Virtual Launch Event for the new Office 365 for business

February 15, 2013 1 Comment

Office arrives in the cloud on Feb. 27th!

Virtual Launch Event for the new Office 365 for business.

Date Wednesday, February 27th 8 am PDT and 5 pm PDT

Why Attend?

  • Learn how the new Office 365 can help people do their best work in a world of devices and services
  • Hear customers talk about how Office 365 is transforming the way they deliver productivity tools across their organization
  • See how Office 365 delivers new experiences combining the power of social with collaboration, email and unified communications
  • Join in a live Q&A with Microsoft executives and product experts

RTA

Filed under Office 2013, Office 365, Webcast Tagged with

Get onto my Cloud… a Colossal Contest!

November 8, 2012 5 Comments

In the past I have had a few contests that have had pretty good response – I have given away some decent prizes, and I know a lot of people have really enjoyed it.

Now, in honour of this blog’s 100,000th hit (Achieved October 30!) I am launching a new contest in conjunction with the Microsoft Office team… it’s so big, I have to create a new e-mail account to regulate the traffic!

I have spoken about Office 365 before, and have been a faithful user since it launched (and BPOS before that).  I have shown it to hundred if not thousands of people, and it is not a tough sell to show them that it is simply the best productivity solution available, combining the power of Microsoft Office Pro Plus with the cloud-based Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync, all for a low monthly fee which means no upfront costs and no ongoing support costs!

Office 365 ProPlus is the new Office delivered fast to all your Windows devices – including Windows RT! Office 365 ProPlus includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync. You will be able to preview Office 365 ProPlus applications and manage up to 25 users with a preview account… at no cost, for up to 30 days. 

When your preview is up you can either discontinue using it or, if you liked it, convert your preview subscription to a full subscription quite easily!

Office 365 Pro Plus has some great features, including:

  • clip_image002Fast streaming installation on up to 5 computers per user
  • Runs side-by-side with your existing Office programs
  • Integrates with in-house email and collaboration solutions
  • Your settings stay with you when you move to a different computer
  • Flexible deployment – use the cloud or your own infrastructure
Register for the Guided Evaluation

Register to access technical product resources—such as forums, solution accelerators, whitepapers, and webcasts—at the Office 365 ProPlus Preview Resource Page.

  1. Review Office 365 ProPlus Preview system requirements
  2. Register for evaluation
  3. Sign up for an Office 365 ProPlus Preview account and install evaluation software for a limited-time trial
  4. Provision up to 25 evaluators within your organization using the Office 365 ProPlus administration interface
  5. Direct your evaluators to log in to their new Office 365 ProPlus Preview accounts
  6. Receive three (3) emails with resources to guide you and notification of the next release
  7. Use blogs and forums to share tips

Now here’s the contest:

  1. Click on this link and download the bits!
  2. Wait for the confirmation e-mail that you will receive when the download is complete.
  3. Forward that confirmation e-mail to Office365@garvis.ca .
  4. Install it and use it!!! That’s it… you are entered to win one of two great prize packages from Microsoft and Jabra!

    PRIZES:

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GRAND PRIZE:

A Microsoft XBox Kinect bundle, including a Kinect device plus THREE hot XBox Kinect games!

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SECOND PRIZE:

A Jabra SPEAK 410 Lync / speakerphone / speaker!

 

 

**Odds of winning depend on the number of entries.  The only restriction to winners is that they cannot be full time employees of SWMI Consulting Group (sorry Theresa!).

Filed under Contest, Office, Office 2013, Office 365

Office 2013 Social Connectors

July 20, 2012 Leave a comment

I was really excited when Microsoft released its Social Connectors for Microsoft Office Outlook 2010 (Outlook Social Connectors Make it Easier to Keep Track).  In Office 2013 they have, in my opinion, made them even better.

For reasons that defy logic my main contact list (the one I have been maintaining since 1996) has 2,882 contacts in it… many of whom, I am sure, could be deleted without causing any issue or notice.  Some of those contacts, however, are people that I will one day need to speak to again… even though by looking at their e-mail address (or even name) I have no idea who they are right now.

I get a lot of e-mail from a lot of people.  Not that infrequently I get an e-mail from someone who I should know… but don’t.  If an e-mail looks important, but I don’t know who it is from, I will do a bit of research.  Before I delete the e-mail (I never delete it, I just mark it as read which means it is gone forever unless I actively go searching) I go to LinkedIn and see if the person sending the e-mail is a contact of mine.  Next I go to Facebook and see if they are a ‘friend’.  You would be surprised how much you can tell about a person you are not sure you have ever met just from these two sources.

Of course, with 1,000 ‘friends’ on Facebook and 1,200 contact on LinkedIn, that may or may not help… but it is a start.

Now here’s the thing… there is a lot of crossover between my two networks.  I find it hard enough to believe that I know 1,200 people, but 2,200 people would be really hard to believe.  So let’s assume that the people that I deal with are more accurate with their LinkedIn profile than with their Facebook (Or might have a picture of a butterfly on Facebook and a professional headshot on LinkedIn.  So new in Outlook 2013 is the ability to prioritize your networks… ‘Show this network information when available, instead of information from other networks’.  If nothing else it limits the number of people whose pictures in my Outlook are of butterflies.

I still love the fact that when I have a meeting or conference call planned I can see in advance who I am meeting with.  In this case I know Damir, but I sat in on a call on Wednesday with 125 other people, and it was nice to be able to see the faces that went along with the names.  This goes equally well when someone sends me an e-mail… I have the option of seeing who I am communicating with, if I so choose.  Of course you can minimize this or even turn it off if you want – it is all up to you.

 

Outlook Social Connectors have been making my life a bit easier for three years, and they will continue to do so into the future.  I am glad that Microsoft is still innovating and finding new ways to stay fresh.  I would have liked to have seen a Twitter connector included in 2013, but that would have only been for updates, and so many people are cross-posting their tweets to Facebook so it doesn’t really matter.

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Filed under Facebook, LinkedIn, Office, Office 2013, Outlook Social Connectors, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Office 2013: First cool new feature for me!

July 19, 2012 2 Comments

Like so many geeks I have been patiently waiting for the beta release of Microsoft Office 2013.  I downloaded and installed it this week, and have been liking it.  I will start posting about new features as I discover them, and here is the first such post.

Like many people I live in Outlook… or at least in my Exchange calendars, which when I am on the PC means Outlook (see my article from February 3rd, 2010 on Connecting to Multiple Exchange Servers within Microsoft Office Outlook 2010).  That means that any time they add clarity and relevant information to Outlook I am happy.

I have been on the road this week so I have not had a lot of opportunity to play with the new Outlook, with the exception of checking my mail.  This morning however I went into the calendar for the first time (I love the look and feel… as you can see I have five calendars open simultaneously, and being able to manage them all the way I want to is important… four of them on one side together, and my SWMI calendar separate on the right in this case). 

I noticed something new at the top of the calendar… a cloud icon.  At first I figured it had to do with my cloud-based e-mail, but that didn’t make sense.  I quickly realized that Outlook (within the Calendar context) was showing me the local weather, along with a three-day forecast. image

Nice!  By default it detected New York City, but it did not take much work to click on the drop-down arrow and select my home town of Oakville, Ontario.

Now when I turn on the computer from my basement I will be able to see what the forecast is for the next few days… wherever I may be Smile.

I’ll be in Chicago next week… any bets that it will be windy? Winking smile

Filed under Calendar, Office, Office 2013

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