Is SharePoint Foundation really free?

The list of features available in SharePoint Foundation is amazing. The fact that it’s free is even better.
However for SMBs that simply want to get on with their business I personally don’t believe that SharePoint Foundation is the right product.

In my latest piece on BoxFreeIT I compare the features and hidden costs of this free version of SharePoint – when compared against a service like SharePoint Online.
You can read it here: http://www.boxfreeit.com.au/Productivity/comparing-sharepoint-online-vs-sharepoint-on-premise.html

Case study: Chelgrave Contracting (Windows Intune)

Chelgrave Contracting have been one of the most referenced customers in Australia when it comes to cloud success stories.
When my company Paradyne first took on Chelgrave as a customer in early 2010 we had no idea that a few cloud-based products could make such an impact to one business.

The current Chelgrave case study about BPOS can be found here: http://www.paradyne.com.au/chelgrave/
Since then the organisation has been transitioned over to Office 365 but has also deployed Windows Intune – the focus of the latest Microsoft case study.

You can read the about how Paradyne and Windows Intune helped stabilise and protect Chelgrave’s IT systems, as well as improve staff productivity while lowering IT support costs:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Windows-Intune/Chelgrave-Contracting/Labour-hire-company-takes-control-of-its-PC-environment-with-Windows-Intune/710000000677

Uploading a photo to SharePoint from an iPad

As more and more organisations turn to using SharePoint as their primary system for document management and iPads as mobile information devices – there needs to be a way to marry the two together.
Many of my customers have asked how to add photos taken on iPad tablets to SharePoint Online. Common scenarios include site audits, inspections, handovers, and general documentation purposes.

The first step is to purchase an app known as SharePlus from the App Store (the “Lite” version does not permit file uploads).
(I will assume that you can follow the steps required to add your SharePoint Online site to the app.)

Step 1: Navigate to the relevant site and library where you want to upload the photo

Step 2: Select Add Document

Step 3: Press Select document

Step 4: Select the relevant option (for this demonstration I opted to take a photo of my notebook)

Step 5: Take the photo

Step 6: If happy with the photo, press Use

Step 7: Give your file a name and press Done

Step 8: Press Save to upload it to SharePoint

You will now see the photo displayed within the app browser.

And as well if looking via the web interface.

My Exchange Online book hits Amazon

The Office 365 book I co-authored with fellow Office 365 MVP David Greve is now available on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/184968586X/

In this book we focus on Exchange Online and walk the reader through selecting the right Office 365 subscription, preparing their environment and performing the migration.
We cover both the Small Business (P) and Enterprise (E) plans and include a variety of scenarios such as integration with Small Business Server, migrations and hybrid environments.

Does this put my company Paradyne out of business given that our prime focus is Office 365?
Definitely not. Office 365 migrations only account for approximately 30% of our revenue.
And even though I wrote the book on the subject, my crack team can migrate customers in less time than it would take to read the first chapter!

A labour of love and many weekends, I’m sure that plenty of Office 365 customers around the world will make great use of it and I hope that it helps them have a smooth migration.

(Several people have asked me for autographed copies of the book. If you’d like one get in contact with me via one of the social media networks.)

Microsoft increases Partner Access Licenses for SharePoint Online

Microsoft has just announced that it is increasing the limits of Partner Access Licenses (PALs) in SharePoint Online, as well as cutting the cost… to be effectively free!

Partner Access Licenses allow Office 365 customers to grant external users access to their SharePoint Online site collections.
The permissions that PALs have are:
• PALs are granted permission by the site admin and they can have (Read, Contribute, or Own)
• PALs that are Owners have the ability to invite of PALs
• PALs can read documents, but cannot edit them via the Web Apps
• PALs can get site feeds, but they do not get a MySite, cannot receive company feeds, nor can they follow others

The new limits are:

O365 Plan P

O365 Plan E & Equivalents

O365 Dedicated
Includes

Plan P

Plan E, Government Community & Government Public, A   Plans (Edu)

Dedicated and ITAR
Pricing

Free

Free

Free
PAL Caps per tenant

500

10,000

10,000
Ability to Increase Cap

No

Yes –via Business Desk Escalation

Yes – PAL pack(s)

Some additional information about how PALs work:
How are the free PALs counted?Customers can invite as many external users to their SharePoint site(s) as they wish and a PAL is counted when a user is authenticated into a site. Once a user has authenticated into a site a PAL license has been consumed.

Can PALs be reused by a different user?
If an external user accesses a site they’ve consumed a PAL license. The PAL license can be reused when a tenant Admin deletes the PAL user allowing a new PAL user to access a site.

A year in review

Today I turned 34.
Some people think I’m old (like my 14 year old sister-in-law), some would think I’m young (like many of my customers and peers).
The age however is irrelevant. What is amazing is the year I’ve just had.

From a professional standpoint it’s been quite a ride in terms of accomplishments both for myself and my companies:
- Paradyne was a finalist for Online Services in the Microsoft Australia Partner Awards 2011
- Office 365 was released, propelling Paradyne forward into the hearts and minds of more customers
- Paradyne sold & deployed both the first commercial and educational customers of Office 365 in Australia
- The Cloud Mouth was born
- Xstran was launched, hitting the ground running with a variety of great tools & utilities for Lync and Office 365
- My first book was published (it went live the day before my birthday)
- Was re-awared MVP status for the 2nd year
- Presented in several sessions at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011
- Was referred to in a variety of sessions and presentations at the Microsoft Australian Partner Conference 2011

Last year my wife presented me with a Xbox & Kinect bundle for my birthday which has provided me many hours of entertainment.
However the most amazing thing to occur in the past year was the birth of our first child – Chloe Morgan Strant. While she’s only been in my life for 3 weeks she has changed my perspective on everything. The things I have accomplished over the past year pale in comparison to the amazing job my wife did of bringing a health baby into this world.
I look forward to what the next year will bring, both professionally and most of all with my new family.

Explaining the Office 365 Kiosk licenses

In my latest piece on BoxFreeIT I talk about what a Kiosk license is as it is quite often overlooked by customers looking to take up Office 365.

Something not commonly known about the editing capabilities within SharePoint Online of the K1 plan is that while a user can’t actually edit using Office Web Apps – they can if they have Office installed on the desktop.
To clarify: a user with Office 365 K1 can edit documents within SharePoint Online if they use Office installed on their desktop. A user with Office 365 K2 can use both the desktop and Office Web Apps.

You can read the piece here: http://www.boxfreeit.com.au/Productivity/what-is-an-office-365-kiosk-licence.html

Office 365 domain name hosting misconceptions

My latest piece on BoxFreeIT aims to clear some of the confusion around the domain name hosting that is included as part of Office 365 for Small Business and Professionals.

DNS is something that is usually not within the realm of most SMB owners or employees. And why should it be? While DNS is part of our every day lives (think of it as the White Pages of the Internet – mapping understandable names to numbers) it’s not something that is actually used often in relation to a businesses domain name. Usually it’s set up by an IT company or web host and then left until another IT company or web host moves it elsewhere.
So it’s fair that most SMB owners wouldn’t have the faintest idea of what a zone file even means.
I have encountered MANY “IT professionals” in my career that also have no idea how DNS works – and that’s a scary thought.

It’s for this reason that Office 365 includes domain name hosting – so as to keep it simple for SMB owners.
Unfortunately those same “IT professionals” don’t quite understand that the domain name hosting included in Office 365 is completely optional and is in fact not required for the seamless operation of Office 365.

You can read the piece here: http://www.boxfreeit.com.au/Productivity/debunking-office-365-domain-hosting.html