SharePoint Server 2016 is available today. If you’ve been evaluating the IT Preview and later releases since August, you’re aware of foundational updates we’ve made to SharePoint Server. For SharePoint admins this means improved provisioning and update management, new compliance tools to protect data and hybrid architectural options to link SharePoint Server 2016 with Exchange Server 2016 and Office 365. With today’s release, we’ve added a number of new capabilities based on your feedback.
In this demonstration, Bill Baer from the SharePoint team highlights what’s been added since January’s Release Candidate; Durable Links to ensure file links work even if you rename or change the location of a file, new admin experiences and the most recent additions for configuring hybrid solutions with Office 365 services.
Those are just highlights of what’s new. To learn more, check out the reviewer’s guide or download and evaluate SharePoint Server 2016.
Please join us May 4, 2016 for a live online event to see and hear more about SharePoint Server 2016. Jeff Teper, CVP for OneDrive and SharePoint, will present the vision and roadmap for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business, both on-premises and in the cloud with Office 365. Following the keynote will be a number of sessions detailing what’s new and noteworthy for admins, developers and users—along with sneak peek demos of what’s coming—be sure to register today.
Getting work done often requires working not only within the company boundaries but also working beyond the firewall with business contacts who do not fall within your corporate domain. We’ve been hard at work to enhance the external sharing user experience so that sharing is more and more friction free, for both users and admins.
As such, we’ve made the following improvements to SharePoint Online and Office 365:
Get a link: create anonymous Guest Links in one click within
the Office 365 user interface.
Members can share: enable site members to invite external users, not
just the site collection owner.
All invitees on same
email To line: start a collaborative email with *everyone* when sharing a site or document.
These new external sharing updates are rolling out live worldwide right now.
Let’s dive into the details.
Get a link
It’s now possible, in one click, to generate a Guest Link (either a View Only or Edit anonymous link to a document) directly from your SkyDrive Pro and your SharePoint Online document libraries’ user interface. You click, copy and paste, and go. And when you no longer want the Guest Link to be active, you can disable it at any time from the document’s same Share dialog box.
The External Sharing dialog box now has a merged Invite people tab, a Get a link tab and a Shared with tab, so all the ways to share are in one place.
Members can share
Much of SharePoint Online and Office 365 is about administration delegation: empowering others to make the right business decisions, paired with giving them the right levels of control. Site collection admins can now allow members of the site to send a sharing invitation-both internal and external-without requiring the site collection admin to first approve/reject the invitation request. This removes a common barrier to sharing while enabling finer grain control per your preferred governance and productivity plans.
We’ve made it easier to notify all recipients at the same time, on the same email. Now, when you share with multiple people via the sharing dialog box in SharePoint Online, a single email message is sent to everyone you shared with-with you included on the Cc line-rather than sending a separate email to each recipient. Note: external email addresses typed in the people picker will still send individual external invitations, because external invitees need unique invitation links that properly route them through the external sharing process associated with Microsoft Account.
From the Share dialog box in SharePoint Online, you can share with multiple recipients with a single email message. Email recipients see all invitees on the To line.
Start sharing
Whether you’re collaborating with employees, customers, partners or suppliers, we hope the new set of external sharing enhancements helps you work more efficiently, delegate effectively, and collaborate.
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World Animal Protection is an international animal welfare organization that has been in operation for over 30 years. To help end animal cruelty, it provides aid, education, and government outreach support. Effective, reliable, cost-conscious back-office solutions ensure their resources are used efficiently and they can focus on maximizing their charitable work around the globe.
To make the most of its resources, World Animal Protection streamlined its management of global finances, operations, and sponsorships. Planning, managing, reporting, and delivering support in an efficient and consistent way across their global operations enables them to concentrate their efforts on maximizing their impact on animal protection. World Animal Protection uses a combination of efficient processes and reliable tools to ensure efficient and compassionate resource delivery.
1. Be accountable to supporters
Transparency regarding financial sourcing and decision-making is key to a healthy ongoing relationship with supporters and funders. The right technology and business solutions can help make that happen.
2. For better aid, improve visibility
Seek to provide better visibility into donors, budgets, and projects. This practice helps World Animal Protection ensure that funds are being properly managed, as they continue to flow in, and that those funds are largely used to help animals across the globe instead of being consumed by unrestrained administrative costs.
