Firstly if you want to  Governance at the South Coast Summit (join their workshop at Practical Microsoft 365 Baseline Governance – South Coast Summit ) So Marijn lost for the first round of the battle between the quick and powerful JSON v PowerApps @Helsinki but was magnanimous in his defeat.  This is a great session and if you get chance to hear it them don’t miss it.Steve had a conversation this week about a mystery workflow that did not seem to have any documentation, that we could find… it prompted a need to think about how to define a process that ensured documentation had a high enough priority and is a key component in the Definition of Done.Lots of people get a call out in this episode where Marijn and Steve look at what should be included ,typically, in your governance documents.Enjoy but be warned this is an explicit podcast versions as Marijn uses the C-word… and no we are not joking… Finally after another shout out we drink a Chinese Whisky, seriously a Chinese dram that actually impresses enough to seriously put onto the purchase list.

Firstly if you want to  Governance at the South Coast Summit (join their workshop at Practical Microsoft 365 Baseline Governance – South Coast Summit ) As always the show is improvised around a few great ideas and this time it’s about Myth busting and Marijn throws in a Sideways thinking at the beginning “Hello Mr Watson”  to the end   “Shift Left” Check it out.We think about a few things before starting on the main topic, like Cortana, that hot non-AI chick, and if CoPilot is about questions, will voice conversations return....  Hey CortanAI... The Boys decided on a few things that people generally believe are true and bust the myths!!!Today we look at how good Search really is and Steve learns a new bunch of stuff about Search and then we look at Users, Back Up and Malware...So listen in and check out if the following is true, well actually they are all Myths....·       Is Search Holy?·       All users are the same!·       Is Everything Backed Up?·       All Content is Scanned for Malware!Check in and work out the reality of the myths.

October13th 2023 @SouthCoastSummit https://www.southcoastsummit.com/workshop/practical-microsoft-365-baseline-governance/ In this final Wee Dram for August, we look at the 11 steps that form part of the Governance Workshop from the South Coast Summit on Friday, 13th of October in Farnborough UK.This is a 10 minutes piece of fun but full of Golden Nuggets if you are looking to try and do governance in your organisation.  11 steps in 10 minutes and if they make sense but the workshop in the diary and join us for a day of Governance fun.

The boys get distracted as always as the Autumn Speaker circuit comes alive.  The conclude with Governance at the South Coast Summit (join their workshop at Practical Microsoft 365 Baseline Governance – South Coast Summit ) Recorded live at Marijn’s place, where the boys are constantly distracted by the world walking passed... Steve’s memory is again letting him down as he tries to remember the name of the artist he saw a week ago because the boys have been singing “Changes’ from Mr David Bowie since they suggested today’s subject.So, the subject is change, and specifically, they discuss the implications of Outlook and MS Team having huge updates in the same timeframe.The Podcast looks at current changes creating problems and differences in both clients to identify scope changes.  Some will be improved, but this is a new canvas for Outlook and format for MS Teams, so some features may not be available when it goes live and be added later.The Point of this podcast is to look at how to manage this change... we know change is constantly changing when considering Enterprise Apps.The boys develop some great nuggets on how a model might look based on some change metric...   Change Points!!!  You heard it here first...The Change model is about packages balanced against the change needs based on the change required in the application's upgrade size.Several criteria can create the model. so Steve and Marijn discuss the main ones that should be considered.Steve Changed the name of XLA to ELA’s, but the basis is still the same, value is based on how users perceive and manage the change... the ultimate way to measure the success of change.Whisky eventually hits the menu, and Steve asks one of the speakers from the NY Community event a few weeks ago to find us a bottle we have been looking to taste for some time.  Today we taste Metallica’s Blackened whiskey, a blend from Dave Pickerell, one of the last blends he created before he passed away.  One of America’s greatest Master Distillers who changed Markers Mark from 175,000 bottles per year organisation to a million bottles per Distiller.This whiskey has been on Steves’s list for some time so here it is, and well there is a difference of opinion...  This batch of Whisky has its own playlist that is played to the Whisky during the Maturation process and if you want to listen to the playlist...  here is the link.  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1w6KeG09G0VWrRRkkLZet0?si=972b68b77ae9468e Check it out.

Getting ahead of themselves, this episode was recorded at the end of July for the August release due to holidays etc. Before looking at Our governance model defined by DRAAP, which isdefine | review | adapt | approve | publish.We are looking for replacement names, all ideas are welcome.  So the boys break down each of these stages in the model and cover the value that each section brings to the process of Governance.https://www.southcoastsummit.com/workshop/practical-microsoft-365-baseline-governance/ If you want to come and discuss this as part of our governance workshop, join us at Sout Coast Summit in October.The first important subject is Methodology or a Model, and the decision is not to create a podcast on which is most accurate...Using some real examples, we look at current customers and which state of the DRAAP process they are at and the next stages to be completed.  The process does allow you to define at what stage each of the governance documents is at and what the following stage should include.  A way to identify the value.Risk and value are included In the conversation, and Steve thinks this is a key attribute to define the protection required verse the effect on the end users.  Governance that drives users away from using the product is not the target.Then the boys drink a local Whisky from Mechelen in Belgium. Het ANKER’s Molenberg distillery for their anniversary edition

