Where to put data in Office 365?

Office 365 has lots of choice when it comes to storing corporate information and that confuses many people. The first place to start to avoid confusion is to understand exactly where information can be placed inside Office 365 and whether that information is available to all users or just an individual by default.

Hopefully the above diagram makes things a little bit easier to understand and here’s a breakdown of what it’s all about

The large box that contains everything is Office 365.

The first box in the top left is Exchange Online. This can contain a user’s personal mailbox (which is private), shared mailboxes (which are public) and public folders (which are public). Into the Exchange box you normally store emails shared between the three smaller boxes within.

The second box on the top row in the middle is SharePoint. This contains OneDrive for Business (which is private), Team Sites (which is public) and Video (which is public). Into the SharePoint box you normally store files shared between the three smaller boxes within.

The box in the top right of the first row is Yammer into which goes conversations (or discussions) that are public.

The box on the left in the bottom row is Office 365 Groups which are composed of a public shared mailbox and a public shared OneDrive for Business. Thus, any information that goes into the Office 365 Groups box will be public. Into the Groups box you normally store files and emails that should to be stored together because they relate to a single topic.

The box on the right in the bottom row is Office 365 Planner which is comprised of public Groups and public Tasks. Thus, any information that goes into Planner will be public. Into Planner you normally store files, emails and tasks that need to be stored together (i.e projects) because they relate to a single topic.

As you can see by the colour scheme, green is shared information amongst the business while red is private information unique to an individual user.

Of course you don’t need to use every storage location in Office 365 that is available to you immediately and your usage locations may also change over time. Best practice is to start with information in Exchange, then expand into Office 365 Groups, then Planner, then SharePoint and finally Yammer. The important thing to remember is that Office 365 gives you lots of choice of where to save your information, it is up to you to work out what makes the most sense for your business.

Hopefully, that makes a little easier to understand when it comes to determining where to put different types of information. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment or contacting me directly (director@ciaops.com).

Need to Know podcast–Episode 92

Thanks to my very special guest for this episode, Marc Kean, for not only agreeing to being interviewed but for also doing a new intro and extro for the podcast. Let me know what you think!

I cover off the latest Office 365 news and then dive into Office 365 compliance with Marc who shares his knowledge and experience around ensuring business information is kept secure and how to achieve that with Office 365.

You can listen to this episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-92-marc-kean/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send me any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show. I’m also on the hunt for some co-presenters so if you are interested on being a regular part of the show please contact me.

Resources

Marc Kean – Twitter

My Office 365 Nation wrap up

The new Office is here

Office 365 Planner

Meet the new OneDrive

Office 365 compliance features

Use Office 365 to help be compliant

Outlook on the web improvements

If you have a look at your Outlook on the web experience in office 365 you might notices some differences. Microsoft has introduced some changes to the interface as well as added new features.

If you now visit Outlook from your Office 365 web portal and select an email you will see a range of menu options now displayed across the top of the page.

You’ll also find new features inside the inbox including the ability to ‘pin’ messages to the top of the list.

A new option called Sweep allows you to more easily create rules to manage your inbox. You simply select the message to action on and the select the Sweep option from the menu across the top of the screen.

Not only do Sweep rules work like traditional inboxes rules but they also have the ability to run automatically if required keeping your inbox organized when you aren’t there or email are flowing in.

The full details about these changes can be found in a recent blog post from Microsoft:

New features coming to Outlook on the web

Which you should take a look at to see all the new features they are incorporating. Hopefully by now you should bee seeing these new features in your Outlook on web, if not, they will be rolling out to you soon.

New Outlook on the web features

Microsoft recently announced some updates to Outlook on the web. You can read about all of them here:

New features coming to Outlook on the web

But I thought I’d highlight a new feature that I have found pretty handy, and it is called Sweep.

So when you visit your mail in the Office 365 portal you should find a new toolbar across the top as shown above. In there you see an option called Sweep.

To use Sweep simply select a message from your inbox and then select the Sweep option from the menu. This should display a dialog box as shown above.

