Tag: Office 365

Free Cloud Business Blueprint webinars back

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With everything that has been happening lately we’ve missed a few of our free Cloud Business Blueprint ‘Ask Us’ Webinars. But fear not, we have scheduled or final one for 2014:

http://www.cloudbusinessblueprint.com/ask-weekly-webinar

Date: Thursday December 11, 2014
Time : 12.30pm

On the webinar I’ll be providing an update of everything new and updated in Office 365 (and there has been plenty) as well a peek into more Azure ‘stuff’ if time permits. There should also be time to get into some demos and do some Q & A.

The session will be recorded for our Cloud Business Blueprint community and posted to the discussion forums for on-demand viewing. If you are not yet part of the community then you can join for a low per month subscription, with no lock in period. Just pay month to month and cancel anytime with no questions asked,

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

for access to previous recording, peer forums, on demand training, re-brandable content, worksheets, checklists and more.

Of course, if you want to see a particular topic covered during the session drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do to squeeze it into the schedule.

I hope to see you on the webinar.

Need to Know podcast–Episode 63

This to me is very interesting episode because in it I speak with Greg Plum from PlumUC.com around the opportunities Lync in Office 365 provides.

As many know, I have always been very, very positive about what functionality Lync can provide and the opportunity it offers for IT resellers to with customers. One of the major missing pieces in the SMB space has been the easy integration with traditional phone systems. This is where Greg and his business can help. He is able to provide that quickly and easily.

To me this is a HUGE value add to Office 365 and something everyone should take heed of because the concept of unified communications is rapidly being adopted by all businesses, and Office 365 makes that even easier.

Sit back, listen and enjoy. I think you’ll get a lot out of this episode. You can find the episode here:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-63-greg-plum/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

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

I am also pleased top announce that the podcast is now available on Stitcher at:

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

Of course, I’d love to hear what you think of this episode or any others. Also, if you are interested in being a guest on the show to discuss business or technical topics also feel free to contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Sydney SharePoint Saturday–I’m speaking

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In sunny ole Sydney this Saturday (29th November 2014)? Fancy a bit of SharePoint luvin’? If so why don’t you head along to SharePoint Saturday at:

Clifton’s
13/60 Margaret St, Sydney

from 9am. Full details and registrations at:

http://www.spsevents.org/city/Sydney/Sydney2014

if you do you’ll discover a whole days worth of content specifically around SharePoint. I’ll be speaking about OneDrive in the afternoon so I’d love to see you at my session.

If you are planning to attend the day drop me a line and let me know so I can say hi!

I still firmly believe that SharePoint represents the greatest opportunity for SMB IT resellers and is something they need to be familiar with at the very least. For customers SharePoint provides a way to streamline and manage their information much better and likewise is not something that should be dismissed.

Thus, in summary, no matter who you are, you should come to Sydney SharePoint Saturday. There is something for everyone!

Need to Know podcast–Episode 62

Tas Gray from AxiomIT is back for another episode focused on Office 365. We cover a range of announcements that Microsoft recently made as well as some discussion about Office 365 adoption.

To listen to the episode visit:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-62-tas-gray/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

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

I am also pleased top announce that the podcast is now available on Stitcher at;

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

If you are interested in being a guest on the show to discuss business or technical topics please contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Office 365 RDS questions answered

The Garage series has done a nice summary around Office desktop applications from Office 365 on Remote Desktops. A lot of this was also contained in an earlier blog post of mine which I recommend you review:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2014/10/office-365-rds-world-changes-again.html

The major point to remember here is that they are talking about Office Pro Plus via Office 365 which is ONLY available via Enterprise plans (Office Pro Plus Stand alone, E3 and E4) per the following site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj900171.aspx

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Office via the Office 365 SMB plans (Business and Business Premium) is NOT Office Pro Plus (because it no longer includes things like Access).

The great things is that the Remote Desktop capability can be used on a variety of platforms (including Remote App from Azure) and is now much easier to install and deploy than it ever was. However, remember it is NOT available if you purchase the new Office 365 SMB plans. As I always say, this is another key reason to only go with Enterprise Office 365 plans. However, another benefit of modern Office 365 plans is that you can mix and match between SMB and Enterprise plans in the same tenant as required.

Office 365 Clutter now rolling out

Microsoft keeps the new features of Office 365 rolling with the release of Clutter:

http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/11/de-clutter-inbox-office-365/

To enable Clutter you’ll need to have enabled the office 365 first release program which I details previously at:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2014/09/enabling-office-365-first-release.html

Once the first release feature is enabled you’ll need to wait for Clutter to appear. To check, go to your Outlook Web Access page in the Office 365 portal (i.e. click the Outlook at the top of the page, along the menu bar, when you login to the portal).

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Then select the Cog in the top right corner. From the menu that appears select Options.

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From the menu on the left expand the Automatic processing and then select Clutter from the list. Note the Clutter option won’t appear for you until it has been rolled out to your tenant. On the right select the option to Separate items identified as Clutter and then select Save. Now you are good to go with a leaner inbox, which will hopefully get leaner over time as the Clutter algorithm learns more about what is important to you.

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Once you enable Clutter you’ll see an additional folder created under you inbox called Clutter. It is into here that message deemed non-essential will automatically be routed,

In essence it seems that Clutter is basically automatic mail rules. It uses machine learning to determine what is ‘important’ and re-routes what isn’t to a sub-folder.

Having used email rules for year to have a more productive email system this doesn’t appear to be a major improvement for the way I work. However, I do know it will be HUGE for almost everyone else because I rarely see others effectively use mail rules for the inbox. They simply allow email to accumulate in their inbox where they never read them. So, the whole process taking place automatically is going to really benefit the majority of users who are currently swamped with emails.

Remember, each user will have to enable Clutter for themselves, inside their own portal login using the process outlined above.

There you have it. Another features added to Office 365 to help your productivity. What do you think? is this helpful? What could be improved? Will you use it? I’d love to hear. I’m interested to see how it interacts with any existing inbox rules, which I assume will be applied PRIOR to Clutter taking over??

Office 365 Lync to become Skype for Business

It seems like the battle between Lync and Skype for naming rights of Microsoft’s conferencing tool has been won by Skype as per this announcement today:

http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/11/introducing-skype-business/

which says:

In the first half of 2015, the next version of Lync will become Skype for Business with a new client experience, new server release and updates to the service in Office 365.

Seems to me like an interesting move away from the enterprise naming conventions associated with Lync to a more consumer friendly and wider know brand being Skype.

I also not so sure about the whole ‘Skype for Business’ messaging given the confusions there are in the market around ‘OneDrive’ and ‘OneDrive for Business’ presently. However, it does indicate the delineation that is occurring between the business and consumer products.

Skype is certainly a stronger, more widely used and recognised brand so I can see the reasons for moving in that direction. When you look at the new product appears to be like it still remains very much like the Lync client we know and love today, it just gets a ‘Skype’ make-over. It is also a good idea to start consolidating the product brans to avoid confusion the space, especially for end users.

If you are an existing Office 365 users you won’t have to do anything expect wait for the updates in 2015 when your Lync client will be updated. When that happens for me I’ll report back. Till then take a look at the blog post from Microsoft and let me know what you think of the new branding. Does ‘Skype for Business’ make sense?