My experiences as a Microsoft MVP, Office 365 & SharePoint Architect, Administrator, and Consultant
Please join me on June 24th in Chattanooga, Tennessee for the third annual SQL Saturday Chattanooga! We will be discussing SharePoint BI and how Power BI brings a new level of data storytelling to collaboration.
Register via the #SQLSatChattanooga site.
[This post will be updated after the event]
On June 22nd 2017, I will again be speaking to the Cincinnati SharePoint User Group and this time around we will be discussing workflow. I will present the options for creating workflows in SharePoint and Office 365, as well as look at the process (and potential pitfalls) for upgrading your SharePoint Designer workflows to Microsoft Flow.
Find details on the topic, as well as register on the Meetup page.
[UPDATE]
Thank you so much to everyone who came out tonight to the meeting – I had a great time and the group participation was wonderful.
I mentioned tonight the Known issues and resolutions page Microsoft is maintaining for Flow – here is the link: https://ms.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/release-notes/#known-issues-and-resolutions
There were a few questions about Flow during the meeting that I wanted to make sure I followed-up with – the list of questions & my answers are below:
I am happy to announce that I’ll be speaking and attending SQL Saturday Atlanta on July 15th. As one of the largest SQL Saturday events in the USA, we always have a great time of learning and meeting new people.
Please join me – Register via the #SQLSatAtlanta site.
[This post will be updated after the event]
During the SharePoint Summit this month, Microsoft shared the road-map for things to come for SharePoint on-premises and SharePoint Online. If you haven’t heard all the announcements, go watch the recording now. After watching and learning about what was coming, I have a few questions I would like to get answered and my friend Darrell Webster has arranged a way for us all to get those answers!
Darrell is participating in the Digital Workplace Conference in Auckland New Zealand and has invited a few of his Microsoft MVP friends to be part of a live panel asking questions of Microsoft’s own Mark Kashman. I will join Christian Buckley, Alistair Pugin, and Loryan Strant to ask Mark the tough, burning questions we all want to have answered. Do you have questions you want me to ask? Let me know on Twitter!
We are going to have a great time – it all starts Tuesday May 23, 2017, 4pm Central time ( May 24, 2017 9:00 am Auckland time), and if you can’t join in person, you can view it live on Facebook or live on YouTube!
Microsoft announced today the newest improvement in workflow for the SharePoint platform – easy-to-use approval workflows built-in that will enable you to route a document for approval and give you the ability to give a custom message.
In my workflow presentations, I talk about having a simple approval workflow being a great first step but we need a better user experience than what we have been given out-of-the-box with SharePoint in the past. We need the user to be able to approve/deny directly within their email client, without having to go to a SharePoint page, edit the task, complete the task, and then save it. Too many steps!!
With this new functionality using Microsoft Flow, we will now be able to ad-hoc route documents for approval and approval participant will have a one-step action link in their email.
Make sure you check out the new Microsoft Mechanics video “Zero code business process apps in SharePoint with PowerApps and Microsoft Flow” showing this and other improvements to the SharePoint experience.
Today Microsoft announced the next step for PowerApps integration with SharePoint – using PowerApps forms within the context of a SharePoint list or library.
This is another way PowerApps is becoming a strong successor to InfoPath forms and will give your users a rich viewing, creating, and editing experience right within their SharePoint library or list.
This feature will be coming to SharePoint Online & Office 365 this Summer and I expect we will immediately start using the functionality within my client organizations to improve the user experience.
I highly recommend watching the new Microsoft Mechanics video “Zero code business process apps in SharePoint with PowerApps and Microsoft Flow” to get an idea on how the forms will be created and used.
Yesterday Microsoft announced via a message (MC101855) in the Office 365 message center that Microsoft Stream will be generally available soon.
A few months ago, a preview of Stream was announced and you can view more information about the service on the Microsoft’s site. The service will be on by default now and will be visible in the Office 365 app launcher.
If you are using Office 365 Video to serve content within your organization, there is nothing you need to do at this time. The move to Microsoft Video will be a phased approach and Microsoft has promised that the move will include all your content and metadata.
After the transition, existing Office 365 Video embed codes and links to videos will still work, redirecting to the same content in Stream.
The full message can be viewed within your Office 365 tenant’s message center.
[UPDATE]
Originally, this post made reference to Microsoft Stream being available now. Stream will be generally available soon and another announcement will be made when it is out of preview. Sorry for any confusion the original post may have caused.
