Office Explorers

This Month we have an exciting topic to discuss - CoPilot. But wait, there are two CoPilots in the world of Microsoft - Windows CoPilot and Microsoft 365 CoPilot. Join us as we dive into the world of these AI-powered assistants and explore how they are transforming the way we work and use technology.

A lot of exciting things have happened this month, and it's not over yet! For our purposes, we here at Office Explorers were excited to see all the huge news coming out of the Microsoft 365 Conference held May 12-14 out in Las Vegas. This month, friend of the podcast Jason Rivera comes back to talk through his biggest takeaways from the conference. Jason has a blog post that dives into some of the content we discuss on air, you can find that here: https://sharepointlessons.wordpress.com/2023/02/27/streamline-your-workflow-automation-with-the-new-ish-ai-powered-describe-it-to-design-it-template-for-power-automate/ He also, as you recall, has a book out that is a must-have for anyone working with Microsoft's Power Platform. Check it out: Building Solutions with the Microsoft Power Platform: Solving Everyday Problems in the Enterprise: Rivera, Jason: 9781098117542: Amazon.com: Books Finally, we here at Office Explorers want to bid a fond farewell to co-host, co-producer, and just generally all-around heck of a good person Taylor, who has moved on from the MBG to explore her own new adventures. Thank you, Taylor, and may your scripts always run correctly the first time.

Greetings friends, and welcome to the 50th* Episode of Office Explorers! The podcast where we fail to mark the occasion on the episode itself. This month we hip you to the Power Platform COE Start Kit with the MBG's Anush Singh, and clue you in to some news we think you need to know. As always, come for the information and stick around after the credits for the outtake.   *50th 'official' episode, not counting the one time Rob and Kat did a second episode recapping a Microsoft Conference. So 50th month of episodes? Either way, thank you everyone who's been along for the ride!

Welcome back, Explorers! Taylor and Rob have an exciting set of topics for your consideration this month. The episode begins with a great discussion on some Microsoft news featuring updates to products we've had whole episodes about in the past – Teams, Yammer, and Viva. From there your hosts sit down with author and MBG Collaboration Architect Jason Rivera to discuss his new book from O'Reilly, "Building Solutions with the Microsoft Power Platform" (available wherever fine technology books are sold, we imagine). The hosting team wrap things up with some post-interview discussion about the book and the Power Platform before signing off for the month.  As always, come for the insight into M365, stick around for the non sequitur at the end (you DO listen all the way to the end, don't you?)    For all of Jason's links, check him out here: https://direct.me/sharepointjr 

Would it be February without Office Explorers taking a look at SharePoint? No, it would not! Taylor and Rob have a great conversation with MBG's Trey Smith, who was there when it all began; SharePoint-edly speaking, that is. There's SharePoint-related news and some great post-interview analysis. Links from the episode:   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-file-request-f54aa7f8-2589-4421-b351-d415fc3b83af  

Taylor and Rob start the new year off with a topic they haven't covered in a minute (or several): Microsoft Viva. MBG Expert Andrew Glasser brings us up to speed on what's new, what's improved, and an anecdote or two about the early days of what would become Viva. As always your hosts bring you the Microsoft 365 News you need, and some after-the-interview analysis to help put things into perspective. Links from the episode: The Jeff Teper Tweet Andrew Glasser on Twitter Andrew Glasser on LinkedIn

This month Taylor and Rob dive back into a topic they first covered a year ago, Dynamics 365. This time they talk Business Apps with the MBG's own expert Hector Konomi (LinkedIn). They also discuss a fun Viva Topics development, extol the virtues of the Microsoft WhiteBoard Mobile App, and as always share some Microsoft 365 news!

