Office 365 Distilled

The Boys are back! Marijn and Steve embark on an intergalactic journey through Microsoft 365 in search of the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything—aka their own '42'. From the deep trenches of SharePoint to the swirling galaxies of Teams, Sway, Exchange, and beyond, they explore the quirks, wonders, and hidden gems of the M365 ecosystem. Expect a whirlwind of insights, unexpected...

Steve comes back from Collabdays Miami and tells the story about the 4th revolution that is currently happening in the world.

Well this is a conversation about Intranets that the boys dont start arguing about...  too much anyway.

OK, the boys ramble on a bit about the money and about AI.  The way we pay for SharePoint and M365 services and new ways to pay for Azure services then budgeting for your SharePoint services changes and increases as you are more successful with Copilot. But are we actually paying more or are things just changes... but then we got distracted... something that happens very rarely for Steve and Marij...

So, this turned out to be fun after the boys could not get excited about a big single subject... except whisky... but being broke after the holidays cheap whisky became a talking point... then Steves's mum joined the call and AI became a talking about along with a M365 Comparison with many things Whisky...  But then the boys got serious and talked about some very nice drams all priced around the 3...

Steve and Marijn record this just before Xmas and decide on 4 whiskies as they have a send-off for Viva Goals recently announced to be deprecated by Microsoft. Check out this episode to find out why we think it has disappeared and if a hole has been left that needs filling more importantly laugh as we work through the last episode we recorded before Snow fell and Santa delivered presents.

Six years ago the boys recorded Office365Distilled 001.  6 years and 155 Episodes ago and talked about Ignited 2018. So the opportunity arose to check out what was announced at Ignite 2018 and compare it to Ignite 2024 which has just happened. So enjoy a little reminiscing of the past whilst looking at the future.

The boys are starting to realise that it is time to get practical and talk about how governance has changed and how they approach SharePoint Governance specifically in todays work of SharePoint, MS Teams and OneDrive and how they approach the subject with Clients. Marijn talked about the underlying ABC pyramid approach with A being for ALL = Intranet, B being about Business = SharePoint sites and...

OK, so MS Teams gets new way to look at Channels and Chats under a Sectional title.  Steve and marijn take a look at the value of such change and go to discussing the value today and potential value tomorrow. A very old Teeling gets a tasting after Tikit for MS teams brings their 3 series to a close with a great whisky

The boys talk to Geoff and Adam, from Tikit by Cireson. Tikit is a helpdesk solution build on Microsoft Teams. We talk about planes, journeys, AI (ofcourse) and much more. They are our whisky sponsors for the episode!

OK, the boys finally did it. AI, Copilot, Gemini, etc., get a beating in this very funny episode of O365Distilled. Yes, there was even a little live prompting to see what the phone wanted to say and if it agreed... It started with a very valid article from Computer World Company or a magazine about the slow update of Copilot and ended with the boys checking out if the article was true. Maybe you h...

149 episodes of M365 Distilled took place before we arrived at Collabdays Hamburg! All Marijn had to do was get us a room to record in with a few friends. Well, he surpassed himself and got the main hall and a keynote session to record with the truly awesome people of Hamburg CollabDays on 31st August 2024. It was fun with about 100 people, just after the ice cream, the boys talked about AI and sp...

Steve and Marijn check out a HBR article (https://hbr.org/2024/08/is-your-organizational-transformation-veering-off-course) that identifies some traits of team that have lost focus and need a little but of a push to move forward. In this podcast they discuss their experiences and drop a few practical ideas of how a team can move forward when energy is low and some ideas on how to motivate the team...

This is the last of the series of podcasts called the apologise series as Steve managed ot catch up with the programs recorded and published so hopefully we are back to 5 days from recording to publishing. Marijn read an article ( Microsoft Teams increases collaboration in the modern workplace at Microsoft - Inside Track Blog )… it was not a podcast but real words and it created the idea of a podc...

So Marijn talks about indecision and the trouble in deciding on a Twix or not… and missed out on a Peated Yamazaki, depriving Steve of a chance to taste one of his favorite Japanese distilleries.   In this second of the Apology series…  So Steve, Anouck, and Marijn did Commsverse TV ( https://www.youtube.com/@Commsverse/streams ) and in this episode we talk about all the things they learned includ...

This is the first of a new series of podcasts called the Apology Series… Life has been a little tricky over the last 3 months for Steve with a separation from my long-term partner, not having access to Max all the time and Moving house to the city of Antwerp, so enjoy the catch-up of podcasts in the coming days that we already recorded,,,  Welcome to the Apology Series.  Make changes Obvious, Easy...

OK, we talk about SharePoint and a question that Marijn received about Sorting our SharePoint Shit.  You know the scenario, what do you do to help a company that Set up an M365 tenant, opened up SharePoint and made it available within 24 hours... recipe for disaster right... and then they call us in to help sort out the shit In this episode, Marijn has a plan, and Steve helps him think it through...

It started when we discussed how mail is still the prevalent business communications tool and how good or bad it is for collaboration. Unusually for the M365 Distilled team of Steve and Marijn, things went a little sideways to start with but eventually got back on track. OK, maybe going sideways is just normal for us, but why change a good thing? In this podcast, the boys talk about the definition...

Poland was a blast at Collab days a few weeks ago. Steve and Marijn spend time in this podcast looking at Jenga and how they used to consider governance risk in their workshops. Marijn recaps his SMART goals session, and each subject is finished with a Whisky—of course, two Polish whiskies, to be precise!

The Boys talk about the new gameshow “ IT Depends” which you can find here  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcB3Ba6K6N3HMUbt6yVT1Bg   and then....  🎙️ Ladies and gentlemen, fight fans from around the world, welcome to the podcast showdown of the century! Tonight, we bring you a clash of titans that will shake the very foundations of the digital realm! In the blue corner, hailing from the land of...

We have a guest who has been listening to the podcast since Episode One “ Gianni Solito “ Gianni uses SaFe AGILE methods for managing adoption and change as we talk through how this model can be used to improve the process of keeping M365Distilled updated and aligned.  You can check him out here  https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianni-solito-2221561a3/   The Boys talk about the new gameshow “ IT Depen...

As always the start is about our travels and community speaking events was from Miami to Bremen we talk about Tetsi flies and the rule of ‘Don’t look at the Boob’ when Steve knew it was the answer to another memory problem… The Boys talk about the new gameshow “ It Depends” which you can find here  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcB3Ba6K6N3HMUbt6yVT1Bg   After 15 minutes of community talk the bo...

Imagine that you have 5 days to migrate a small company to M365 from Google Docs…  What would you start with, Apps, Email MS teams, Power platform… when the Boys put together the plan and decided what goes first… And a few things to catch up with... Marijn as a Seamen, Life is about the basics first and complexities later and of course... CoPilot gets everywhere

In Short... the boys look at what is on the roadmap and mix them in with some of their own ideas that might not be true... can you work them out 😊  We look at some of the great new innovations due and a few ideas that maybe should be put in place. Before tasting a whisky we come clean about which are from Microsoft and which are from the awesome imaginations of Steve and Marijn Finally, Brian sen...

Merry Christmas to every listener of M365, although we suspect that you will not listen to this before the 24th Dec, Monday's celebration day... but if you are listening to that, please accept the Best wishes for Xmas that Steve and Marijn sing as Episode 137 of M365Distilled kicks off. The boys give themselves 10 categories to find their best of the best for 2023... Check out what Steve and Marij...