Introducing the CIAOPS AI Dojo: Empowering Everyone to Harness the Power of AI

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the CIAOPS AI Community — a dynamic new space designed to help IT professionals, end users, and managers alike unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence in their daily work.

Unlike traditional tech communities that cater solely to technical audiences, the CIAOPS AI Community is built for everyone in the workplace. Whether you’re a seasoned IT expert, a business manager, or someone simply looking to work smarter, this community is your go-to hub for practical, real-world AI knowledge.

What makes this community different?

Inclusive by Design: We believe AI should be accessible to all. That’s why our content and discussions are tailored to a broad audience — from frontline staff to C-suite leaders.
Small Business Focus: We understand the unique challenges and opportunities small businesses face. Our community is geared toward helping smaller teams do more with less using AI.
Cross-Platform Coverage: While we have deep expertise in Microsoft technologies, we also explore non-Microsoft AI services — from open-source tools to third-party platforms — to give you a well-rounded view of what’s possible.
Wide-Ranging Topics: From boosting productivity with AI-powered tools to building custom agents that automate repetitive tasks, we cover it all.
Real-World Impact: Learn how to apply AI to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and enhance customer experiences — no PhD required.

Why Join?

AI is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s a practical tool that can transform how you work today. By joining the CIAOPS AI Community, you’ll gain:

Actionable insights on using AI to save time and reduce manual work.
Step-by-step guides for creating intelligent agents that automate common business processes.
Peer support and expert advice from a growing network of professionals who are passionate about making AI work for them.
Exposure to a variety of AI tools and services, helping you choose the right solution for your business needs — whether it’s Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, or something entirely different.

Whether you’re looking to automate document workflows, analyze data faster, or simply stay ahead of the curve, the CIAOPS AI Community is here to help you make AI part of your everyday toolkit.

You are invited to the first session for free!

To kick things off, we’re hosting an open introductory meeting for anyone interested in learning more about AI in small and medium businesses — with a special focus on Microsoft Copilot and how it fits into the broader AI landscape.

✅ No membership required
✅ No obligations
✅ Just a chance to explore, learn, and ask questions

Whether you’re curious about what AI can do for your business or looking for practical ways to get started, this session is the perfect place to begin.

3rd July 2025
09:30 – Sydney Australia time

Developing Engagement and Adoption of Microsoft Teams in a Small Business

Introduction
Implementing Microsoft Teams in a small business can transform how employees communicate and collaborate. However, successful adoption requires careful planning, leadership support, and a focus on people and culture. Rolling out Teams isn’t just a technical deployment – it involves driving a change in work habits and making Teams the central hub of your organisation’s daily workflows[1]. In a small business (typically under 100 users), you have the advantage of close-knit teams and agility, which you can leverage to quickly build enthusiasm for Teams. Below, we outline specific strategies and key steps to boost engagement and make Microsoft Teams the center of your small organisation.

1. Secure Leadership Buy-In and Set a Vision

Engage your leaders as champions for Teams from the start. Executive sponsorship is critical for any new tool adoption. Have a senior leader (owner, CEO or principal) endorse the move to Teams and articulate the vision for how it will improve the business. This sponsor should communicate the purpose and benefits of Teams to all staff – for example, faster decision-making, less email, and better support for remote work. Leadership should not only talk about using Teams, but actively use it daily, setting an example for everyone[2][3]. Microsoft’s adoption best practices highlight the importance of recruiting executive sponsors who can promote the change and encourage others to get on board[3]. When employees see management embracing Teams (posting updates, responding in Teams instead of email), they’ll be more inclined to follow. Establish a clear vision: e.g. “We’re adopting Teams to centralise our communication and collaborate more effectively as we grow.” This vision creates a sense of purpose and urgency for adoption.

2. Plan the Rollout with Clear Goals

Don’t launch Teams without a plan. Create an adoption plan that defines success criteria, timeline, and responsibilities. Start by setting measurable goals: for example, “Within 3 months, 90% of internal communications should occur in Teams channels, and daily active use of Teams should reach at least 80% of employees”. Defining such success metrics up front will guide your efforts and let you track progress[4]. Microsoft recommends establishing what success looks like in terms of user adoption and business outcomes[4]. Identify a project leader or “Teams success owner” – someone in the company responsible for driving the adoption plan[3]. This person (or small task force) will coordinate training, gather feedback, and monitor usage. Include milestones in your plan: for instance, Month 1: Teams pilot and setup; Month 2: Company-wide launch; Month 3: Review usage metrics and collect feedback. Having a clear plan and goals ensures you’re not just introducing Teams and hoping for the best, but actively managing the change.

3. Identify Use Cases Relevant to Your Business

Technology adoption is most successful when it addresses real business needs. Identify the specific scenarios and workflows in your small business where Teams can add value, and focus on those first[5][4]. For example, if project coordination is a pain point, use Teams to create a Project channel for sharing updates and files in one place. If your sales team travels often, use Teams chat and mobile app to keep them connected. By targeting a few high-impact use cases, you give employees a clear answer to “Why should I use Teams?” rather than leaving it abstract. Microsoft’s guidance for small businesses is to define an experience you want to improve that aligns with your business needs, then use Teams to address it[5]. Common use cases for Teams in small organisations include:

Team/Department Communication: Replace long email threads with Teams channels (e.g. a “Marketing” channel for campaign discussions).
Project Collaboration: Create a Team for each key project, so members can chat, share documents, and track tasks (integrating Planner or To Do).
Remote Meetings and Client Calls: Use Teams Meetings for virtual meetings with staff and customers, consolidating conferencing in one tool.
File Sharing and Co-Authoring: Store important documents in Teams (via SharePoint) so everyone works off the same files with version control.

By prioritizing a couple of these scenarios at launch, you demonstrate quick wins. For each use case, communicate the benefit (e.g. “Use the Project X channel so all notes and files are in one place – no more digging through emails.”). This alignment with real needs will drive organic adoption because Teams is solving daily problems, not just adding another app.