Taylor and Rob offer up some great M365 news related to Excel and renaming your tenant, wave goodbye (again) to IE11, and give a shout out to friend of the pod Jason Rivera. All this before sitting down with Nidhi K. to wrap our heads around Azure DevOps with Github. Links from this month's episode: Change your SharePoint domain name - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn Community Days | M365 Philly Virtual 2022

Just like last year, we're dedicating our entire episode this month to covering and contextualizing all the information that came out from Microsoft's Ignite conference. Taylor and Rob recount what stood out for them and then they sit down with the MBG's Reed Wiedower (@CTO_Reed). Reed offers a master class in Ignite 2022. Stick around after the interview for Rob and Taylor's post-conversation thoughts! Links from the episode: The Ignite 2022 Book of News Gartner Study 

We're back! After taking off August to recharge our batteries and poke under the pod's hood, September's episode features some fine tweaks to our format that we think will make the show even better. In the news, Taylor has some exciting MS Teams updates while Rob talks about the new Microsoft Learn platform. After that, stick around for a conversation on Intune with the MBG's own Ahmed Mohamed.   For more information about Meeting effectiveness in Viva Insights: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/viva/insights/org-team-insights/meeting-effectiveness For more on Microsoft Learn, visit: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-learn-blog/build-skills-that-open-doors-with-microsoft-learn/ba-p/3614011 For more on how the MBG can help you with Intune, visit: Windows & Intune | Cognizant Microsoft Business Group

This month, Taylor and Rob offer up a nice PowerShell tip and a heads-up on a change coming to Microsoft Teams before diving into a great conversation with Michele K from the MBG on Modern Forms in M365. We get historical before bringing you back to the latest (and greatest, of course) in Forms tech to help you make the best choice for your users. Also, as promised, here are the links mentioned in the episode: Working with Cascading Lists in SharePoint and Power Apps | Microsoft Docs Enable Q&A in Meeting Options.docx - Microsoft Word Online (live.com) Merill Fernando •

This month Taylor and Rob share some great M365 News and then sit down to talk M365 Security with Christian Jacobs. As promised in the episode, here's the link to Microsoft Defender: https://aka.ms/M365Defender-InteractiveGuide

Taylor and Rob bring you some timely Microsoft 365 news, the deal with PowerApps in Teams with MBG expert Sabrina, and an excellent OneNote tip that might just blow your mind.

It's the secret ingredient that takes SharePoint (and Teams and Viva) from good to Wow! That's right, this month we're talking about the SharePoint Framework - or SPFx if you're in the know - which you will be after listening to this episode! Rob and Taylor have some important news w/r/t IE11's swan song and everyone's friend OneDrive for Business, but the real fun begins when guest Jason Rivera shares his knowledge about SPFx with the team ... and you! Once you listen to the episode, check back here and read Jason's excellent blog post: https://sharepointlessons.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/hello-sharepoint-framework-spfx/  

Dropping into your podcast app just in time for some weekend listening! Rob and Taylor come back to a topic that hadn't been a focus of the podcast for [checks notes] no, really? 3 years? It's time to talk Teams again, friends. Join your hosts as they sit down with the MBG's Zack Marinelli to talk about where Teams has been and where it's going and stick around to say bon voyage to great friend of the show.

It's that time of year again. Taylor and Rob are joined by The MBG's Oliver Bartholdson for what's become an annual tradition: The February SharePoint Episode! Come on in and see what has Oliver (and the Office Explorers team) excited about SharePoint this year.

Usually we bring you a conversation with an MBG expert about M365 tech and the possibilities of that tech. This month, Taylor and Rob bring you the latest news AND a conversation. This time with a twist! The MBG's Will, Peter, and Omar discuss the Managed Azure Cost Optimization process. If you want to know more about MACO, check out MBG's Website or get in touch.

This month Taylor and Rob go where they have not gone before - into the world of Dynamics 365. Luckily the MBG has experts to guide them! Join the Office Explorers for some long-awaited news and a dip into the history and context of Dynamics 365 with David, Jeff, and Doug. Like Rob and Taylor, does this episode make you hungry for more info on D365? Let us know!

When we saw all the amazing new things announced at Microsoft Ignite at the top of the month, we promptly ditched our plans for November and pivoted to cover the event. Max and Rob sit down with CMBG's CTO, Reed Wiedower, to discuss the latest and greatest for M365 from Ignite!

