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Microsoft 365

A collection of 18 posts

From Blank Canvas to Copilot: Rethinking SharePoint Page Authoring

From Blank Canvas to Copilot: Rethinking SharePoint Page Authoring

I remember how happy I was to see the newer SharePoint page templates start rolling out. Since the beginning of SharePoint, page authoring has been a game of conflicting realities that often fell short of the platform's promise. On one hand, we had a very capable platform on

Turn SharePoint Documents into Podcasts with Copilot

Turn SharePoint Documents into Podcasts with Copilot

Copilot can transform the content of a SharePoint document into an AI-generated audio overview or a conversational podcast-style experience. Most organizations don't have a shortage of information. Rather, they have a shortage of ways for people to actually consume it. Policies, procedures, reports, training material, and

SharedSamples.org: A Visual Front Door to Microsoft 365 Community Samples

SharedSamples.org: A Visual Front Door to Microsoft 365 Community Samples

I’ve been tinkering with a sort of GUI for the Microsoft 365 community GitHub. The idea started while I was navigating in and out of a few different repositories looking at examples of column formatting, trying to find a shortcut for something I was working on. It occurred to

Copilot as an Instructional Designer: Building Interactive Policy Training

Copilot as an Instructional Designer: Building Interactive Policy Training

Company policy documents are important. They are also rarely anyone’s favorite thing to revisit. That makes them an interesting candidate for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Instead of simply asking Copilot to summarize a policy, I wanted to see what would happen if I gave it a more specific job: act

Using AutoML Thinking to Build Smarter SharePoint Dashboards with Copilot

Using AutoML Thinking to Build Smarter SharePoint Dashboards with Copilot

Copilot’s ability to create live-linked HTML dashboards from SharePoint lists is impressive. But what happens if we borrow a page from AutoML and let Copilot analyze the list before deciding what the dashboard should show? It does exactly what you’d hope. It effectively puts on several different

How to Block Power Platform Access with Conditional Access

How to Block Power Platform Access with Conditional Access

The Microsoft Power Platform is certainly true to its name. It places an incredible amount of power in the hands of your workforce to allow them to overcome all sorts of information management & process challenges. But, to borrow the Spiderman lesson: With great power, comes great responsibility. In this

The Safest Bet You Can Make on AI

The Safest Bet You Can Make on AI

AI is evolving quickly, but building a workforce that knows how to use it is one of the safest bets you can make. Most organizations are trying to make sense of where the opportunity of AI fits into their universe. Which AI initiative should you lean into, and which should

Preparing Your Enterprise for Microsoft Copilot

Copilot Featured

Preparing Your Enterprise for Microsoft Copilot

Successful AI in the enterprise requires preparation. When you build a house, the quality of the finished product is determined long before the walls go up. Having a solid foundation isn't optional... it's what everything else depends on. The same principle applies to building a modern

Tearing Down Boundaries: SharePoint, Teams & Microsoft’s Focus on Context

Tearing Down Boundaries: SharePoint, Teams & Microsoft’s Focus on Context

The other day, I was listening to the Microsoft 365 Voice podcast where they did an episode on collaborating in SharePoint vs. Teams and the language that consultants use to frame these decisions when talking to customers. It was a great episode, and the topic is certainly popping up a

Office 365 Themes – Good, Bad & Ugly

Office 365 Themes – Good, Bad & Ugly

I’ve had a few customers ask about Microsoft’s new personalization options for Office 365 this week and I wanted to take the opportunity to provide some details. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced new features for customers wanting to add a little personalized flair to their Office 365 tenants.

CSS Reference: Branding the Office 365 Suite Bar

CSS Reference: Branding the Office 365 Suite Bar

This is a quick reference guide for using CSS to modify the Office 365 Suite Bar that lives at the top of SharePoint Online sites. While fleshing out a larger CSS reference / light branding guide that will be focused on IT Pro’s, it occurred to me that this portion

Issues Provisioning Lync Online Users After DirSync Synchronization

Issues Provisioning Lync Online Users After DirSync Synchronization

Recently, I stumbled into a scenario where Lync Online accounts appeared to get crunched by a series of enabling and disabling DirSync within the Office 365 tenant. Getting the issue resolved was enough a puzzle that I figured it was worth sharing. * Office 365 Plan Enterprise Plan (E1 E3 E4)

The Problem with the Office 365 Roadmap

The Problem with the Office 365 Roadmap

As many of you know, Microsoft recently released its Office 365 Roadmap, an up to date list of planned updates, new features and other changes in the pipeline for Office 365 customers. Not only does the Roadmap provide these sorts of critical insights, enabling customers to incorporate these future capabilities

Cloud – Evolutionary Speed vs. Supportability

Cloud – Evolutionary Speed vs. Supportability

Cloud platforms aren’t tethered by the upgrade factors & cycles that have limited the evolutionary speed of traditional enterprise IT offerings. Now, small (and not so small) improvements can be made under the hood, allowing providers to increase the value of their platforms and allowing customers to see the

Small Businesses – Avoid Office 365 Pre-Paid Licenses

Small Businesses – Avoid Office 365 Pre-Paid Licenses

Office 365 Shopping Advice for Small Business Owners You're walking through the aisles of your local Staples and there they are… Stacks of 1-year Office 365 licenses.  Gears start turning…  You've been reading and hearing all about it and you've probably been close