The traits of a “modern” IT Professional

I recent wrote a piece on

The modern way of collaborating with Microsoft Teams

which highlighted the change from traditional work with IT systems to the very different ‘modern’ world we see today. It is a world where the user controls the provisioning and access to information is no longer a linear affair. The article also highlighted a number of challenges for IT Pros and Admin when it came to working in this modern world. I thought that I’d take a moment and talk about the major changes that IT Pros and Admins need to make themselves to also successfully transition into this modern world as well.

Firstly, this modern world is all about software as I have talked about before here:

Software will eat the world

This means the focus for anyone, whether they are in IT or not, should be software. For traditional IT Pros,. this means a transition to the world of technologies such as PowerShell to manage and maintain systems. Software provides the ability to automate repetitive tasks and create consistent repeatable processes that just about anyone can run. However, IT Pros should not just stop when it comes to PowerShell, they should also be looking at services like Microsoft Flow and PowerApps to automate and connect data sources to make users lives easier. In short, you now need to know how to assemble software not hardware to solve business problems.

Another factor about living in the world of software is “trusting the algorithm”. Services like Delve and Yammer have underlying intelligence to surface what a user needs to see based on their activity. There is nothing to configure with these underlying services, software just makes it so. Understanding this process and being comfortable with it is a must as there is now far too much information, from too many sources, for a single individual to be able to process it all. Social networking algorithms prioritize what unique information is presented to users without the need for any configuration. IT Pros will need to get comfortable with services in which they can not adjust every feature and setting but they still need to understand how they operate at a high level.

IT Pros must adapt to working in parallel, on different projects, consuming information from different sources not just traditional emails and other linear sources such as file shares. Yes, there is way too much information to be across everything all the time. This is why you need to be far more selective and only consume sources that provide you with the premier information you need. In many cases, apart from algorithms, these sources will be individuals within your social network who are staying abreast of the changes you also need to follow and distilling the abstract into the practical. Thus, follow the people rather than the information and let them lead to where the best information lies. You need to leverage the power of social across many sources and be pro-active in seeking out information rather than just waiting for it to hit your inbox.

You also need to get comfortable with the fact that users information is going to reside in many different inconsistent locations. This will include the traditional places like emails and network shares but today it will also mean in various SharePoint Teams Sites, OneDrive for Business, Yammer, Teams, Groups and more. Users can put information in a variety of places for a variety of reasons. Thanks to Office 365, this will all fall under a single compliance umbrella making management easier. It no longer means files are on a single network share where they once used to be tightly controlled by IT Pros. There is no longer a need to macro manage each individual information repository. IT Pros have to be comfortable with the user being responsible and desiring that now. IT Pros need to manage the next level up, the Site Collection in SharePoint, the complete Service like Yammer, etc. and Office 365 overall.

One of the reasons users implemented Shadow IT is because IT Pros where too rigid and restrictive in the way they managed and allocated technology resources. In the end, these resources are for users to get their work done. If users hit a road block they simply find a tool on the web and work around the impediment. IT Pros have to get back to serving their users, enabling the tools that they need and giving them guidance on how and why the services should be used. They need to change their role to being an enabler of technology. As I have said before, IT Pros need to

Stop making their users feel stupid

, understand and accept how users want to get their jobs done today.

Being an enabler means keeping things simple and adding value. This means an IT Pro can no longer simply ‘resell’ a product by merely adding margin and passing it along. That is simply being an overhead. The requirement is to move from being a ‘reseller’ to a ‘consultant’ who helps users get their work better thereby making the overall business more profitable.

Many users are yet to fully comprehend the features and benefits of all the services like Office 365 and Azure. It is therefore important for IT Pros to help the users enable the systems as they become more comfortable and educated on how they can help them perform their jobs. This means understanding the technology that users have access to and what is available as add ons. If you believe the end of the opportunity with a customer is email migrations to Office 365, then you are missing out on the huge revenue opportunity of implementing services that comes with products like CRM, Project Online, Intune and Microsoft Mobility and Security that extend the base functionality of Office 365.