4. Line Up Stakeholders and Champions

Involve key stakeholders and enthusiastic users early on. In a small business, this might include team leads, IT staff (if any), or tech-savvy employees from different departments. These people will act as your champions – they’ll help promote Teams and assist their peers. Microsoft’s adoption literature suggests empowering champions who can model the new way of working and support their colleagues[3]. Identify a handful of “power users” – those who are quick to adopt new tech – and include them in an early pilot or planning session[2]. For example, invite them to start using Teams a couple of weeks before the official launch, so they can learn the ropes and populate some channels with content. Encourage these champions to share tips, answer questions, and generally cheerlead the platform[2]. Having internal advocates across the organisation creates peer influence: others are more likely to try Teams when they see their coworker using it effectively.

Also line up any other stakeholders needed for a smooth rollout, such as your IT support (even if external) to configure settings or HR/communications to help announce the change. In a partner-developed 7-step adoption guide, the first step is to “line up stakeholders” – from an executive sponsor to project lead and helpdesk coordinator[4]. Ensuring everyone knows their role in the Teams rollout will make the deployment cohesive. With a group of engaged stakeholders and champions in place, you have a built-in support network to drive engagement.

5. Configure Teams and Start with a Pilot (if feasible)

Before company-wide deployment, take time to set up the Teams environment tailored to your organisation. This includes creating Teams and channels structure, setting permissions, and integrating key apps. For a small business, you might start with a few core teams (one per department or project) and a standard channel setup (e.g. a “General” channel for each team plus additional channels for specific topics or workflows). Populate Teams with initial content – add some files, wikis, or notes relevant to that team. A populated, organised workspace invites employees to engage, whereas an empty Teams environment can confuse new users.

If your organisation is around, say, 50–100 people, you may consider a short pilot phase: roll out Teams to a small group first, such as the champions or one department, to test your configuration and gather feedback[2]. This pilot group can validate that Teams is set up in a user-friendly way and help spot any issues (for example, permissions errors or missing features) before the full launch. They essentially become early adopters who can demonstrate success to others. In very small businesses (e.g. 10–20 people), a formal pilot might not be necessary – but you can still have an informal trial with a few users to build familiarity.

During this setup phase, ensure essential technical preparations are done: everyone has Teams installed on their devices, accounts are licensed and enabled, and any needed policies (like external access settings, meeting policies) are configured. By the time you’re ready to launch company-wide, Teams should be ready for use with no technical blockers. Having a well-configured environment and a few experienced users will make the broader introduction go much more smoothly[2].

6. Launch with Training and Communication

When you roll out Teams to all employees, support it with effective training and clear communication. Don’t assume people will just “figure it out” – provide guidance to build confidence. Start by announcing the launch via email or a kickoff meeting, explaining why the company is moving to Teams and the expected benefits (reiterating the vision from leadership). Emphasize that this is the new central way to communicate and collaborate.

Provide hands-on training opportunities: Consider a live demo session (in-person or via a Teams meeting) to show basic features: how to post messages, tag colleagues, share a file, join a meeting, etc. Encourage questions and even do a live Q&A. Additionally, leverage Microsoft’s free training resources – for example, interactive workshops or the Microsoft Learn portal – which are readily available for Teams users[3]. You can curate a list of short tutorial videos or create a quick “Teams how-to” guide focusing on the common tasks relevant to your staff. The goal is to make sure everyone knows how to get started on Day 1. Microsoft’s End User Adoption Guide suggests creating a training plan and accessing available training resources to ensure users are prepared[3].

Customize training to your workflows if possible. Show scenarios employees will actually encounter: “Here’s how we’ll use Teams to submit weekly reports” or “Here’s how to @mention the warehouse team for a quick question.” This makes training immediately relevant. It can also help to train in small groups (department by department) so you can address specific use-case questions and use the language of their daily work[2].

At launch, also provide a support mechanism. Let everyone know who they can ask for help (e.g. our champion users, or a specific point person). You might set up a “Teams Help” channel where people can post questions as they begin using the platform. As communications experts advise, a strong communications and training plan is a key part of driving adoption[4]. By educating users and making help readily available, you reduce frustration and accelerate the comfort level with Teams.

7. Foster a Teams-Centric Culture (Encourage Adoption Behaviors)

Training alone isn’t enough – you need to encourage new habits so that using Teams becomes the norm. This is where company culture and day-to-day practice come in. Encourage employees to default to Teams for communication. A useful tactic (borrowed from Microsoft’s own Teams adoption team) is to “bring every conversation back to Teams.” If someone emails you a question that could have been a chat, reply in Teams or gently nudge them to continue the discussion there. If they stop by your desk for a status update, follow up by posting it in the relevant Teams channel. By always redirecting interactions to Teams, you signal that “Teams is where our conversations live”[6]. Soon, people will realize that Teams is the best way to reach colleagues – because that’s where everyone is engaged[6].

Another specific strategy: use @mentions to draw people into Teams. For example, instead of waiting for Bob to check a channel, type @Bob in a message so Bob gets a notification. This both alerts him and pulls him into the Teams dialogue. Users tend to respond to seeing their name highlighted, and it trains them to keep an eye on Teams notifications[6]. Over time, they’ll form the habit of checking Teams frequently, knowing important mentions or information will be there.

Celebrate and reinforce the behavior you want. If a team reaches a milestone of “no internal emails for a week, all comms in Teams,” call that out and applaud it. Consider fun incentives: perhaps a friendly contest for which team can most increase their Teams usage or share a success story of a problem solved thanks to Teams collaboration. Make it part of the routine to use Teams in meetings (e.g. during staff meetings, pull up the Teams channel and walk through updates posted there). The more you integrate Teams into everyday work rituals, the more it becomes ingrained.