3. Choose tools and processes that support your mission
World Animal Protection has consolidated geographically disparate finance and operations processes, and no longer relies on a disconnected collection of spreadsheets to manage its work. Now they have a complete, trusted, and connected network of processes and workflows, supported by a framework of reliable and cost-efficient software solutions - including Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft Office 365.
4. Understand the concerns and history of key players
Serving stakeholders across the globe with consistency requires a mindful approach and a firm grasp of the history of your organization’s relationship with them. Find the right tools to keep track of historical information and put them to use. World Animal Protection uses Microsoft solutions to better understand and engage with supporters, stakeholders, and sponsors, without compromising security or personal data.
5. Get out of the office and into the field
Don’t spend all your time in the office, miles away from the people and projects you are working to support. Take the time up front to establish tools and processes that keep things running when you are in the field, doing the really important work.
Read customer success stories to learn how Managed Solution helps businesses implement technology productivity solutions.
For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691.
WEBCAST: Consume it! Revive and Boost Productivity by Deploying Assets you Already Own.
Enjoy this ON DEMAND WEBCAST on Skype for Business and SharePoint - hosted by Managed Solution and Microsoft featuring best practices, resources and great business stories that all transpired from companies simply deploying and driving adoption on the cutting edge productivity tools they already own. Look at how deploying Skype for Business and SharePoint specifically can meld with the tools staffers have already adopted to boost productivity, output and morale!
Presenter: Sean Ferrel, President and CEO, Managed Solution Guest Speaker: Jason Collier, Beta Engineer, Skype for Business
Jason Collier is a member of the Beta Technical Services team for Skype for Business at Microsoft. With his extensive background and experience, Jason is frequently requested to speak conferences on a range of topics including Skype Meeting Broadcast, Lync Phone Edition, Enhanced 911 and more. In his current role, Jason provides support to customers utilizing Skype for Business on-premises and Skype for Business Online offerings prior to release. His main area of focus is Skype Meeting Broadcast, PSTN conferencing, iOS and the new Mac client.
Presented by: Microsoft & Managed Solution
Wednesdays with Will: Microsoft Dynamics CRM & Office 365 – Working In Perfect Harmony
By William Marchesano, Technology Advisor & Evangelist
Welcome back! Last week we talked about the recent expansion in Office 365 to include Dynamics CRM. This week we are going to discuss how you can enhance your experience in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with Microsoft Office 365. Separately, they work well as standalone solutions, solving different day-to-day challenges. Put them together, though, and you have managed to enhance both of these valuable business tools for the user as well as the administrator.
Over the past 3-4 years there has been prevailing sentiment for businesses to move to Microsoft Office 365. The most common, and logical, starting point for an organization would be their email (Exchange). Gone are the days where you have to buy new server hardware every few years, allocate the space in your office for said hardware, buy new software to upgrade, and pay for an anti-spam solution to keep you safe. Oh, and let’s not forget the maintenance that goes along with keeping it running in good order. All the above challenges have been either eliminated or reduced by Office 365 Exchange Online. There are also other parts to the solution such as file sharing (SharePoint/OneDrive), video conferencing (Skype For Business), crowdsourced collaboration (Yammer), and the tried and true Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) that can be consumed through Office 365 as well.
As you know, much like Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online is also a platform that was designed to improve efficiencies in accomplishing daily tasks as well as enhance collaboration between your employees. In addition to that, Dynamics CRM is a process driven user experience tool that gathers analytics for business intelligence. These qualities are important when you are looking to implement a sales automation, marketing automation, or services automation solution for your organization. Dynamics CRM was designed to be used for these functions out-of-the-box. Yes, customization is required to make it hum along to the rhythm of your particular business but all the major pieces to make it work are there. But how does it all tie into Microsoft Office 365?