All of these above things are important to help IT Pros make the transition into the modern era of support, however by far, the most important in my mind is the discipline of deliberate practice.

“The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity” – Josh Waitzkin

Many IT Pros have failed to keep their IT knowledge current, to the point where most users know far more about the systems they use than resellers. This is because that IT Pros have not carved themselves out regular time to study, learn, update and use the latest in technology. It isn’t hard to do, but the secret is to make it a deliberate practice, not something that you say you’ll get around to and never actually do! Remember, doing random things only leads to random results.

I am amazed at how many resellers for example don’t use a tool like OneNote! I live in my OneNote every day and in there is all my training resources. It lists the things I’ve done as well the things I have scheduled myself to learn. The great thing about using OneNote is that it will sync information across all your devices seamlessly so you can keep learning anywhere. Most important, however, is that since you know how to use OneNote yourself you can then sell that expertise to customers to help solve their business challenges. Here a good example of what I implement initially for customers to get the using OneNote for themselves:

One of the ways I use OneNote

You can’t sell the stuff unless you use the stuff.

Thanks to the Internet there is a wealth of free information available to IT Pros to learn at their leisure. Places such as Microsoft Virtual Academy, recorded Ignite sessions on YouTube, Technet libraries are all available for free, just to mention a few. There is simply no excuse when it comes to availing yourself of the information and developing your knowledge. Every Microsoft partner receives a bounty of free resources from Microsoft. Most get access to all the products they are selling to their customers for free, such as Office 365. How many actually take full advantage of that? Not just the basics but the full suite of services Office 365 provides?

There is also the opportunity to interact with product specialists directly via social media and the Microsoft Tech Community to mention just two, that doesn’t even cover other online communities such as LinkedIn, Experts Exchange and more. Relevant information is now delivered freely by social means in parallel from a variety of sources.

There are lots of changes IT Pros need to make to remain relevant in the modern world but these are the most important I believe. In summary they are:

Embrace software
Embrace adhoc and parallel access methods
Become more user focused
Practice and learn deliberately

There has never been more opportunity and need for skilled IT Pros into today’s technology environment. Doing things the same way and expecting different results simply doesn’t make sense. So do today what others won’t so tomorrow you can do what others can’t. That is your key to future success in this industry.

The rule of three

I’m a big believer in systems and doing things for a reason (because doing random things only generates random results, which ain’t good). I also like to keep things as simple as possible.

With that in mind I’d like to tell you about my ‘Rule of Three’. You may have already seen this in action in a previous blog post about designing an initial SharePoint structure for migration:

A basic SharePoint Online Framework

So where did this rule of three come from? Well, in my experience when it comes to change most people can’t handle more than three changes. In essence, they can’t juggle more than three new concepts or changes at a time in their mind.

Let’s view that in light of a migration to Office 365 from a traditional on premises file server. The first change is moving to Office 365 itself, the second change is around the fact that files are now accessed via a browser in SharePoint rather than via Windows Explorer and a mapped drive. The final change is around the structure inside a SharePoint site (i.e. where the hell are my files actually?).

Thus, most people can accommodate three changes but that is their limit. If you add a fourth then this is where the illogical occurs. At the point of mental overload (i.e. four or more changes) not only is the user unable to cope with this last change but they also abandon all the previous changes they had already accepted. That is, at the point of overload they throw their hands up in the air and say ‘this is all too hard’ and throw in the towel, abandoning all change. Like a house of cards, overload a user and their whole adoption acceptance collapses and you have to start again, but typically you are now starting with a bigger mess and face more resistance.

Thus, pushing people to the point of failure results in catastrophic failure of adoption, where they no longer accept any change. That is bad news when it comes to adoption and thus should be avoided at all costs. In many cases, after the point of overload and collapse the user becomes much more resistant to any thing that you propose that is different from what they already know.

