Tag: Business

CIAOPS Bootcamp USA bound

With some help from Tim Carney I am bringing my SharePoint bootcamp to the San Francisco Bay area on Tuesday the 14th of June. For AUD$399 you’ll receive a full days hands on SharePoint training and a 12 month subscription to my SharePoint Operations Guide. You can find all the details and how to register at:

http://www.ciaops.com/bootcampsf

I also have a discount code available for those that want to email me directly (director@ciaops.com) to obtain it.

If you can’t attend, don’t fret I hope that this will be the start of many SharePoint bootcamps run across the US. Keep your eye peel for more information on these soon.

Predictably Irrational – Book review

Predictably Irrational The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book to be a very stimulating read. It closely examines how many of the things we do are different from the things that we say. It demonstrates how we are strongly ruled by our behaviours rather than our logic.

Apart from the human interest aspects of this book I also found it very interesting in a business context. Many of the behaviours illustrates provide deep insight into the purchasing nature of people. It for instance demonstrates how powerful the concept of ‘free’ is to people’s psyche.

The book is easy to read and written in a very engaging style. It contains numerous examples and intriguing experiments conducted by the author. If you are interested in understand how the human mind works and how behaviour is dominate over logic in most human experiences then this book is certainly a great read and high recommended.
View all my reviews

Purchase from CIAOPS Amazon store

In the beginning

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Above you’ll see an email I recently received from Linkedin telling me that they now have 100 Million users and that I was user 737,876.

 

For many years after joining Linkedin I must admit that I really didn’t use it, but all that has changed of late. In many ways I think Linkedin has become the Facebook for business. Think about it, Linkedin can give you access to 100+ million people. Now who wouldn’t want that tohelp their business or career?

 

I am still amazed at how many people I know that don’t use. It is not that it costs anything as well as providing a place for you to create an online CV, Linkedin is now so much more than that. It is way for me to stay connected to a whole rang of business people over their career. Chances are when people move to a new position they may be looking for people with a certain skills set. Where do you think the most likely place they are going look? More and more I’ll bet it is via Linkedin.

 

One of the other powerful features of Linkedin is the ability to write testimonials for others. This makes recommending someone simple and easy. This also makes your profile so much more powerful when people visit because they can view all these testimonials.

 

Like any networking tool, you simply can’t just set it and forget it. You need to keep working it, adding information, adding activities, adding contacts, etc. The more you add the more powerful ii becomes to help grow your career and/or your business.

 

If you are not already using Linkedin then I suggest you get yourself across to the site and set up your profile. If you have a profile, but have neglected it, I’d suggest you get in there and update it. No matter what I suggest you start making Linkedin a central part of business networking strategy.

 

Have a look at my profile:

 

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ciaops

 

and connect up with me.

Productivity and health

I was watching a recent video upload from Tim Ferriss which you’ll find here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qwP74XpaFU

 

For those who haven’t heard of him he the author of the 4 Hour Work Week and the 4 Hour Body both I which I commend to people. Now Tim’s work certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but a lot of what he says really resonates with me.

 

One of the topics he deals with is the link between health and productivity. When Richard Branson was asked what one way he would recommend to lift productivity, his answer was simple – work out. Tim also mentions a great book (which I have also read) called “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” which demonstrates the link between improve brain function and physical activity.

 

All this got me to thinking. Some of the smartest and hardest working people I know are also the most unfit. Imagine what they could achieve if they could improve their fitness. So many of them pooh-pooh the idea regular physical activity citing time constrains and workloads, etc. My response to that is this is simply an excuse. How do I know? Well, I was in a similar boat for many years. Although I have always been physically active I did not differentiate between exercise for recreation and exercise for health. I do now.

 

As Tim notes, exercise for health does not necessarily mean absolutely killing yourself in the gym. It means setting some goals, developing a plan and measuring the results. As time progresses it is matter of finding out what is minimum amount of work that can be done for the maximum result. Simple efficiency if you will. Problem is that too many people don’t take the time to learn and understand their body and what works for them, they are lead by ‘popular opinion’. As Tim notes, popular opinion is wrong most of the time.

