Here’s a nice video showing the features of Power BI (Business Intelligence) for Office 365.
In essence it allows you to easily report on large data sets. There are plenty of really good examples of this already like:
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.
Using Feedly
My business partner, Nigel Moore, has just done a quick video on how to use Feedly.com to keep up to date with various content published via RSS. This of course includes our new Cloud Business Blueprint and this blog.
Both Nigel and I are big Feedly users because it simply works across so many difference devices. So if you haven’t see Feedly yet, take a look and of course sign up to the Cloud Business Blueprint feed for more updates on what we are doing.
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.
Cloud Business Podcast Episode 2 available
http://www.cloudbusinessblueprint.com/2013/11/episode-002-managing-teams/
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/cloud-business-podcast-opportunity/id742109989
The latest episode of the Cloud Business Podcast is now available for download. We talk about Managing a Team of staff in your IT company.
We cover topics such as:
- The hiring process
- Hiring on Technical Skills or Personality
- Working with international Teams
- The World is Flat
- Software tools you can use to help manage your team
We’d love to hear feedback, so please leave your comments and don’t forget to rate us on iTunes.
Lync Online Sign-in Guided Walkthrough
If you are having trouble getting Lync in Office 365 connected there is a now a step by step guided web site that can assist. You’ll find it at:
http://support.microsoft.com/common/survey.aspx?scid=sw;en;3695&showpage=1
Disabling SkyDrive Pro in Office 365
SkyDrive Pro in Office 365 is a personal area where users can store files. Every user in Office 365 currently receives 25GB of space allocated to them, that can be increased up to 100GB if desired. However, what happens if you don’t want users to have access to this web based file storage in office 365? Can it be disabled? Yes it can. Here’s how.
A user’s standard SkyDrive Pro looks something like that shown above. To remove this access the first thing you’ll need to do is login as an administrator to the Office 365 portal.
In the top right of the portal you’ll find an Admin option, which if selected will display the menu shown above. From this menu select SharePoint.
In the SharePoint admin center select user profiles from the menu on the left and then Manage User Permissions from the People section on the right.
You should see here that the group Everyone except external users has the rights to Create Personal Site. To prevent any future users from creating or accessing SkyDrive Pro simply Remove this group.
If the box is blank, as shown above then no new users will have access to SkyDrive Pro. You can of course individually add users and group in here for whom you wish to have the ability to create SkyDrive Pro at any stage.
What does that look like if a newly created user now attempts to access SkyDrive Pro?
When they try and access SkyDrive Pro from the menu across the top of their account by selecting SkyDrive they will be taken to the Newsfeed tab as shown above.
Can you remove the SkyDrive option from the menu bar across the top of the page? Not at this stage.
Now that is all well and good for NEW users, what about that already have SkyDrive Pro set up? Can that be disabled? Yes it can but the process is much more involved.
A users SkyDrive Pro is basically a SharePoint subsite created in the Site Collection:
under /personal
Now the primary administrator for the Office 365 tenant (i.e. the first login assigned when the tenant was created) has full rights to the site collection
however they only have read rights (like every other Office 365 licensed user) by default to another individuals SkyDrive Pro. Thus, if that administrator navigates to a users SkyDrive Pro they can view it but not make changes. This needs to be changed so the administrator can take control.
To change the ownership of an individual users existing SkyDrive Pro site you need to return to the SharePoint admin center and select Manage User Profiles from the People section in the right hand side of the screen.
Now run a search for the user whose SkyDrive Pro you wish to modify. In this case Lewis Collins as shown above.
On the right of the Account name you will find a down arrow which when selected will display the menu above. From this menu select Manage site collection owners.
By default you will see the users name listed as the Primary and Secondary Site Collection Administrator. You’ll need to remove the user from both locations and the recommendation would be to add the administrator so that the site still can be managed.
Thus now, Lewis Collins no longer should have access, only Robert Crane (i.e the tenant administrator) does.
Once that is saved the administrator should now be able to access the URL of the users SkyDrive Pro and be able to edit the site.
You’ll know you’ll be able to do that if when you select the Cog icon in the top right of the screen you see a menu like that shown above that includes the menu item Site Settings. Select this item to continue.
Select Site Permissions from under the Users and Permissions section in the top left of the page as shown above.
Select the user from the list by placing a check mark to the left of their name and then selecting Remove User Permissions from Ribbon menu.
Don’t forget that the user is still a member of the group Everyone except external users, so if you don’t also edit that security group in Office 365 and remove them from there they will continue to have read access.
If however no one except the administrator needs access to this users SkyDrive Pro Site then simply remove the group Everyone except external users using the same process above.
In this case we only want the administrator to have access so we have removed everything displayed. The administrator will continue to gain access to the site no matter what rights are modified in the actual SharePoint site because they where made a Site Collection administrator previously.
Return to Site Settings using the Cog in the top right hand corner of the window.
Now select Site collection administrators from the Users and Permissions section in the top right as shown above.
If any items appear in here that you don’t want to gain access (i.e. the user Lewis Collins) remove them and press OK to save.
Return to Site Settings again and this time select People and Groups at the top of the Users and Permissions section.
If the user appear here, place a check to the left of their name and then select the Actions menu.
From the menu select Delete users from Site Collection.
Press OK to continue.
You might ask why didn’t I do that first and remove the user from the Site Collection in one action? The reason is, I wanted to illustrate how many locations it is possible to provision rights. I would therefore highly recommend you check all areas I have run through here to ensure the user no longer appears.
So finally,
Before, with normal SkyDrive Pro access:
After, with no SkyDrive Pro access:
Now when a user visits their SkyDrive Pro they will no longer see any files or they will no longer be able to upload documents. Basically, they have no access.
You need to beware of the fact that a users SkyDrive Pro area is a dedicated SharePoint site in which the user has full admin rights when it is created. This means that can change permissions, create subsites with different permissions and so on. It is like giving users full access to a folder on a network drive.
The easiest way to prevent a user from accessing SkyDrive Pro is to disable the account or remove their rights to SharePoint, however the above scenario illustrates that you can still permit access to SharePoint but not SkyDrive Pro, even if SkyDrive Pro for that user has already been created. It is a lot of work to do that but at least you know how to if you need to. Just beware that there may be further permissions enabled by a user (perhaps giving buddy hidden access) that you may have to dig out. Finger crossed, most users won’t alter the defaults but beware they certainly have the power to if they want by default!
CIAOPS 