Office 365 Power Tools: What To Use When… PLUS NEW! Charts and Graphs and Recording and Slides

Thanks for joining me on the Office 365 Power Tools What to Use When Webinar. We had over 500 users connected in that session. Incredible. We got a ton of feedback and questions, so I wanted to share my thoughts and provide some answers, links and explanations as well as links to the recording and slides.

Download and View Recording with no registration on Youtube

Incredible Insights Charts and Graphs

What Power Tools are you using for Development for SharePoint Apps today?

Joel’s Insights: So most are still using the basics of lists, libraries and workflows… think about the missed potential. Incredible that we had a funeral for Infopath about 5 years ago, and there are about as many people using InfoPath and SP Designer. There’s a big responsibility to help the community catch up on Forms, Flow, PowerApps and Power BI. I was also surprised to see a few responses during the event from people saying… when will Infopath be replaced? People who don’t get the power of PowerApps. Many have found third party tools to help fill the gaps. I realize I should have added SPFx, but the session was more about the power tools.

What Version of SharePoint are you using?

80% using Office 365. That’s great! The fact that more than 50% still have 2013 and 2010 is a little sad don’t you think? I think we need more campaigns around upgrading to SharePoint 2019… What do you think? Tell me in the comments. I’ve got ideas for a Top 10 Reasons Why you should upgrade to SharePoint 2019 Infographic. Would make a good webinar too.

Questions

What does E3 include as it relates to Forms, Flow, PowerApps and Power BI?

  • Forms is free for everyone including building and consuming forms including anonymous.
  • Flow is covered for all of the standard connections except for the premium Flows.
  • PowerApps licenses are included, but do NOT include Plan 1 or Plan 2 these are additional addins.
  • Power BI you can download the client and run it, to get Power BI Pro you need E5 or you can add on Power BI Premium.

Can anyone create PowerApp without a license?

No. You can’t create or consume a PowerApp without a license. E3 does include license to create or consume PowerApp… it just needs to be assigned if it hasn’t.

Can you please provide all the training videos links to know how to use in details of all the apps flow, form, power, apps, power bi and nitro. to ease the use of them. and if we have any question for support, how can we contact a direct chat with the supporting team?

https://support.office.com/en-us/office-training-center

Then go to youtube and go to the Microsoft Flow Channel and from there you can navigate to the PowerApps, Power BI and Office 365, Dynamics 365 Youtube Channels in Featured Channels on the right

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG98S4lL7nwlN8dxSF322bA

Please can you give us an update if know on when PowerApps and Flow will be available on the government tenant? Can you please also include what is available for the GCC? PowerApps/Flow is not available to us yet

GCC = Government Cloud Community

The Office 365 Roadmap says March CY2019

Power BI vs Tableau? Thoughts?

They are very different and have very different capabilities… that being said, check out what Gartner said… they are both in the leader quadrant as of 2017.

Would Power BI Report server with gateway bipass some of those limits?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-gateway-onprem

I have not seen any reference to quotas in on premise Power BI. I expect not all of them would apply, but you should be smart and do testing and validation.

On-premises data gateway: Multiple users can share and reuse a gateway in this mode. This gateway can be used by Power BI, PowerApps, Flow or Logic Apps. For Power BI, this includes support for both schedule refresh and DirectQuery

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-gateway-getting-started

Does a form belong to a person or to the company? What if a person leaves the company?

A form is stored in Azure or any number of places. You can’t update them, so they definitely don’t follow you, but in European and soon to be California and many other places laws, you should have rights to your private data. Today you don’t have many rights for access to your data stored in forms or powerapps as a user. You can always try… that’s what privacy is all about.

Powerapps: is it possible to connect one powerapp to multiple Sharepoint Lists during runtime? E.g. choose a teamsite and select the values from a list, then connect to another teamsite with a list having the same name? E.g. list to collect issues in multiple teams or projects

Yes, check out a direct question in the forum https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Discussion/Read-and-write-to-2-seperate-SharePoint-lists/td-p/101938

the web link on the what to use where isn’t working… can you double check it?