Remember that building a new culture takes time and consistency. Lead by example (especially champions and leaders) – always use Teams yourself, even if it feels easier to shoot a quick email like you used to. Over a few weeks, these practices will catch on and the company mindset will shift to “Teams first” for collaboration.

8. Make Teams the Hub of All Work

To truly make Microsoft Teams the center of your organisation, integrate it into all key workflows and replace fragmented tools. The idea is to turn Teams into the “single pane of glass” where employees find everything they need to do their jobs[5]. Here are specific strategies to achieve this:

Conduct meetings via Teams: Schedule all meetings as Teams meetings (in Outlook, always click “Teams Meeting” for invites) so that joining happens in Teams by default[6]. This ensures that even if some attendees are remote, everyone meets on one platform. It also saves the hassle of separate dial-ins and makes it easy to share recordings or chat follow-ups in the meeting thread. Making Teams your standard meeting solution reinforces its central role.
Share and store files in Teams: Encourage staff to upload files to Teams (into the relevant channel) instead of emailing attachments. Files shared in Teams are available to everyone in that team and appear in the Files tab, creating a central file repository[6]. This way, documents aren’t lost in individual inboxes; they’re accessible and editable by the group. Over time, employees will know “to find a file or collaborate on a document, go to Teams.” It also provides version control and eliminates duplicate copies.
Bring other apps and workflows into Teams: Take advantage of Teams’ ability to integrate apps. Many apps your organisation already uses (OneNote, Planner, Trello, GitHub, Adobe, etc.) can be added as tabs in Teams or connected via integrations[6]. For example, if you use a task management tool, pin it as a tab so people manage tasks without leaving Teams. If you track customer leads in an Excel sheet, put that Excel in a Teams channel tab. By consolidating tools within Teams, employees spend less time switching contexts. Microsoft calls this “consolidating the tools you use most in a single pane of glass” – an advantage of Teams for SMBs[5]. In a small business, even simple workflows like approvals or forms can be moved into Teams via Power Automate or Forms apps, making Teams a process hub as well.
Use Teams for cross-company announcements and information: Instead of bulletin boards or all-company emails, use a Team (or the General channel of a company-wide Team) to post announcements, policy updates, or kudos. This turns Teams into the central source of truth for company news. Employees learn to check Teams (or Activity feed) for updates rather than relying on email or separate portals.
Invite external partners into Teams when appropriate: If you work closely with clients or contractors, consider using Teams’ guest access to bring them into specific teams or channels. This can consolidate external collaboration into the same interface, further making Teams the core platform. (Do this with security in mind – only in dedicated channels and with proper access controls).

In summary, whenever someone asks “Where do I find this?” or “How do I do that process?”, the answer should increasingly be “In Teams.” By having all conversations, meetings, documents, and apps in Teams, you create a true digital workspace. When employees see that “Teams is where the action is,” they naturally gravitate towards it[6]. This step is vital to cement Teams as not just another tool, but the central hub of work in your organisation.

9. Measure Adoption and Celebrate Successes

As you implement these strategies, keep an eye on adoption metrics to gauge progress. In Office 365’s admin center, you can find usage reports for Microsoft Teams – for instance, number of active users, messages posted, or meetings held. Track these metrics against the goals you set earlier. For example, if your goal was 80% active usage and you’re only at 50%, you know to intensify your efforts or identify barriers. Microsoft even provides an Adoption Score dashboard to help monitor user engagement with its services[7]. Regularly reviewing metrics like how many teams are created, how frequently channels are used, or how many chats vs. emails are sent can quantify the cultural shift.

Equally important, gather qualitative feedback. Talk to employees or send a quick survey about their experience with Teams. Are there any challenges or hesitations? What do they find most helpful about Teams? This feedback can highlight success stories to amplify, as well as areas needing adjustment or additional training. For instance, you might discover one department is lagging – perhaps they need a refresher session or haven’t found a compelling use for Teams yet.

When you start seeing positive results – celebrate them. Share success stories across the company. For example: “The Support team reduced their email volume by 60% last month by moving conversations to Teams[3], leading to faster response times for customers – great job!” Or, “Our first fully virtual All-Hands meeting on Teams had 100% attendance and lots of great questions in the chat – thank you for making it a success.” This kind of recognition reinforces the value of Teams and motivates continued use[3]. It also helps skeptics see real evidence of improvement.

Finally, be ready to iterate on your adoption strategy. Use the data and feedback to adjust your approach. If certain features of Teams are underutilized (e.g. no one is using the Planner tab you added), maybe users need more awareness of it or it’s not the right fit – and that’s okay. Continuously refine the setup, training, and policies around Teams to better suit how your employees actually work. Adoption is an ongoing process, not a one-time project[2][3]. By measuring and iterating, you ensure Teams truly becomes embedded in your organisation’s way of working for the long run.

10. Address Challenges and Support Users

During the adoption journey, you’ll likely encounter some challenges – that’s normal. The key is to address issues proactively and support your users through the change. Common challenges in a small business Teams rollout include: initial resistance to change (“why can’t I just email like I always have?”), confusion about how to do certain tasks in Teams, or simply forgetting to use Teams in the hustle of work. Here’s how to tackle them:

