Post-Retreat Energy is Real. Here’s How to Make it Last.

Post-retreat energy

This was my first Improving retreat. I’ll be honest: I was a little hesitant to go at first. But once I got there? I loved it, the networking, the friendships, and seeing what folks across offices are building. On the way out, I heard the same thing from others: a mix of “sad it’s over” and “I wish we could keep this energy alive.” It got me thinking about the ways in which we can preserve that post-retrest energy. That feeling actually has a name: collective effervescence, the rush we get when we move in sync with others around a shared purpose. It lifts our mood and gives us meaning. … Read more

Beyond Document Management: SharePoint as a Strategic Business Platform

Strategic business platform

SharePoint’s Evolution SharePoint was once primarily known as a document management system (think digital filing cabinet). There is a chance that you still think about it in this way. Microsoft SharePoint has evolved into a strategic business platform that helps with collaboration, communication, and digital transformation across organizations. SharePoint has become a hub for encouraging productivity. Building a SharePoint page is surprisingly simple. Whether you have a background or experience in tech, it really has no impact on your ability to build out an effective SharePoint pages (or pages) for your organization. SharePoint as a Digital Workplace Foundation Modern SharePoint sites serve as intelligent intranets, connecting employees to the tools, … Read more

Migrating to SharePoint Without Going Crazy: A Step-By-Step Guide

Migrating to SharePoint

Imagine you’ve just bought your dream home. You’re excited about the move. You’ve been planning all the ways in which you’re going to decorate it. You’re picking out furniture and paint colours. But also think about all the packing you have to do. You have way more stuff than you thought and your move date is fast approaching. It’s exciting, but it’s also chaotic. Migrating to SharePoint can feel like this. That’s why appropriate planning is essential. Switching from a different platform? Planning is essential. Upgrading from an older version? Planning is essential. No matter what the purpose for a migration, you need to have a plan in place. This … Read more

What to Know About Microsoft’s New OneDrive Archiving Policy

OneDrive Archiving Policy

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced it was rolling out a significant change to how it handles unlicensed OneDrive user accounts. Microsoft’s new OneDrive archiving policy is something every IT admin and business leader should be aware of. Enforcement began on January 27, 2025, but the rollout has slowed to ensure a safe roll-out with sufficient time for admins to adjust. Admins should anticipate that it takes time for all unlicensed accounts to complete the enforcement process. The initial enforcement rollout will be complete by October 29, 2025. You have time, but it’s better to get on top of this. What’s Changing with the OneDrive Archiving Policy? Microsoft will begin automatically archiving … Read more

From Chaos to Clarity: Automating Business Processes with Power Automate

Automating Business Processes

Organizations have largely adopted a digital-first model. Manual processes are more than just inefficient; they’re a barrier to the growth and success of a business. Whether it’s hunting down approvals, managing repetitive data entry, or working with (annoying) disconnected systems, these tasks drain productivity and increase the chance of risk. Fortunately, Microsoft Power Automate offers a powerful solution to bring order to this chaos by automating business processes.  What is Power Automate?  Power Automate is Microsoft’s low-code automation platform that allows users to create workflows between apps and services. It can help streamline repetitive tasks, reduce human error, and free up time for work that can position your organization better … Read more

The Differences Between SharePoint and OneDrive: A Guide

Differences Between SharePoint and OneDrive

Many people struggle with understanding the differences between SharePoint and OneDrive and when it is appropriate to use each of them. This blog will discuss SharePoint and OneDrive and will help you better understand how to use them for a better collaborative organizational experience. What is SharePoint? To better understand the differences between SharePoint and OneDrive, let’s establish what each of them are and why they are important. SharePoint is a collaboration and document management platform and is widely used by organizations to create intranet sites, manage content, and streamline business processes. SharePoint allows people to work together on shared documents and projects. Collaboration is easy with SharePoint and allows … Read more

Basic PowerFx Functions Every Developer Should Know

Basic PowerFx Functions

PowerFx is a declarative, Excel-like programming language, created by Microsoft, primarily for the creation of Canvas Apps. Like Excel, it uses functions and expressions to accomplish tasks with little to no need to specify step by step procedural logic. It abstracts away the implementation details, so the focus is on the ‘what’ and not the ‘how.’  This blog will highlight some of the basic PowerFx functions every developer should be familiar with. Take the following table that lists the items and their cost in a ‘Shopping Cart’ for example.   ShoppingCart  ID  Item  $ Cost  1  Bread  2  2  Milk  5  3  Butter  7  In an imperative language, the developer would have … Read more

Microsoft Sample Solution Gallery: Unlock Innovation 

Microsoft Sample Solution Gallery

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulder of giants”. – Sir Isaac Newton  Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists in history and known for formulating the laws of motion and universal gravitation which laid the groundwork for much of modern physics and mathematics.   Newton is saying that innovation is a process and is often built on the ideas and work that existed before and seldom by isolated inspiration as often depicted in popular television. This type of innovation is exactly what Microsoft is attempting to inspire with the creation of their Sample Solution Gallery.   For those not already familiar, the Microsoft Sample Solution … Read more

SharePoint Look Book: A Hidden Design Gem 

SharePoint Look Book

SharePoint Look Book: A Hidden Design Gem In the world of digital collaboration, SharePoint stands tall in helping organizations enhance collaboration and empower teams to create, share, and manage content seamlessly. One of its impressive features is the SharePoint Look Book, which showcases a vast array of design ideas and solutions of modern workplaces.  SharePoint Look Book is a hidden gem – a treasure that offers design ideas and solutions, showing the endless possibilities of leveraging SharePoint for the modern workplace.  SharePoint Look Book serves as a gallery of modern, visually stunning templates and designs built on SharePoint. It offers a collection of site designs, layouts, and components that demonstrate the … Read more

Protecting Sensitive Data: Ensuring Privacy from a Data Engineering Perspective 

Sensitive Data

Protecting Sensitive Data: Ensuring Privacy from a Data Engineering Perspective  In a bank call center, staff members handle clients’ data. They have to identify clients for various requests while maintaining privacy. The call center representative must be able to identify the client while keeping the credit card number private, even though the system holds card information. Protecting sensitive data is crucial for the bank’s success.   You also want to keep the value of transactions on the card private. Data may be substituted with random numbers or displayed as ***, showing only the last four digits for validation purposes.  Now, imagine the same data set is sent to the analytics team to analyze … Read more