You're absolutely going to find something of value in this month's episode as Taylor, Max, and Rob (mostly Taylor) run down some great features in Microsoft Word, everyone's favorite Word Processing software. In the news: Co-authoring and Autosave for highly-restricted environments and Windows 11 is out in the world!

This month Rob and Taylor team up to tackle PowerShell with the help of Cognizant MBG's resident expert, Jason R. Don't skip the news segment - there's some important information w/r/t Silverlight, and more!

Microsoft's Azure platform covers a lot of tools and features. This month Taylor and Rob take a look at Azure Files, which might just be the cloud-based file storage solution you've been looking for. Is it? Listen to our conversation with the MBG's Azure Files expert James Cragle to find out! Taylor and Rob also offer up some news for Microsoft-using Apple Aficionados as well as those of us who think a good time includes checking out the M365 Roadmap (us, it's us).

Microsoft loves to drop mind-blowing cloud-focused new tools and features on us these days, and this month is no different! This month Max and Rob give you the bullet on Windows 365 and the first release of Fluid Framework tools before we dive into the world of Power Bi. If you're a fan of data analysis in Excel, including charts, graphs, and pivot tables, then listen up and get ready to supercharge your analyses!

This month Rob and Taylor go back to Yammer, because a lot has changed since we last spoke with our Yammer Expert, Brian Holness! We lead off with some Yammer/SharePoint and Microsoft Lists news before really getting into it with Brian. Come for the latest, stick around to discover what's new in Yammer - and how it fits in your organization, if you were wondering.

This month Max and Rob sit down with the MBG's own Tyler Biddle to talk PowerApps. We discuss the different kinds of PowerApps you can create, exactly how much code does "No Code/Low Code" mean, and what is Dataverse, anyway? Don't forget to rate, review, and share the podcast, and if you have any comments or requests for episode topics, you can reach us on Twitter, @OfficeExplorers

We're back in a big way this month! New co-hosts Taylor and Max join Rob to share some M365 news items and then they dive into Microsoft Viva with Cognizant MBG's own Varol Saatcioglu. Welcome Taylor and Max with a review, or a shout-out on Twitter, we're @OfficeExplorers. For more show notes, visit https://MBG.Cognizant.com and click on "Articles."

Another month with Rob soloing the hosting duties, and this month there's no guest - Rob is hot off a Power Automate project and shares his knowledge of the platform in an overview that gives you what you need to know to orient yourself before you dive into the world of templates and Flows and connectors and actions. So set an automatic trigger to play this podcast whenever a new episode hits your feed - it's time for another Office Explorers.

We're Back! Well, I'm back - Rob, that is. Kat has moved on to a new adventure and I couldn't be happier for her. This month, we learn that New Signature is now Cognizant Microsoft Business Group, The SharePoint App Bar is coming, Microsoft Viva is the Next Big Thing, and friend of the podcast Oliver Bartholdson returns to discuss how SharePoint Syntex is AI that works for you. I'll be back every month like before with a new episode, and keep listening, because the search is on for a successor to Kat.

This month we give you some updates on new Microsoft Teams features before diving into a great conversation on Dev Ops (both the philosophy and the Azure platform) with our resident expert, Chris Ayers.

This month we do a high-level review of some of the new features announced at Ignite - don't forget to check out the Book of News! Our guest, Shefali also gives us some overviews of the three main pillars of Power Platform - Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power BI!

This month we have a lot of great updates! News about the new names for DataFlex, the retirement of the notiifcation bell, and the final days for Skype and SharePoint Workflows.  Our Yammer enthusiast, Brian joined us from the UK to talk about the new features and functionality that bring Yammer much closer to the other 365 applications and through inclusivity and organic discovery bring you and your colleagues together too!

This month we're doing our bi-yearly Tip show, and that includes a TON of news from Microsoft's Digital Inspire conference last week including DataFlex, Lists, Teams, and Onedrive updates and changes! Our protips this episode focus on Teams etiquette, Web Apps, Outlook, Word, and Stream!

This Month we cover an often overlooked application that has saved our files many times - OneDrive for Business! We also have even MORE Teams announcements and some PowerPoint tricks to keep you trying new things and seeing more people.