Handle resistance with empathy and clarity: Some employees, especially those used to certain routines, may be hesitant. Listen to their concerns – they might say Teams feels overwhelming or they don’t see the benefit. Respond by acknowledging the learning curve, then highlighting how Teams will specifically help them (for example, “I know it’s new, but using Teams means you won’t have to juggle dozens of emails anymore, which I think will save you time”). Reinforce that this is a company priority, backed by leadership. Often, demonstrating patience and providing one-on-one help for the first few weeks can convert resisters as they start to experience the advantages.
Provide ongoing help and resources: Even after initial training, keep learning materials available. Create a FAQ document or a Tips & Tricks channel on Teams itself for users to browse. When someone asks a question like “How do I do X in Teams?”, answer it (or have a champion answer) in that public FAQ channel so others can learn too. Encourage a culture where no question is silly – better to ask than to abandon the tool. Microsoft’s support site and community forums are rich with “how to” guidance; surface the most relevant Q&As to your team. Essentially, make sure nobody feels stuck or unsupported as they adapt.
Enforce gently, encourage strongly: In some cases, you might need to set expectations that certain communication must happen in Teams. For instance, you could establish a policy that internal team updates won’t be sent via email anymore. Then if someone sends an email to five colleagues that should’ve been a Teams post, politely reply in Teams and tag those people, modeling the correct behavior. Over time, these gentle nudges and the natural phase-out of old methods will reduce backward steps. Tie this with positive reinforcement – praise teams or individuals who exemplify the desired behavior (as noted in the previous section).
Be open to feedback and adapt: Perhaps a part of Teams truly isn’t working well for your business – for example, maybe you tried having a Team for every tiny client project and employees found it confusing to switch between so many. If users raise such issues, be willing to adjust your strategy or structure. Simplify the channel layout, or provide additional training on how to manage notifications. Showing that you’re responsive to challenges will increase overall buy-in. It tells your people that adoption is a two-way street: you expect them to make the effort, but you’re also listening and making improvements for them.

By actively managing these challenges, you prevent small hurdles from derailing the whole initiative. In a small business, you have the advantage of close communication – use that to troubleshoot issues quickly. Provide lots of encouragement and never punish mistakes in usage (everyone is learning). With solid support, even initially reluctant users will gradually feel more comfortable and embrace Teams as the new normal.

11. Ensure Security and Governance (Keep Data Safe)

While driving adoption, don’t overlook security and governance considerations. Small businesses may not have dedicated IT security staff, but it’s still important to protect your data and manage Teams properly. The good news is that Microsoft Teams, as part of Microsoft 365, comes with enterprise-grade security and compliance features by default. All data in Teams (messages, files, attachments) is encrypted in transit and at rest[8], and the platform meets numerous industry standards for security. This means you can confidently make Teams your central workspace without compromising on data protection.

That said, implement a few sensible practices:

Control external access: If you plan to collaborate with external users (guests) in Teams, decide on a policy. Perhaps only specific Teams or channels will include guests, and only after admin approval. This way, you prevent accidental exposure of internal information. In Teams admin settings (or Microsoft 365 admin), you can toggled guest access on/off or restrict what guests can do. For a small company, you might allow external guests for specific client projects but disable them company-wide otherwise for simplicity.
Manage Teams membership and data: Since Teams can become a hub of valuable information, ensure you have a process for offboarding users (e.g., when an employee leaves, promptly remove or block their Office 365 account so they no longer access Teams). It’s wise to periodically review who has access to which Team, especially if you have sensitive business information in certain channels. Teams also inherits your Microsoft 365 data governance policies – for example, if you have retention policies for email, extend those to Teams chats and files as needed[9].
Educate users on good security hygiene: Remind employees that the same common-sense security rules apply on Teams as elsewhere. For instance, they shouldn’t share passwords or sensitive personal data in Teams channels that aren’t secure. If you have private channels for management or HR topics, ensure they know what should be discussed there versus in public channels. Teaching them to use features like private chats for one-to-one sensitive conversations or tagging content with sensitivity labels if you use them can be helpful. Luckily, Teams provides a safe environment compared to shadow IT (like personal chat apps or unmonitored email), so by channeling work into Teams you’re likely improving security overall (less company info floating in personal texts or drives).
Leverage built-in compliance tools if needed: If your industry has compliance requirements (even SMBs might need to retain communications for legal reasons), know that Office 365 Compliance Center can archive Teams messages, and you can perform content searches or legal holds on Teams data just like email. This may be more relevant as you grow, but it’s good to be aware from the start that Teams can be managed in a compliant way as part of Microsoft 365[9].

In summary, making Teams the center of your organisation doesn’t mean taking risks with data. With proper settings and user awareness, Teams can actually enhance your security posture while users collaborate fluidly. Small businesses using Microsoft 365 Business Premium, for example, get advanced security features (like data loss prevention and multifactor authentication enforcement) that extend to Teams. Ensure MFA is enabled for your users – that alone dramatically improves account security for Teams and all apps. By building a secure foundation, users and management will feel comfortable embracing Teams widely.

12. Provide Ongoing Support and Evolve

Adoption is not a one-time event – it’s an ongoing journey. After the initial rollout and surge of usage, keep the momentum by providing continuous support, updates, and improvements. Here are final strategies to sustain engagement:

Keep training and learning ongoing: As Teams introduces new features or as your business processes change, update employees regularly. For instance, if Microsoft releases a useful new feature (like an improved whiteboard or breakout rooms in meetings), highlight it in your Teams Tips channel or a short demo video. This not only educates users but shows that Teams is continuously getting better, giving them more reasons to use it. You might hold “lunch and learn” sessions every few months focusing on advanced Teams tips once basics are mastered. Microsoft offers free live training events and webinars for new features – share these with your team or even attend together[5]. An ethos of continuous learning will help employees get the most out of Teams over time.
Refresh the champions network: Over time, some of your champions may change roles or new enthusiastic users may emerge. Keep the champions group active – perhaps convene them quarterly to discuss how adoption is going and to gather their insights. Encourage champions to mentor any new hires on using Teams from day one, so newcomers immediately adopt the established collaboration style.
Expand Teams’ usage to new areas: After initial success with core scenarios, look for other business activities that you can bring into Teams. For example, if you haven’t yet, consider using Teams for voice calls (with Teams Phone) to unify all communications. Or integrate a simple workflow like expense approvals using a Forms tab or Power Automate. This continuous expansion should always be driven by needs – ask teams, “What’s a tedious process we might simplify via Teams?” Then pilot a solution. By iterating and expanding, you maintain a sense that Teams is growing with your business and always adding value.
Monitor and adjust governance as needed: As usage grows, periodically review if your Teams structure is still optimal. You might find you need to re-organize some channels or archive ones that are no longer active (Teams allows archiving of old teams). Keep things clean and intuitive – this might mean establishing some guidelines, e.g., a naming convention for new Teams or a rule to avoid duplicate team creation. In a small business, governance can be lightweight, but a little tidiness goes a long way in sustaining user friendliness.
Recognize and reward continued use: Don’t stop celebrating successes. Over the long term, you might measure bigger outcomes – e.g., increased customer satisfaction or faster project delivery – that tie back to better collaboration through Teams. When you hit those business outcomes, acknowledge Teams’ role and credit your employees’ effective use of it. This reinforces that adopting Teams wasn’t just an IT whim; it was a strategic move that is paying off for everyone.
Leverage Microsoft and community resources: Microsoft’s ecosystem provides a wealth of support for customers adopting Teams – from the Tech Community forums (where other small businesses share tips) to blogs announcing new features, and the SMB Champions community[5]. Stay plugged into these resources yourself or assign someone to be the “Teams SME” who keeps an eye on updates. This will help you bring in best practices and keep your organisation’s use of Teams fresh and optimized.

