Tag: Business

Office365 for SMB webinar


Confused about Office365 and how it work in the small to medium business (SMB) segment? Then this introductory webinar is for you. In it you’ll learn more about Office365 capabilities and more importantly how these map to the SMB market.

You’ll learn things like:

– How Office365 will be licensed
– What the capabilities and options of the licenses are
– Picking the right Office365 options for the SMB environment
– The real world implementations of Office365, good and bad
– and much more.

The webinar is on Tuesday the 28th of June from 10am – 11am (Sydney, Australia time) and only costs $29.90 ex GST. The material covered in the webinar is aimed specifically at the SMB Market so you’ll learn about integration with products like Small Business Server.

To sign up with a credit card visit:

http://www.pagebloom.com/content/product/o/92160/p/1103227

otherwise contact director@ciaops.com to arrange alternate forms of payment.

SMBNation Spring 2011

My first time at SMBNation Spring has been a real blast. Not quite the same as the event in Vegas but still well worth the trip.

 

The facilities at the International Centre where excellent and the Wi-Fi was the best I have seen at any SMBNation event. Dana Epp’s presentation on the benefits of Tele-working was excellent (as Dana’s stuff always is). Ollie Sommer’s presentation on clustering a Hyper-V environment was another highlight. On the second day, Tim Carney’s presentation on migration strategies had some very interesting and different alternatives on SBS Migrations. Some really great sessions for attendees of all levels.

 

I was a little disappointed that my session on SharePoint wasn’t attended by a greater number, but I accept this in light of the fact that SharePoint still has a long way to go to becoming mainstream (especially with resellers) in the SMB Market, However, those that did attend I believe got something of of value and enjoyed the content.

 

You can find my presentation slides for viewing here:

 

http://docs.com/CNXK

 

Even though I’m really not focused on the managed service provider model like most that attend I was impressed by the vendor hall and the quality of people attending. Both attendees and vendor representative where extremely friendly and helpful so kudos.

 

So what did I get out it? Simple, networking. I was fortunate to be able to catch up with many familiar faces as well as meeting loads of new people. It was great to also put names to faces of people who have corresponded with me over time. These events are so much more about the hallway networking. The presentations are simply the icing on the cake.

 

To Harry and his team at SMBNation a hearty thanks and well done, another excellent event and I thank you for the opportunity of being able to present. I hope to see you all again real soon.

The value of the veg-out


We’re all becoming a pretty serious bunch, constantly checking messages, texting, making calls on our mobile no matter where we are. Whatever happened to the simple idea of ‘taking it easy’ and ‘just doing nothing’?

The biggest challenge most people face today is not having ‘enough time’. For this reason they try and squeeze more and more activity into their daily routine. Typically, this results in very little ‘down time’. It also tends to creep into people’s sleep time. So today, most people are getting far less ‘down-time’ and rest than they actually need.

This constant on the go lifestyle may seem effective but all that it is really doing is running you down. Ever notice you don’t seem to have the energy any more and that you run out earlier in the day? Ever seem to find that you are less than 100% more of the time? Ever find that you seem to be caught in a rut more often (because your brain isn’t allowed to free associate)? Running at 110% all the time causes wear, on equipment and on people.

Many argue they can’t ‘veg-out’ because they’d feel guilty as no one else seems to be doing it, but sometimes as Mark Twain says:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.
http://www.typology.net/quotes/twain.html

We all need regular bouts of ‘veg-out’ time to allow our minds to rest, wander, explore new concepts and consolidate what we have learnt. Just because you ‘think’ you are doing nothing doesn’t mean your brain has stopped working. You have simply slowed the processes it has to deal with at the front, allowing more resources to be dedicated to what happens in the back room, behind the curtains.

Try some regular ‘veg-out’ time and see if it makes any difference. Watch a movie, talk a walk, listen to music, be with someone, whatever. But take a regular break. You’ll probably find that you’ll respond much better to daily life once you have some time to regularly rest and recover. Remember, all those people who don’t have ‘down-time’ simply do it because that is what every one else is doing and what did your mother say about jumping off a bridge?

CIAOPS SharePoint Bootcamp reviews



I am pleased to say that the feedback from the recent SharePoint bootcamps in Melbourne and Sydney has been extremely positive. here are some examples:

“Great venue + facilities. Outstanding content, with good labs and great takeaway materials. Incredible value for money – well worth travelling”


“It was a day jam packed with value… real knowledge and no fluff.. well worth our time and the investment of the course..”


“I learned enough to make this worthwhile, after about 30 mins. All the rest ramped up, and gave me so many ideas on how to both do things better, and leverage SharePoint so much more. Looking forward to doing the advanced SharePoint as soon as is available.”


