Tag: Tips

Is it difficult to keep up with Office 365 continuous changes?

In my opinion it depends a few factors and it does not need to be difficult:

  • Your mindsets towards modern apps and cloud based working
  • Your willingness to do short periodically checkups
  • Allow users to have me time to get updated and do knowledge update

I would like today to pickup on some blogposts going around noting that Microsoft is releasing new features and apps in a high tempo creating a conflict for consultants, users, managers and admins to keep up.

So yes, this is confusing if you did not adapt your mindset, whatever role you have.

Working with Office 365 / SharePoint in the cloud is not different than working with a smartphone. Apps come and go, while updates popup like mushrooms on a sunny day after a good rain. And we decide Everytime what we like and use.

In both cases you have the choice which apps to use and which not. Realize that looking at Word or Excel, a lot of users use only a small percentage of the features, bells and whistles these programs have been offering since the beginning while others found themselves more features that enhance their productivity and use them to a greater extend. Office 365 works the same way. Only on a bit bigger scale.

Start seeing Office 365 as a whole, and find the apps that are useful for you and ignore the rest or wait till you are ready for them based on your needs.

Keep yourself informed on a weekly basis is the key here. You do not need to spend hours on this, just check what’s coming soon and is new and think about if this can improve your work of the of others

And then give it a try!

Office 365 is focussed more and more on self management. Users, managers and admins can all independently determine what works and what does not. So users should also get the chance to have personal time to update their knowledge and skills.

Try to be less rigid as an organisation and use best practice pilot initiatives to support further adoption. As I said, see Office 365 as a complete platform and as with Word itself, some users use this and some use that.

As admins we have to make the full organisations understand this are not rigid programs anymore with a single working method. This are platform solutions with freedom of work.

This does not take away the idea to streamline the general setup across an organisation and as admins we can still manage a lot of central setting. But do not block to easily everything new. Instead find early adopters and make them part of the target release program.

So check the admin portal at least once a week and find yourself those early adopters for early feedback.

Encourage users to search for work improvements what will benefit all.

For consultants to say, hold back on making manuals and PowerPoint presentations!

Keep the info focussed on the ideas and logic behind Office 365 and use more live demo examples to show what it is about. You indeed do not want to spend half your time updating your screenshots and adapting your text.

Hopes this helps any of you finding your way in going along with the updates flows of this modern times.

Microsoft’s Information and feedback sites + special links for Microsoft Teams

This blog post will summarize some of the main sites provided by Microsoft towards end-users and administrators to find your way witin the Office 365 platform and its apps. This include the training and learning sites and feedback portals

So lets start the list. I included a dedicated section towards Microsoft Teams. My total vision on why Teams is the central future application I will do in a separate post but for now enough to say that Teams is combining several apps into a “persistent chat”-based central portal and gets an enormous focus from Microsoft and from the users and administrators community. The potential of this app is great and changing the way of working landscape.

Microsoft Teams

(Microsoft Teams by Microsoft)

“We’ve seen the impact that teamwork has had on our world, but what if teams could achieve even more? What if they had the space to be themselves, to share ideas freely and organically across geographies and generations?”

Microsoft Teams website

Microsoft Teams Interactive Demo – “Jump in and experience how teams collaborate when people, conversations, and content – along with the tools teams need – live together in one place.”

Microsoft Teams video training – “Using a chat-centered workspace”

Microsoft Teams YouTube video channel – “Getting Started with Microsoft Teams”

Microsoft Teams Tech Community – “Collaborate, share and learn from experts.”

Microsoft Teams UserVoice (Feedback) – “How can we make Microsoft Teams better?”

Microsoft Teams Documentation

Microsoft Teams Guest Access setup

and more on this excellent post of Matt Wade

 

Office 365 for the end-user

Periodic Table of Office 365 (TIP!)

Office Help & Training

Office 365 Training Center – “Learn how to get things done with Office. Find tutorials for all skill levels: beginner to advanced.”

Office 365 basics – video training – “Take your Office skills to new heights by getting back to basics. Create, edit, save online, and more.”

Tips for Office – “Discover tips to work smarter and get more out of your Office apps in the Office Training Center.”

Develop your skills – “Build your knowledge of Office with thousands of expert-led courses from LinkedIn Learning.”

Office Quick Starts – “Get up and running quickly with the basic info you need to be productive right away.”

What’s new in Office 365 – “As an Office 365 subscriber, you regularly get new and improved Office features. Take a look below to see what’s available to you today.”

Office 365 small business – training – “Training for small businesses and anyone new to Office 365”

User Voice – Customer Feedback for Microsoft Office 365 – “We love hearing from our customers. If you have suggestions for how we can improve, please share them with us here or at one of the related sites listed on the right. While we can’t respond to every suggestion, we are committed to reading every post.”

Microsoft Tech Community – “Collaborate, share and learn from experts.”

Office 365 Roadmap – “The  Office 365 Roadmap lists updates that are currently planned for applicable subscribers. Updates are at various stages from being in development to rolling-out to customers to being generally available for applicable customers world-wide.”

Microsoft Mechanics (YouTube) – Microsoft’s official new show to keep you up to date on our latest tech.”

GetStartedSharePoint (YouTube) – “SharePoint Online and Office 365 for enterprises as well as Office 365 for small businesses and professionals ”

 

Office 365 for Administrators and Power Users

TechNet – Office 365 for IT pros – “Office Tech Center”

FastTrack for Office 365 – “Make your rollout of Office 365 a success. Speed implementation, drive adoption, and help users get the most from the premier cloud productivity suite.”

Office Admin center – The Office 365 embedded admin portal

Office 365 small business – training – “Training for small businesses and anyone new to Office 365”

Office 365 is in the end a Do It Yourself platform. Meaning the end-user is encouraged to install, manage and use the available applications included in the platform, like the user is used to do on a personal smartphone. Either when using the corporate Office365 platform out of the box or with some or more customizations the applications interface and features are promoted by Microsoft towards the end-users interaction and so it is mandatory that the same user can find up to date information on these applications and features.

These links should give you a good starting point in finding your way around Office 365.

Enjoy!