In this case I select the second option, Delete all messages from the inbox folder and any future messages.

Then select the Sweep button to complete the process.

You should then receive a confirmation like shown above. if you select the View rules button.

You’ll then be shown the rule that was just created from your actions. At the bottom you’ll also see any automated Sweep rules that have been created to keep your inbox tidy between visits.

Sweep is just one of the ways the Microsoft has improved your ability to manage your emails with the updated functionality in Outlook on the web. For more details on all the new features make sure you read the blog post:

New features coming to Outlook on the web

Revised bootcamp notes publication now available

As I detailed a while back I have now updated my Bootcamp products offering to include:

1. Latest version of my Office 365 bootcamp notes. This OneNote notebook is something I use everyday to capture information about Office 365. It is my reference ‘bible’ covering everything from Exchange to Sharepoint, Delve to Single Sign on as well as troubleshooting, best practices and a range of PowerShell scripts and third party solutions that work with Office 365.

2. Latest version of my Azure bootcamp notes. This OneNote notebook contains my daily brain dump about Azure. It contains links, information, tutorials and more. Again, this is something I use everyday and update constantly.

3. Exam cram notes for the Office 365 70-347 and 70-346 exam. It contains information and links to help you pass the exam. It also has a number of practice exam questions to give you an idea of what might be covered in an exam.

4. Five (5) supporting Office 365 checklists and templates that you can use for your Office 365 implementation. These documents are in various Office formats (Word, Excel, etc).

There are two ways to get access to this material:

1. You can join my Cloud Business Blueprint community via:

http://www.cloudbusinessblueprint.com/members-sign-up/

where you’ll get immediate access to the latest versions plus heaps of other unique on demand training, cheat sheets, re-brandable content, articles AND access to the members forums to converse with other cloud resellers.

2. You can purchase the existing Office 365 bootcamp notes via;

http://www.e-junkie.com/ciaops/product/488325.php

for AU $148. This purchase will also entitle you to a 12 monthly subscription for updates to these products (generally updated monthly).

Also, given that the 74-325 Office for SMB exam has been superseded I have made the OneNote exam cram notes I created for this available for free download with all my other free material at:

http://www.ciaops.com/downloads

If nothing else, those bootcamp notes are going to provide a centralised and searchable way to locate just about anything to do with Office 365 and Azure. This will save you inordinate amounts of time and easily pay for your outlay. You’ll also get free updates for to all of these for 12 months once you purchase. Like I said, I use these notebooks EVERY DAY.

If you want some testimonials about these bootcamps and information provided visit:

http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp/

Please support this material so I can continue creating more.

Office 365 data import now in preview

As I spoke about in a previous post, Microsoft has started started to roll out the ability to import data like PST files directly to Office 365.

If you have the first release enabled on your tenant you may now see the Import option appear on your administration menu on the Office 365 portal. Select that will take you to the above page.

You can then elect to Ship the data on physical hard drives or Upload files over the network.

All of the information about this new option, which is still in preview, can be found at:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn948519(v=exchg.150).aspx

It is expected that we will soon see the ability to not only upload PST data but also data to SharePoint and OneDrive for Business via this method. This is going to make it a lot easier to get large volume of information up to Office 365 much quicker than before.

Office 365 data import service rolling out

Here’s an interesting item from the Office 365 Roadmap in development.

Drive Shipping and Network Based Data Import for Office 365

The ability to import data into Office 365 in a quick and easy manner has been a known constraint of Office 365, and a solution for this issue has emerged as a key request from customers. We are working on a solution that will allow quicker imports of data into Exchange Online Archive Mailboxes. You will now be able to import Exchange Online data through PST files into the service without using third party tools. Drive Shipping and Network Based Ingestion options will use Azure-based services to import data. Over time we will be extending this to other data types across Office 365.

This option is not yet available on my Office 365 tenant but here is a blog post of someone who has it and has documented the process:

http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/2015/05/office-365-using-the-new-pst-import-service/

What excites me is not the PST stuff but this line:

Over time we will be extending this to other data types across Office 365.