Let’s start with the reasons why your users will love it. All the featured applications I mentioned above (Exchange, SharePoint/OneDrive, Skype For Business, Yammer, and Office Suite) are logically integrated and used throughout the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online experience. Through Dynamics CRM Online you are able to synchronize emails, tasks, contacts, and appointments with Exchange Online and your Outlook. Documents that you save in Dynamics CRM pertaining to an account or opportunity are also synchronized and saved to SharePoint. You have the ability to click on a phone number in Dynamics CRM Online to make a phone call by using Skype For Business. One of the best new features, Office 365 Groups, allows non-Dynamics CRM users a single location to share documents, conversations, meetings, and notes with Dynamics CRM users. This would be helpful in the scenario of sales opportunity where the input of non-CRM users could be instrumental in winning a deal.
From an administrative perspective, Dynamics CRM Online is a familiar experience if you are already using Office 365. This is because Dynamics CRM users can be created and managed through the Office 365 admin center portal. You have the ability to do many other things through here such as manage billing and licenses, manage passwords, view self-serve service health, track planned maintenance, or leverage the Message Center. The Message Center is a great resource because it can tell you how to fix or prevent issues, plan for service changes, or just to stay informed of new or updated features. You can even request service to resolve an issue through the Message Center.
In the coming weeks, we will continue to go deeper into how these tools will apply in different scenarios such as sales automation, marketing automation, and services automation. I hope you enjoyed and found this week’s article informative. If you’re interested in some how-to related CRM material, check out blogs by my colleague Ben Ward here. Till next time…
About the author:
Will has over 16 years of experience in business development, team management, and project management. Will has worked at Managed Solution for over four years and is currently advising businesses on best CRM practices and implementations. Will’s focus is on process improvement and analytics specializing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Will is a Microsoft Certified Professional, with certifications in Presales Technical Specialist – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Sales Specialist- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Application, Sales Specialist- Office 365, Sales Specialist- SMB Infrastructure and Sales Specialist- Datacenter.
For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691.
The Managed Solution team is getting the latest Customer Immersion Experience (CIE) training. The Customer Immersion Experience provides a facilitated hands-on environment where you can test drive Microsoft technologies including Office 365, Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Project, Visio, Windows, Windows Phone, Dynamics CRM and System Center.
The immersion aims to provide a conducive environment to deliver a best-in-class and hands-on demo experience for you, such as the Business & Technology Decision Makers. Sessions are led by a trained facilitator and are designed to be interactive, experiential, and fun. Learn More >>
Sign up to either attend a scheduled CIE demo or contact us to request a complimentary demo exclusively for your organization (limited time offer)
The small IT staff divided its limited time between maintenance of the company’s forty applications and making sure the outdated email systems were operational–leaving it little time to focus on higher value initiatives. To revitalize its IT capabilities, Helly Hansen adopted Microsoft Office 365. Helly Hansen improved communications, accelerated business processes, and transformed its travel culture, resulting in reduced travel costs by 10 to 15 percent.
As a global brand, Helly Hansen operates 39 retail outlets in Europe and North America and works with retailers and suppliers from around the world. It does so with just 350 full-time employees who work out of the headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and from offices in Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States. The teams typically communicated by email and phone, but the phone systems were outdated and unreliable and sending large files with marketing plans and detailed display photographs over email was not an ideal solution.
Soon after the move to Office 365, Helly Hansen started a pilot program to encourage employees to replace business travel with Skype for Business meetings. “We ran this pilot and, in a very short time, were able to avoid 15 trips and save more than US$20,000. Skype for Business quickly made a real improvement in how we do business,” says Abrahams.
Helly Hansen expects travel costs will be reduced by 10 to 15 percent in 2013, “For the IT team, which is spread over five countries, being able to have all of our meetings via Skype has been an amazing transformation,” says Abrahams. “Now that we can see each other and share our desktops, we can lead more productive meetings and benefit from closer relationships.”
Another way that Helly Hansen will benefit from Skype for Business videoconferencing is by reviewing clothing samples with its manufacturers in Hong Kong. “Our suppliers can use Logitech HD cameras to show samples to the developers in Oslo. We previously had to send an entourage of people to Asia to check samples every year. Now, only half of the team will need to go,” says Abrahams. “Everybody is excited about this; especially the people who are tired of so much traveling and the managers who want to save money.”
“We have one employee who frequently travels between Munich and Oslo. He saw a reduction in his mobile phone bill of more than US$260 a month after adopting Skype for Business,” says Abrahams. “That is the savings from just one person.” Overall, Helly Hansen has reduced the budget for mobile phone costs by 10 percent.
