Podcasts about modality systems

UC Today's Rob Scott hosts Tom Arbuthnot from Modality Systems, Martina Grom from atwork and Amy Dolzine, EY.

Tom Arbuthnot, Microsoft MVP and Principal Solutions Architect at Microsoft Collaboration specialists Modality Systems, joins us to discuss the common user challenges associated with Microsoft Teams and the strategies to help your users avoid them. We cover when to use chat and when to use a team, how to manage team creation and lifecycle, when to use a team and when to use SharePoint, how to manage your data in Teams, how to find information faster within Teams, and actionable steps you can take right now to make the most of your Microsoft 365 investment.

Our first ever podcast where we meet Tom Arbuthnot, Microsoft MVP and Principal Consultant at Modality Systems. Tom is a blogger and vlogger at www.tomtalks.blog, as well as a Principal Consultant at Modality Systems. He has a focus on Microsoft Teams and Unified Communications, and his advice involves building a mindset for training and change, identifying at what point to specialise and become less specialist, and that a solid presence on LinkedIn and social media is a great way to help develop your career. We hope you enjoy it!

I spoke with Tom Scott from Modality Systems about using Microsoft Teams in healthcare, how COVID-19 has changed things, and what the future holds. Audio version of a video on YouTube.

In the first of what I'm hoping might become a regular series, I sit down with Lyndsay Ansell, Customer Success Manager at Modality Systems. However, we're not talking about products or technology. We're talking about how working at home all the time is hard, and ways we've found to cope with that. This is a non-technical chat, but I think it's hugely valuable to everyone. It's really important to look after yourself and understand what's working and what's not, especially at the moment. I found it really useful to talk through these ideas with Lyndsay and I hope you will do.

UC Today's Rob Scott hosts Anne Marie Ginn, Head of Video Collaboration for Logitech AND Tom Arbuthnot Microsoft MVP and UC Solutions Architect at Modality Systems.

Our monthly Microsoft update with expert guest and Microsoft MVP, Tom Arbuthnot of Modality Systems

Our monthly Microsoft update with expert guest and Microsoft MVP, Tom Arbuthnot of Modality Systems

Episode 45 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft RD and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and Tom Morgan (@tomorgan), a product innovation architect with Modality Systems in the UK, and an Office Apps & Services MVP. Recorded in March 2019. In this interview, Tom and I talk about the state of development on the Microsoft Teams platform, and the evolution of building integrations and productivity solutions within the Office 365 ecosystem. You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/AUai8VRZj3Y

Episode 4 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft MVP's Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and Tom Arbuthnot (@tomarbuthnot), Principal Solutions Architect at Modality Systems, and a Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) as well as an Office Apps & Services MVP. In this interview, we discuss Microsoft evolving messaging around 'Intelligent Communications' and its impact on Skype, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. Recorded at Microsoft Studios in Redmond, Washington in March 2018.

A special episode bringing you a bit more of our fascinating conversation with Justin Morris, because despite being overscheduled with amazing content for our regular fortnightly show for the next few weeks, we really wanted to look beyond the whole ‘Ethical Walls’ story to explore Justin’s work at Modality Systems, and his unique overview of online collaboration. Justin and his colleagues help people provision and adopt MSTeams, so that they get the most out of it, and transition to the new more collaborative space which MSTeams represents. It’s fundamentally a change management process, with a data-driven approach to successfully drive adoption. Indeed the level of tracking and data available within MSTeams is surprising, but as Pilar pointed out this could be perceived as over-intrusive surveillance. Justin explains that these analytics are also available to the user, and as such provide a lot of insight into how we manage our time and productivity. If we can make the fundamental mindset shift from suspecting surveillance to welcoming analysis, it helps to remind us that the data (and the technology which reveals it) is intrinsically neutral… how organisations and individuals use it, is what adds the nuance and intent.  The MSTeams set-up is versatile and flexible, to take account of organisational culture, individual preference, and even local regulation and legislation. But as Justin points out, many people are simply unaware of the trail of data breadcrumbs they leave behind in all online interactions, professionally and personally. Simply staying abreast of the latest updates, conversations and issues in Microsoft Teams and the digital workplace space is a full time job, but it enables Justin’s unique perspective on the needs and expectations of different organisations and teams - and their level of maturity in respect of the collaboration space, internally and externally (there’s lots more on this in episode 191 with Matt Ballantine and his fantastic cheat sheet https://www.virtualnotdistant.com/podcasts/collaboration-in-organisations) Today’s conversation also explores attention and the role of video in the online space: how engaged are participants in video vs audio meetings, and the way some people are still defaulting to what is familiar, rather than exploring what the technology can do. The opposing point of view of a youtuber and a podcaster make for an interesting contrast! And serve to remind us all of the sheer versatility of online team communications today… audio, video, text, multimedia, which do you prefer, when, and for what purpose?  Justin and Pilar first connected when he answered her written question with a quick video, which also had the effect of making that interaction public for a wider audience. (You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/KHq6k1xuxqI ) Justin is a big social media fan - well, he did meet his wife on Twitter, which was a new one for us! So connect with him @justimorris, or digitalteamwork.tv for his videos.