That to me reads that soon Office 365 will support drive shipping and network based ingestion of SharePoint and OneDrive for Business data! That will be huge and save massive amounts of time for customers looking to move the bulk of their files and folder information to Office 365, who may also be somewhat bandwidth limited.

The second thing I note here is:

Drive Shipping and Network Based Ingestion options will use Azure-based services to import data.

That further reinforces to my mind the fact that if you are an Office 365 IT professional you are going to need to be comfortable with Azure.

To me it is no longer Office 365, it is now Office365/Azure combined as a skill set you must have going forward.

Getting Started With Attached Apps

One of the most common challenges I see with Office 365 is the ability to easily share contacts throughout your organisation. Yes, you can do with with Exchange Public Folders. Yes, you can do with SharePoint contacts but here’s an even easier way, using Attached Apps.

The great things about the Attached Apps shared contacts setup, is that it is free! The idea is that you’ll get hooked on the Attached Apps platform and use some of their other great offerings.

I must admit I had a little trouble getting the Attached Apps stuff up and working initially so I contacted them and they helped me get it sorted. Now as I like doing, I put all the information together in a simple step by step process you can follow which I have detailed below.

Having seen what the Attached Apps stuff can do I decided that it is an excellent offering for customers and for resellers as well. So if you looking to get set up as an end user then contact me (director@ciaops.com) and I can help you.

Alternatively, if you are reseller then you can set up your own partner account. In that case All I ask is that when you visit this link:

https://attachedportal.attachedapps.com/Provision/ProvisionPartner

To sign up you select me when you get to Question 3 above. I’d really appreciate it and lets the Attached Apps folks know where the business is coming from.

I’ll be posting more about my journey with Attached Apps so stay tuned, but here’s how to get the ball rolling.

Navigate to the Attached Apps web site at:

http://www.attachedapps.com

Scroll down the home page and locate the Get the App Now button and select it.

Complete all the details in the sign up form.

Note that you will need to supply an Office 365 Global Administrator login and password to allow Attached Apps to me installed in the tenant.

Also be aware that you can only use a contact email address once, so if you have signed up previously for Attached Apps you will need to use a different email address in your contact details.

At the bottom of the form select he Register button.

You will now need to wait a few moments while the software verifies access to your Office 365 tenant and then configures itself.

When this installation is complete you see a Thank You message displayed on the screen. At this point you need to check the contact email address you suppliers during sign up. When you do you should find the following email:

Congratulations! We have successfully provisioned your firm for attachedapps. As an Administrator for the apps, you should have received a batch of credential emails, one for each user on the Exchange account used for provisioning. You can forward those credentials to the users you wish to have access to the apps.

Please download the Getting Started Guide from our website. It will expedite productive use of the apps and provide tips on customization for your specific business. You will also find instructions for enabling the paid applications.

Please email us at support@attachedapps.com if you have any questions at all.

Thank you,

attachedapps Support Team

www.attachedapps.com

The next step in process is to configure your Office 365 tenant so that the Attach Apps configuration and abilities are automatically pushed out to all your users Outlook desktop client.

Visit the following URL:

https://liquidpractice.zendesk.com/attachments/token/pDmk7yIg9EzN4SeREhfWmbgL5/?name=attachedOutlookMail-PROD.xml

which will download a file called attachedOutlookMail-Prod.xml. Save this file to your local machine.

Login to your Office 365 tenant as a Global Administrator. Select the nine boxes in the top left of the windows to display the My apps menu as shown above.

From the options that appear select Admin.

In the lower left of the window, under the Admin section, select Exchange.

In the Exchange admin center select organization from the options on the left. Then select apps from the options across the top.

You should then see a list of apps that are provided to everyone who uses Exchange, one of these typically is Bing Maps.

From the menu just above the select of app select the down arrow just to the right of the + (plus) symbol. This should reveal a menu as shown above.

From the menu select Add from file.

Use the Browse button to navigate to the location on your local machine where you downloaded the file attachedOutlookMail-PROD.xml previously.

With that file selected press the Next button to continue.

