EP158: Marijn in fantAIsy

Wow, what a week, you can tell when Steve and Marijn have had a busy week because you get this very laid-back podcast where they discuss their Trips... and start with a Whisky Chat before moving on to talk about 70% of the project failing and deciding if it is Fake News.In this Podcast, we look at the truth behind the common assumption that 70% of projects fail and analyse if it is accurate and how you can take MS Viva and ensure that it is successful. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-70-change-management-projects-really-fail-simon-lewington/Simon does a great review and background on the statement... worth a read.The Forgetting list... CooperKing.... Not CastleKing is the name of the new Distillery Steve visited and the boys tasted their new make spirit which is full of promise.  Matt Wade is the producer of the M365 Periodic Table.   Steve and Marijn are both simply getting old and forgetful... we did however remember Dylan’s name!!Steve’s Golden Nugget is about Monopoly Money used to set priorities in workshops instead of dots on Post-Its. And then they discuss how impossible it is to roll out Viva in a quantifiable wayIn essence, this Third Sponsored podcast from CloudALLY www.cloudally.com looks at why projects fail and how to create success.I don’t want to ruin a great podcast with spoilers but check out the 7 reasons why projects fail and 5 Golden Nuggets to put your project on the proper foundation for success.  XLA is the secret sauce in the process... work to be completed to resolve exactly how you and your organisation will  design these.The boys drink the last CloudALLY provided whisky a Tomatin Decades 2 that is comprised of barrels Matured across 5 decades... a genuinely awesome dram.

3 Juni 20231h 6min

The second of 3 podcasts sponsored by CloudAlly and provided 3 great whiskies to taste across the following 3 Episodes.  Today we are speaking to Murrey Moceri, the Partner Account Director from CloudAlly, a man of the world who hails from Seattle and had flown into London from Sri Lanka and then chose to speak with Marijn and Steve on Office365Distilled.Information from www.cloudally.com    Follow up use sales@cloudally.com  We have anecdotes, horror stories and some background on how CloudAlly have saved people’s business but mostly about the common sense around backup needs and requirements.  You get IT stories from people who have been in the industry for some time.Murrey places backup in the context of shared responsibility between you and your cloud supplier to ensure the availability of your services.  Back-up is different, and we explain why.Time is spent looking at the simple things in life... and the product which, within a few clicks, can get you to a specific date, a specific file or email and restoration is a click away.Back-up not only can save your ass in your business but correcting user errors is potentially where the value is in the product.  Steve and Murray realise they are both audiophiles and have a history of sound, so they start talking about the beautiful feel of sound from tape...Steve as always ruins everyone’s names which raises a smile and a constant reminder of the old man’s memory from the Dynamic duo of Steve and Marijn.Finally, we touch on the interesting facts about backing up messaging in MS teams which for many reasons is a complexity that you will have never heard of.This podcast was simply fun, we tell you about backup, business, IT over the last 20 years and laugh together over stories and then we drink whisky and coconut spirit that Murray decides to join us with.  Steve and Marijn hit a delicious 22 year old Benriach finished in Dark Run Barrels, the smoothest, darkest and Deep whisky the boys have tasted.  Murrey introduces Arrack, a spirit from Sri Lanka... another whisky the boys have added to the list...

26 Maj 20231h 6min

Marijn Confirms that he can read!!  OK, I could not resist that, the power of being the Office365Distilled producer and being able to publish the content that we both produce.Never having enough information is bad... but unlike Whisky sometimes too much information can be just as stressful and causes problems of a different kind.... thinking about it,  too much Whisky might also cause problems of a different kind.  Anyhow...Check out Marijn’s view on Information Overload from the recent Harvard Review paper.

24 Maj 202313min

The first of 3 podcasts sponsored by CloudAlly and provided 3 great whiskies to taste on the next 3 Episodes.  On Episode 113 we will be speaking to Murrey Moceri, the Partner Account Director from CloudAlly, who will be talking about content protection through their platform.Information from www.cloudally.com    Follow up use sales@cloudally.com  The subject of today is ‘Human in IT’ and we start by considering the workload growth and the average number of change programs that people are involved in has increased by 400%.  Cynically Steve of course is wondering if that is true but that companies are now taking more care about change and formalising the programs of change.We can only assume but we do agree that the number of changes is increasing, but not everyone gets phased by application changes as often it is not a core process.We identify that the big 3 are changing, Outlook, MS Teams and SharePoint will all look and feel differently over the coming 3-4 months.Co-Pilot is a new attribute where AI gets integrated into the normal applications within the Office application set.  This change will affect everyone as those that use it can gain real value within the company and for themselves.  This is a change that is worth and change program as the payback will be worth the effort.The Boys get hot under the collar about the concept of collaboration and communication protocols and whether these are good or bad.  The lesson here is that Humans in IT mean that there are many ways of working.  Humans are fickle people... but they are inquisitive by nature... So we get involved with defining what normal means but take some extreme examples like is Climbing Mount Everest now Normal?We have to shout out to Dylan Hayes because we wanted to talk about his great runs, but we could not remember his handle...We hit on AI, and the changes it brings and how Humans in IT can benefit from it and get value from one of the most significant IT changes in recent times.We conclude that Change is a Drip-Drip-Drip means that as Humans, we do need to expect change, which of course, can increase stress levels or not.Finally, we remember that tech can make people lazy... so accepting what Co-Pilot gives you may not get tested/assessed/changed before being published.

