Boston Office 365 Group Launch

May 1, 2014 Leave a comment

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Are you curious about Office 365? What it is, how it can save you time and help you be more productive? Are you getting the full benefits of all that Office 365 has to offer?

One of the ways for people to get the most out of this new and constantly evolving suite of products is to have people to turn to; a place to go to explore new features and functionality or just learn more, share experiences and ask questions. Formal training is great (we strongly encourage ongoing training for users of the Office 365 suite of products), but there are times when you just want to interact with others or ask a simple question.

Help has arrived. Jornata is pleased to be a founding organizer of the Boston Office 365 User Group. Our co-organizers include Microsoft, Wellington Street Consulting, Slalom Consulting and Cognizant Technology Solutions. The group will met monthly, beginning on Thursday, May 22nd, and on the third Thursday of every month thereafter. The event will take place at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development Center (NERD) at One Memorial Drive in Cambridge. Attendance is free and food and beverages will be provided. You can learn more and register for the meeting or join the mailing list.

Fittingly, for the initial event, Microsoft’s Chris Bortlik will present an overview of Office 365. His discussion will include an overview of current Office 365 functionality, including Yammer, Lync Online, mobile applications and Office 365 Pro Plus. He’ll also explore administration and update issues. Chris is an Office 365 technology architect at Microsoft.

There are plenty of ways to keep the conversation going. We have a web site, Linked In group and Yammer group, or you can follow us on Twitter @Bos365.

We want this to be your group. Feedback, ideas, and suggestions are welcome. What topics would you like to see the group address? Are there other elements that you feel should be added to the program? We’ll provide a place to air your grievances and perhaps learn how others have dealt with the issues you’ve encountered.

We’re also looking for event sponsors to provide food, beverages and raffle prizes for the events or pick up the tab for the Office 365 Happy Hour that will follow each meeting at a local bar or restaurant. If you’re interested, or know anyone who might be, please contact us.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Filed under BOS365, Events, Exchange Online, Jornata, Lync Online, Office 365, Office ProPlus, SharePoint Online, User Groups, Yammer Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

How Do I Upgrade My Trial Office 365 Subscription to a Subscription Plan?

April 18, 2014 Leave a comment

It is very cool, you get a 90 day trial for Office 365 to really test out the system and see what works, what doesn’t, and plan for your move to the service. 90 days, and you can even ask for extensions to make sure that this is the right solution for you. Not many services offer that even by a long shot. Microsoft wants you to make the right decision.

So, now that you’ve decided to go with Office 365, how can you keep all of your work and get properly licensed? It’s quite simple. Go to the Office 365 Admin Center

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Select Purchase Services from the left-side navigation

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You will see your current plan, listed as Currently in trial

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Click the handy Buy now link…

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And complete the process from there.

HOWEVER….. make sure you have your licensing trued up first. If you have licensed all 250 trial users you can have, and you only need 30… that first bill is going to be awfully painful.

Filed under Exchange Online, Lync Online, Office 365, Office ProPlus, SharePoint Online Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Northeast Best of SharePoint Conference 2014!

March 25, 2014 Leave a comment

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Wondering what to do tomorrow? Miss out on the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas at the beginning of the month? Then have no fear. Tomorrow, hosted at the One Cambridge Center Microsoft Office, will be an all day, free event, giving you the best sessions you missed, or want to see again from the Microsoft SharePoint Conference. Details and registration information is below!

The Northeast SharePoint Community is presenting you with a local, free event that delivers SharePoint Conference content and presenters so you can learn what is new and exciting with SharePoint 2013!

Presenting some of the most well-received session leaders of the SharePoint community, Best of SPC 2014 is your source for the news on SharePoint 2013 and the hot topics from Vegas.

Choose from a variety of sessions, including: (See full list on registration page!)