You’re right, it was messed up. Here’s the correct link

http://bit.ly/msformslimits

Does Nitro Studio have On-Prem options or similar that could be required to meet InfoSec/goverment compliancies?

Maybe quickly explain Microsoft Forms Pro

Forms Pro????

There is a slide in the presentation on Forms Pro from the announcement at http://formspro.microsoft.com

Will Forms ever evolve into more that what it is today or is the direction to use Power Apps?? This is a tough thing to swallow for non dev SharePoint admins?

Forms is the for lightweight quick Survey, Polls, and simple forms. It will get better, but it will never be PowerApps.

Can you give a link to the Usage stat reports for PowerBi?

Check out these links:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/usage-analytics/usage-analytics?view=o365-worldwide

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/usage-analytics/customize-reports?view=o365-worldwide

Microsoft 365 usage analytics contains a number of reports, including:

  • Adoption overview report — offers an all-up summary of adoption trends. Use the reports in this section to learn how your users have adopted Office 365as well as how overall usage of the individual services has changed month-over-month. You can see how many licenses are assigned, how many of those are in active use by people in your organization, how many users are returning users and how many are using the product for the first time.
  • Product usage report — offers a drill-down view into volume of key activities for each service. Use the reports in this section to learn how your users are utilizing Office 365.
  • Storage used report — Use this report to track cloud storage for mailboxes, OneDrive and SharePoint sites. You can use this to make sure people in your organization stay within limits, or to decide if you need to purchase more storage resources.
  • Communication report — You can see at a glance whether people in your organization prefer to stay in touch by using Teams, Yammer, email, or Skype calls. You can observe if there are shifts in patterns of use of communication tools amongst your employees.
  • Collaboration report — See how people in your organization use OneDrive and SharePoint to store documents and collaborate with each other, and how these trends evolve month over month. You can also see how many people share documents internally or externally and how many SharePoint sites or OneDrive accounts are actively being used.
  • Office activation report — Track Office 365 ProPlus, Project and Visio activations in your organization. Each person with an Office license can install products on up to five devices. Use reports in this section to see the device types on which people have installed Office apps.
  • Access from anywhere report — Track which clients and devices people use to connect to email, Skype for Business, or Yammer.
  • Individual service usage reports — Usage reports are available for certain individual services. These reports provide specific usage details for the respective service. Exchange usage, Teams usage, and Yammer usage are examples of these reports.
  • Individual service user activity reports — User activity reports are available for certain individual services. These reports provide user level detail usage data joined with Active Directory attributes.

Where is the slide deck shared?

Can forms handle attachments? This is a show stopper for us.

I agree. No it is not, but they say they are working on it on User Voice.

https://microsoftforms.uservoice.com/forums/386451-welcome-to-microsoft-forms-suggestion-box

Are they the top 60 responses (on choice fields)?

Yes, the limitation in Microsoft Forms on the 60 choices being stored is only 60 are stored, all of the other choices are shown as “Other”

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Forms/Microsoft-Forms-Choice-question-Limit/td-p/172463

I have created a Custom PowerApp Form and a mobile app that triggers a flow approval after the data is sent to a sharepoint list. I have flow plan 1 that created the flow, do I need to be concerned if that flow gets triggered too many times by employees entering in data?

No, you shouldn’t be too worried unless you’re doing some kind of check every 5 minutes. You will get a warning if you’re getting close to running out of your quota of runs for the month.

I was told by a MS expert at ShareFest DC that Forms cannot hide a field like you can in InfoPath. Will it have that ability?

I can’t tell you what hasn’t been announced. You can see the roadmap at

https://office.com/roadmap

Is it possible to use Flow on premise without Hybrid systems?

No. You need a gateway because there is no On Premise install of Flow or Forms.

Does Power Apps replace Infopath and it is on SP 2019 on Premise?

Flow, Forms and PowerApps all replace Infopath and SharePoint Designer, but it gets more complicated for On Premises. SharePoint Framework is another alternative for building applications.