By continuously supporting your users and adapting to their needs, you ensure that Teams remains a productive, engaging environment rather than “just another app.” Over time, as employees come and go and as work evolves, your proactive approach will keep the level of Teams engagement high. In a sense, the goal is that Teams becomes an ingrained part of your company’s DNA – much like email or phones, but far more collaborative. When that happens, you’ll truly have made Teams the center of your small organisation.

Conclusion:
Adopting Microsoft Teams in a small business setting involves a multi-faceted approach: strong leadership support, a clear rollout plan with defined goals, user training, cultural change, and ongoing reinforcement. By following the strategies above – from engaging executive sponsors and identifying the right use cases, to encouraging everyday Teams usage habits and integrating workflows – you can drive high engagement with Teams. The result will be a more connected, communicative organisation where knowledge flows freely and people collaborate effectively whether they are in the office or remote. Microsoft Teams will naturally become the central hub of work, as employees discover that it’s the go-to place to get things done together. With careful planning and a people-first approach, even a small company can achieve big gains in productivity and teamwork through successful Teams adoption[1]. Keep measuring progress, listening to feedback, and nurturing the change. Over time, your small business will not only have adopted Teams – it will have embraced a more modern, efficient way of working that can scale as you grow.

References

[1] Microsoft Adoption Guide

[2] Microsoft Teams Adoption Strategy: 5 Critical Considerations

[3] Microsoft 365 User Adoption Guide

[4] 7 Step Guide to Onboarding Customers

[5] Microsoft Teams for small and medium businesses

[6] Get people to join you in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support

[7] Microsoft 365 Videos

[8] Why Microsoft Teams Presentation

[9] Modern-Work-Plan-Comparison-SMB

CIAOPS AI Dojo–Teaser 3

Video URL = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdKqO246JaI

CIAOPS AI Dojo – Teaser 2

Video URL = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXUvnLAmLgU

How your business can unlock more potential from Microsoft OneNote

OneNote’s strength lies in its flexibility and integration, making it much more than just a digital notepad.

Here are ways to better leverage OneNote, highlighting commonly overlooked features with detailed examples:

I. Enhancing Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Overlooked Feature: Deep Internal Linking (Beyond Basic Page Links)
- What it is: Creating links not just to other pages or sections, but directly to specific paragraphs within a OneNote page.
- Why it’s powerful: Allows for incredibly granular cross-referencing. You can connect specific action items in meeting minutes directly to the relevant background information in a project brief, or link a step in an SOP directly to a detailed explanation elsewhere.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: Your team is working on Project Alpha. You have a central “Project Alpha Overview” page, separate pages for “Meeting Minutes,” and a “Technical Specifications” section.
  - How to use: In the “Meeting Minutes – Oct 26” page, you record an action item: “ACTION: Sarah to verify server capacity requirements.” Instead of just linking to the entire “Technical Specifications” section, right-click the specific paragraph discussing server capacity in the “Server Specs” page and select “Copy Link to Paragraph.” Then, paste this link next to Sarah’s action item in the meeting minutes.
  - Benefit: When Sarah (or anyone) reviews the action item, clicking the link jumps them precisely to the relevant paragraph about server capacity, saving significant time hunting for the information. This creates a highly interconnected and efficient project knowledge base.
Overlooked Feature: Using Tags for Actionable Insights (Beyond Simple To-Do)
- What it is: OneNote has built-in tags (To Do, Important, Question) but also allows creating custom tags. You can then use the “Find Tags” feature to generate summary pages based on these tags across multiple pages, sections, or even entire notebooks.
- Why it’s powerful: Turns scattered notes into organized, actionable lists. Perfect for tracking decisions, follow-ups, ideas, or specific types of information across various contexts (meetings, projects, client notes).
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: A customer support team uses a shared OneNote notebook for tracking complex support issues.
  - How to use: They create custom tags like ?WaitingOnClient, !EscalateToTier2, #FeatureRequest, @ClientName. During calls or investigations, agents tag relevant notes accordingly.
  - Benefit: At the end of the week, the team lead can use “Find Tags” -> “Create Summary Page.” They can generate a page listing all items tagged !EscalateToTier2 to review escalations, another for #FeatureRequest to send to the product team, or filter by @ClientName combined with ?WaitingOnClient to see all pending client responses for a specific customer. This aggregates critical information instantly.
Overlooked Feature: Standardized Templates for Consistency
- What it is: Creating custom page templates that can be applied when creating new pages within a section.
- Why it’s powerful: Ensures consistency in note-taking for recurring tasks like meeting minutes, project status reports, client intake forms, or employee onboarding checklists. Saves time and standardizes information capture.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: A project management office (PMO) wants all project managers to follow a consistent format for weekly status reports.
  - How to use: They create a page with predefined sections: “Key Accomplishments This Week,” “Planned Activities Next Week,” “Risks/Issues,” “Decisions Needed,” “Budget Update.” They then save this page as a template (usually via Page Templates pane -> Save current page as a template). They can even set this template as the default for the “Status Reports” section in the shared PMO notebook.
  - Benefit: Every time a PM adds a new page in the “Status Reports” section, it automatically uses this structure. This makes reports easier to write, read, and compare across projects.

