Author: Duane Odum

Office 365, SharePoint Online

External Users Access Change in Office 365

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Duane OdumIf you receive the Office 365 Message Center Update Notifications you know that it’s rare to see a “Major Update Notification” that you must act upon quickly, but that is exactly what we received on Saturday February 24th. Starting on March 23, 2018 external users will no longer belong to the following groups in SharePoint Online: Everyone, All Authenticated Users and All Forms Users.  While this does not directly impact any of the Office 365 customers we are engaged with on a regular basis I am sure it will impact some organizations in a major way.

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Microsoft, MS Certification, SharePoint 2016

Microsoft Recertification Redux

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To be clear, Microsoft isn’t certifying folks on the Redux JS library, at least not yet. The title of this article refers to the literary term redux, loosely meaning “restored”.  If you are reading this you likely know that Microsoft overhauled their certification process. Duane OdumThis was the first time I had to recertify since those changes went into effect and a lot of folks were inquiring about the experience.  So, without further ado…

Microsoft provides an overview of the certifications available for individuals to prove their expertise. However, if your organization is a Microsoft Partner you are probably going to be asked to take exams based on your organizations existing competency needs.  If you really want to go down that rabbit hole feel free to do so by checking out the Competency Partners information but this posts intent is to provide an overview of my thoughts of my first recertification under the new criteria. Continue reading “Microsoft Recertification Redux” →

Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint Online

Connecting Existing Sites to Office 365 Groups…Kind of

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One of the big announcements from the SharePoint conference in May was Microsoft planning to allow the connection of existing Team Sites to Office 365 Groups.  This was also championed at Ignite a few weeks ago and Microsoft even put out some more specific guidance on this in the Work better together with SharePoint Team Sites Office 365 App Integrations post by Mark Kashman. Roughly 1/3 of the way down the page there is a heading titled Connect an existing SharePoint team site to a new Office 365 group that details out exactly what we will need to do.  This is awesome, we can take advantage of all the benefits of Office 365 groups for our existing team sites…not so fast. Continue reading “Connecting Existing Sites to Office 365 Groups…Kind of” →

Microsoft, Office 365, SharePoint Online, Uncategorized

Office 365 Collaboration Confusion

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A couple weeks ago, Microsoft held their annual Ignite conference and I would usually be blogging about all the cool new things coming to Office 365. This year has been a bit a different experience altogether, not for a lack of features announced from Microsoft though…there were plenty of awesome new features announced. We’ve spent the past couple weeks fielding questions on Office 365 from existing customers and folks looking to make the move or at least understand the options available.

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Microsoft, Professional Development

Become a Microsoft Teams MVP

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Duane OdumAre you an active member of the Microsoft Teams community who interested in being recognized for your contributions and commitment? Microsoft wants you to become a part of the MVP program.

Microsoft describes MVPs as “technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community…and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies. They have a very deep knowledge of Microsoft products and services, while also being able to bring together diverse platforms, products, and solutions to solve real world problems.”

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SharePoint

Duplicated Display Name in SharePoint People Picker

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Duane OdumIssue

A user at one of my clients had two active accounts being synced in the User Profile Service with the same Display Name.  This was causing problems when using the People Picker option as there was no way for a user to distinguish between the two accounts.  If the wrong account was selected the 3rd party solution  that is deployed in their SharePoint 2013 environment (not ours) fails to execute all processes but does so “silently”.

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Microsoft, Tech News

The 411 on Microsoft 365

by Duane Odum1 Comment on The 411 on Microsoft 365

Duane OdumEarlier this week at Microsoft’s Inspire conference, CEO Satya Nadella announced the release of Microsoft 365, an solution that bundles Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. The service offers two routes: Enterprise (for larger organizations) and Business (for small to mid-size businesses).  Both plans will be available for purchase in early August.

In a blog post, Kirk Koenigsbauer, VP of the Office team, describes Microsoft 365 as “a complete, intelligent and secure solution to empower employees…to be creative and work together, securely.”

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