be able to blog on the go using the mobile Delve app. As yet I can’t see how to do that just yet, but I know it is coming. So you can be out on the road, snap some pictures, write some text and get that up onto Delve to share with your team. Magic!

To my way of thinking Delve is becoming such an important part of Office 365 because it offers a gateway to unlock the vast treasure trove of information and value that a business creates around all Office 365 services. Having all of that surfaced quickly and automatically for users based on its relevance to them is a huge boost to productivity and collaboration that has never before been available. Combine that with the ability to consume and create content on a mobile device demonstrates to me that Microsoft really does get the concepts of the new way of working, that is social and mobile.

My questions to you however are, do you get it? Are you using Delve for increased productivity? If not why? Delve is the key that unlocks all the power that the complete Office 365 product brings to a business and it is only going to improve. Embrace the new way of working today with Delve.

Farewell to SharePoint Foundation server

Although I spend 99% of my time working with SharePoint Online these days I still have a soft spot for SharePoint Foundation server, give my roots in Small Business Server (SBS).

Microsoft have confirmed a new version of SharePoint Server on premises but as you can see from the above tweet it would appear that the free version (Foundation) is being discontinued going forward. Not surprising really and something I have been telling people for a while.

The solution for SMB clients now is really Office 365 and SharePoint Online. It gives them access to the full enterprise suite of SharePoint at a low per month cost. For bang for you buck, it can’t be matched.

Farewell SharePoint Foundation server and thank you.

Office 365 Site mailbox admin access

SharePoint Site Mailboxes allow you to have a shared mailbox for each user of a Team Site in Office 365.

Previously, you could see all these by going to Outlook Web Access, selecting Settings and then Options and finally Site Mailboxes as it says in this article from Microsoft:

Site Mailboxes

But you know what? When I try that I don’t see the Site Mailboxes as an option on the left hand side any more!

Bummer. So how can you administer these mailboxes if you need to if you can’t do it from Outlook Web Access?

Your first option is to open Outlook on the desktop and then right mouse click your mailbox name at the top of the tree (usually your name or email address). As you can see from the above screen shot that will display a menu and from there you can select the option – Manage All Site Mailboxes.

That will open a browser, prompt you to login to Office 365 and then take you to the my site mailboxes page as shown above. You will see any Site Mailbox you have access to, be able to select and edit its properties.

The second option is simply to login to Office 365 and navigate to:

https://outlook.office365.com/ecp/teammailbox/teammailbox.slab

This will take you to exactly the same page as above.

Thus, if you can’t find the Site Mailboxes option in your Outlook Web Access to administer SharePoint Online Team Site Mailboxes you can use either of the above two methods to get to same destination.

I spoke too soon!

In a previous post I spoke about how Office 2016 preview was available to tenants if you had enabled First Release. I also highlighted the fact that it would be nice to control which users get the latest features rather than everyone.

Well, well. The above video and this blog post:

http://blogs.office.com/2015/05/05/manage-change-and-stay-informed-in-office-365/

details how Microsoft is enabling exactly that! I can’t see that as yet in my tenant but it can’t be far away. If you have the feature this is how to work with it.

Office 365 release options

Just what you need when you need it! Well done Microsoft.