II. Improving Information Capture and Retrieval

Overlooked Feature: Audio Recording Synced with Notes
- What it is: Recording audio directly within OneNote while simultaneously typing notes. OneNote timestamps your notes relative to the audio playback.
- Why it’s powerful: Captures the full context of conversations (meetings, interviews, client calls) that might be missed in typed notes. Clicking on a note you typed later will jump the audio playback to the exact moment you typed it.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: An HR representative is conducting an employee interview. They are taking notes in OneNote but want to ensure they capture nuances and exact phrasing.
  - How to use: They start an audio recording (Insert -> Audio Recording) in OneNote at the beginning of the interview. As they type key points, OneNote subtly links the text to the recording timestamp.
  - Benefit: When reviewing the notes later, if a typed point like “Candidate mentioned interest in X role” seems unclear, clicking that text will instantly play the audio recording from the moment the candidate discussed it, providing full context and exact wording without having to scrub through the entire recording.
Overlooked Feature: Powerful Search Capabilities (OCR & Audio Search)
- What it is: OneNote search goes beyond typed text. It performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to search text within inserted images (like photos of whiteboards, scanned documents) and can even search for spoken words within audio and video recordings (requires indexing, may take time after insertion).
- Why it’s powerful: Makes ALL inserted content searchable, not just typed notes. Find information hidden in images or meeting recordings instantly.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: An engineering team takes photos of whiteboard brainstorming sessions and inserts them into their project notebook. A marketing team records brainstorming audio sessions.
  - How to use (OCR): Weeks later, an engineer needs to find the diagram related to the “power coupling.” They simply search “power coupling” in OneNote. OneNote search results will include the image of the whiteboard where that term was written.
  - How to use (Audio): A marketing team member needs to recall when the term “Synergy Campaign” was discussed. Searching for “Synergy Campaign” can highlight the audio recordings where that phrase was spoken (allow time for indexing after recording/inserting).
  - Benefit: Dramatically increases the value of visual and audio information capture, making it easily retrievable later.
Overlooked Feature: “Send to OneNote” Tool & Web Clipper
- What it is: The “Send to OneNote” tool acts like a virtual printer, allowing you to send content from almost any application (like a PDF report, an email thread, a document) directly to a specified OneNote page. The Web Clipper browser extension lets you easily clip articles, sections of pages, or full pages directly into OneNote.
- Why it’s powerful: Centralizes information from diverse sources into OneNote without manual copy-pasting. Great for research, collecting project resources, or archiving important communications.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: A research analyst is gathering information for a market report from various websites, PDF reports, and email discussions.
  - How to use: They use the OneNote Web Clipper to save relevant web articles directly to their “Market Research” notebook section. For a crucial PDF report, they use File -> Print -> Send to OneNote. For an important email thread in Outlook, they use the “Send to OneNote” button directly within Outlook.
  - Benefit: All research materials are consolidated in one searchable location within OneNote, regardless of their original format or source. This simplifies organization and later analysis.

III. Streamlining Personal and Team Workflows

Overlooked Feature: Integration with Outlook Tasks
- What it is: You can flag notes or lines of text within OneNote as Outlook Tasks, complete with due dates and reminders. These tasks then appear in your Outlook To-Do list.
- Why it’s powerful: Connects note-taking and action items directly to the primary task management system for many users (Outlook). Ensures follow-ups captured in meetings or notes aren’t forgotten.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: During a team meeting documented in OneNote, several action items are assigned.
  - How to use: Select the text of an action item (e.g., “John to finalize budget proposal”). Right-click (or use the Home tab) and select the Outlook Tasks flag. Choose a due date (e.g., “Tomorrow”).
  - Benefit: This action item now appears in John’s Outlook Tasks list, with a link back to the original OneNote page for context. He gets reminders via Outlook, integrating his notes directly into his daily workflow.
Overlooked Feature: Version History for Pages
- What it is: OneNote automatically saves previous versions of a page whenever changes are made (especially in shared notebooks). You can view and restore previous versions.
- Why it’s powerful: Acts as a safety net against accidental deletions or unwanted changes. Provides an audit trail in collaborative environments to see who changed what and when. Allows reverting to earlier ideas.
- Detailed Example:
  - Scenario: A team is collaboratively editing a project plan in a shared OneNote notebook. Someone accidentally deletes a critical section.
  - How to use: Right-click the page tab (or go to History tab -> Page Versions). A list of previous versions with timestamps and author appears. Find the version before the deletion occurred and click “Restore.”
  - Benefit: The deleted content is instantly recovered. Alternatively, if there’s confusion about why a certain decision was documented, viewing page versions can show who added that text and when, facilitating clarification.

Actionable Steps for Your Business:

Assess Current Usage: Understand how teams are currently using OneNote. Are they aware of these features?
Targeted Training: Don’t just do generic OneNote training. Focus sessions on specific features relevant to different roles (e.g., Project Managers on Tags & Templates, Researchers on Web Clipper & Audio Recording, All Staff on Internal Linking & Outlook Tasks). Use real business scenarios in training.
Develop & Share Best Practices: Create simple guides or internal knowledge base articles (perhaps in a shared OneNote!) demonstrating how to use these features effectively for common company workflows. Define naming conventions for shared notebooks/sections.
Promote Template Usage: Identify key recurring documents/notes (meeting minutes, project updates) and create official company templates. Encourage or mandate their use for consistency.
Appoint OneNote Champions: Identify enthusiastic power users within different teams who can help colleagues, share tips, and provide feedback on what’s working.
Encourage Integration: Ensure employees know how to connect OneNote with Outlook (Tasks, Meeting Details) and potentially Microsoft Teams (OneNote tab in channels).