When the upload process is complete you should now see a new item called attachedcontacts listed as shown above.

Select this item by clicking on it.

Then select pencil icon from the menu just above the list to edit this entry.

From the window that appears select Mandatory, always enabled. Users can’t disable this app and then the save button to complete.

You should now see that attachedcontacts is set to Mandatory and Everyone as shown above.

Return to the Attached Apps web site at:

http://www.attachedapps.com

and select Log in in the top right of the window.

Each of your configured Exchange Online mailboxes would have received an automated email like below from Attached Apps:

Your company has just signed up to use attachedContacts, the powerful yet easy-to-use contact management system that lets you share company contacts across your organization while keeping all your personal contacts private. Plus, it’s designed to work closely with Outlook, so you don’t have to change the way you like to work.

It’s easy to get started, just click here to log in using your organization email address and the password provided below:

Email Address: users@Office365domain.com

Password:

When you enter the app for the first time, you will be prompted step-by-step to import the contacts you want to share. You’ll then have access to these great benefits:

Edit company contacts once – the updated contact info will be reflected everywhere!
Slim down your bloated Outlook and mobile address book
Keep your personal contacts segregated from your organization contacts
Contacts automatically sync to Outlook, Outlook Web App and to your mobile device
Organize unlimited Contact groups and categories
And more!

We use attachedContacts in our own company and are constantly improving it. Our mission is to eliminate the technical obstacles to your greatness! So join us, let us know how we are doing and what else we can do to improve your work life.

Sincerely,

The attachedapps Team

info@attachedapps.com

Want to know more? See these FAQs on our support site.

These are the logins that are used for each to access the Attached Apps portal via the Log in link just selected to provide access to all the Attached Apps functionality.

Login now with the information provided to an Office 365 administrator. Remember, the Attached Apps login is different from the standard Office 365 portal login.

Once successfully logged in you should see the Attached Apps dashboard or something similar.

If you select the first icon after the Attached Apps icon in the upper left of the window, this will take you to the Contacts page.

In most cases the only contacts that will be displayed are any existing Exchange Online users as well as the email address you used to sign up initially.

To import contacts from the current users Outlook select Outlook Import from the menu across the top.

Ensure that Outlook is running on the desktop. In most cases you want to select the Import All button to copy all the individual users contacts to Attached Apps so they can be shared. You can also select the Fetch Contacts if you wish to only upload selected Outlook contacts.

In this example, the current users only has one Contact as shown above. This contact is unique to that user currently but will soon be uploaded for all to share.

After pressing the import button you will see a confirmation message appear at the bottom of the windows. Select Yes to proceed.

You will then receive a confirmation message at the bottom of the screen confirming the import process has commenced. This process will continue in the background so you can close the alert and continue.

The import of the contacts will take a few moments to complete and the time taken is dependent on how many contacts are to be imported.

Once the process is complete you should see that the uploaded contacts have been designated as Attached Apps contacts (i.e. shared) by a small graphic and line underneath the contacts image as shown above.

If you now look at Outlook for a different user you won’t see that the uploaded contacts have been sync’ed down. To do this you will need to log into the Attached Apps portal and force the update.

Once you have logged into the Attached Apps portal select the Contacts icon again (in the top left) to view all the contacts. Just under the heading you will notice a check mark as indicated above.

Once you select the check mark you will see the menu change and display the options to either Mass Delete or Mass Change.

Now make the required changes to all the records desired. In this case make sure that all the contacts have the Sync option selected.

Once you have made any changes, select the Mass Change option from the menu bar.

At this screen ensure that the option Sync to Outlook is selected and checked as shown. Then select the Apply Changes button.

You will receive at confirmation message at the bottom of the screen. Select Yes to continue.

You can also force a sync of individual contacts if you wish. To do this, navigate to that contact and select the Staff Sync tab as shown above.

If you now return to second users Outlook, after a few moments the shared contacts should now appear and be designated as Attach Apps as noted previously.

Remember, if you do sign up don’t forget to mention me and look out for more posts on Attached Apps coming soon.