Some local press

I’ve been making some more appearances on the Net and in trade magazines.

Firstly, some of my opinions from this blog have appeared in the October edition of Computer Reseller News (CRN) Australia. The article is not available online but you can download the PDF here:

http://www.ciaops.com/storage/docs/crn_oct_11.pdf

In there I talk about the support issues around the Office 365 P product here in Australia.

The next article you’ll find at:

http://boxfreeit.com.au/Productivity/how-to-edit-sharepoint-online-files-on-the-ipad.html

and details the challenges that you’ll face if you want to edit Office documents from SharePoint with an iPad. Here is the first part of the story:

One of the most surprising challenges with Office 365’s SharePoint Online is to get it working effectively on an iPad. The solutions are by no means easy or straightforward.

The workaround below uses third-party applications on the iPad as middlemen to download files stored in SharePoint Online to the iPad for editing and then save them back up to SharePoint.

The most important app you’ll need to get documents to and from SharePoint is DropBox. A free account lets you synchronise up to 2GB of files between the cloud and your desktop. Once in the cloud you can access those files from your iPad.

Next you’ll need an iPad app that can read Office documents in DropBox and edit them. There are a few; I chose Office2 Plus. There is both an iPad and an iPhone app starting from around $6. The free versions let you view Office documents but not edit them, which is the same situation if you log in through your browser and use the native Office Web Apps in SharePoint Online. So to edit documents you’ll need to shell out for the full version.

Finally, you are going to need an app that can access your SharePoint Online site. Again, there are a few of these but the one chosen here is called SharePlus. The Pro version is $14.99 which lets you make changes rather than just read files.

Now we have all the apps in place on our iPad (DropBox, Office2 Plus and SharePlus).

For the rest of the article visit – http://www.boxfreeit.com.au/Productivity/how-to-edit-sharepoint-online-files-on-the-ipad.html

Office 365 and Windows InTune seminar

I am happy to announce that I’ll be presenting an end user focused ‘Getting started with Office
365/Windows InTune’ course on Thursday the 17th of November at North Ryde in Sydney. You can find details on the full day course can be found at:

http://www.ciaops.com/office-365-seminar/

This is opportunity for you to learn about these latest ‘cloud’ technologies and how they can integrate in your business. If you have been considering moving to ‘cloud’ technologies this course will give you valuable hands on information about how these technologies work. if you are already using Office 365 and Windows InTune you’ll benefit from learning how to make these applications work better and more productively as well as learning advance features and time saving tips and tricks.

The cost for this full day is only $ 299 ex GST and includes all meals and course material. If you are interested in learning about the benefits ‘cloud’ technologies can provide you or you want to get more from Office 365 and Windows InTune then you should sign up for this course. Places are limited so don’t delay.

SharePoint 2010 Certification Exams

Once you have a bit of SharePoint experience under your belt you’d really like to consolidate that and let people know via certification. The best options are the following 2 certifications available from Microsoft:

70-667 – TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring

70-668 – PRO: SharePoint Server 2010, Administrator

However, if you come from the world of SMB and SharePoint Foundation things are going to be a little more tricky than simply sitting these exams. This is because both of these exams focus not just on SharePoint Foundation but also SharePoint Server. This means you are going to need to know about not only SharePoint Server configurations but also things like Network Load Balancing, Virtualization, and so on.

70-667 is perhaps a more basic exam with a number of questions presented in sequence. You can generally return to any of the questions at anytime and review your answers. 70-668 is little different in that it gives you scenarios that you need to read, then you are expected to answer a few questions based on the scenario. Once you have answered these questions you can’t return and review them. Thus, you only have a limited time to read, digest and answer what is presented in each case.

If you are coming from an SMB background and SharePoint on SBS you are going to need to learn about SharePoint server. The best suggestion (apart from my Guide and installing it on a VM) is to have a look at these publications:

Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration By Todd Klindt, Shane Young, Steve Caravajal – http://astore.amazon.com/c00ef-20/detail/0470533331

and

Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Administrator’s Companion By Bill English, Brian Alderman, Mark Ferraz – http://astore.amazon.com/c00ef-20/detail/B0043M52KY

Not that I have read it but there is also the following book specifically focused on the 70-667 exam:

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-667): Configuring Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (Training Kits) – http://www.amazon.com/MCTS-Self-Paced-Training-Exam-70-667/dp/0735638853/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317964888&sr=1-3

At the end of the day both the 70-667 and 70-668 are focused on SharePoint Server but if you know your SharePoint Foundation stuff and are prepared to learn a little about SharePoint Server then you should be able to pass the exam and add these certifications to your roster.

SharePoint Conference-Day 4

Final day of the conference and the information still keeps coming. The first session of the day started off with a look into Access Services and how to develop solutions that will run on Office 365. It is really impressive to see how easily you can move applications from Access to the cloud.

The great part about this for smaller businesses is that Access Services comes with the P license (which I don’t generally recommend) and the E3 license. It demonstrates how much additional functionality a small business can get if they move to Office 365 as trying to implement the same functionality on site is simply too expensive.

