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As Gary Chefetz mentioned last week: One Small Check Box, One Giant Leap for Project Server ; basically with the upcoming Project Server 2010 Service Pack (SP1) due at the end of this month you will now have the ability to “Automatically publish the updates” as shown below. I have been using this feature to demo the integration between Team Foundation Server 2010 and Project Server in the the case of an Agile Team collaborating with with the PMO, and attendees love this new feature that will improve ease of use (you will obviously need to think before turning this on for all projects, but it might make sense for some!). Microsoft Project Server 2010 Automatic Approvals Microsoft Project Server 2010 Automatic Approvals with Service Pack 1 (SP1)

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.

Great announcement from Rob this week: Announcing the EPM Content Pivot Viewer . Project and Project Server 2010 is major release of the already long history of Microsoft Project. We have been building content for the 2010 release for about two years (and are continuing to do so) to help you deploy, configure, and adopt Project 2010. Hence we have a ton of content and many of you have been asking for an easier way to discover all of the valuable documentation we have on our site. I think you will enjoy this new solution to help you get answers. The team is always looking for feedback to improve our content, so don’t be shy it’s free and happy pivoting

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.

Please mark your calendar for this special event/webcast on Wednesday (June 1st, 2011) at 3pm pacific time live from SPTechCon : Special Microsoft Project Announcement! Introducing “Project for the Masses” and “SharePoint Lifecycle Management Solutions” Join Christophe Fiessinger, Senior Technical Product Manager for Microsoft Project 2010, who will kick off the launch of two new Microsoft Project solutions, “ Project for the Masses ,” developed by Innovative-e, Inc., and “ SharePoint Lifecycle Management Solution with Project Server 2010 ,” developed by Jornata. Presenters: Christophe Fiessinger, Sr. Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation, Dux Raymond Sy, PMP, SharePoint Server MVP, Managing Partner at Innovative-e and Scott Jamison, Microsoft Certified Master at Jornata Christophe is part of the Microsoft Business Division Product Marketing Group and focuses on the enterprise project and portfolio management solution (PPM). Christophe focuses on promoting the value of Project Server by speaking at global Microsoft conferences like TechEd, SharePoint Conference, and Project Conference. He is a major advocate for enterprise deployments and line of business integration of Project Server. He regularly blogs on these topics at https://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie Dux Raymond is a managing partner and the chief evangelist of Innovative-e. Dux is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry. He has earned a reputation as being among the leading experts on leveraging collaboration tools for project management. He is a SharePoint MVP and the author of “SharePoint for Project Management,” published by O’Reilly Media. Scott is a managing partner at Jornata, a premier Microsoft-focused consulting and training firm based in Boston. Scott has extensive experience implementing business solutions using SharePoint technologies, and is one of only a handful of Microsoft Certified Masters for SharePoint in the world. He is a recognized thought leader, teacher and published author with several books, including “Essential SharePoint 2007” and “Essential SharePoint 2010.” You can find his blog at www.scottjamison.com .

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.  

Yes, as announced last week as part of Project Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on the main Project blog: Announcing Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Project & Project Server 2010 one of the new innovation of SP1 is the ability to do timesheet in your favorite browser as shown below (all tests were run on Windows Server 2008 R2 + SP1). Happy time sheeting! Timesheet In Internet Explorer (IE) Entering timesheet time in FireFox Entering more timesheet time in Chrome and submit Take you pick!

Following this post: I am speaking at SPTechCon in Boston June 1-3, register! @SPTechCon , I’m happy to announce that in addition to the sessions we will be having a special next Wednesday (June 1st) from 5:15 to 7:00pm. Beside a great presentation & demos from Dux Raymond from Innovative-e and Scott Jamison from Jornata , we’ll be giving away great giveaways including 10 copies of Project Professional 2010 (yes we can!), books, 16GB USB keys and more… More information can be found here: https://www.sptechcon.com/Boston2011/specialevents.html So don’t miss out and register!

For those of you that did not attend Tech.Ed last week in Atlanta (it was an awesome week!), please note the following two key dates next year: Tech.Ed North America 2012 : June 11-14, 2012 in Orlando, Florida Tech.Ed Europe 2012 : June 25-29, 2012, in Amsterdam Please see below two session that are publically available delivered last week: SharePoint Governance and Lifecycle Management with Microsoft Project Server 2010 Application Lifecycle Management: Microsoft Project Server 2010 and Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010, Better Together   PS: I really like the car above for some reason