Blog
Thoughts on Microsoft Ignite 2022, when you only have to compete with yourself
Microsoft Ignite 2022 took place last week and once again Microsoft delivered on all fronts when it comes to vision and excellence for businesses and users like you and I to improve how we work and adapt to the new world of hybrid workplaces by expanding their offering on the digital workplace. My focus for this post is employee collaboration, so I will highlight a few things that caught my eye on with this lens, however, there were many other important announcements on other areas around Azure, Windows and others. SharePoint goodness!… Read More
Presenting and producing in a worldwide event: my experience in the Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon.
The announcement Recently, the West Coast Office 365 community, organized by Joel Oleson, Ryan Shouten, Galen Keen and other rock stars set out to organize a worldwide event, the Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon (#M365VM). The event took place in mid-May of 2020, a perfect time for those who like me felt a bit nostalgic due to the postponement of the SharePoint Conference 2020. From the day it was announced, I was in! Being part of this community has helped me so much throughout the years and having the opportunity to support was… Read More
Confessions of a former Slack(er) living in a Teams world
I recently joined 2toLead as an Office 365 consultant and so far, it has been a great experience! I’ve had many opportunities to learn and challenge myself in different areas. One of the major changes in my day-to-day was adapting to use Microsoft Teams daily to communicate to keep my team appraised of my progress in the different projects and tasks as well as holding various meetings per-day using this tool. If you haven’t tried Microsoft Teams, check out this interactive demo to get a sense of how it works. I collected… Read More
How we (IT Pros) helped kill Internet Explorer
Not long ago, Internet Explorer was the standard for corporate and of course was the browser that came pre-installed with your Windows PC. Being so integrated with the operating system, it was only natural that Microsoft would provide plenty of “knobs and dials” to control the behavior of IE. IT Pros all over the world took advantage of these group policies and shaped Internet Explorer to work and behave in a way that suited internal security policies. This, in my opinion played a role in the demise of IE. Now, don’t get… Read More
Open Live Writer, the best blogging tool since Windows Live Writer!
For the longest time I used Windows Live Writer (WLW). Back then (2012) you had to download this extra package called Windows Live Essentials to enhance your Windows experience with tools like Movie Maker, Mail, OneDrive , and a desktop-blogging app, very similar to other Office apps (with the ribbon UI, and the feeling of Microsoft Word, but tailored to create content for blogs). WLW was a great tool, however, active development for it concluded in 2012. Thankfully, a group of passionate Microsoft folks took on updating the tool, which eventually was… Read More
SharePoint Conference 2018, my thoughts and takeaways
I can’t believe we are already in June, getting back on the saddle after a week out of the office certainly comes with its own set of challenges. Luckily for me, a good half of my pending emails had something to do with “We have updated our Privacy Policy”. My SPC18 Experience SharePoint Conference 2018 was a very different experience for me as this year. I assisted the organizers with sponsor/exhibitor registration and helped exhibitors get settled into their booth. I had a lot of fun! Monday morning was definitely fast paced… Read More
Best of breed apps vs. apps in the big bundle
I love cooking. In the last couple of years I’ve added a few select items of cookware that are best in class. First, I bought a Round Dutch Oven. Soon after that, I managed to get roaster and a skillet from Le Creuset. The craftsmanship and the quality of their products is amazing. I even have a favourite colour, Marseille Blue! But, while I’d love to stock my whole kitchen with these products, there’s one small problem. They are quite expensive! Also, it would be overkill as the value I can get… Read More
Reducing task management overburden
Day-to-Day Task Management at Work I have been using Outlook to manage tasks for over 10 years now. The integration is great if you live in an “email centric” world where you can quickly flag an email so that it will end up on your task list to be eventually dealt with. I manage about 50% of my workload this way… …That’s a problem! Work comes from all different sources, not just email. Working in IT, have my own work queue for Incidents, Problems, Changes and other types of (ITIL type) tasks… Read More
Brainstorm, prototype and sketch with Microsoft Whiteboard app (preview)
Part of the challenge of working with teams that are geo-distributed is having a tool to work together and sketch or prototype new products or ideas together. Microsoft is previewing a new service, Microsoft Whiteboard app. The tool (at the time only available for Windows 10 users) allows you to have multiple people work with notes, images and free form drawing, this experience is much better if you have a touch screen but you can use your mouse to draw, drag or select elements on the whiteboard. Running a few tests I… Read More
Everybody Lies, but not to Google, or your Intranet search!
I recently read Everybody Lies, a book that discusses how big data and, in some aspects, machine learning can be used to explain certain behaviours in today’s world and how our digital interactions can help explain current events. I highly recommend this book! One of the main sources of information used in the book is Google Trends. If you are not familiar with this service, it allows you to explore and compare different topics and identify their trends over time. For example, the chart below compares the terms “Digital Workplace” and “Intranets”:… Read More
Digital Workplace Crusaders 