So, when you are making changes in people’s lives, especially when it comes to how they use technology in their job, remember my rule of three and don’t overload them. Also keep in mind this article I wrote a while back:

Stop making your users feel stupid

because making them feel stupid is the fastest way to tip them into catastrophic failure and create a rod for your own back.

Keep it simple to start with but don’t give them any more than three things to juggle at a time. As they become comfortable with one thing add another but limit the balls they have in air to no more than three. A lot of small changes in rapid succession are much more likely to succeed than massive jumps.

A great tip to remember

Here’s a great a lesson about accepting work from one of the people I follow, photographer Chase Jarvis.

In essence the lesson is that you’ll never take a $500 dollar client to being a $50,000 client. Why? Because when they have the $50,000 budget they’ll go to the person they could get for $500.

If you also decide to take the $500 offered where you normally charge say $5,000 you are immediately devaluing yourself and your services which is basically a road to ruin.

Again, great short video with plenty of lessons for all. Well worth your time.

You’ll find my thoughts on these topic as it applies to cloud business along with technical information on Office 365 and Azure in my free online training course:

CIAOPS Academy – Cloud Lecture Series

Adding value

I recently purchased a stand up desk from Varidesk because sitting is the new smoking don’t you rknow. However, this post is about the little extra item that I discovered inside.

After opening up the Varidesk I discovered these nifty Velcro ties, very handy indeed.

It is a great example of something small that provides value add for the customer. What are the ways that you are adding value for your customers? As these cables ties show, it doesn’t have to be expensive it just needs to be thoughtful.

Office 365 adoption spreadsheet

https://github.com/directorcia/Office365/blob/master/o365-azure-usage.xlsx

One of the challenges with Office 365 is that it needs to be seen as a platform rather than a single product.

Unsurprisingly, the most common service implemented in Office 365 is email. This is mostly because people don’t know what else their suite contains.

It is therefore important, for many reasons, that IT reseller enable every service in Office 365 that customers have access to do. At ther very least, they should be ensuring customer know about everything that is available to them. Unfortunately, I don’t see that being done well. The main reason for that is simply most resellers don’t have a system to help drive adoption. Hopefully, my spreadsheet above, that you can download and use for yourself, might help a bit.

What I have done is created a new tab for each Office 365 service. So for example, there is an E5 tab that lists all the customers in order and then has columns for each of the items in that service. For example in E5 there is Meeting Broadcast, Cloud PBX, Delve Analytics, Power BI Pro, Customer Lockbox and so on. Then there is a tab for Email, Delve, Yammer, Team Sites, etc.

The idea is that for each service you go in and enter a usage number as a percentage. This represents how much of that feature the client knows about and is using. Where do the actual percentage figures come from? In the spreadsheet I have created they are entered manually, however there is nothing stopping you getting them from the Office 365 utilisation stats in the Admin Console or even the Power BI Office 365 adoption content pack. I’d suggest that the idea is to keep things as simple as possible to start with and improve it from there.

Now that there are figures for all the individual items, these are then rolled up into a Summary tab at the front of the spreadsheet. I have also used conditional formatting to highlight those which are below an acceptable level. This allows you, at a glance, to see where you need to placing your energy to lift usage within your customer base.

By converting the lists of items to a table I can now sort by any column I choose. Thus, if I sort the Total column from top to bottom I can see my best and worst users over all. I can repeat that process for any column as well to see which users have the overall worst take up of something like Yammer say.

I can therefore look at the spreadsheet by row, i.e. per customer, to identify what services any individual business is not using. However, I can also look at the results by column, i.e. by service. That would allow me to focus say on Yammer and target the lowest adoption, then move to the next lowest adoption. I could look across all my columns and run a campaign to target the lowest service usage.

Even though the spreadsheet is pretty basic, the concept is rather powerful I reckon. It allows to more easily target those customers with low adoption of Office 365 products. It also allows a IT resellers to start setting goals like – ‘Our aim for this month is to get average Yammer user above 50% for all our customers’. It provides sales and business development types an easy way to target the biggest opportunities in their customer base. And so on, and so on. There are lots of ways that you can use the information that this spreadsheet provides.