By actively promoting and training employees on these often-overlooked OneNote features, your business can significantly enhance collaboration, knowledge management, and overall productivity.

My software and services 2025

startup-photos

Here’s last year’s post for comparison:

My software and services – 2024

My PC’s are either running the latest version of Windows 10 (24H2) or Windows 11 (24H2) without any issues. Some machines cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 and some I have left at Windows 10 for the time being to verify their operation. I no longer run any Windows 10 Insider builds as I had trouble backing out of these when I needed to. I still have Office Insider builds happening in my environment.

Given that Windows 10 goes out of support in October 2025 I will upgrade what I can to Windows 11 and probably just leave the rest as is. All my production machines can go to Windows 11, it will just a test machines that can’t.

All Windows machines are directly joined to Entra ID and managed via Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Manager, except for one that remains stand alone for use with my IoT projects. The Entra ID connected configurations are based on the Windows MDM security baseline settings. All machines only use Windows Defender for local security monitoring and management. Thanks to Microsoft E5 on my production tenant, I am also using Microsoft Defender For Endpoint at the back end for monitoring and investigation of endpoint threats.

My two main tenants are Microsoft 365 E5 demo and Microsoft 365 E5 production environments. A mix of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise machines are all Entra ID joined to the Microsoft 365 production domain. The production Microsoft 365 tenant has Microsoft 365 Business for all users except myself. I have a Microsoft 365 E5 license on which I have configured all the services including integrated PSTN calling via Switch Connect.

I use Microsoft Sentinel to monitor threats across my environments via a single pane of glass. I have also now added Defender EASM for monitoring security threats.

I use the following major browsers:

– Edge – my primary browser across all my devices including iOS and Android. I have it locked down with baseline policies via Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

– Brave – I have become increasingly concerned about the surreptitious tracking that many sites perform, especially when it comes to social media sites. I therefore now do all my ‘random browsing’, searching and viewing of social media sites using Brave. I also like that Brave allow me easy access to Tor browsing for anonymous security work.

I have now cranked Edge up to the maximum security level but wanted to isolate the most likely tracking culprits into another browser that was security focused. After some evaluation, I have chosen Brave to be this browser. This is now where I do all the stuff that is more likely to be tracked and now hopefully blocked or at least minimised. I have also set this browser up to use Duck Duck Go for search, otherwise I use Bing for my production Edge browser. I have completely eliminated Google Chrome from all my machines without any issues and recommend those who are becoming more concerned about their privacy, like me, do the same.

Services like SharePoint Online and OneDrive I use regularly both in the demo and production tenant. I have the OneDrive sync client installed, running and connected to various locations on my production and demo tenants. I can now sync across all my different tenants as well as my consumer OneDrive storage. I have common places pinned to my Windows Explorer Quick access, which I find to be a real time saver.

I regularly use Microsoft Teams which is now my main messaging application and I’m using the new Teams client. All the CIAOPS Patron resources like the intranet, teams, etc all reside in the Microsoft 365 E5 demo tenant but I connect to it on my desktop normally via an Azure B2B guest account from my production tenant. Thus, I can admin the Patron resources in a browser if need be but I get the same experience on my desktop as any Patron would. Handy to know what works and doesn’t work with Microsoft Teams guest access. Thanks to Microsoft E5 and Switch Connect, I also have Teams connected as a phone.

I use Lastpass to keep my passwords and private information secure. It allows me to do things like generate and store unique passwords for each website that I sign up for. It is also available across all browsers on my machine (including Microsoft Edge). I also now also use Lastpass to store secure notes. I accept recent security breaches with Lastpass generate concerns but after some investigations I believe the risk for myself is minimal and as yet don’t feel a need to switch. If I am going to change at any point I think I’d be going with Bitwarden but that hasn’t been necessary as yet.

The extensions I run in all my browsers are:

– LastPass

– GetPocket

– Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials

I use Microsoft Power Automate for automation as well as Azure Functions.

For my email newsletters I use Mailchimp.

My preferred public social networks for business, in order are:

1. X

2. Linkedin

I would suggest that no matter what social media service you elect to use that you should spend time customising what you see. Unfiltered content is distracting but you can get good results if you spend just a little time telling the service what you do want to see I have found. Thus, don’t accept the defaults. You CAN customise what is presented to you.

I consume a lot of content from YouTube both for business and personal interest. I also also use YouTube extensively for my publicly available training video training.

Microsoft Office desktop software is still part of my everyday workday via applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. I use the desktop version of Outlook on my Surface Pro 7 which lives on my desk but I only use Outlook Web App on my travelling Surface Pro 9 device. I could happily not use Outlook on the desktop any more I believe but I still use so I understand the experience for most users. However, I do see the day when Outlook on the desktop begins to lose its appeal.

Currently, I use both classic Outlook and New Outlook on various desktops without too much issues. I prefer classic Outlook but New Outlook has come a long way and added many of the capabilities I use in Classic Outlook. The missing piece for me still is the way to customised New Outlook to see emails, calendar and tasks all on a single page, which I don;t believe New Outlook supports just yet. I appreciate that Microsoft will soon be forcing everyone to New Outlook and I believe my soul is prepared for this transition when it comes.

The key application from the suite for me is OneNote. OneNote is my go to Swiss Army knife for just about everything digital. I use it to capture all sort of data. I even use it as a diary as I have detailed previous here:

One of the ways I use OneNote

The reason OneNote is key is because:

1. Just about everything I put in there us searchable

2. It is freely available across all platforms.

3. All my information is synced and accessible on all devices.

4. It is available on the web or offline if needed.

I am a big user of OneNote on my mobile devices. This combination has allowed me to totally eliminate my paper notebooks for things such as journaling.