“Robert thanks very much for an information packed day. All bases were covered with comprehensive notes, labs, a hard drive with VMs and content and ongoing access to your website and reference material. We covered a great deal of content in a short space of time and it was genuine 300 level technical material.”


“Just wanted to send my warm feedback and deep thanks for a very intriguing and interesting day at the SharePoint bootcamp! I learned a whole lot about SharePoint and the other products you’ve discussed, but mostly learned how much I didn’t know 😉 You were able to pack a huge amount of info in this day to leave a strong desire to use the study material and learn more about SharePoint.”


“I definitely did gain some knowledge on SharePoint 2010 from the one-day Bootcamp course in Sydney and its installation. In addition to that I also learnt something on Virtualisation from the VirtualBox software, especially when I encountered problems with its installation on the Memory setting and BIOS setup on the HP Laptop PC. It was worth the money spent, effectively with the 1-year free Subscription of CIAOPS Operations Guide valued at $300 & the free giveaway Iomega 500GB Portable USB drive ($100), the course is effectively free of charge.”

Of course there are some things that I need to work on including ensuring that everyone can get access to the hosted SharePoint training site before the session and ensuring that everyone is able to set up the labs on their machines. However, I’m really please with the positive feedback given this is my first attempt at something like this.


So where to from here? I am currently working on a advanced SharePoint course as well as something around Office365. I hope to be able to announce something soon for August, so stay tuned here.


If you have any suggestions about what you believe would be worthwhile to cover in my bootcamps don’t hesitate to contact me (director@ciaops.com).

All searches are not created equal

Interesting video presentation from TED talks about how our Internet searching is not really as ‘unencumbered’ as we believe. Sites like Google, Facebook and Yahoo are all making decision about THEY THINK we should see. The problem with that is we all become more insular and not as exposed to new and alternate ideas.

Melbourne bootcamp complete


I am happy to say that the inaugural CIAOPS SharePoint bootcamp in Melbourne this week was well received by those that attended. Some feedback already in includes:

“I can thoroughly recommend Robert’s SharePoint Bootcamp sessions as highly informative and delivered with great candour. Robert has put together a package that provides an excellent introduction to the possibilities of SharePoint in the small-to-medium business sector.” – Jason Thomas

and

“Thanks for a great day today. It was very well run and organized. The SharePoint training is a great intro into getting SharePoint up and running, it reinforced my prior knowledge and filled in some gaps. The discussion on SharePoint’s business applications will provide a solid framework for presenting SharePoint solutions to clients. The learning materials provided are fantastic and will be a valued resource.” – Alex Moodie

This week the show rolls into Sydney on 2 days. There are still a few places if you are want to attend. To sign up visit http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp.

After Sydney, I’ll be running my bootcamp in San Francisco on Tuesday the 14th of June as I return from SMB Nation Spring 2011 in Toronto. If you are interested in attending on this date visit http://www.ciaops.com/bootcampsf to register.

I’ve also had some interest shown in bootcamps in other locations and I’ll keep you posted on these locations as they become available.

Beyond these SharePoint bootcamps I’m now starting to consider what to offer next. I’ve had interest shown in training around advanced SharePoint, Office365 and social media. If you are interested in any of these or have some suggestions of your own that you’d like to see please feel free to let me know (director@ciaops.com).

I must also thank all those who attended the sessions in Melbourne and I really hope you got value from not only the money that you spent but also the times invested. I certainly hope you can see the potential SharePoint offers not only as a business solution but also a potential grow area for your business.

CIAOPS May newsletter

The May 2011 email newsletter has been released to subscribers inboxes. If you are interested you’ll find the edition here:

 

http://eepurl.com/dRx_H

 

In there you’ll find information about integrating OneNote an iPads, Windows Mobile 7 and Office365.

 

Here’s the video newsletter as well that is part of each edition.

Monthly Amazon gift cards on offer

I’m now offering two free $15 Amazon gift cards per month to people. The first thing you need to do is either be a SharePoint Operations Guide subscriber, which you can do at www.wssops.com or you need to be a subscriber to the CIAOPS email newsletter, which you can do at:

 

http://ciaops.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf

 

Once you are on at least one of these lists, then all you need to do is send me information on either technology (i.e. cloud computing, social networking, smart phones, etc), productivity tips or SharePoint. Information could be cool sites, tips and tricks, technical articles, ‘how to’ documents, links, etc. Once a month I’ll select the two best (one for SharePoint and one for everything else) and those people will receive a free $15 Amazon gift card.

 

That means you have the chance of earning a $15 Amazon gift card every month simply by signing up to a CIAOPS newsletter and sending me some ‘stuff’ (via email director@ciaops.com) . Couldn’t be easier right? I’ll be picking the winners at the end of every month so hop to it if you want to be in running by 1 June 2011.