Office 365 Distilled

Another episode with Caroline Hackney, who is rapidly learning to take over this podcast and puts Steve and Marijn in their place. The extraordinary lady comes with a question about the need for ambassadors so that we can bring you a bunch of Nuggets and the Value of Ambassadors within your company. So the 23rd-floor trio considers the value of integrating Ambassadors and Personae across the busin...

We had a few guests on this episode of Office365Distilled, the awesome Caroline Hackney from Port Houston was an attendee at the workshop presented by Steve and Marijn at the M365 Conference. The focus is on Lego and the personae they represent as M365 is rolled out to the organisation. So Caroline expands on Personae introducing Fiona and Stefan to the podcast... enjoy a view from the 23rd floor.

The problem with short unfocused podcasts is that you can be more confused after the podcast than before. But as the boys touch on Sensitivity labels whilst at M365 in Las Vegas They roll through several points. You will pick up a few golden nuggets but be warned... this episode had no planning whatsoever... however, it is fun.

Steve and Marijn look at Breakrooms and Steve keeps talking team rooms, because hey they are about teams… but he means breakout room of course but let’s blame it on the cold that is screwing up his head. It does get cool when the boys start talking about MS Team meeting roles and advise everyone to plan for the breakout room strategy in the meeting. If you want to find a few extra nuggets check ou...

The boys are joined by Basil Hayden for this Advent episode, a suggestion for a Christmas present for anyone that enjoys a wee dram… but of course this is more local to where Steve and Marijn are recording this set of Xmas Advent Podcasts

Versioning is now taken as a default feature, and nobody talks about it anymore. In this advent podcast Steve and Marijn dig down into versioning and ensures we all understand checking out, approval etc.

Looping your Christmas tinsel around the Christmas Podcasts we think about loop and where things are moving… Scrooge promises to be more positive than last time the boys talked about Loop and we take a quick look at how you can start using Loop today with some ideas for the future.

Marijn talks about Shoes, Coa and Sint Klaus's assistants and his childhood memories. He goes on to prove that he is the real scrooge... The boys check out the Speech to text services in the M365 applications with some suggestions for improvements

Out of tune, Tags opens up this advent episode which gets into details about the different tags you can use in MS teams... a Nugget for everyone in this Christmas bauble

Steve gets it wrong again and gives away the secret for tomorrow before the boys talk about the Meeting options, which are now integrated into the applications in public preview.

Marijn becomes scrooge and talks about Planner... Steve tells marijn about Humbugs, and then they talk about repeatable tasks... This is a really cool Golden Nugget that uses the same repeat meeting code to put regular tasks in place for those daily operational tasks. Marijn learns what advent calendars were before you got chocolate or Whisky in your advent daily gift.

The boys are on a Plane to Microsoft 365 Conference... but as they are on different flights they much be shouting! The Planning assistant si discussed with questions answered and ideas that need some testing

Steve gets confused, and Marijn takes the lead as the Boys introduce you to the idea that for December, we will bring you a new Golden Nugget podcast every day... 3-5 minutes and EP600 Finishes with Steve spilling the beans on what to expect tomorrow.

Lots of chat about conference seasons starting and some advice about not going to a conference and missing all the cool stuff because Mobile working never stops. Speaking engagements are discussions from Copenhagen to Vegas, and the boys get hung up on GDPR and admit they know nothing about what needs to be protected and decide it’s a grey area they don’t know anything about. Different types of Go...

Marijn takes the Catalyst IDEA model from Microsoft to the next level looking at D for Design. This is a great way to look at Digital Transformation in your business You are designing a compelling case for change by discussing business and technological impact. During this, you'll quantify the ROI and financial benefits that include revenue growth, cost savings, and employee efficiencies. This pha...

Based on the successful ADKAR Podcast series from Office365Distilled, this workshop by Steve Dalby and Marijn Somers (MVP) looks at the practical sides of Adoption and Change.  Focusing on communications and Key messages, Steve outlines the model developed by the boys that give you the tools to plan and build your communications around Awareness and Desire.  This model gets you 30% of the way forw...

The boys reminisce about their last months of work and explain the issues, and effectively do what they do best… which is talk… after all, they are sitting at a bar enjoying a relaxing end-of-day drink…  Office365Distilled is about two guys standing at a bar talking crap… well this podcast is proving that definition right! Wendy, the dog, is active tonight and wants to get involved… We originally...

What can go wrong with introducing new features and functionality from the Microsoft365 set of applications? In this episode of Office365Distilled, Steve gives Marijn something to look forward to as he starts the podcast with a howl... Then the conversation turns to a lot of golden nuggets as areas of change risk are identified before moving to look at where people can be forced... or encouraged t...

Recorded live from The Ageas Bowl or, more specifically, the Hilton hotel at the Rose Bowl,  Southampton, Hampshire. It sounds like the record sleeve from a 1970 rock album, which is a good description of what Steve and Marijn did on a quiet Thursday afternoon during the Ignite 2022 Microsoft Conference Day at the South Coast Summit.  This podcast recorded live was a great success providing the au...

Steve brings together his series of Wee Drams about preparing for Improvement with the final episode called Innovate everywhere Innovation is not always a ‘Giant Step for Mankind’. Sometimes Innovation is introverted and focused on a small audience.  We do learn that, of course, M365 innovation is driven by our own User Stories sent to Microsoft and if it is something that the user base needs, the...

Microsoft IDEA structure for Digital transformation is supported by a web site and full program documentation.  Marijn starts with ‘I ‘ from I.D.E.A., the Microsoft Catalyst IDEA framework. ‘I‘ stands for Inspire, and in this wee dram, he takes you through the 4 steps to success with inspiration and understanding of the customer’s expectations for the process, business expectations and what their...

These notes will be short because this EP99 podcast is simple and focused on a single subject which for the boys is very rare... Talking about Excel and when excel was introduced to the market and how Steve and Marijn thought they would have a great case for moving people from Excel to SharePoint lists and find that maybe there are not many even no, specific reasons to drive users away from excel...

The podcast where Steve has a great idea on site names and waffles on without a conclusion. Where Marijn says, ”Sorry, keep going I will interrupt you later”   and then  “ Hold on and let me continue”  and it is decided Marijn can interrupt as much as he likes but Steve has to do as he is told… Our Sponsor Braeburn Whisky for this episode gets a great mention https://braeburnwhisky.com/   The boys...

We are all looking to achieve value in our work, and M365 provides a great opportunity for the IT team and the end user to redefine the value that technology at a personal level can deliver. This Wee Dram from Steve looks at some of the ways IT and Business can work together to get the best from M365 as it permeates through the organisation. Check out 20 minutes of chat with Steve and see if any o...

Marijn is excited about his Envisioning sessions to set up the company on a journey. Still, during the discussion, we wonder if it might not get people excited when it could be several months before they get to try anything. So, whilst very important, timing how you communicate the company vision might not be the first workshop you do.  However, starting to set expectations at the C-Level and Seni...