  • Leverage What You Already Know About SharePoint as You Move Into 2013, with Scott Jamison (Jornata)
  • When Should We Use SharePoint Out-Of-The-Box, Add Third-Party Apps or Build Custom Solutions, with Richard Harbridge (Microsoft)
  • Overcoming Barriers to Achieve Social Business Success and Adoption, with Sue Hanley (Susan Hanley LLC)
  • The Strategy Behind Building a Successful Social Intranet, with Joel Oleson (ViewDo Labs)
  • SharePoint On-premises, in the Cloud, and Everything in Between, with Christian Buckley (Metalogix)
  • SharePoint Online Management and Control, with Chris Bortlik (Microsoft)
  • SkyDrive Pro and Mobility: Access Your Files While on the Go From Any Device and Platform, with Kieran Gupta (Microsoft)
  • Complex Problem Solving with the New HTML5 APIs, with Scott Hillier (Scott Hillier Technical Solutions, LLC)
  • Developing Future-focused, On-premises Solutions, with Bob German (BlueMetal Architects)

And don’t forget to join us afterwards for our SharePint at Champions just around the corner!

Make sure you catch the Keynote from the Microsoft SharePoint Engineering team! You will hear how their team participated in the development of SharePoint 2013/Online and the product roadmap and vision going forward!

If you have any questions, please contact: northeastbestofspc@microsoft.com

Agenda

When: Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Registration: 8:30am

Keynote: 9:00am

Event Sessions: 9:30am – 4:30pm

SharePint at Champions: 4:30pm – 6:30pm

Where: Microsoft Corporation One Cambridge Center Cambridge, MA 02142

REGISTER HERE!

Filed under Best of SPC, Events, Exchange Online, Lync Online, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Conference 2014, SharePoint Online, Yammer Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 2014 #CollabTalk TweetJam – Takeaways from #SPC14

March 24, 2014 Leave a comment

Join me, and a host of other SharePoint experts on Thursday, March 27th at Noon EST for a TweetJam to discuss takeaways from the 2014 SharePoint Conference.

Below is a re-post from Christian Buckley’s blog:

imageFor an event that many believed would be lacking any real content, the SharePoint Conference earlier this month actually packed quite the punch – and many attendees have been saying it was one of the better conferences they’ve attended. I would have to agree. I went in with a number of questions, and goals for specific partner and Microsoft conversations, and the end result far surpassed my goals. You expect to drink from the networking fire hose at an event like this, but I think what caught many SharePoint experts off-guard was the increase in communication and openness coming from the product team around the roadmap.

In this installation of the monthly #CollabTalk tweetjam, our panelists and folks from the community will be sharing their key takeaways from #SPC14 in Las Vegas: what they expected, the hits and the misses, and where they think the SharePoint platform is going from here. The one-hour tweetjam will be held this Thursday, March 27th at 9am PDT / noon EDT.

If you’re new to the tweetjam model, it’s fairly simple: using Twitter and a shared hash tag, a panel WP_20140305_012discusses a series of questions over the course of the hour, with other members of the community jumping in and joining the conversation in real-time. You can follow along with the tweetjam on Twitter by following the #CollabTalk hash tag, or you can go to http://twubs.com/CollabTalk to watch live or browse through comments. Following the event, I will publish the full conversation using Storify, and wrap things up with a summary blog.

The questions we’ll be discussing this month include:

  • In your opinion, what was the biggest news out of the conference?
  • What was the best session you attended, and why?
  • What was the most underrated topic at SPC?
  • Based on SPC, what is your take on the current on prem vs hybrid vs cloud messaging?
  • How much has/will what you’ve learned at SPC change your strategy for 2014?
  • What was the most interesting takeaway from the exhibit hall?
  • What SharePoint events are you most looking forward to in 2014, and why?

Joining our panel for this event are the following experts:

  • Geoff Varosky (@gvaro), cofounder Boston Area SPUG, managing consultant at Jornata
  • Chris Beckett (@teknirvana), SharePoint MCM, founder and principal at Obeflow
  • Kanwal Khipple (@kkhipple), SharePoint MVP and consultant
  • Jason Himmelstein (@sharepointlhorn), SharePoint MVP and senior technical director of SharePoint at Atrion
  • Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), director of collaboration at Rightpoint
  • Michael Hinckley (@michealhinckley), senior program manager at Tangram Resources
  • Nick Kellett (@nickkellett), SharePoint MVP and cto of StoneShare
  • Ruven Gotz (@ruveng), SharePoint MVP and director of collaboration, Canada OU Lead, at Avanade
  • Adam Levithan (@collabadam), senior consultant, collaboration and enterprise social, at Portal Solutions
  • Dan Barker (@barkingd), global product manager and evangelist at Dell Software
  • Marc Anderson (@sympmarc), SharePoint MVP and consultant at Sympraxis Consulting
  • with myself moderating (@buckleyplanet), chief evangelist at Metalogix and SharePoint MVP

As you can see, a great lineup of people who are not shy to share their opinions, with many more planning to join in real-time. If you’re never participated in a tweetjam, the content may fly past at a furious pace, but you’ll always get great insights into the topic. Please join us, and share your opinions and experiences. Hope to see you online on Thursday the 27th!