Of course, you can take my concept and extend it any way you desire. You can of course simplify it to start out. Use it anyway you want to help your business drive more Office 365 adoption. The important thing is that it gives you a system that you can work to, automate, outsource, delegate, etc. Systems are for winners, so take what I have done, modify it for yourself and go out there and win!

Selling Office 365 Azure options

One thing that many IT resellers don’t appreciate is that when you get Office 365 you also get Azure. You don’t get the “full” Azure that allows you to run things like VMs (that requires a paid subscription), but you get a version with a limited subset of features. These included features that typically relate to Azure AD.

You enable the included Office 365 Azure AD by following these steps:

Enabling your Office 365 Azure AD access

Once you do that you can then use features like:

– Tenant branding

– Single Sign On web portal

– Cloud password reset

– etc

So there are a swag of features in Office 365 Azure that most resellers don’t know exist and are also not generating revenue from.

The above spreadsheet provides a framework to help IT resellers create a product offering around some of these features.

The spreadsheet has a number of tabs:

– Summary = summary of generated revenue

– Setup = costing for the initial setup of these advanced Office 365 Azure features

– Maintenance = costs for the ongoing maintenance of these features

– Extend = costs for extending these features beyond the standard provided

So let’s work through an example to give you a better idea of how to use this framework.

Start on the Setup tab. Start in cell C3 which is the fixed costs for Branding an Office 365 tenant. The figure you’d enter in here is you cost to do the branding. Let’s say that it costs about $100 worth of labour. Thus, we enter 100 here.

Cell D3 is the cost per user of enabling this service. Because branding is tenant wide there is no per user set up so there is probably nothing that can be entered here.

Cell E3 is other incidental costs for setting up the service. In the case of branding that may mean things like graphic design, etc. In this example, let’s enter 20.

Cell F3 is where you enter the total number of users in the tenant. For this example enter 15.

The Total column should now calculate to $120 which is the total cost of you enabling this service for the customer. Cell H3 converts that total cost to a per user cost.

Now in cell J3 you enter the margin (as a percentage) you want to add on top of your costs. Here enter 25.

The Total Sell column should now show $150 and cell L3 shows this sell price as a per user cost.

So that’s the product for setting up tenant branding. You can now move to the Maintenance tab and repeat the process to determine a maintenance product for branding. In this case there is probably not a maintenance product you can create for tenant branding since it is kinda a one shot deal. Likewise, there is probably not a product you can create about extending tenant branding beyond what is provided out of the box.

Therefore, let’s move to the second item – SSO portal.

You repeat the same costing and sell process in the Setup tab. There will however this time be a per user set up cost as each user needs their own unique portal. With that line completed on the Setup tab you now have another product.

Moving to the Maintain tab for SSO Portal you can create an ongoing product because updates will be required to the portal, so enter the costs, add some margin and determine the sell price. There’s your next product.

The SSO Portal can be extended with the addition of an Azure AD Premium license to add more features, thus we can again repeat the process for on the Extend tab for the SSO Portal. Part of the costs here will be the costs of an add on license for Azure AD Premium for each user. When complete, there’s another product.

If you now complete the rest of the spreadsheet you should have quite a few products you can now sell to customers individually or bundle up and include elsewhere. Easy eh?

Here’s you challenge. Use this framework and go out to your existing customer base with the products you have created here and sell at least $1,000 of new “products” you didn’t have before you read this post. You should be able to easily accomplish that within a week without too much effort. Start now and let me know how you go and how much more than $1,000 you actually make!

Announcing the free CIAOPS Cloud lecture series

I am please to announce that I have created a new free lecture series at the CIAOPS Academy which you can find here:

Cloud Lecture Series

This is a free series of short topics that I have recorded at my face to face events. Topics include both business and technology and are mainly aimed at an IT Professionals audience. There is information in there to help you grow your cloud business as well as understand technologies like Office 365.