We Use Nintex Forms and Workflows. Can I see Nitro? I want see the difference. Would love to see Nitro I’d like a live demo. That was too high level

Yes, sign up for the webinar or contact us and we’ll provide you with a demo.

http://Nitro.Studio

Forms and Flows not look for me as an replacement to create Forms in SharePoint or build process for my company

You’ll have to tell that to Microsoft. Forms Flow and PowerApps are the replacement, but do not line up directly. They are new tools that provide new functionality.

Here’s a quote directly from the PowerApps page: “Use PowerApps, the successor to InfoPath, to improve business productivity in SharePoint without writing code.”

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath/

You have the same license strategy like Nintex? I pay on Premise for each WF?

No it’s a different license. See more at http://Nitro.studio

Nitro Studio like K2 with her own Engine with seperate DB’s or integrated in sharePoint like Nintex?

Can you distribute a Microsoft form outside of the organization?

How much work is it to port existing InfoPath forms (we have many) to the next thing (MS Forms, MS Flow, Power Apps, Nitro)?

There aren’t any migration wizards that I’ve seen. I recommend building new in Forms, Flow, PowerApps, SharePoint Framework, third party Forms/Workflow tools, etc..

If you have Office 365 but Exchange on premise you must use the older tools or Crow Canyon since Flow can’t email on prem mail. I’m currently blending Powerapps with Crow Canyon approvals as well.

You can share the form with a group to edit.

Yes, You can invite lots of users or send it to a DL, but there’s no .

What do you think of SharePoint Framework as a tool to overcome the limits of powerapps?

Fantastic idea. Really depends on which limit.

How can we access the Forms Pro preview?

You’ll hear soon. It says Spring 2019, which means March or April likely. Follow http://formspro.microsoft.com

Is there a way to move the form to be owned by another individual? Currently it seems you can only move the form to a 365 group.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/delegatepage.aspx?originalowner=JasonFabian@contoso.com

  • On the form you want to transfer, click More form actions  , and then select Move.

Can 1 user have flow p2 and see organization usage for all users that would just have flow 1?

Yes, Certain users can have Flow2.

Can 1 user have a p2 flow license such as an admin, and be able to see organization flow usage?

Yes,

Is flow equivalent/competetive to Nintex or K2?

Flow is a browser based If this then that style conditions, actions, and workflow.

Will you provide the slides as PDF or such?

Slides are on slideshare.net/joeloleson

Create a form via an O365 group? The form would belong to the group and not a specific user

A group can own a flow or a form. You can reassign ownership of a flow or a form.

None of the tools that Microsoft has really mimic the functionality found in InfoPath. How long until we see that same level of functionality?

Don’t hold your breath. Microsoft is not planning on rebuilding InfoPath. Flow, Forms, PowerApps, etc… are their own new creations. You can vote up features, but don’t expect them to rebuild Infopath… it’s dead.

Can flow be used by non-licensed Office 365 users /or shared external users? Can flow on a SP list be used by external shared user?

No, but you can vote for that feature on user voice.

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/O365-Approval-Flow-to-external-users-in-non-default-flow/td-p/147424

Common data service is it like an odata connector to pull and post data with LOB systems?

What does E3 get us?

You could share the output of the reports on sharepoint?

Sharing the PowerBI reports on SharePoint still requires proper licensing.

Hope you’ll join me on the next webinar!! Thanks for coming!

Joel OlesonLeave a comment

Bloggers, Klout, Influence, and the power of Networks

Last week I went to a “Utah bloggers” event.  It first surprised me to see 90% women, didn’t bother me, just surprised me.  Then I went on to find I was the only technical blogger there.  All were mommy bloggers, food bloggers, hair bloggers, and DIY bloggers and on and on.  It was amazing to see that really as opposite ends of the world there was something common in terms of how bloggers can have influence, and how brands look to bloggers for awareness and PR.  In my last post I brought up the question: “Should Bloggers and Influencers Make Money from Posts and Tweets?” I did expect to see more of a discussion.  Guess everyone is already convinced that, hey it’s your blog… do what you want.  People are influenced by what they read and influenced by their peers.  I think it has a lot to do with who we follow and who we trust.

I’ve had a unique opportunity in the SharePoint world to work for Microsoft, a Vendor and now a customer.

