Office 365 Power BI

Here’s a nice video showing the features of Power BI (Business Intelligence) for Office 365.

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In essence it allows you to easily report on large data sets. There are plenty of really good examples of this already like:

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http://www.youtube.com/v/KD9GlZGF9rY?hl=en&hd=1“;” alt=””>

No matter how small a business they can benefit from improved data analysis. Great thing is most already have the tools like Excel and Office365.

What really impressed me in the first video is the natural language queries that were performed towards the end of the video. Honestly, take a look at that and tell me that isn’t firstly really cool and really handy, especially for those no-IT type business owners.

There is so much opportunity around BI in the market and so few resellers seeming to grab it. Even down at the SMB level, BI is huge so if you are wondering how to make money as a reseller in the cloud look at getting into BI for your clients. In simple terms, BI helps customer understand their business by allowing them to quickly analyse their data. You won’t regret it I’ll bet.

Office 365 health mobile app

Microsoft has released a new app for Windows Phone (with iOS and Android versions coming soon), that allows you to monitor the health of your Office 365 tenant. You can find out more information about the release at this blog post:
http://blogs.office.com/b/office365tech/archive/2013/11/21/check-the-service-health-of-your-office-365-service-on-the-go.aspx
and if you actually want the Windows Phone app then you can get it from:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/office-365-admin/76f9b288-37bc-4d75-8164-16d1df0447a2

Although the app is pretty basic at the moment I see it maturing into being so much more. What it does indicate is Microsoft’s commitment not only to mobile devices but also to the range of mobile operating systems.
if you have an Office 365 tenant download it to your device today and see what it does. Remember, I think that it is only going to improve.

Message encryption coming to Office 365

A very common request I see out there is people wanting to ensure that a person who receives an email does so securely and can’t forward it to others. That is a little tough given the way the standard email protocol was designed and implemented.
To provide an enhanced level of security with its Office 365 service Microsoft has recently announced that it will be shortly introducing email message encryption. if you want to see how it will work then check out this blog post.
http://blogs.office.com/b/office365tech/archive/2013/11/21/introducing-office-365-message-encryption-send-encrypted-emails-to-anyone.aspx
The great thing about this is that you’ll be able to send encrypted mail to anyone! That is certainly going to fill a major need these days as well as make a real point of differentiation for Office 365.
We’ll have to wait until early next year until it becomes available and the good news is that E3 and E4 plans will automatically receive it. It will also be available as an option with other plans but in the long run I see it becoming part of the standard Office 365 offering for all plans.

Review–Padpivot NST Ultra Portable Universal Tablet stand

Full disclosure – the review unit was supplied by Mobilezap. You can find this device and others at the Mobilezap category page at:
http://www.mobilezap.com.au/32359/electronics/ipad-4.htm

A rather interesting stand this one. Basically it is a base with a swivelling base. Onto that base you can either lies the iPad or use it to prop the device up as shown.
In portrait mode the stand worked really well I found on the desktop, it was easy to view and could be operated normally. The only downside in portrait orientation is that you can fit the power connector on at the same time (if you want it down the bottom of the device, like I think most people do).
In landscape mode the stand held the iPad fine and allowed the power connector to be attached but when you try and use the iPad you find yourself pushing it around the desk. This is because, in portrait mode, the stand width is not wide enough to prevent the leverage you generate working at the edges of the screen. This wouldn’t be a huge issue except you need to push the on/off button regularly.

The curved base also supports attaching the stand to something like a chair arm for using when watching TV. It however relies on a strap to hold it steady on the arm of a chair so you’d need to have a chair is a gap under the arm to accommodate this. Not many lounge chairs have this these days so its functionality here is somewhat limited I feel.
Overall the unit works well on the desk and provides the functionality to be used in a number of different ways and locations. It is small and light and even folds up if you want to use while travelling. The only other major downside to the small issues mentioned above is that you really need to take it out of any travelling case to use it generally and this can be a bit of a pain. However, if your iPad spends most of its time one a desk or you want a stand to take with you while travelling, then this handy little stand works a treat.