I am now a big Microsoft To-Do user. I use it to keep many tasks and items that I need to follow up including when bills are due. I love how it is available on all my devices and syncs across them all as well.

I use Windows terminal now for things like PowerShell execution and Microsoft Whiteboard for demonstrations and training.

Another key service I use everyday along with Microsoft 365 and OneNote is Azure. Typically, I use it for running up virtual machines that I test various things with but I also use it with my IoT projects.

I use Microsoft Sentinel to monitor all my services and machines in one single console and tell me about any incidents now along with Defender EASM to search out vulnerabilities.

There is just so much that can be done with Azure and I pretty much use it everyday.

All of my data now lives in Microsoft 365 protected with things like Windows Information Protection and other Microsoft information protection options. All my Windows machines run with full disk encryption thanks to Bitlocker.

I have implemented Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to provide application control to improve security in my environment.

To capture my desktop for my online training academy or my YouTube channel I use Camtasia. I use SnagIt to capture screen shots and add highlights and emphasis to these. Snagit allows me to capture complete screens or specific areas quickly and easily.

I use Microsoft Teams to record my podcasts, which I then produce with Camtasia. These are uploaded to Podbean where they syndicated across various network.

To compose and publish blog articles I use Open Live Writer. My blog lives on WordPress.com.

My web site and Battlefields site live on Squarespace.

The majority of images I get, like the one at the top of this article, I get from Pexels. Pickit is also another great option. I have also been using Microsoft Designer a lot lately.

I use Visual Studio Code in which I do most of my PowerShell editing and publishing. I also use it now for my IoT projects. The end result typically is my GitHub repository where you will find a range of scripts and other resources that I maintain regularly. With Visual Studio Code I can edit publish and sync all my machines and my GitHub repository no matter where I am. Very handy.

Here are also a few of the other items I use regularly that are not for business:

Amazon Prime Video – only place to the latest The Grand Tour action. I also liked the Jack Ryan series and well as the Gymkana Files but most of this viewing is now on my iPad mini.

NetFlix – Seen a lot of great stuff this give all the time in lock down but most of this viewing is now on my iPad mini.

XBox Live Gold – access to all the online Xbox goodness.

Duolingo – language, maths and music learning, Japanese and Italian at the moment but most of this access is now on my iPad mini.

Kindle app – for typically reading books on my iPad

I try and keep my production machines as ‘clean’ and free of unused software as possible. I ensure that they are updated regularly. Any software testing that I need to do is typically done on a virtual machine in Azure.

A new section I thought I’d add is the AI that I use. The common Ai I use by far is GitHub Copilot. i use this daily to assist with coding tasks like creating PowerShell scripts and writing KQL queries amongst other things. Even though I have a paid version of GitHub Copilot I am happy to say there is also a free version that yo can take advantage of and the details are here.

I have a subscription to Microsoft 365 Copilot which I have had now for about a year. I use this regularly, but especially with Teams and Stream to summarise videos and other content. I also use Copilot Studio to create custom agents which I and others use inside the Microsoft Teams I manage. Even though Microsoft 365 Copilot is a significant cost investment it has more than proven its value to me over the past twelve months.

The main non-Microsoft AI that I use is Perplexity even though there are some ‘ethical’ challenges around this service. ChatGPT is also something that I use now ana again.

So there you have it, the major software and services that I use regularly. I continue to search out additional software that will improve my productivity. If you use something that you’ve found really handy, please let me know and I always keen to explore what works for others.

Yet another reason to love OneNote

I’m a HUGE fan of OneNote. Personally, I feel it is the one tool that makes me the most productive. As an engineer I’ve always been documenting stuff simply because I can’t remember it all. I learnt many, many years ago that writing it down and getting it out of my memory is in fact the best way to retain and use that information.

Before OneNote, like many people, I used paper to capture everything but the more I captured the more challenges that brought. Such challenges included, how do I back up these paper notes? How do I find things with paper notes? How do I store these paper notes? and so on. Enter OneNote to solve all these issues.

Thus, I have OneNote notebooks on just about everything these days. It’s a huge source of knowledge that I can access anywhere on any device. Love it. If I need to find something I just use the inbuilt search functionality and it would pop right out. Magic!

Given that I also now have Copilot for Microsoft 365, I have started to explore how these two product combined can make me more productive and I’d like to share a use case with you that has made me sit up and pay attention to what the combination of these two services can now provide.

When you become a CIAOPS Patron you get access to two extensive notebooks on Microsoft 365 and Azure. These notebooks contain my cumulative knowledge of the Microsoft Cloud and I use them pretty much every day in my work.

The above shows you an example page on DMARC from my Office 365 codex. The page typically contains knowledge plus links. You see on the right I have a section for every Microsoft 365 service and on the right many pages relating to that service. Here DMARC is a dedicated page in the Exchange section along with other pages such as Retention, Migration etc.

Typically, to find any information on Microsoft 365 I’d go to the top right and just use search as shown above.

But now my desktop version of OneNote has a Copilot button as shown above. This capability doesn’t appear to be available in the web version of OneNote yet. I hope it will be soon.

Before you go too much further make sure you select the Plugins button inside the Copilot window that appear and enable Web content as shown above. This will give you the best of both worlds with AI. It will work across you data (the notebook typically, andl in your tenant) as well as information from the web.

When I ask Copilot a question here you’ll see that it return information from my organization (shown above)

and from the web.

Another example is asking Copilot how to work with Exchange Online inactive mailboxes, as shown above. Again, it works with my own information and information on the web and presents in easy to digest format as well as providing me additional relevant prompts.

I have to say that this now my go to for unlocking all the knowledge I have accumulated in all my OneNote notebooks. Of course, I can probably extract something similar from other Copilot interfaces in Microsoft 365 but giving me this capability inside an application that I use more than email is a huge productivity boostt for me. Hopefully now that I have shown you what it can do for me too can go and see what Copilot for Microsoft 365 and OneNote can do for you. Let me know in the comments your use case, I’m all ears!