One of our first guests, Jim B, returns to talk to us about working from home and how to protect your data wherever you are! We also chat about some new announcements coming to the SharePoint Mover Tool, Yammer, and more!

This month we talk to one of our PMs from a previous Episode, Sylvia about her love of Excel and how it can help you in so many facets of your work life as well as your home life! We've also got some fun news stories about upcoming features in Teams and SharePoint for you! Don't panic - we try to keep it at a reasonable nerd level.

This month we take a moment to talk about which application in Office 365 you should use for different scenarios! It's also a little longer because we threw a whole slew of Teleworking productivity tips in there for those of you who are doing more of that lately. Stay safe out there, explorers!

This month we welcome back Oliver to talk [read: nerd out] about what you need to think about when changing from Classic SharePoint to Modern and some of the things you should think about. We also talk about some new features in Office and SharePoint, so stay tuned for those productivity tips!

This month we're diving deep into the engine behind the emails in your Outlook! We have our expert in Exchange Online, Genady Kaplon here to tell us more about how it all works and fits together. Also, we talk about some news with Siri and the Fluid Framework!

Back by popular demand - and because we may be addicted to productivity, we have another episode of just productivity tips! So grab your holiday wrapping or your baked goods and settle in for some great things to try in the new year as well as some you may have heard in our previous episodes!

Just in time for the thanksgiving holidays, our anniversary episode has an extra helping of interviews for you! International Project Manager Appreciation day was earlier this month, so we wanted to focus on thanking some of our PMs and asking them how they stay on top of everything they do! We also talk a little about Cortana and SharePoint news, and our shiny new twitter account! @Us @OfficeExplorers!

If you're like us and have a ton of tabs from Microsoft's Ignite conference last week, never fear! We pulled 10 of our favorite announcements to share with you in a special bonus episode. We talk SharePoint, Teams, Azure Arc and more!

This Month is Cyber Security Awareness Month, so we did a webinar on managing security and compliance in Office 365. This episode is a recording of that webinar, with a few extra treats along the way. In keeping with the Halloween season, it is filled with thrills and chills – but, more importantly, information and awareness to keep your fears at bay. Happy Halloween!

We've tried to hold it back, but our love for the core Office Apps in O365 cannot be denied. We are joined by our Office Expert Peter Day to talk about the applications that people use every day! We also talk Dark Mode (because what isn't dark mode after this month?), our upcoming Webinar on Security, the retirement of Upload Center, Sketch Effects in PowerPoint, and more!

There are so many ways to stay on top of your tasks and communicate deadlines with your teams, but have you tried Planner? Our expert, Ryan Marie Yaegle will talk you through some ways Planner stands out from the others to keep you productive and how to get started!

Want to catch up with all the productivity tips from our previous episodes? This is the episode for you! PLUS, Rob and I add our own productivity tips for Outlook and your Office applications to help you get even more done so you can do more of what you want to be doing. 

This month we talk about some of the exciting news coming out of SharePoint Conference 2019 and give you a high-level overview of Azure by interviewing our SME Evan! Azure hope you tell your friends!

This episode, Rob and Kat get to yammer about.. Yammer! There may be more to this Enterprise Social Network than you think! We also have a lot of exciting news stories to share so get ready for a (slightly) longer one!

In this episode, we discuss some of the interesting news and changes in SharePoint Modern and the Office 365 connections from outside of Microsoft, and then get to ask our expert Jon about PowerApps!

This month we are talking to Ella about the various options for securing your information and cutting down on those unwanted emails using O365 Security features! There are so many! We also talk to you about Microsoft Project Zipline and new Connected Web Parts in Modern SharePoint!

On this episode, we do a very general look at what makes SharePoint Online great with Oliver Bartholdson, with a sprinkling of Microsoft news on top!

It's a new year, and with that a new you! We've put together some tips and tricks to help you navigate Windows 10 and your Microsoft Applications faster and more efficiently. Special thanks to Varol Saatcioglu, Peter Day, Dom Allen, and Sami Rashid for the tips they submitted on Yammer! And don't forget, all these tips are available in written form on our blog post at NewSignature.com/blog!