14 Maj 20231h 10min

Taking the first module and outlining how Process, Governance and Policies, when brought together, ensure we present a practical approach to providing a well-governed M365 environment.  This podcast looks at some of the first module content from their latest training workshop, 'Practical Microsoft 365 Baseline Governance' First presentation is at...Techorama Belgium on May 15th https://techorama.be/workshops/practical-microsoft-365-baseline-governance/ The podcast explains all this and more,and this might be the funniest start yet...Steve and Marijn wonder if the Double Entendre is evident to the listener, and Steve struggles to say penis because it feels wrong to say it on the podcast.  The boys present the open content from their new governance course to be launched at As always, Steve’s brain refuses to bring in names, so we want to say Sigourney Weaver, because he could not remember Dian Fossey, who worked with Gorilla until poachers killed her.  And then he forgot the name of the Guy who invented the WWW... whom we will call James from the Internet.Eventually, they get serious and explain how Microsoft, Harvard and Office365Distilled define governance... so GPT is to the rescue.Steve reads through the Office365Distilled definition of Governance and identifies the core model from this definition.Governance Office365Distilled style, covering 4 core areas as a DRDR  Defined, Resources, Drivers, Results...Defined by Policies, Procedures and Practices.Resources that are used, Managed and Protected.Drives the behaviour, Administrators, content and compliance.Results are to maximise the benefits whilst minimising the risks.We break down each of these areas and explain how, practically, these decisions and consequential definitions all bring a practical approach to Governance.  And if you want to hear more, join us on May 15th in Antwerp, Belgium.

23 Apr 20231h 1min

Marijn moves from Inspiration and Design to Empowering your organisation for Digital transformation.  Following the Microsoft IDEA framework for digital transformation.  E is for Empower and Marijn looks at how you can empower your audience through the development of a model either digital or Paper-based plan for awareness of your new digitally transformed organisation.This very much supports the idea of ensuring your organization sees the value in your business transformation story by viewing visual assets and immersive experiences—promoting buy-in and getting alignment on commitments.

16 Apr 202310min

Steve and Marijn are joined today by a Guest who brings many questions about UK financial compliance.  In this episode, we wanted Laura Madden to tell us what her customers need from their content management.  We investigate solutions for typical problems the UK small business financial industry needs from a cloud service.Marijn dives in immediately, talking about some cool solutions, but soon understands that small business needs their cloud solution to deliver good value... maybe best describe them as cheap... So, we work on solutions for auditing, controlling, and tracking content and information that are all out of the box.We take questions from Laura about distributing and managing compliance contact, mainly completed through emails to external parties for a small business.  So, the first question was about maintaining control of the document when it is moving around so many people, many of whom are outside your control.We then consider the ability to maintain the immunity of that content when agreements or decisions are made against the content.Audit soon raises its head and needs to ensure that evidence exists to confirm decisions made with compliance officers and regulators with minimal effort.  We touch on feedback loops, why external survey tools might not be the best solution, and where M365 forms could provide a safe way to collect feedback or decide on specific questions. Eventually, we get to taste 2 whiskies from the same distillery with 7 years of difference to understand if the extra time in the barrel adds tasty value when it adds so much cost.Steve announces a new Sponsorship with Cloudally, a company supporting businesses with Cloud backup solutions, more on that in future episodes and Marijn finishes off with a great ending and a request to complete Spotify comments as a Lady’s Understanding or a Gentlemen’s Agreement.

8 Apr 20231h 11min

Marijn and Steve lose about 20 minutes of this podcast covering search and how AI might help.  We accept that we can’t help ourselves... We eventually started on document library Governance... but it took some time to pull away from the AI conversation.Steve is not sure how AI can add value to documents and other content, but we will wait patiently to find out.  The original subject is around document governance and, specifically, content architecture and the value it brings.To get started, we look at the components that make content architecture possible, like content types, metadata and taxonomy and the governance that will ensure it stays contextual.The discussion turns to who can make the decisions around creating libraries, columns etc. We move to cover the security model that makes it all possible.  Then Templates come forward, and a deep dive around DLP and Sensitivity Labels.Before drinking a completely new Whisky from Italy, yes, I said Italian we finish off with a quick insight into view formatting and migration...

19 Mars 20231h 8min