Exchange 2010

Exchange 2010 continues to be one of the more popular classes we teach. There are several great places to familiarize yourself  and start your journey to becoming your company's "Go To" messaging person. First  is VTCs free lessons on introduction lessons on Exchange Administration. The second place you should visit is probably Microsoft's Exchange 2010 learning page.

Another great idea would be to join an Exchange User Group on LinkedIn. Finally you can watch a "Tips and Tricks" presentation from Tech Ed 2011.

National GiveCamp

Chris Koenig with Microsoft is the Founder of GiveCamp, which is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations.

They've announced October 21st as a national day for camps around the country. It's a great idea! 

4 days left! Who is the top SQL Business Intelligence pro?

You have till Friday afternoon to prove whether or not you are the top SQL BI pro in the country.

Walkthroughs

If you are a sports fan, especially football. you've probably heard the term "walkthrough." It's exactly what it sounds like, a team "walks through" their game plan before the game starts. Well Microsoft has come up with the IT equivalent, featuring in-depth looks at various technologies such as Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint.

These learning sessions are unique in that they showcase "How to do things" along with other resources to follow up and expand your knowledge on a particular subject.

You know what...I've done a terrible job of explaining "walk throughs"...just take my word...they are excellent places to quickly learn specific skills in a step-by-step process.

Excel

Broken down by number of students...we teach more Excel than any other single class. It makes sense seeing how it is the workhorse of practically every office. There is so much you can do in Excel...from simple spread sheets to big time Business Intelligence (BI).

There are some wonderful resources to help introduce employees to the basics of Excel but the best not surprisingly is located at Microsoft. This self-paced course takes about 40 minutes and includes a little test at the end and a reference card you can print for future reference.

Once you have a little experience you might want to check out Excel Ribbon Tips or Microsoft at Work.

If you want to dig in deep and do a little BI with Excel then check out all the cool things you can do with PowerPivot (free download).

I would mention Excel Services but I wanted a SharePoint free post...wait.

Customizing SharePoint

Of course you can use SharePoint "out of the box," but if you want it to work exactly like you need you are going to have to do some development work. Obviously taking a SharePoint development class is an option you need to consider:)

Another way to help raise the adoption rate of users embracing SharePoint (OK...there really isn't any challenge getting employees to embrace SharePoint because once someone sees it they love it) is adding web parts that are specific to their work. A trainer in the UK has posted an excellent article on how to customize web parts.

The Bain of Every IT Person

It probably happens to you weekly...hell it happens to me once a month and I'm the idiot sales guy! Someone...friend or family member...asks you for help with his or her computer. I'm sure you start with the two most obvious answers (A.) Restart your computer and/or (B.) Do a system restore.

Microsoft has a nifty little site called, "Microsoft at Home" that can be a great resource for the "Tech Leaches" in your life. Make sure you share this site with everyone...it has some cool things for novices to check out and it might save you a call in the middle of dinner or your favorite TV show! 

Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010 (UAG)

UAG is is a reverse proxy and VPN solution that provides secure remote access to corporate networks for remote employees and vendors. It is part of Microsoft Forefront offering.

To watch a really good video explanation (which even the idiot sales guy could understand!) go here. If you really want to learn more enroll in our class.

Office 2007/2010 Training Plug-in

Lynda.com which is one of the better online training outfits has very cool plug-in that allows you to watch training videos inside the application you want to learn more about, i.e. watch a video on Word 2010 while you have it open. Even if you do not subscribe to Lynda.com’s service there are still quite a few videos you can watch!

50 Things to Stop Doing Forever

I am on the email list for Jason Gracia's "The Motivational Mind" and his Motivation 123 site. The other day I got a list of things you should stop doing to move on to a better life. It's a profound list that I urge everyone to read and more importantly put to use immediately!

1. Struggling. I don't resist or fight against life or even 'bad' events. I go with the flow and make the best choices I can in the moment.

2. Doing things because I 'should.' I am not motivated by guilt but by my own adult decisions about what is best for me.

3. Delaying solving a problem. I face the situation squarely and handle it as quickly as possible so it doesn't cause me anxiety.

4. Tolerating crap from other people. I no longer hang around with people who diminish me, drain my energy, or treat me poorly.

5. Creating or tolerating drama in my life. Even though it can bring attention and a weird sort of excitement, I know that drama creates negative energy.

6. Setting goals that I should achieve. I set goals that I want to achieve.

SharePoint BI Overview

One of Tulsa's top tech guys and a frequent instructor at OakTree is Chris McLean. This coming Monday, September 12 he will be presenting at Tulsa's SharePoint Interest Group with a soup to nuts tour of SharePoint Business Intelligence.

Chris will talk about what it takes to get it moving, what the various layers & pieces are and what they are used for.  PowerPivot, Performance Point , Excel Services, Reporting Services, dashboards, MDX, Cubes, Data Warehouses / Data Mart External Content Types, BCS…he will talk about it all and how to start on your path to implementing a comprehensive SharePoint focused BI solution!

For more information and to RSVP (it's FREE!) click here. 

I've Got a Secret

Yeah I get it...a large portion of my posts are SharePoint...what does that tell you? That SharePoint is HUGE! An extremely valuable resource I just came across is called "Secrets of SharePoint" which is an absolute treasure of SharePoint resources. It also has one of the better listing of SharePoint User Groups in the U.S. and abroad.

Don't forget the complete lineup of (Administration; Development and End User) of SharePoint classes we offer. There's also a free webinar or two each month so check the schedule often.