Next up was another fantastic presentation on Excel services and what can be achieved here. I was amazed at how little effort is required to get a really powerful dashboard that includes pivot tables, slices, interactive graphs and more. The presenter even showed some of functionality of Excel from Skydrive including how to embed Excel spreadsheets on just about any web page. Really, really impressive stuff that inspired me to return and implement something similar.

Although it was a significant cost to attend and although the majority of the content at the conference was focused on the enterprise I’m glad that I attended. There is just so much around this product as I have said before. There is simply so much opportunity, even in the SMB space., even more so going forward with the move to Office 365.

Perhaps the most exciting thing is what Microsoft have planned to bring to Office 365 in the future and all of that will be available to all subscribers, big and small. Now I need to start reviewing al the other sessions I wasn’t able to attend but are available on the conference we site. Certainly can’t complain about the ongoing value of this conference. I’m sure it’ll keep me busy for at least another 12 months.

SharePoint Conference–Day 2 and 3

Phew, it’s been a hectic 2 days full of SharePoint goodness. Most of the content is aimed at enterprise types but is becoming more relevant with Office 365 (which provides enterprise SharePoint in the cloud).

I also finally managed to spend some time with all the vendors who are also here and must say that I found plenty of opportunities. Again, most are focused on the enterprise with enterprise level pricing but there are also a few option here that would suite SMB. I’ll need to spend some time digesting all this information before I post my findings.

After Day 2 we also had the opportunity to attend Disneyland (which closed off for everyone except the SharePoint conference attendees). Most of the rides were open, there was free food and drink which everyone took advantage of. It was a good time.

While I am here I also took the opportunity to sit the Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Configuring (70-667) exam. I am also please to report that I passed the exam and now have a SharePoint 2010 competency under my belt.

The event has been jammed packed with information and I realize now how much more there is to SharePoint and what an opportunity it presents. From configuring, to administering, implementation and development, there is just so much to this product.

Tomorrow is the final half day of the conference and then it’ll be over for another year. They have announced the one next year will be in Las Vegas in November. Roll on 2012!

SharePoint conference–Day 1

If you want an idea of just how BIG this conference is check out the dining hall or the keynote address attendance.

There are over 7,500 attendees here for 4 days of SharePoint.

The day started early with breakfast followed by the keynote. No major reveals but some nice additions coming along the track.

From there it was into a number of sessions including information about SharePoint Online, Business Intelligence Dashboards and improved productivity. All extremely worthwhile.

An even bigger day tomorrow with a full day of session followed by a party in Disneyland. Obviously Mickey must be a big SharePoint user to throw open his park (free) to all attendees!

SMBNation Fall 2011-Day 3

Well today was the final day for SMB Nation Fall 2011. It started out with an excellent SharePoint presentation by Amy Babinchuk. She spoke about all the ways that you can connect to SharePoint without necessarily having to go through the web interface. He main point? SharePoint is more than just and web site. She couldn’t be more correct.

Next came my session, with Harry Brelsford on Office 365. The session was well attended and those that attended got value for their time. I would have liked to go into more detail but time unfortunately did not permit.

After the lunch break came my session with Wayne Small on SBS Essentials (I was doing the cloud integration piece). Again, a well attended session.

Immediately after this I had to dash to catch a flight to LA to attend the SharePoint conference in Anaheim. On the way from the airport I heard that there is more than 7,000 attendees which is even bigger than the recent Build conference that unveiled Windows 8.

Roll on SharePoint. More details soon.

My overall impressions of SMB Nation 2011 Fall? Well from a conference point of view, the Rio Hotel was probably the best since I have been attending these events in Las Vegas. It was large, comfortable and easy to get to all locations. The only downside of the venue was perhaps the fact that it is located a little ways from the strip, however in some ways that is good as it encourages people to stay in the one spot.

For me the major value of these events is the hall way networking. Meeting up with old friends and making new ones is always the biggest benefit of attending. I will also say that I got value out of just about every session I attended, some more than other obviously, but overall I believe there is plenty of content in there I can take away.

So all in all, another successful conference. Well done to Harry and his team. Roll on 2012.

SMBNation Fall 2011–Day 2

Today started off again with breakfast in the keynote room. Luckily it was a later started compared to yesterday. The first session by Paul Morimoto on Security best practices was excellent. He spoke about the need to secure remote devices and how many of the products already in place (e.g. Windows) already contain substantial security features. All they need to be is simply enabled.

The next session was around building a cloud “practice’ and contained a nice overview of the areas that people should consider as they start implementing cloud products.

Later in the day was the technology panel, basically where attendees could ask questions of MVP’s and subject matter experts. These sessions are always well attended and probably something SMBNation should have more of.

The day finished with Security MVP Dana Epp talking about, and demonstrating, how to break the credential of many of the standard technologies that people use today including, Word, Excel, Windows and so on. He help the audience understand how to better protect themselves and their customers from attacks.

So, only one more day to go and I have 2 presentations to give on Office 365. They are:

GS12 – All Aboard Office 365 E3

and

GS11 – Office 365 + SBS 2011 Essentials

wish me luck.