When I was in Microsoft IT, there were times when we’d approach a vendor to find out how we’d address given issues.  We had a special relationship with the product team where we could always ask them for things, which is what they would want, but depending on the amount of pain we were going through, we’d either consider off the shelf or build it ourselves to bridge the gap, and times where the product team would say they had no plans to address our need.

Next when I was in the product team, I spent a lot of time with customers and vendors and listened as they described things they wanted fixed.  We had discussions about whether or not we could fit in these features.  When we knew we wouldn’t be able to address them, we’d reach out to vendors with specialties and or capability for delivering.

Next in my move out to the field, and landing at a vendor.  The experience was now analyzing what customers needs were, Microsoft’s gaps, and then figuring out if people were willing to pay.  Beyond that there was figuring out if the need was more than one vocal customer, but seeing if the cost to build could be justified.  This struggle is a tough one.  Once a solution is delivered there’s another problem.  How to you reach the person looking for the solution?  Also how do you tell the story that describes the problem or challenge that resulted in a solution.

As a blogger, I was interested in helping out the vendor that was looking to connect with his audience.  When I first started looking at google ads I noticed there was a lot of what I’d consider SharePoint pornography or anti-SharePoint content.  There was simply bad analysis that was exposed by google ads.  There was junk whitepapers that would simply bash SharePoint and try to sell a competitor tool.  Frustrated by what google was doing in their ads exposed by people in our community I looked around at a vendor hall one day I thought, there has to be a way that we could connect bloggers with the vendors.  In sharing my dilemna with Inna Gordin, an entrepreneurial spirit with marketing skills who understood the problem as I did.  She had a vision of how we could build the platform that would connect these publishers with vendors.  SharePointAds.com was born out of this.  SharePointReviews.com was born out of the need for awareness as well.  Leveraging social media features with focus on ratings and reviews.

I’m now looking at opportunity with the advancements in social media.  Ads themselves give some level of awareness, but don’t give the full story.  While it may contain a line of text presenting up a problem or opportunity.

I would suggest that we comparatively build a very serious network in our community.  The penetration of facebook, twitter, and linked In. The most passionate dedicated SharePoint people are very well connected across the globe.  This network building happens online and in events, and gets built and happens across the social networks.  The pages of our online book and collective conscience is captured on blogs and in the status of microblogs.

In a recent Sharing the Point tour where we sat down with the Filipinos.  In an on the spot exercise I went around the room asking each of the local SharePoint experts what their names where fascinating things happened.  Despite the fact that I had never stepped foot in the Philippines, we had people in common that we knew, many of them were from Malaysia and Singapore.  This exercise in discovery helped us understand the world is smaller than we knew.

With Facebook, twitter, and linked in it was amazing how we could spread messages around the globe through our networks and help reach even those only connected with local people.   

In the SharePoint world there are people with clout, but we’ll refer to that as Klout which is a tool which tries to represent a score that provides a number to describe the reach and influence of an individual.  There are a few hundred individuals that have very serious influence in our community.  Efforts by Global 360 produced an Influencer 50.  Many looked at that list and realized that that was too small, or questioned the algorithm or methods used to calculate it.  Microsoft has it’s own list based on some formula of newsgroups and community work.  In addition, they’ve put together some of their own charts around the influencers in twitter, facebook, and in the blogsphere.  There are hundreds that have significant influence in the SharePoint community across social networks, blogs, and as speakers and writers.

Rather than simply trying to create the hierarchy of the influencer 50 or 100, or 1000, I am interested in putting together a bloggers and influencers network.  People who are interested in working together on topics and conferences and events, and yes ultimately reaching out to the vendors and even Microsoft.

SharePoint Bloggers and Influencers

Joel OlesonLeave a comment

Real World Upgrade: What We Learned Last Week

Real world is always more raw and has so many more variables. I think we’ll continue to learn always… not matter how many tests you do.