Continuing their Wee Drams on thei new Governance workshop for South Coast Summit  October13th 2023 @SouthCoastSummit https://www.southcoastsummit.com/workshop/practical-microsoft-365-baseline-governance/ The Boays introduce DRAAP which will get a few modules in their course as they talk about how practically you need to get to be succesful in introducing Governance as an active subject into your organisation

The boys get distracted for the first 10 minutes covering Their speaking events, Governance at the South Coast Summit (join their workshop at www.southcoastsummit.com ) and the pricing release of the Co-Pilot and value.  They decide to read the Whiteboard and realise they have some subjects to discuss...A list on the whiteboard of Roles is associated with managing and running M365.  Which role would you like to do and are the best at?  Steve and Marijn run through the list, select their dream role in M365, and say how it works and why it might not... Check out why they both think that CISO would be a great role...We finish with a review of the position of the roles immediately after tasting a very unusual single cask from Deanston.  Bourbon barrel about seven years in the barrel and hand filled at nearly 62%vol.  It was a brilliant drink; pity I could only get a 20cl bottle...

October13th 2023 @SouthCoastSummit https://www.southcoastsummit.com/workshop/practical-microsoft-365-baseline-governance/ In this special Wee Dram which is primarily notification to join Steve and Marijn on a Governance workshop.  Marijn is in the Mic Drop mood... check out his great maximum of 6 words responses on Governance.A quick boost of Marijn and Steve’s humour looking at Why we do Governance, How we do Governance and the problems associated with it.

In this special podcast, we have changed a few things... The Intro does not blow your ears out at the start... You can win a place at our 5th Birthday celebration with a simple HashTag and learn about Governance and Change on New Stream... EP116 is full of great information and a Free Dinner.  Finishing with a great idea generated by a 21 Year Old Whisky from our sponsor Secure-Mail-Merge by Alex Duggleby Steve has an idea that looks to combine your Governance plans with ADKAR and Marijn likes the picture, but we disagree with the Model and do not find agreement.  So you guys get one Model and 2 plans for implementation... you can choose the Marijn way or the Steve way... Such great Podcast Value!The podcast finished with the knowledge that the 21-year-old Austrian Whisky from the SecureMailMan Alex Duggleby as it created an excellent review of the Governance/Change idea and rounds it off with a new idea. This is Whisky Value Stream in action.

This is a very late podcast because Steve #ScrewedUp and the great interview with Alex Duggleby needed more work than usual.  But it is finished, Alex sounds great, nearly as good as his M365 Secure Mail Merge App.  Steve and Marijn are drinking Austrian Whisky provided by Alex as a Sponsor for this episode, where we introduce what we think is a great tool to assist in communications and adoption.Alex Duggleby joins the boys to talk about his career in development, the background in his new Mail Merge Application and his thoughts on developing inside the M365 apps and creating secure tools that do not need to take any data outside the M365 ecosystem.Advanced mail merge for Outlook for Windows, Mac and Web. (securemailmerge.com)Steve talks about his direct experience with the tool after using it to manage CVTV (Commsverse TV) interviews and communications for this MS Teams event in the UK.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

This is an extraordinary look at Innovation based on criteria around: Creativity, Vision, Risk-taking and Collaboration.  But maybe Governance has a place... or half a place in the definition.The Boys are back after the great episode 107, and this time they are talking about innovation with a quote that Innovation is in the Delta between your known limit and the place you push to.As we take some time to break down the pillars of Creativity, Vision, Risk and Collaboration, we identify that governance has a role in the innovation process. Still, we need to agree if this is something that restricts innovations or merely controls the scope of invention.  Let us know how YOU feel about it.We conclude by taking a Harvard quadrant with Innovation on the left and best practice on the right.  We put High Risk at the top and No risk at the bottom.  So Innovative High-risk items are in the top left quadrant... so where you would put OneDrive or MS teams etc.  Check out what Steve and Marijn did.The Whisky is very unusual and no. 870 from the first bottlings from the Maradsous Abbey in Belgium is a very interesting dram to taste if you can find a bottle outside of Belgium.We finish by referring to a few Wee Drams around Innovations, and these can be found here to support the content of this podcast:https://www.office365distilled.com/508 Innovate Everywhere

Are SLAs just Secrets, Lies and Assumptions?  Do we fudge the KPIs to show we have excellent delivery?  It’s possible, but XLA’s are more difficult to fool.  The boys are talking about experience and happiness on this podcast that defines and describes XLA’s, eXperience Levels Agreements and how they fit into the picture of SLA and OLA.Valentine’s day caused some delays as it fell on a regular recording night, so Steve and Marijn had to delay swapping Vantine gifts, but we did that on this podcast.  But the delay revives some magic, and the Boys dig deep into some great tools to improve the end user experiences for delivering your Cloud and Microsoft 365 services to your users.We know what SLA OLA supports eXperience Level Agreements, and if you don’t, you can learn something from Steve and Marijn as they talk about how this can improve the delivery, the change process and improve the tracking of Ability in the ADKAR process.All this and a Very different WHISKY FROM Finland as we return to the KYRO distillery for this episode’s wee dram, maybe, just maybe, we have found a distillery that is just NOT to the taste of Marijn.This year we take on the road our Governance workshop and the key to that is understanding XLA’s and much of today’s learning you can drill down and catch in our Governance workshops through 2023.  https://techorama.be/workshops/practical-microsoft-365-baseline-governance/