Nearly 200 episodes in, we have seen plenty of our own transformations both at Virtual Not Distant and the 21st Century Work Life podcast - and today we explore how organisations are adapting and changing, as the digital landscape does the same. First, a quick follow up from previous episodes - we found this great article about one of our frequently-used collaboration hubs, so make sure you check this out: 30 incredibly useful things you didn’t know Slack could do. And Pilar has been tweeting a lot lately, which was how she connected with today’s guest Euan Semple via his book Organisations Don’t Tweet, People Do. Within this book she found many resonant quotes, including “where possible sharing as much as you can when you are able to do so means that people are more likely to respect you when you say you cannot share some information,” and “Blogging can help people to understand themselves and their work better and by doing so help them to change at a profound and fundamental level” - these words were written in 2013, but resonate so well with our visible teamwork approach in 2019! Do look out for our anniversary episode up next, where we celebrate 200 podcast episode by exploring celebrations in remote teams! And look out for a special offer just for our listeners then. 09.55 21st Century Work Life: Euan Semple, author and speaker on the impact of technology at work Euan has been blogging for 18 years, and shares his words on LinkedIn, Facebook and Medium. He started blogging as a ‘memo to himself’ about the impact of technology at work, but found it resonating with a wider audience. Back in the day you had to know how to use Moveable Type in order to blog, but much has changed in the blogging world, and Euan’s career has spanned most platforms in this fast-moving landscape’s history! He now writes and speaks globally on the impact of digital transformation in the workplace. As Euan says, "It's easier to digitise our dysfunctions than to deal with them." Sometimes we need to fix things at a more fundamental level, before trying to find the right app and fix the tech, and you can’t simply leave it to the IT department to sort out organisational issues.  Consumer technology preferences are very personal but organisations make broader choices, and Euan talks about ‘shadow IT’ and how fragmented the work IT landscape has become, with individuals and teams going around official procedures to get things done, and the unforeseen consequences of change. Many users too are struggling to keep up, it’s not generational, it’s about individual transformation and development, and lots of organisations don’t help people enough - then limit the extent to which they can take initiative for themselves.  Euan’s work at the BBC has exposed him to a wide range of platforms and apps and the way they are marketed and implemented, and finds it unsurprising that people sometimes buy overpriced and over-engineered systems and then try to fit the organisation to the platform instead of the other way around. An ecosystem approach empowers the user and the organisation, putting the tech in its proper place - and we usually get this right more often in personal tech than at work, where we don’t like to question the way things are done. Hierarchies are inevitable in organisations, but decentralisation is an important trend, and designing that ecosystem requires input from those actually using it, a group which may be forever in flux anyway. Euan likes the phrase ‘an ephemeral meritocracy’ - power and influence in organisations should be relevant and timely, rather than acquired for all time. Changemakers can come from anywhere, and any level. Embracing the advantages of remote work and digital collaboration can also be overlooked, such as the effectiveness of online communication in overcoming introversion and social anxiety. The online conversation can become very polarised, but, it can also be enlightening and amazing, representing the very best of human nature. And we’re all fully rounded human beings with more to us than our online personas… which is why Euan also drives trucks as a sideline (while listening to podcasts and generating creative ideas of course) - giving him a different perspective on roles and authority and collaboration for sure. Ever an optimist, Euan likes to leave people with a sense of infinite possibility - there are opportunities everywhere, so grasp them while we can!  So do connect with euansemple.com, @euan on twitter (a handle that length is proof of an early adopter!)   42.49 What do you mean by that? Ethical Walls We spoke to Justin Morris, global strategy director of Modality Systems, to explain this idea: Sometimes in business there can be conflicts of interest when two parts of an organisation talk to one another, and this might apply particularly in highly regulated industries. This might have been managed physically in the past - such as by keycard access. Now this phenomenon is mirrored in the online workspace in Microsoft Teams, where information barriers called ‘ethical walls’ can be inserted, to stop specific teams and individuals communicating with each other. Pilar’s initial reaction to this update was instinctively negative - what about trust, integrity..? However as Justin points out in this conversation, there are very real compliance needs in many circumstances, to avoid possibilities of breaches like insider trading or client confidentiality, and organisations have to be able to demonstrate they have addressed the problem structurally to the best of reasonable ability.  The flatter hierarchies that Euan talked about above can over-facilitate conversations which are not appropriate to specific kinds of highly regulated work. Creating a trustless environment actually protects the individuals as well, both from temptation and easy accusations - while such barriers can presumably be circumvented, this would have to be deliberate and overt. Look out for a bonus episode with Justin shortly for more on this subject, and meanwhile you can connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn, and his website Digitalteamwork.tv   49.33 Wellbeing: Beyond work-life balance Knowledge workers have so many tools and devices, it can be difficult to disconnect and unplug. It was easier when we could leave it all behind in the office, as we did a generation ago. But do we feed that always-on mentality, and risk becoming addicted to our continual conversation with and about work? Does it make us feel valued and connected? How easy do you find it to avoid checking your phone in the evenings or at the weekend? Are you the master of your alerts - or is it the other way around? Everyone finds their own preferred balance, but you need to decide for yourself and be intentional about it, instead of letting default notification settings or the expectations of collaborators dictate what you are thinking about and dealing with in your own time? We need to talk about how we feel as well as what we think, and be conscious about our boundaries. Don't forget to check out Virtual Not Distant, for our newsletter, blog and services, if you enjoyed this podcast.