Even after doing a test upgrade 2 weeks prior. Engineering completed an upgrade and here’s what we saw:

  1. Plan on Doing Visual Upgrade Soon – Sites that were binary upgraded all new sites created underneath existing non visually upgraded sites where in the 2010 look and feel. Yes all new sites were 2010, but also all new webs were as well. Some of these new webs underneath sites that were not visually upgraded had issues with list creation. You could go directly to the create page if you knew the URL, but otherwise it would hang. Work around was to upgrade the root site collection. We weren’t ready to do this due to a custom look and feel.
  2. Workflows can be problematic especially if they have Fab 40 dependencies – We had a number of sites that had problems with workflows. Apparently we had some small bits of an application template that were dependencies. A list definition from a custom site definition in one of the app templates was being used. Yeah, I very upset at those app templates, more because I’m the admin and don’t see the value in them, but also because due to MS not supporting them in SharePoint 2010 we have concerns about supportability. Yes, Kahlil rocks and it’s great he upgraded the Fabulous 40 all those for the rest of us, but it hasn’t been very clean, and I now don’t consider these sites "vanilla." This was supposed to be an easy upgrade of some out of the box sites. I had been saying I didn’t think we needed a third party tool since we just had out of the box sites. Now I’m saying I need a script to track down customizations to a greater detail than test-spcontentdatabase. I sure wish either preupgradecheck or test-spcontentdatabase would actually identify the site collection that’s impacted due to the custom site def or feature, so we could plan on using third party migration tools like Quests Migration Manager for post migration sync, or Metalogix Migration Manager for SharePoint for site migration and workflows or AvePoint’s free 100GB of data deal. Something that will make getting out of these customizations. We were hoping to simply attach these databases and simply ignore the errors. This was a big mistake. While the data looks fine there are a lot of issues underneath with dependencies such as list templates, workflows and so on that apparently break if those features aren’t in place. Those features being specific app 40 templates. Now we’re looking differently at ensuring on the 2007 side things are nice and clean with 0 errors related to missing features. I’ve been stressing that we shouldn’t be getting any upgrade errors or warnings if we’ve actually prepared our databases correctly. We’re looking at separating those site collections that have app 40 templates into a "chocolate farm" separate from our vanilla farm. I think this is a good start to keeping a clean environment and may need to start some type of charge back for those that need application functionality.
  3. Some Excel Webparts ended up slower, but we think this is due to the number of cells we are publishing. We’ve built our own Gantt charts into excel that are data driven and displayed as colored cells. Hence each webpart is rendering thousands of cells. Not sure how we’re going to optimize these webparts since they were faster to render in 2007.
  4. Microsoft support – If you have a Sev A. You do get Microsoft’s attention. We went through a lot of engineers. If you request you can have a dedicated PFE if you’re a large enough customer and actually have them handle the relationship on tickets. We were having an issue with timely returns with lower priority tickets, and Sev A is expensive. So we plan to have MCS or PFE resources lined up this next time we do a big upgrade.

More lessons to come…

Joel OlesonLeave a comment

Track SharePoint 2010 Installations Across the Enterprise

Did you know that built right into SharePoint 2010 during installation there’s a little check to look for a container in AD and if it exists then add the server? In fact you could create an AD Group Policy to block SharePoint installs! By default nothing more than a warning happens in the installation log and most people will ignore it and move on. Others will be a little confused and say, why is SharePoint trying to access an object in AD. What is this service connection point in Active Directory? I didn’t know I should extend my Active Directory schema for SharePoint. Again, by default you don’t have to extend the AD schema, but are there any benefits by doing so. I see three key scenarios here you can take advantage of all fairly straight forward with the right support from your AD team. (You know they already love you from your User Profile Service meetings.)

  1. I want to track installations of SharePoint 2010 – You’ll simply create the "Microsoft SharePoint Products" under the system container for the service connection point (SCP) . Write does have to exist for those installing SharePoint servers to actually get the SCP created. If they don’t they’ll get an installation warning and move on. See the resources below on the how to details for configuring this.

    See Jie Li put together a script in the Script Center for listing all the SharePoint 2010 server names

  2. I want to BLOCK new installations of SharePoint 2010 including SharePoint Foundation – Since pretty much anyone can install SharePoint Foundation and run it under their desk, you might want to actually block the installation. Of course this would be the plan for someone trying to keep only the managed SharePoint farms on the radar and avoid the rogue deployments.

