Webinar Recap | The State of the Microsoft Empowered Digital Workspace
Thank you for your interest in, “The State of the Microsoft Empowered Digital Workspace.” In this session, four of the most renowned experts in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem reveal how you can use what’s available now to reach digital collaboration excellence and prepare you for the changes that are coming. If you were able to join us for the webinar, we sincerely thank you for being there. We hope you had as much fun learning about the current and future offerings of the Microsoft universe as our speakers Asif Rehmani (@asifrehmani), Sue Hanley (@SusanHanley), Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), and Eric Overfield (@EricOverfield) did sharing their knowledge with you. If you were unable to attend, scroll down to watch the recording.
There were a few questions we were unable to get to live on the show but never fear! The answers are here:
Q) Are there any ways to easily reach non-wired frontline workers who don’t have company email addresses (just employee IDs)?
A) Not really. Within the M365 ecosystem, you can have external users, but they still require an email address. It does not need to be a company email address, but an email address, nonetheless.
Q) Does Windows File Explorer have a place in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem? Must we try to wean users away from file explorer?
A) I used windows file explorer daily, connected to M365. In particular, I am syncing data to SharePoint sites and Teams files (which are also stored within SharePoint sites). I find I can often work with local, yet synced, files this way much easier than in a browser. Thus, I say that File Explorer still has a long life ahead, and I would be disappointed to see it go away.
Please do away with your “Z” drives, those external shares. I want to see those move to SharePoint and/or OneDrive.
Q) What impact will the (not yet released) SharePoint App Bar have on SharePoint use? What KPIs do they use to measure adoption? ( we briefly touched on this subject so maybe rehashing that answer will be fine)
I am not aware of specific KPI’s that will be tied directly to the app bar itself, i.e. who clicked what particular link, though I would want to track and measure general ecosystem utilization.
Thus, I expect the SharePoint App Bar to allow you to build more connected sites, pages, and content that will smooth out the utilization of your SharePoint tenant. Meaning your intranet, extranet, external tools, and other content. A properly implemented app bar should alleviate aspects of the frustrations that non-connected solutions can cause. Removing such barriers should increase overall SharePoint utilization and decrease negative feedback or request for help with the Intranet/collaboration spaces/etc. Track your usage and feedback and you should see improvements with a successful app bar launch.
Didn’t get a chance to catch our session live? We’ve got you covered.
This Session:
It’s time for the next episode of the PixelMill Webinar Series! In our first session of 2021, “The State of the Microsoft Empowered Digital Workspace,” 4 of the most renowned experts in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem reveal how you can use what’s available now to reach digital collaboration excellence and prepare you for the changes that are coming.
Join us on Thursday, January 28th, at 11:00 AM PST as we welcome the following panelists to our show:
– Christian Buckley (Microsoft GTM Director at AvePoint, Microsoft Regional Director & MVP)
– Sue Hanley (Founder and President of Susan Hanley LLC, Microsoft MVP)
– Eric Overfield(President and Co-Founder of PixelMill, Microsoft Regional Director & MVP)
– Asif Rehmani (CEO of VisualSP, Microsoft MVP)
Why You Should Attend
2020 dealt organizations quite a few challenges, to say the least, but innovators rose to the occasion, proving that if there’s a will, there’s a way. Back in April 2020—which feels like centuries ago—Microsoft was declaring 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months. Now we’re hearing 5 years in 5 months, and this doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. What does the future of work look like, and how can we empower our teams to excel in this new environment?
If you are using Microsoft 365 for your digital teamwork initiatives, to engage a remote team, or empower your front line workers, this panel discussion is for you.
The panel of Microsoft MVPs will also share their predictions for where all of these digital tools like SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, the Power Platform, Azure, and more are headed. Come with questions for the panelists so we can help you feel prepared for what’s ahead (at least from a technology standpoint). 
Audience
While this session is directed toward anyone looking to enhance their Microsoft empowered digital workspace, all are encouraged to attend.
