28May2021
02Apr2021
Moving to Microsoft 365 means getting to know your data (and your business)
Through my website's contact form, I still hear about botched migrations to Microsoft 365 on a regular basis. This is usually due to exactly one problem: ignorance about the process, as well as ignorance about the datasets being migrated, as well as ignorance about the various tools that we have...
02Nov2020
The “Five Rules of Fields” for File Server Migrations to Microsoft 365
What a fun tongue twister, and such a practical resource that I am excited to share with you today! Well, actually a lot of this information you might have already gleaned by following my past posts about file server migration. But I still find that when I consult with folks...
04Aug2020
A Brief History of Collaboration and Governance
I have slowly been converting people to the "modern collaboration mindset" during the past couple of years through my op-ed style of writing. I think you can appreciate that changing minds through writing is something which rarely if ever happens in areas like politics, but it turns out this can...
07Jul2020
Yes, you really can let go: Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams creation policy, revisited
I have to laugh because this is still such a seemingly controversial idea. "Should users be allowed to create their own Teams?" I have written about this topic many times before, but I still get the best comments about it from non-believers. The real issue is that these folks have...
08Apr2020
Updated! Checklist co-developed with Microsoft: Set up your SMB customers for secure remote working
I had the great pleasure to participate in a webinar today with David Bjurman-Birr (Partner Architect) and Jon Orton (Director of Product Marketing for Microsoft 365 SMB). David and I recently developed a checklist together for Microsoft 365 Business Premium, aimed at helping partners who work in the SMB space...
04Feb2020
How to customize permissions in Teams
Okay, I admit: the title of this post was a bit of trickery on my part. But it is based on the fact that I run into this question constantly. Customers or readers who write to me will phrase it in different ways, but it always boils down to this:...
21Jan2020
Understanding file server migrations to Microsoft 365
In my opinion, there is only one viable migration path to move data from old file servers to Microsoft 365: it has to be a user-engaged migration. IT people always ask me about tools--stuff like the SharePoint migration tool or Microsoft's recent acquisition of mover.io, and there are even fancier...
07Jan2020
In preview now: A simpler protection framework for Teams and other Group-connected SharePoint sites
Microsoft has previously published a framework for protecting Teams. There is another very much like it for SharePoint. The goal was to create some recommendations that "balance security with ease of collaboration." Image credit: Microsoft It is a fine balance indeed. The most interesting feature of this framework is that Microsoft...
28Dec2019