 

Even if you dislike Tim you should at least acknowledge the process he goes through to obtain results. He tests, and adjusts. Measures and adjusts. Learns and adjusts. In recent time this is exact what I have been doing for myself (more in later posts) and I can’t tell you the improvement that it has made for me.

 

There is no time like the present to make a change, and the secret to successful change is to make in small increments. However, just as importantly you need to MEASURE what you do so you can spot trends. Again, in the above video Tim responses to a question about what are the key characteristics of successful people. One of his observations is that they measure and record their results so they can spot trends.

 

Let me ask you, what are you doing?

CIAOPS SharePoint bootcamps almost filled


I am happy to say that my upcoming SharePoint bootcamps are almost fully booked in each location (Melbourne 19th of May, Sydney 25th & 26th of May). Being limited to a maximum of 20 attendees this does make seats a little more exclusive. I would therefore recommend that if you are considering attending that you visit the registration site at:

http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp

and register to avoid disappointment.

Remember that all attendees get a 12 month subscription to my SharePoint Operations Guide (www.wssops.com) which gives you access to 2,000+ pages of documentation, hours of video tutorials, links, best practices and more. Apart from all meals and refreshments on the day attendees also receive a hard disk crammed with virtual machines images for training and testing, documentation and more.

As soon as you sign up you’ll get access to my SharePoint Operations Guide, so with a limited number of places left I’d suggest you register soon to avoid missing out.

April release of CIAOPS SharePoint Guide

 

The April 2011 version of my SharePoint Operations Guide is now available for subscribers. In this month’s edition you’ll find out how to change the passphrase on a SharePoint farm which is really  important if you are now using SBS 2011 Standard. Why? Because it is installed with a random passphrase and if you need to repair the installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010, and you don’t know the passphrase then you’ll have no option but to uninstall and reinstall SharePoint Foundation 2010. Yuk!

 

You’ll also find some information about Office365, especially in regards to SharePoint online.

 

I’m also please to welcome along a number of new subscribers who have received my Guide after signing up to my upcoming SharePoint bootcamp. When you sign up you’ll get a whole days hands on training PLUS a 12 month subscription to my Guide. Even better, if you sign up now the subscription won’t start till May, so you’ll get 13 months of the Guide.

 

Would you believe that next month marks 3 years of the Guide? Who’d thought, all those years ago that it would grow to what it has become today? Not me that’s for sure. So I take this opportunity to thank all my subscribers for their continued support.

Exam results

Yeah! I passed the Microsoft Exam 70-169 – Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard, Configuring and here’s my badge to prove it!

 

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I wonder whether they’ll be having a separate one for SBS 2011 Essentials? I would assume they’ll be having them for Office365 (although there was none for BPOS to my knowledge)? I need to get around to doing the SharePoint 2010 exams as well so always plenty more qualifications to work towards. Never hurts to keep your skills updated.

Melbourne is on


I am confirming that the CIAOPS SharePoint bootcamp will be coming to Melbourne, Victoria on Thursday the 19th of May 2011. At this stage I can’t confirm the 20th but the 19th is definitely on. The location will be:

St Kilda Road Parkview Hotel
562 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne. 3004

This day is filling fast so you if you are thinking of attending then I’d sign up up soon to reserve your place. You can do that via http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp. Remember, as soon as you sign up you will receive access to my SharePoint Operation Guide until May 2012.

I’ll also be promoting this event as much as possible through social media. As such I have decided on the Twitter hash tag #ciaboot. I’d also encourage people to go to the SharePoint Guide Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/wssops, follow the event and start a discussion about you’d like to see covered on the day.

The bootcamp is also confirmed for Sydney but still tentative for Brisbane so if you are interested please register.