The start of 2019 has been incredibly busy when it comes to Microsoft Teams news! Usual expert guest Tom Arbuthnot covers off all the main headlines including a new certified SBC, custom Microsoft Teams devices, Teams support for Safari browsing and bespoke industry vertical Team's templates. As well as discussing all the news items Patrick and Tom also look at the migration timeline for the transition from Skype for Business to Teams. Many people are asking about the deadline date for migration and although there is no definite date set the guys speculate on what the timeline might look like over the next few years.

2018 was a big year for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business and 2019 promises to be even bigger! To kick off 2019 Patrick and Tom run through all of the latest news items for the platforms. There are some new patches for Skype for Business Server but there are loads more updates for Teams. Microsoft are placing more of a focus on adding specific functions that will make Teams even more suitable for different industry verticals like retail or education. As well as focus areas Microsoft have also now made Teams part of the default installation options on Office 365 Business. Finally the pod discuss the latest pieces of Microsoft Teams hardware that are now available like the range of IP devices.

Deploying a new communication or collaboration system across a business is undoubtedly a huge undertaking. How can you be sure your network is capable of successfully managing the traffic required? Today we look a tool from the experts at Modality Systems which can enable businesses to ensure their network environment is ready for such a large system change. Their Impact Assessment is specifically designed to test customer networks prior to deployment to mitigate any potential risk when a Microsoft Skype for Business or Teams project is initiated.

Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular collaboration platforms on the planet. We wanted to understand more about how it's growing with customers on a global scale. Modality Systems is the world’s largest Microsoft communications practice so they are perfectly placed to explain more about how Teams is being deployed and used by their customers. They join the UC Today team for a group discussion focusing on Microsoft Teams on the frontline in terms of deployment and the most critical factor, adoption.

Arguably the two biggest collaboration platforms on the planet are Microsoft Teams and Cisco Spark. We decided it was time for an evaluation of the two proposals. Out Loud brings you debate from two expert guests who will provide contrasting viewpoints from both perspectives. We discuss the history of both Spark and Teams and then compare and contrast their respective features.

Arguably the two biggest collaboration platforms on the planet are Microsoft Teams and Cisco Spark. We decided it was time for an evaluation of the two proposals. Out Loud brings you debate from two expert guests who will provide contrasting viewpoints from both perspectives. We discuss the history of both Spark and Teams and then compare and contrast their respective features.