– See more at: http://www.buckleyplanet.com/2014/03/march-2014-tweetjamtakeaways-from-spc14.html#sthash.XJHHjowV.dpuf

Filed under Events, Exchange Online, Microsoft Office, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Conference 2014, SharePoint Online, Yammer Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Boston Office 365 Users Group coming in May!

March 24, 2014 Leave a comment

With Microsoft’s focus on Office 365, and it being the largest product in history for them (surpassing SharePoint on-premises licensing), a few great minds here in the Boston area started talking a few months ago, about creating an Office 365 users group (not just covering SharePoint Online, but Lync, Exchange, Yammer, and whatever else gets tossed out onto the buffet line that is Office 365!).

Well, we have done just that, and are having our inaugural meeting on Thursday, May 22nd, at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (N.E.R.D.) from 6pm to 8pm. We will have Chris Bortlik, a Microsoft Office 365 Technology Specialist, kicking us off with his session “Introduction to Office 365”. See below for an abstract and bio for the session.

We will be having regular monthly meetings on the third Thursday of each month, so stay tuned for more as we build out our schedule of great speakers and topics going forward!

Our website is up (work in progress), but please sign up for our mailing list to be notified about future meetings and information about the group! http://www.bostono365usergroup.com/

Abstract

Office 365 is the fastest growing product in Microsoft’s history. Come to this session to learn what Office 365 is and how your organization can get started leveraging it today. During this talk we will cover the following topics:

  • Office 365 functional overview, focusing on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Yammer, Lync Online, Office Online, mobile applications, and Office 365 ProPlus
  • Office 365 architecture fundamentals, including identity management, authentication options, browser, and device requirements
  • Office 365 admin center
  • Office 365 service descriptions
  • Staying up to date with Office 365 service announcements and updates
  • Office 365 FastTrack deployment model
  • Key Office 365 training links and resources

Bio

Chris Bortlik works at Microsoft as an Office 365 technology architect. He works with Enterprise customers and partners in the Northeast in a technical role focused on SharePoint, Office, Exchange, Lync, Yammer, and other parts of Office 365. Chris is an “Insider” within Microsoft and works closely with the Office 365 product team. He holds the SharePoint MCITP and MCTS certifications. Chris speaks frequently at Microsoft events (including the SharePoint Conference); is a contributing author of the "Essential SharePoint 2010" book; and a coauthor of the “Essential SharePoint 2013” book. Chris also blogs regularly on TechNet: http://blogs.technet.com/cbortlik  Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, Chris was a customer for 14 years working in technical IT architect, development, and management roles – primarily leading .NET and SharePoint related projects. You can follow Chris on Twitter @cbortlik

Filed under BOS365, Events, Exchange Online, General, Lync Online, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint Online, SharePoint User Groups, User Groups, Yammer Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SharePoint Version Feature Comparisons

February 11, 2014 Leave a comment

I wanted to share a link with my readers that shows a very comprehensive matrix of what features are available across different versions of SharePoint; SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010 (no FAST search), SharePoint 2013, and last but certainly not least, Office 365.

Richard Harbridge, a Partner Technology Strategist with Microsoft is responsible for this resource, which is a highly valuable one. Please go here to see the comparison chart.

If you are looking for the most up-to-date feature matrix for SharePoint Online across its different plans (as Office 365 changes frequently), can be found here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sharepoint-online-service-description.aspx

Filed under Exchange Online, Lync Online, Microsoft Office, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Online Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

White Paper – Office 365: Features, Benefits, and Considerations

January 30, 2014 Leave a comment

imageI am pleased to announce the first in a series of white papers from Jornata on Future-Proofing your Business. The first in this series – Features, Benefits, and Considerations of Moving to Office 365 is now available on the Jornata website.

Please feel free to share with whomever you think may be interested in this topic, and watch this space, and the Jornata website for more white papers coming soon!

Filed under Exchange Online, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Online, White Papers Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

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