  3. I want to control who can install SharePoint in the enterprise to a limited group – I remember discussing this need with the SharePoint product team… "For governance reasons we should be able to control who can install SharePoint." We went on to explain… "we don’t want it popping up everywhere" because people assume we won’t support their app. We want them to engage us. You can do that too! Here you’ll create an ADM policy or GPO with Disableinstall=1 filtered by the security group. Mark Cresswell goes into great detail including links to sample ADM/ADMX files.

Now you’re asking. Why didn’t I see this in the documentation before I installed my first SharePoint box? One option is running discovery… Consider a free demo of Quest’s Site Adminstrator to help you locate the SharePoint boxes in your enterprise. There have been a number of scanning tools I’ve used over time, but make sure you’re network admin knows before you start a port scan. I say that from personal experience. It looks nasty to a network admin and could be grounds for dismissal.

Key references on the *HOW TO* on configuring:

Mark Cresswell –SharePoint 2010 brings new Governance controls to IT Pro’s

Jie Li Track SharePoint 2010 Installations by Service Connection Point

Joel OlesonLeave a comment

SharePoint Joel: New Chapter – Focus on the Family

Three years ago this month, I announced my resignation from Microsoft and my intention to carry on my evangelist and community activities in the field.  Today I turn that page, and announce the next chapter in my career.

I’ve had a great time with Quest Software.  It started with a conversation where I explained what I wanted to do with travel, events, blogging and community, and Quest saying… "That’s what we want too!"

I was looking for flexibility and created a vision for what I wanted to do based on gathering the best of what I heard in speaker lounges at TechEd’s around the world.  Ultimately I got some amazing flexibility to support my efforts of blogging, speaking, and community engagement with a global customer base.

My Quest travel stats included 300 days of travel the last two years with 450,000 miles logged across 77 separate trips.  That’s over 550,000 miles since I left Microsoft.

While my kids have been able to benefit from the travel part including joining me on a few of my trips, I realized they were also getting the short side of the stick.  Not being home for band concerts, soccer games, birthdays, and such I have really been feeling it.  My wife and kids haven’t been able to rely on me for much.  I’m definitely ready to change that.

I’ve been blessed with a good job… and the support I get from the community has been incredible as I’ve been able to travel around the world literally reaching out to people and places that I could only dreamed of.  Memorable trips include the trip to Peru, visiting a community I had little to no contact with.  Jordan, Israel, Dubai, and Palestine where I’d find a whole world of people with passions and complexity worthy of all the time I could give them and more. India, Malaysia, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore another region busting with potential and fascinating cultures.  My trips to Africa have all been met with passionate SharePoint people and adventures galore.  From Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, Norway, Amsterdam, and more… Haven’t been let down by the community.  In fact I’m fitting in a family trip to Egypt prior to the move date, so my family can experience what I did. Looks like the SharePoint User group x2 will be April 9th in Cairo. Details to come.

I wasn’t really counting how many places I had been until I met Michael Noel.  Sure I had the "where I’ve been" map on facebook, but it was when Michael discovered the Travelers Century Club that the two of us decided that we would set a goal to visit 100 countries.  (Yep, he beat me to 100, he passed it on this last trip and I’m sitting at the last mile at around 96 with the last few on the calendar.) My aspirations for visiting new communities, new cultures, and breaking down the barriers of language, distance and isolation became real goals.  Our recent Sharing the Point tour in Asia really represented that desire to reach to emerging markets that otherwise get neglected.  It’s allowed us to focus.

What’s Next

It started with a job interview a couple of years ago.  I met this great team of SharePoint folks who had a vision for what they wanted to build and they thought I’d be someone who could build the team.  At the time I wasn’t ready to give up the flexibility, and was worried about the move and what we’d do with the house.

