This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we look into a great conversation with the President of Microsoft’s Business Division, and we learn a new Office 365 trick. 1.     Q&A | Microsoft’s Kurt DelBene: On a roll with Office 2010; looking ahead to cloud  Mark Harrison / The Seattle Times Microsoft has announced its intentions to go “all in” to the cloud. Microsoft is committed to the cloud, and has already made some large impacts in Cloud Computing and people are following Microsoft into the Cloud. Microsoft’s business division has also made its way to the Cloud and Kurt DelBene, President of Microsoft Business division, sits down with The Seattle Times to discuss where Microsoft and the Cloud are heading. Seattle Times author Sharon Pian Chan asks Kurt DelBene about what BPOS and Office 365 hold for users. There are some great conversations based on how much small business could save with Office 365, and discussions around the new Lync communications service. This is a great article from The Seattle Times that should be read by anyone interested in some internal perspectives of BPOS, Office 365 and the Cloud. What are your thoughts on the direction of BPOS, Office 365 and the Cloud? Leave your comments below. 2.     Recreating the Default SharePoint Online Team Site in Office 365 This Week in BPOS News should be focusing on all things BPOS, but it is hard to resist some good Office 365 content. Office 365 is the next generation of BPOS and the video below illustrates a great product that comes with Office 365, SharePoint Online. The video below shows you how to recreate the default SharePoint Online Team Site. Be sure to check out all the great Office 365 videos here . (Please visit the site to view this video) What videos would you like to see? Leave your suggestions below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

I am happy to announce that I have accepted a position as a Senior EPM Solutions Architect with DeltaBahn, LLC . This is a Microsoft Project Partner that was created and is run by many of the people I was working when I was at Microsoft Consulting Services. I VERY MUCH enjoyed my time with forProject Technology . They are a great team with some amazing new products coming out around earned value management and DCMA compliance work. If you have needs in those areas definitely give them a call. However, as much as I enjoyed working with forProject, I could not pass up the opportunity to go and work the the guys from my old Microsoft team. Let me know if your company  needs help deploying Project Server or getting more out of your Project Server deployment. You can reach me at briank@deltabahn.com

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we look at why governments are choosing Microsoft, and we learn what the future holds for Microsoft’s data centers. 1.      Why Governments Buy Microsoft Online Services   Remember all of the posts about government sectors looking to the cloud ? Governments have not only been looking to the cloud, but have started moving. Our first story for this week reflects on why many government sectors are choosing Microsoft over the competition when it comes to trusting their data in the cloud. The Why Microsoft blog has a fantastic article that takes an in depth look at “ Why governments buy Microsoft Online Services .” Why Microsoft author, Tony Tai, looks at case studies and examples to figure out why government sectors are choosing Microsoft Online Services. Tony breaks down the government cloud requirements in the following categories: Saving Money while Delivering Valued Services Using Resources Optimally Compatibility and User Acceptance Data Security and Data Archival There are some great examples under each category above. I recommend anyone interested in the cloud race across government sectors to check out this Why Microsoft article . 2.      Microsoft: The Cloud is the ‘Utility of the Future   Our second story for This Week in BPOS News, touches on some interesting “big picture concepts.” Christian Belady of Microsoft is tasked to look at how data and energy are related.   “Data is really a processed form of electricity,” Belady says. “We’re part of this ecosystem: an energy pipeline. If you started from scratch, what with that whole pipeline look like? How does that change infrastructure? How can we deploy the cloud?” Christian also looks at where there can be innovations for the future.  Some innovations that are discussed in the article are temperature and humidity ranges, on-site power and geography and site location. Check out this story from Data Center Knowledge to learn more about what Microsoft is doing around their data centers. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

The Project Road Map for 2010 has been released. The road map is a collection of 12 project management scenario “user goals” and overview map that help users navigate from pm methodology to Project’s feature set. A number of enhancements have been added to the 2010 version. Pm maturity design . Examples for each phase of project management have been designed to lead user from beginner to advanced levels. Here is one example from the cost user goal displaying the extensive “Examples from project management” section that provides a path that helps mature the project manager. PMI focused . The Road Map follows the project phases outlined by the PMI. Content variety . The variety of learning formats addresses the learning preference of users. The road map contain links to content on Office.com, blogs, videos, tutorials, case studies, MVP sites and book excerpts. Office integration . Help content from Office and SharePoint are integrated with Project Help to tell the story of how a project plan becomes more mature as it leverages the power of Office applications. Here is an example of the Risk user goal that explains risk management using both Project features and Excel features, such as magic quadrant charts and Sparklines. Here is an example from the cost area. Enjoy the map, and leave comments on how you’ve used it, or examples from your own organization that can be added to it.