I’ll continue to add to this series over time as I do more events so enrol for free and ensure you check back regularly for the latest content.

Learning Online Advertising–Part 3

This is a follow on from the two previous parts, which you can read here:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2017/01/learning-online-advertisingpart-1.html

https://blog.ciaops.com/2017/02/learning-online-advertisingpart-2.html

After modifying the copy of the destination site:

Getting Started with SharePoint Online

My next thought was to take price out of the equation. Thus, I decided to increase the price of the course to $69 but then provide an immediate discount to the original price $49. The idea here was if people saw an immediate discount they would be more likely to purchase. In theory anyway.

The other thing that I did was also offer two lessons as a free preview so people could get a better idea of what the course is all about. The theory here was that if people received a free sample they would be more likely to purchase. Again, in theory.

With these two changes in place I re-initiated the Facebook ads. However, there was still something bugging me about the numbers in the back of my mind.

As previously mentioned, I had always thought that with 2,000+ clicks or so that there should have statistically been at least one conversion. Why hadn’t there even been one via dumb luck?

I then started digging into the reporting and discovered the reason! When I segmented the report by country I found the above results.

As you can see, the majority of clicks came from locations that probably don’t have English as their first language and probably don’t have a lot of disposable cash to spend on my courses!

D’Oh. I got seduced by Facebook numbers. When I initiated the ad I though “sure, I want to target this at the whole world. The more the better right?’’. WRONG. I should have started out targeting the ad at the locations I saw as my target market, i.e. Australia, U.S., U.K., etc. Rookie mistake.

However, this also raises another interesting learning in all my research on Facebook ads. Not one, ‘so-called’ expert had every said that I should start with a small target market and grow from there. No one pointed that having lots of click doesn’t mean these clicks come from where you desire. My faith in ‘so called’ experts’ in this area therefore still remains very low.

I then adjusted the audience for the ads to the above.

You can see above the new results. Most of the clicks now came from the desired locations, however I still got clicks from places like Nepal?? How did that happen?? I didn’t specify that as a location. Hmmmm…

Of course now that the ads are targeted at more desirable markets the cost per click increases. That I understand.

Unfortunately, even after these changes I still didn’t generate any revenue! However, it did teach me two big lessons.

1. Start with the smallest targeted audience possible and scale from there. If you go too broad, your investment will be consumed by lots of clicks from locations that are really not your target market.

In my case I started off with the audience being the world, rather the smaller audience of Australia, N.Z., U.S. etc

2. I have also come to conclusion that Facebook ads are more about ‘drive by interest’. By this I mean you are advertising to people who have indicated an interest in a topic (say SharePoint) rather than someone with a particular need that you get from Google because people are typing in what what they are searching for.

This, I think, makes advertising to a Facebook audience much harder. Why? Because people are probably likely to click and have a look at your content but that is simply out of interest rather than a specific need. That means you need to have a really compelling message and process for conversion. Tough.

Contrast that to people who type a particular search into Google using something like “Good SharePoint Online Training”. Such people have a real and immediate need. They are already well down the path to purchasing something to solve their need. This is a fundamental difference between Facebook and Google Ads (again, something that no one seems to highlight in any of the literature that I read).

Ok, so after spend a couple of hundred dollars on Facebook advertising, it is time to re-group and have a think about all this. I’m kinda thinking that online advertising is probably not the best vehicle for driving business to my online courses. However, I’m thinking that I might take what I have learnt and try and grow my email list.

Driving people to my email list will have less friction than my online courses for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is free and secondly it is something that people with a general interest (but no burning issues) should find appealing.

Now the challenge is that the current sign up page for list isn’t really optimised for ‘appealing’ conversion. Thus, I’ll probably need to put together something more sophisticated if I want to convert people. Maybe I don’t. I’ll have to see now won’t I?