Since that time I’ve had a lot of time to think about working for a nonprofit and what it would mean to me and my family to go to the more of a 9-5 job and see me for breakfast and dinner everyday.  As well, looking at my career aspirations I decided I wanted to be a CIO when I grew up.  Looking at what I need to do next I realized business, and deeper management experience.  This nonprofit has 50,000 employees and already has 2TB+ of SharePoint content, and a SharePoint 2010 portal and plans to take advantage of Fast.

The role I’ll be taking on is a solutions management role who own the vision for how SharePoint and other collaboration solutions will be used across the company.  Having had a recent restructuring the IT department itself has been redesigned with empowerment in mind.  These solution focused roles really fit well with what SharePoint has been lacking in many corporations.  The vision, mission, and the ability to look at addressing problems rather than a focus on the technology.

For me what this means is less travel, a family focus, a focus back on the fundamentals of management, business, and problem solving at the business level.  I’ll be a manager, managing people, but also helping understand the various business units needs and addressing these with the technology roadmap.

Why am I doing this?

  1. More quality time with Virginia, Dean, Scott, and Jared (The Family: A Proclamation to the World)
  2. Next step in my career, focusing on developing my management and business skills
  3. Finding Purpose and giving back. I’m very excited to seeing and influencing how SharePoint and collaboration technology will be used to solve real problems including things like assisting in improving people’s life’s, human welfare and disaster situations.

Find me on my blog

On the social media and marketing side, this means I will be returning to a normal life of working at a customer.  My speaking will be limited to once a quarter events supported by the non profit by allowing time off to speak.  So I definitely will be cutting down the travel, but I will continue blogging on SharePointJoel.com and to simplify my life… I will no longer be running the channel on NothingButSharePoint.com.  The best place to find me will continue to be here and at few select events around the globe.

When

My start date is April 25.  Between now and then I hope to see you at SharePoint Best Practices Conference if you’re in Europe, and at TEC SharePoint Conference if you’re in the U.S!

More on the new job coming soon…

Joel OlesonLeave a comment

Sharing the Point Asia Tour Begins Next Week!

What do China, Vietnam and the Philippines’ have in common?

image

They are all getting a visit from top SharePoint speakers and experts in a community tour sponsored by fpweb.net  STP speakers include renowned SharePoint professionals Joel Oleson, Dux Raymond Sy, Michael Noel, Paul Swider, Mark Miller, and Rob LaMear and our trusty reporter John Anderson.

The first stop on this inaugural STP tour takes place exactly two weeks from today on Thursday, March 10 in Beijing.  From China, the STP tour moves on to the Philippines where the STP event will take place in Manila on March 12.  We head from Manila to the final stop of the tour in Ho Chi Minh also known as Saigon in Vietnam on Mar 14.

Get all the details including reporting blog that will include the agenda, more on the speakers and all the details on the SharingThePoint.org site

 

Register Now to attend the free half-day Sharing the Point events!

Joel OlesonLeave a comment

7 Things You Need to Know to Drive User Adoption of SharePoint

Thursday, February 17, 2011
8:00 AM Pacific / 11:00 AM Eastern
4:00 PM London / 5:00 PM Paris

Join leading SharePoint MVP and top 50 SharePoint Influencer Dan Holme for an inside look at the most powerful ways to drive user adoption of SharePoint—by integrating it into your users’ experience and the tools they use every day. You’ll get all the information you need to seamlessly access SharePoint sites, lists and libraries from Office applications including Outlook and Word as well as from Windows Explorer.
In this webinar, you’ll learn the key steps to increasing user adoption of SharePoint including how to:

  • deploy Network Locations and Favorites using Group Policy
  • use Default Site Groups and User Profile Application in Microsoft Office clients
  • work effectively with metadata in Microsoft Office documents
  • push shared calendar, tasks, and contact lists to Outlook
  • integrate Outlook and SharePoint for a seamless user experience

Together with Trevor Dyck, Colligo’s Director of Product Management, Dan will provide detailed, step -by-step instructions that will enable you to significantly increase user adoption of SharePoint. You’ll learn how to simplify the integration of SharePoint with the various Office applications that your users “live in” everyday. To learn the tips and tricks for driving user adoption of SharePoint, register for this webinar today!

 

–Register now- for the free webcast today!

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