It is with great pleasure that I announce today’s launch of the EPM Content Pivot Viewer app on TechNet which can be accessed at: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/hh240184.aspx (once there I highly suggest clicking on for a better experience) The idea behind developing the EPM Content Pivot Viewer was to help provide you the customer with an easy to use interface that allows you to view, sort, and search through our extensive content library. We’ve provided logical pivot points to help you find content for your area of the deployment lifecycle from planning through operations and technical reference, as well as pivot content by Project Server solution areas so you can pinpoint TechNet articles, training, and white papers that will be most helpful to what you are looking to do. If you find the EPM Content Pivot Viewer useful, please email EPMDocFeedback@microsoft with any comments or questions as your feedback is very valuable to us. Thanks, -Rob

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we feature a video that will help customers prepare for the Cloud productivity evolution, and we learn about the newest city that went to the Cloud with Microsoft. 1.      What Do Existing BPOS Customers Need to Do to Prepare for Microsoft Office 365?    Our first BPOS story comes to us in video form from Channel 9 . The video embedded below dives into what Office 365 will offer BPOS users and how customers can prepare for the evolution in Cloud productivity software.  What are your thoughts about the video? Are you ready for Office 365? Leave your comments below. 2.      Why Winston-Salem Chose Exchange Online Our second BPOS story focuses on the competition in the Cloud and why the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina has chosen to move to the Cloud with Microsoft. Author Shane O’Neill, from CIO.com , writes a great article about Winston-Salem’s recent decision and notes some very interesting reasons for their move to the cloud. The first reason that is mentioned from the article is costs. Shane states that “with tighter budgets than most corporations, government agencies have been the first wave of cloud adopters.” The Cloud is seen as a way to cut costs for governments versus constantly updating and maintaining local machines. Winston-Salem is deploying 2,700 seats. Most users will have fully functional desktops, and the Cloud allows for 600 “deskless” workers that don’t need the full capacity of tools. The Cloud allows Winston-Salem to maximize their dollars and cents. It’s an exciting time for the government sector and the Cloud. San Francisco also joined Winston-Salem in the Cloud with Microsoft. What do you think of local governments moving to the cloud? What benefits do you see from cities moving to the Cloud with Microsoft? We would love to hear your thoughts below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.  

I am excited to announce the release of SharePoint Lifecycle Management Solution with Project Server 2010 produced by Jornata . Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provides a vast number of capabilities that empower both business users and IT to create solutions quickly. For this reason, many organizations consider implementing SharePoint as a central platform to address a wide array of business solutions. For those organizations, it is likely that they will need a good way to track, manage, and prioritize those business requests. The SharePoint Lifecycle Management Solution with Project Server 2010 provides a framework and guidance for managing SharePoint business requests and includes two white papers and a sample dataset. This no-code solution includes: Business Decision Maker/Technical Decision Maker white paper containing a business evaluation of how Microsoft Project Server 2010 can be employed to help manage your SharePoint Lifecycle through enhancement requests and project proposals. Technical white paper contains step-by-step instructions on how to install and customize the SharePoint Lifecycle Management solution, along with basic instructions on how to use it. Project Server 2010 sample databases and templates that can be used to illustrate concepts. The sample dataset requires a farm that has a working installation of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 with Project Server 2010 fully configured (please refer to Project Server 2010 Tech Center ); and the Dynamic Workflow and Workflow Visualization web part solutions from Microsoft Project 2010 Solution Starters . For an overview of the solution, please watch this recent recording from Tech.Ed last week: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/OSP202 Last but not least do not forget to check out other existing white papers on Microsoft Project Portfolio Management offering on our Project site at https://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/articles-white-papers.aspx Christophe Fiessinger Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Project https://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie

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In Project 2010, we added the ability to create and edit project plans through Project Web App ( blog post ). One of the limitations though was that the only way to edit projects that contained Fixed Work or Effort Driven tasks was to use Project Professional 2010. We knew this was a shortcoming when we shipped and from the feedback we’ve received, we know this shortcoming puzzled many of you. Let me explain, essentially as we were getting late into Project 2010 development we realized that we weren’t able to stabilize editing projects that contained those kinds of tasks in the web environment. Rather than risk project plans getting corrupted, we chose to block the functionality and then stabilize it for SP1. I’m happy to announce that with Project 2010 SP1 you can now edit project plans containing Fixed Work tasks and Effort Driven tasks in Project Web App. Before SP1: After SP1: And proof that I can actually edit the plan: You can learn more about task types and effort driven tasks here . You can learn more about SP1 here .

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we learn five things that every CIO should know, and we watch some great videos on how people are more productive with the Cloud. 1. Five Things Every CIO Should Know About the Cloud and Office In our first BPOS story we analyze five things that every CIO should know about the Cloud and Office 365. The Microsoft Future of Productivity blog has a special guest blog post from Office 365 Group Manager, Andrew Kisslo. Microsoft Office 365 recently released its public beta, and there is no one better than Andrew Kisslo to walk you through the top five talking points from Microsoft’s Cloud. The five things every CIO should know are listed on the blog in the following order: