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- Why automation might enhance the game
- Common workflows used in weekly score board and huddle activities
- Who benefits from automation
- Tip 1 – Office365 for Excel
- Tip 2 – Office365 SharePoint
- Tip 3 – PowerBI Score Boards
- Tip 4 – Systems Integration
Why Automate
We know sharing financial data is a big deal. Financial literacy can change your company. Ask yourself these questions:- Is our financial forecasting efficient?
- Is our financial reporting secure?
Business benefits of automation may include:
- Reduce the necessary level of effort = productivity, efficiency, speed
- Reduce errors = credibility, trust, quality
- Widely distributed information = adoption, empowerment
- Visualization = insight, meaning, trends
- Better results = profit and bigger bonuses
- Cultural fit – mobile, tech-savvy users may prefer digital score boards
Common Financial Forecasting Workflows
In many organizations we see the financial reporting and forecasting working something like the follow. How does it work in your company?- Actual financial results are reported weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually from the accounting team using the financial management system.
- Export financial statements to Excel for:
- Profit & Loss reports
- Income Statements – cash flow
- Balance Sheet statements for assets and liabilities
- Staff and teams update and reforecast critical numbers in Excel
- Teams review and approve the forecasts
- Huddle – teams post the forecast and actuals on a White Board physical Score Board in a team room
- Everyone follows the action in the weekly and monthly huddle
- Optional – some teams project the Excel forecast onto a projector screen for the huddle
(See this example of a live Huddle and Score Board on white boards in a team room)
Who Benefits from Automation?
There are a number of people and departments groups that can be big beneficiaries of automation tools, that go beyond the business benefits listed in the introduction. We find the following groups have a lot to gain:- Financial Department – if automation can help with the work associated with weekly financial reporting and distributing that information across the company, that would help lighten the load often placed on the finance team
- Forecasters – each of the employees responsible for forecasting a critical number and streamline the time they spend analyzing and updating their forecast if the data and reporting was automated at some lever. Also, the teams and managers that help collaborate to review the forecast can streamline the steps using software automation in many cases.
- Everyone – all employees across the company can using digital score boards to follow the action and carry the information around with them on their devices, or project them on screens around the facility so the data is available everyone, any time, from any location, not just those in the break room where the white boards are
Tip #1 – Office365 Excel Online
Our number one recommendation for automation is to move from Excel on the desktop or laptop, and shift to using Office365 version of Excel that works on a web browser or mobile device. Here are some things that are possible with Office365 Excel online:- Co-Author in Excel – you can have many simultaneous users working in the same spreadsheet document. This allows for parallel workflows not sequential routing of documents and versions.
- Entire team or company can be reading off one spreadsheet
- Works in a Browser/App/Device
- Anywhere access
- Collaboration with teams and reviewers can post notes, write comments, or share information
- Example – finance can send out the updated actual data with the old forecast. Everyone in the company can review it and update their numbers in one spreadsheet
- Tutorial – watch this short 0:48 Second Tutorial on how it works >>
Do You Own Office365?
Here is how you check:- Go to http://office.com
- Login with your company user name and password you use at work
- If you can login, you have office365! If you cannot, you can ask your IT department to purchase it for you. It costs about the same as the old desktop office license
- Do you see Excel or SharePoint on the list of Apps like shown here? If so ,you'll want Excel and SharePoint for the rest of this User Guide
Tip 2 – Office365 SharePoint
SharePoint is a powerful tool that you probably already own if you have Office365. It comes free with the Enterprise license. Here are some great ways you can use it to help manage and optimize and automate the business processes that deal with financial data and financial cost management.- SharePoint is a website with document libraries and data views
- Perfect for company financial processes
- Financial actual data could be published to SharePoint List
- Forecasts could be updated on a SharePoint List
- SharePoint even synchs with Excel
- Project Budgets
- Forecast Hours
- Actual Hours
- Master Schedule Dates by Phase
- Actual Dates (because on schedule often means on budget)
- All the ingredients required for Job Cost data
Here is an example of Project Tracking SharePoint data list the company uses to track all high level project costs. See the Project Numbers, Job Cost Codes and other information needed to tie Projects to Financials.
Here is an example of tracking specific time for tasks for employees and contractors. SharePoint can have forms and lists on the same page, making it simple to track and manage time reporting and actual hours spent vs. forecast hours.
In this example we track all the invoices for accounts payable to sub-contractors and accounts receivable for us to bill our clients for our work. This AR/AP SharePoint page helps manage the workflow of authorizing work, getting business sign off, and collaborating with accounting on what invoices to send out and what invoice to pay. This streamlines the AR/AP process across the company. We track the hours, and costs billed to each project.
Tip 3 – BI Score Boards
- BI = Business Intelligence – and it is a type of software automation tool that helps people understanding the Score Board information and what it means
- Helps with Financial Literacy and rolling out open book management
- Analytics help you to analyze the data, ask it “what if” questions, or to spot trends and outlier costs
- Solve problems using data by researching the detail behind the numbers
- Works on mobile devices, is usually dynamically updated and is secure so only the right people see the right data
- Drill down, roll up, slice and dice data in new ways not possible before, at the click of a button or filter
- BI tools are built on Excel, SharePoint and other systems of record
- Microsoft Power BI or Tableau are the 2 most commonly used BI tools
In this example the executive view combines all the financial metrics a leader wants to see from the Profit and Loss statement, Balance Sheet and Income Statement. You can also roll up a number of projects, entities, or in this case, real estate asset entities. This is very powerful because it pulls from multiple General Ledgers to roll them all up together across a portfolio of investments.
In this example you can see all the accounts and categories for the financial statements compared to Year to Date so people can quickly verify where they are in their budget. Summaries are by Month of the Year.
In this example we see a roll up of all costs for all financial statements, and compared against the forecast. It reports on the Variance from plan and alerts you immediately to any issues across the full suite of financial metrics, all on one screen.
In this example you can see graphics and dynamic data that you can interact with across all the graphics for:
- Income by month and income metrics
- Expenses by category for the time period
- Net Operating Income vs. the forecast, by month
- Net Income vs the forecast by month
In this example the Score Board shows more financial metrics and trends for:
- Cashflow statements by month
- Cash balances – cash is king! Follow the trends carefully
- Assets and Liabilities by month
- Balance Sheet by month so you know where you stand at all times
Tip 4 – Systems Integration
- Use software to process data and share it across the job functions that need it
- Eliminate manual data collection and analysis
- Let the computers do the busy work and the people play the game
- Get systems to “talk to one another” to eliminate redundancy
- Tip – only 1 System of Record per piece of data
- Tip – Data should only be entered once in a company or it should be automatically captured and output from existing processes and tools
- CRM – marketing funnel data – integrate with your CRM and marketing platforms to track, report and manage information such as:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- conversions
- touch points
- trade shows
- leads
- Sales – sales data can tell you a lot about the future. If you aren’t selling the future is bleak. If the sales funnel is healthy and growing, you may be on a financial upswing in revenue. Track some of these metrics:
- sales qualified leads
- appointments
- proposals
- RFQs
- bids
- Project Management + Financials = job cost control. Integrating project management and project job costs is critical.
- 1 Way Sync – Push data out of system automatically to another system so you can share the data across the enterprise, but you don’t have to pay more for more licenses of the software. This saves money in the long run.
- 2 Way Sync – Push and pull data in and out of systems automatically. This is when systems “talk to each other”. They are smart enough to send data out, let other review and approve it, and push the data back, with no manual work needed. This is very efficient and cost effective, and gets costs down to pennies per transaction.
About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards with SharePoint, document management with SharePoint, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => 4 Tips for Financial Forecasting Score Boards with Office365 SharePoint and PowerBI [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => financial-forecasting-score-boards-office365-sharepoint-powerbi [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-03-12 10:52:08 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-03-12 15:52:08 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/?p=14496 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [3] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14490 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-08-16 07:29:10 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-08-16 12:29:10 [post_content] => In this video demo we show you how we coded a SharePoint App Management Console that allows users to configure the API integration between SharePoint Document Libraries and Procore Document Modules for your projects. We walk you through the following steps in the demo:- You start at the point after you have installed the custom Management Console App in your SharePoint site as a custom App.
- You start with a blank fresh Document Library in SharePoint that is empty
- You access the Management Console from the SharePoint left navigation
- We will provide you instructions on how to Authenticate the APIs with the Tenant ID for the API connector
- Your Company ID in Procore
- Your ProcessChildID in Procore
- The ProcoreSecret Id - the secret token to get the APIs to talk to one another
- Enter the Project ID
- Documents List of data
- Edit the Project Set Up
- Delete a project once it is complete or no longer needed
- Activate the Sync - to start the job to synchronize the files
- Deactivate the Sync - to temporarily pause to stop the job
- Manual Sync - wakes up the connector if it stopped due to a service outage or you suspect it isn't talking, you can kick it off here
- Folders
- Files
- Meta data about each folder and file
- We can back up Procore in SharePoint
- We can automate data migration between Procore and SharePoint
- We can automate project set up from SharePoint to Procore
About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards, document management, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => Procore SharePoint Management Console Demo - API Integration [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => sharepoint-procore-management-coonsole-api [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-05-17 12:05:56 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-05-17 17:05:56 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/blog/sharepoint/sharepoint-procore-integration-live-demo-video-copy/ [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14488 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-08-13 13:28:41 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-08-13 18:28:41 [post_content] => Watch a live demonstration of how the Procore-SharePoint 2 Way Document Sync connector works. Many people love Procore for field construction management and many companies standardize their collaboration and document management on Microsoft SharePoint.The Problem with Teams Working with both Tools - SharePoint and Procore
Where do you keep your documents? Some teams use Procore and some use SharePoint. Now you can integrate the teams together by keeping one set of documents synchronized between both Procore and SharePoint with a connector created by Dallas consulting firm HingePoint.The Solution: Procore - SharePoint 2-Way Document Synch Connector and API Integration
Watch the video demo that shows you in real team exactly how fast the synchronization between Procore and SharePoint works. The Demo Shows You How:- Upload a file to SharePoint
- See the file synch in real time to Procore
- Upload a file to Procore
- See the file update in real time on SharePoint
- Rename a file on SharePoint
- It renames the file on Procore
- It updates the version number and meta data of the file after any action
- Rename a folder on Procore or SharePoint and it updates in both systems
- Delete a file from either SharePoint or Procore and it is deleted in both systems
- Data migration - to move data between platforms
- Back ups - back up a copy of all files on SharePoint from Procore
- Integrate 2 teams that use both platforms, and know you always have the latest version of all documents
About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards, document management, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => SharePoint Procore Integration Live Demo Video [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => sharepoint-procore-integration-live-demo-video [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-05-17 12:06:38 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-05-17 17:06:38 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/?p=14488 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [5] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14485 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-08-09 13:50:04 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-08-09 18:50:04 [post_content] => In this tutorial, construction managers will learn how to use SharePoint Online out of the box tools to manage all their critical project data. We will show in the video demonstration how to:- Manage all your new projects estimating is bidding on in one SharePoint list
- Hand off new projects from Sales to Operations after the deal closes
- How Construction managers can see all their project data in one SharePoint project dashboard
- How to assign project team resources such as Project Managers, Superintendents and other team members automatically with automated email notifications
- Store all the projects in one simple location. no more scattered project data
- Speed up the hand-off process for new projects, no more forgetting to tell the team about the new project
- Automate notifications and project information as it goes out to new team members - no more errors and omitting people from the project communications
- Eliminate wasted time in communication project information - it is automatically sent out to everyone
- Works on Mobile for field teams and field-to-office collaboration with construction job sites
The 7 SharePoint Lessons in the Demo Video Are:
- Create a SharePoint site for Construction Projects
- How to Create a New Construction Project set up form in SharePoint
- Track new construction bids and estimates coming from business development
- Create automated email notification in Office365 from Estimating to Operations
- Construction Work log Dashboard of all active projects
- Assign Senior Managers, Project Managers, and Superintendents and notify everyone in real time
- Constructions teams manage and update their project data to everyone knows accurate status
Step 1 - Create a Construction Management Site in SharePoint
We like to create a nice SharePoint site for the construction team, where they can easily manage all their projects. A good intranet page for the company can be used as the starting point for construction projects. On the screen below you see a link on the home page to all the Projects. This links to a site for both estimating to track pending jobs and construction managers to track active projects. This example is built in SharePoint online with a communication site template.
When you click on Projects image, you link to the Work log site here:
Step 2 - Estimating and Bidding Construction Project SharePoint List
Sales, estimating, and bidding can work on all prospective projects here. You can create a new project data list in SharePoint. Manage key metrics that drive business such as- Track new construction projects
- Manage key revenue and client information
- Notify construction and field teams of new projects that are starting or pending
- Automate project hand offs between estimating, contracting and construction management
That links you to this SharePoint List of all pending projects or New Construction Projects. Use this information to coordinate and plan team resources and who will be key resources on the projects. When resources are scarce and teams are busy, it is not easy to find the right leaders for all the work coming up in the pipeline.
Step 3 -Track Pending Construction Projects
We demonstrate here all the data we track for a construction project. You configure any data your company needs in your SharePoint List. From the navigation bar you can do the following items with the project data:
1. Search all the construction jobs, by data field
2. Log a new job
3. Quick Edit allows you to edit all the project data all at once. Many users love this feature.
4. Flows - allows you to make "code-less" workflows in SharePoint Online, so no real code needs to be developed
To start a new construction job clink the New Button. See the form pop up below you fill in:
For Construction these are some recommended data fields you may want to track. You may add more or less, depending on how much info you like to collect. Typically we want the "minimum" amount needed so we don't slow down or over burden the construction teams with data entry and data management. Just the key metrics to make sure we are:
- On Schedule (this is everything in construction. Typically if you can stay on schedule, things are going well).
- On Budget (everyone wants to know if we are on budget and who's been paid)
Recommended Construction Project Data
- Project Name - create a good consistent naming scheme that will allow you to search and sort on projects
- Project # - get a good numbering scheme, one that ties to customers, projects, and financials
- Job Address - a location you can later use to plot on a map
- City/Zip
- Owner Entity - owner of the project
- Customer
- Customer PO Reference # - authorizing document from accounting and client
- Customer Contact
- Contact Email Address
- Contact Address
- Contact City/Zip
- Project Billing Date - we like to have a day the client committed to getting billed, and payment terms
- Booking Date - date project closed the sale
- Start Date - the date the client wants to start
- Completion Date - day project ends or is planned to end
- Division - if you have divisions in your company
- Job Type - we like to have categories of projects (small, medium, large. Or; software project, constructions project, marketing project)
- Billing Type
- Architect - who was the architect of the solution
- Job Size - some clients like to sort on job size
- Contract Amount (Pre-Tax) - total revenue
- Estimated Profit - make sure your plan for profitable work before it starts
- Full Time Supervision - does the project need full time or part time attention
- Project Difficulty - some clients rank projects on difficulty, either we need senior resources or junior resources, or a tough client
- Client Interaction - client notes
- Estimator - person that estimated the job so we can validate any assumptions they made on the job
Step 4 - Email Notifications
Outlook Email is a great way to quickly share project information. SharePoint can send a "notification" email to anyone you want when you "trigger" that notification within SharePoint. In this video demo, estimating sold a project and wants to notify construction teams about the new job. We walk you through a series of emails where we:- Notify the construction manager of the new job
- The manager "confirms" they know about it
- Manager gets a confirmation email with a link to all the project information
- Estimating gets notified the construction team is ready for the kickoff
All I have to do is click "confirm" button to respond from within my email inbox.
I get a confirmation message from SharePoint and it also sends me a confirmation email that lets me know that it was responded to.
Now estimating and construction know that the hand-off took place, we have record of it, and the next step is to schedule a kickoff meeting. You also get a confirmation email so you know for sure that they got your response and accepted the new project:
The estimator can meet with the construction project team to go over all the information on the job and collaborate on project planning.
Once you are assigned to the project, if anyone other than yourself edits any of the data, we set up a notification that will alert you to any changes so you don't need to have a meeting or loose any changes, you are always notified, in real time, and fully in the know of all information about your project. See a sample notification about changes to information here:
Step 5 - Active Construction Project Work Log Dashboard
Part of the workflow is to move the pending projects from Estimating over to Active projects on the Work Log for construction. We actually move all the data over to a new data SharePoint List called WorkLog. The project is also still back on the New Project List where you can delete it or treat it as an archive. Once it is active you want to notify all the construction team and they can click a Link back to the project to get all the information they need stored in one place in SharePoint. You can access the list from the Home Page under Manage Your Projects:
The image is linked to the Project Dashboard Work log of all active construction jobs on this new list here:
Step 6 - Automatically Assign and Notify the Construction Resource Assignment
From this screen the construction manger can assign key resources to the project. We show here how to hand-off and assign the resources of:- Senior Manager
- Project Manger
- Superintendent
Step 7 - Manage Construction Projects Daily from the Work Log Dashboard
Now the Project Manager can see all the data they need about the project, as well as the date it was logged. The PMs can now take over and do what they do best and start to manage the scope, schedule and budget of the project. As they plan the work and "work the plan" The team enters updates to the budget, forecast and actual hours, etc. If they click the link in the email they go straight to the source of the information in SharePoint so everyone is on the "same page" with project information. We demonstrate how we set up a workflow that will notify the team members by email if there are any edits to the project information. This keeps everyone in synch, singing off the same song sheet, using the most up to date information. This is where the magic happens because SharePoint can elimiante a lot email and coordination meetings since everyone has accurate, up to date information, available from their phones, laptops, and any device, from any where. Here is a screen shot of what the Link in the mails goes to. A screen of all the project information in SharePoint.
Construction Management in the 21st Century using some simple tools in SharePoint and Office365 were shown in the video demo. We showed how to automate many of the hand-offs, email notices, and sharing of information through the construction job life cycle. The benefits you will receive may include:
- Happy Construction Workers
- Better relationships between the field and office and between estimating and project management
- Less time wasted on busy work
- Fewer errors because people had accurate information on jobs
- Increased accountability between leadership and on the job teams
- Improved communication because of fewer breakdowns in keeping everyone up to date with notices
- Greater adoption of SharePoint and tools because they are easy and actually help people succeed
What is a SharePoint hub site in Office 365?
SharePoint hub sites enable you to organize your intranet by associating multiple team sites and communication sites together in SharePoint. Hub sites provide common navigational structure, look and feel, and search across associated sites. You can use SharePoint Online hub sites in Office 365 to organize concepts, teams, divisions, or resources throughout your organization, making it easier to:-
Search across all associated sites
-
Discover related content, such as news and other site activities
- Apply common navigation and branding across associated sites
Mobile SharePoint Hub Sites
Searching for content across the SharePoint hub
When you search from a SharePoint hub site, content on the current hub site, as well as content on any associated sites, is displayed in the results. Users searching for items will only see results for which they have access to. This feature greatly simplifies the process of managing what information users have access to.
FAQs
Q: When can I expect to see SharePoint hub sites appear in my Office 365 tenant? A: SharePoint hub sites with begin rolling out to Office 365 First Release customers in the first half of 2018. Q: Can I join one SharePoint hub site under another hub site? A: No, you won't be able to join a SharePoint hub site to another hub site. Q: Can a team site or a communication site be joined to more than one SharePoint hub site? A: No. It will only be possible to join a site to one hub site at a time. It is possible to link to various unjoined sites in the top navigation. And it will be possible, within seconds, to join and/or unjoin a site as the business changes. Q: Can a hub site replace my current organizational portal? A: Hub sites are designed to let you dynamically organize closely-related sites, bringing together similar projects, binding related assets, and presenting common activity. Customers with portals that include customization beyond the web parts and extensions that the SharePoint Framework currently supports are likely to continue using the SharePoint publishing infrastructure, which continues to be fully supported in both SharePoint Server On-Premises and SharePoint Online. Q: When should I use a team site? When should I use a communication site? A: Your SharePoint team site lets you share content, knowledge, news, and apps with your group as you collaborate on a project. A communication site lets you tell your story, share your work, and showcase your product across the organization.What's Next
We can't wait to start planning and constructing solutions with SharePoint hub sites in 2018. HingePoint believes hub sites will be most valuable in an intranet scenario because of the navigation abilities of cross-site collections that have been lacking in previous SharePoint versions. If you're trying to customize SharePoint hubs to meet your organization's unique needs, we'd love to hear what you're looking to accomplish! Feel free to start a live chat with our solution consultant on this page, email us, or call us at (214) 301-0000 to get started today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgeYRrKB5U8 --About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards, SharePoint document management, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => What is a SharePoint Hub Site? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => what-is-a-sharepoint-hub-site [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-03-12 10:51:00 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-03-12 15:51:00 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/?p=14259 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [7] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14266 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-03-29 23:29:36 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-03-30 04:29:36 [post_content] =>
Construction Project Management: Stop Using Spreadsheets
Having and maintaining accurate, up-to-date employee data is crucial in the construction business. If your business is rapidly growing (like so many other construction companies in the Dallas area where HingePoint is headquartered) and you’re onboarding employees, vendors, and contractors, accurate data on who your employees are and what they are working on is critical for success. Although it sounds like a simple task, project management for construction companies can be quite challenging and lead to more serious issues if not managed properly.The Spreadsheet Problem
Many of our clients in the construction industry previously used Excel spreadsheets to manage their financial data, employee data, project status, and assets. Some were using old versions of SharePoint with unorganized data. When working with software and older systems, data about employees are prone to be full of errors (out-dated and inaccurate). The trick is to get up-to-date, accurate information out of your data management system instead of old, error-prone data. Spreadsheets are great tools for handling smaller and more manageable datasets. But what happens when you start hiring 10, 100, or even 500 employees at a time while managing employee data in a spreadsheet or in multiple, unstructured databases? It gets unmanageable - fast.
As your construction business grows, more departments need human resource employee data because more information is attached to each employee. And soon, just having the right name, address, phone number, and social security number across the enterprise become more challenging if you don’t have the right controls and organization.
If this data is in an actual spreadsheet, then anyone can enter and change data in that workbook.
(See: Why spreadsheets don’t manage big data sets well)
The Situation
For example, a manager could get access to a Human Resource spreadsheet with employee names and other important information. Let’s say the manager has an employee named Suzanne, but she likes to be called Suzy. The manager changes the data because they can and there are no restrictions preventing it. But there is a big problem. Now the source data – the system of record – is not consistent/accurate. Suzanne will be called different names in different versions of spreadsheets. (Check out our FREE eBook on The Secret To Systems Integration: The System Of Record.) Throw time in there, too. Perhaps “Suzy” is a contractor who is keeping her time in a spreadsheet that gets sent to her manager. The manager sends Suzanne’s hours and all contractors to Human Resources so they can get paid. The manager’s project data is being merged with HR’s data. The problem is that we have two different names in the system. “Suzanne” and “Suzy”. No VLOOKUP formula or Pivot Table is going to solve this. It’s going to take someone to manually go in and fix the data. This might not seem like a big deal, but as the company grows, these smaller errors will multiply in other departments. Once this happens, the employee data cannot be trusted, and it will take a lot of manual work to fix the errors each pay period. The data problems can become so big that businesses end up just not trusting their data, causing a lot of rework, manual data entry, etc.The Solution
A lot of construction companies we work with the hope that the software an IT company is going to install will solve the data problem. Unfortunately, this just adds another layer of complexity to the original problem. The problem that needs to be solved is how you're going to clean up your data, actually collecting it, and then showing it in a way that lets you see the data in a new light. Ideally, you want to make decisions with information that automatically reports to you. Seeing year-over-year and month-to-month views of data can quickly identify trends. With the right devices collecting the data and the right systems transposing it into information, humans can focus on making strategic decisions that will make their customers happy. That is how technology should work. And that what HingePoint can help you acheive! If you're looking to solve your company's HR and Project Management employee data problem, we'd love to hear what you're looking to accomplish! Feel free to start a live chat with our solution consultant on this page, email us, or call us at (214) 301-0000 to get started today. --About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards, document management, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => Best Practices for Construction Companies to Control Employee Data [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => best-practices-for-construction-companies-to-control-employee-data [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2018-10-22 00:34:23 [post_modified_gmt] => 2018-10-22 05:34:23 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/?p=14266 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [8] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14234 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-03-13 10:00:31 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-03-13 15:00:31 [post_content] =>With the seamless integration of Office 365 and SharePoint Online, Microsoft has breathed new life into SharePoint, one of the most used platforms for collaboration, document management, team collaboration, IT support, web portals, project management, financial reporting, forms routing, and much more. The problem is very few companies take the time to maximize what Office 365 can do!
SharePoint Online improvements over the last year include upgrades that drastically impact users in terms of transporting cloud-based Office 365 capabilities onto the SharePoint platform. HingePoint identifies a few improvements we use to get the most out of Office 365 and SharePoint.
- The ability to leverage Office 365 Groups, which deliver a means of group communication, is a solid alternative to popular messaging applications, such as Slack. Using Groups gives your team the ability to view, edit, share all group files, view and schedule group meetings with ease allowing for better communications among team members. [Read more about custom integrations and consulting for Microsoft Teams here.]
- Using Microsoft Planner to your company’s teams or groups to create multiple task lists associated with different projects or daily to-dos. Microsoft Planner has many of the same filtering capabilities as SharePoint lists, so it is a niche replacement for tools that previously had to be built from scratch or customized from other list templates. Read more about Microsoft Planner here.
- The new workflow capabilities of Microsoft Flow feature code-free interaction with hundreds of third-party services such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Facebook, Twitter, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics, and more. Microsoft Flow puts real power in the hands of regular users by easily connecting and automating services vital to your business.
- SECURITY: Limit who, outside your organization, gets to see your content. Granting external access in SharePoint Online is a breeze and no longer a time-consuming inconvenience. Simply connect a Microsoft account to their company e-mail or create guest links to give users access to folders, individual files, and sites within your environment. Don't want anyone with a gmail account to have access, no problem! Share your content with a specific group of people in your organization by setting permissions through Active Directory Security Groups. Use policies that will allow or block certain user behavior (such as documents with credit card info or employee salaries). Create a policy that blocks people from sharing that kind of information between one another.
- A new layout that includes rich text, images, videos, news, highlighted content, customizable dashboard, and recent site activity allows for a more mobile-friendly content display. Mobile SharePoint access used to be a nightmare due to the lack of responsive You can now access SharePoint from anywhere and communicate with your team remotely to get more work done with ease.
- Embedding Power BI reports to a SharePoint page - display charts, dashboards, reports, KPIs, etc. on your SharePoint site to make the information readily available to users. Additionally, the analysis/metrics tools are now available within the program instead of having to import them; so significant time is saved on importing data from other sources.
We have guru developers and architects that have ALL the Microsoft certifications. Create your own Web Parts, .Net, Office365 APIs, SharePoint Online and Integration with Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory (AD), and SQL Server.
If you properly implement SharePoint, it will transform your company’s productivity. Employees will be more efficient, you’ll have better access to your company’s data, and you’ll be able to better report on key metrics. HingePoint’s custom SharePoint solutions have helped many companies struggling with unorganized data and manual, multi-step processes. Those same customers have transitioned into a more organized, productive organization through automated workflows and easy-to-search information.
--About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards, document management, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => Benefits of Using SharePoint & Office 365 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => benefits-using-sharepoint-office-365 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-07-06 14:00:45 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-07-06 19:00:45 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/?p=14234 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [9] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14204 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-03-06 09:57:22 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-03-06 15:57:22 [post_content] => Microsoft SharePoint is one of the best tools to manage company data. However, finding an expert SharePoint consultant can be a difficult and time-consuming task. Here are a few things to look for when searching for a qualified SharePoint consulting and development partner.What to Look For in a SharePoint Consultant:
A good SharePoint Consulting Firm is a company that:- Has both consulting and development experience in your industry.
- Can customize the out-of-the-box capabilities of SharePoint.
- Understands how to organize data.
Experience in Consulting & Development in Your Industry
You don’t want a company with little experience in your industry. If the consultant cannot prove their track record of satisfied customers, then you might need to look elsewhere. Always ask, what brands the SharePoint Consultant has worked with. Depending on what kind of solution you want, you may want to find a SharePoint consultant that has worked with trusted brands. For example, HingePoint has worked with brands like Marriott, Verizon, Presidio, and IHG. Make sure that they have experience working in your industry (or a similar industry).Ability to Customize SharePoint's Built-In Capabilities
To meet your business' specific needs, SharePoint consultants sometimes only need to use the standard "out-of-the-box" (built-in) capabilities that come with SharePoint. But sometimes, they need to be able to customize SharePoint so it works the way you want. If you're looking for customization and the consultant can only perform basic configuration without any customization, you're going to be unsatisfied. The flip side is also true: if a SharePoint consultant only tries to push customization when you just need something basic, they aren't the right fit. Always ask, "Do you just configure out-of-the-box or do you customize SharePoint?"Understands How to Organize Data
Let’s face it, if you're using SharePoint, you most likely want to manage all the information in your company. SharePoint is a great document management system. Without it, your documents are probably unorganized and difficult to find. If the SharePoint consultant does not know how to make a hierarchy of data, you might not have the right fit. Always ask,"Are you going to help me organize my data? Manage it on an ongoing basis?"Conclusion
Hiring a SharePoint consulting firm can be an investment that provides a positive ROI almost immediately. If you're in the process of finding the right consultant, we'd love to hear what you're looking to accomplish! Feel free to start a live chat with our solution consultant on this page, email us, or call us at (214) 301-0000 to get started today.About HingePoint
HingePoint offers cloud and mobile applications for construction and real estate that are easy to adopt and employees love. Specializing in the systems that run the construction and real estate business including SharePoint, Salesforce, Procore, MS Dynamics, and Autodesk. Scale and grow profitably with Financial and Project Management Dashboards, document management, and workflow automation for field to office collaboration. HingePoint 8105 Rasor Blvd. Suite 241 Plano, TX 75024 (214) 301-0000 www.hingepoint.com [post_title] => What Makes a Good SharePoint Consulting Firm? [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => what-makes-good-sharepoint-consulting-firm [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2018-10-22 00:42:12 [post_modified_gmt] => 2018-10-22 05:42:12 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.hingepoint.com/?p=14204 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 10 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 14454 [post_author] => 3 [post_date] => 2018-09-19 00:43:36 [post_date_gmt] => 2018-09-19 05:43:36 [post_content] =>
Microsoft Office 365 Online updates of Oct 2018. There are so many updates coming out all the time from Microsoft and HingePoint wants you to know what they are. We will summarize the big releases for you here and how they might impact you.
Latest Microsoft SharePoint Upgrades in 2018
Published On: November 28, 2018
Updated feature: Ability to view and apply site designs from within a SharePoint site
Until now, you could only apply site designs to existing sites by using PowerShell. With this update we are providing a new site setting to view any applied site designs and apply additional ones. We’ll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 44327.How does this affect me?
After this change takes place, there will be a new site setting option for site owners to display a new site design information panel. If any site designs have been published to the tenant they will be displayed in the picker. Only site owners and site collection administrators have access to invoke this panel – and it respects any additional scopes on the published site designs, so only those available to the viewer will be displayed. If any sites designs have been applied to the site, they will also be displayed and can be selected to view what changes were applied. We’ll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations in mid-December, and the rollout will be completed worldwide by the end of December.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
You don't need to do anything, but if you are using site designs you may consider updating your user training and notifying your helpdesk. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 28, 2018
We're releasing multiple updates for SharePoint news
We’re updating SharePoint news to enable organizational news site designation, organizational news special visual styling, audience targeting, and the ability to organize news posts so that they display in the order you choose. We'll begin rolling these features out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs: 30547, 30694, 30695, 33469 and 44212.How does this affect me?
When this change goes into effect, you’ll be able to: - Designate specific sites as organizational news sources. Once you’ve designated a site, users will see organizational news articles interleaved with their personalized news feed. The organizational news will be distinguished by special visual styling. In the SharePoint mobile app, you can filter to see all news, personalized, organizational, or news you’ve saved for later. - Organize how news displays in the news web part. The news web part will be updated to allow page authors to organize their news articles into a specific order, as opposed to the automatic rotation that occurs today. - SharePoint news will now support audience targeting. If you’ve set up groups within your organization, you’ll be able to target pages and news to these groups. The news web part has a checkbox to allow page authors to choose to show all news, or news targeted based on a group the current user is a member of. The SharePoint mobile app and SharePoint home experiences will always filter news targeted to the current user (there is no option to change or disable this setting, unlike the news web part). We'll gradually roll these updates out to Targeted Release organizations in early December. The roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of February.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 21, 2018
JavaScript React framework 16.3.2 is coming to SharePoint Online
In order to improve your SharePoint Online experience, we're making an update to one of the underlying components that powers SharePoint framework solutions on modern pages. This only impacts solutions that leverage the React JavaScript framework. If you don't have custom SharePoint Framework Solutions which leverage the React JavaScript framework installed in your App Catalog, you can disregard the remainder of this message. Starting on November 27, 2018 we're upgrading the React version from 15.6.2 to 16.3.2.How does this affect me?
You are receiving this message because SharePoint Online framework solutions that use the React JavaScript framework should be validated with React 16.3.2. Today, existing and recently updated solutions leverage React 15.6.2. This update will go into effect on November 27, 2018 and will first be made available to Targeted Release organizations.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
If your organization is in the Targeted Release program, we recommend that you add your web part developers as Targeted Release users, which will enable them to validate their solutions on your production system. If there is an issue with the solution, please refer your developers to the linked documentation on how they can resolve issues in the short and long term. Short term by targeting their webpart to React 15, longer term by resolving any stricter requirements of React 16. If there is an issue that they are unable to resolve in the short term, please call support to make us aware of the issue. We can very temporarily (e.g. less than one month) flight your tenant out of the roll-out to resolve any service impacts. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 19, 2018
Updated feature: we're rolling out new SharePoint Online site branding and navigation features
We are expanding the set of options available to configure the look and feel of a site. This includes an updated “change the look” panel with settings to more easily customize the site header, footer, and navigation layout. We’ll begin rolling out these features soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs: 33131, 33132, 33138, and 43781.How does this affect me?
We are updating the “change the look” settings with additional options to enable customization of select site brand elements – specifically, header layouts, footer layouts, and navigation menu options. In addition to setting the theme and header background, site owners will now be able to switch the site header layout to two other layouts, each changing the position or displaying of header elements. The new mega menu navigation layout is only available for horizontally-oriented navigations and allows for a panel display of links up to three levels. The footer setting is initially only available for communication sites, displaying a footer that can host a logo, links, and label. Along with these updates, the Content Bar (also referred to as the “social bar”) - which contains the Like, Comment, View and Save for Later icons - will be docked permanently on top of the Comments section on all modern pages. We'll begin rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations at the end of November, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of December.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
This is an update to an existing feature, adding more options to the "change the look" settings panel that can be optionally applied by the site owner. You don't need to do anything, but if you are using site designs you may consider updating your user training and notifying your helpdesk. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 16, 2018
New feature: @mentions in comments in SharePoint Online
@mentions in comments is a new Office 365 feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 43982.How does this affect me?
When you comment on a document or presentation and use the @ sign with someone's name, the person you mention receives mail with a link to your comment. Clicking the link brings them into the document and into the conversation. Currently, this feature is available in Word and PowerPoint, and is coming soon to the new comment experience in Excel (available only to Office Insiders for now). We’ve begun rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations and are now continuing the roll out to all SharePoint Online organizations. During the course of the rollout, some Targeted Release organizations may experience sporadic access to this feature, and some documents and presentations will include this functionality, and others will not. Once the rollout completes, all Word and PowerPoint files will have this functionality, and all users will have access to the feature. We anticipate roll out completion to take place in the next weeks. After rollout completion, users will receive a notice within the comments pane informing them of the @mentions feature.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 16, 2018
New feature: Location Columns for SharePoint Online lists
Location Column is a new SharePoint Online feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 33593.How does this affect me?
Location Column allows you to add rich location data from Bing Maps or your organization’s directory to any SharePoint Online list or library. You can then filter, sort, and search by any aspect of the location data such as address, city, or state. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations at the end of November, and we expect the roll out will be completed worldwide by December 14.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 14, 2018
Updated feature: Manage Access in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online
We’re updating the Manage Access experience in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. We'll begin rolling this feature out in the coming weeks. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 27500.How does this affect me?
We are rolling out our new Manage Access experience to better align with how users expect to be able to manage links and permissions on individual files and folders. We've updated the experience to make it easier to distinguish between users who have access directly and users who are accessing via links. Most importantly, this new experience will enable users to add and remove individual users on links that only work for specific people. We'll be gradually rolling this out to all customers in mid-November, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of December.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
You don't need to do anything, but may consider updating your user training, and notifying your helpdesk. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: November 06, 2018
New Feature: Create an associated site from within a SharePoint Online hub site
The ability to create a new associated site from within an existing SharePoint Online hub site is a new Office 365 feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 33134.How does this affect me?
After this change takes place, you’ll be able to create associated sites from within an existing SharePoint Online hub site. By clicking the "new site" button right in the hub site itself, you’ll experience our normal new site creation process and the site will be automatically associated to the hub site. Only users who have access to join the specified hub site will have this option available to them. This feature respects the global site creation setting. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations in mid-November, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of December.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
You don't need to do anything, but may consider updating your user training, and notifying your helpdesk. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: October 29, 2018
Improving the way, we show user's private OneDrive content in Microsoft Search in SharePoint
To improve the way, we show user's private OneDrive content in Microsoft Search in SharePoint, we're making some changes to the way searches are handled in SharePoint Online. During November we will make changes to the default SharePoint Online search experience to make content from the user's own OneDrive for Business more clearly separated in the search results. With this change, the results will be clearly labeled as 'Results from your OneDrive'. An important reason for this change, is feedback from customers that returning search results from private content mixed with all other content may be confusing in an enterprise search result. Also, a clearer interface delineation aids user to find the content they are looking for faster. Private content is content that hasn’t been shared with anyone else from the user’s own OneDrive.How does this affect me?
Starting November 26, in addition to the UX change, we will change the default scope for user queries issued via the Microsoft SharePoint CSOM and REST search API, in which private, non-shared results are filtered out of the tenant-wide search experience. As a reminder, users will only see results they have access to, including files in SharePoint and OneDrive that are shared with others.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
If your organization uses the SharePoint Online search API to power a search experience, and users expect to receive results from SharePoint and OneDrive for Business, including their private OneDrive for Business content, review the Additional Information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: October 19, 2018
We're improving your SharePoint admin center
We’re updating the SharePoint admin center. We'll begin rolling these changes out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 42304.How does this affect me?
We’re making improvements to the new SharePoint admin center. The new SharePoint admin experience provides a completely revamped SharePoint admin center that draws heavily on our modern principles an administrative console designed to help IT achieve more, so their users can achieve more. Beginning in late October we’re adding new capabilities to this admin center to include: - The ability to set as your default admin center - Improvements to managing group-connected sites - New options to manage and configure hub sites and associated sites - Additional options to allow for configuring default site creation properties We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release "entire org" customers in late October, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of January.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: October 10, 2018
New feature: Create a reminder in SharePoint Online
Create a reminder in SharePoint Online is a new Office 365 feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID: 34267.How does this affect me?
After this change takes place, if you have a custom date column in a list or library, you can now create an email reminder a number of days in advance of the date column selection. We began gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release ("entire org") customers in early October 2018, and the rollout will be completed worldwide by the end of October. This rollout is excluded from Office 365 subscriptions where Microsoft Flow is not available today.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Users will get an additional option to create a reminder under the Flow menu in lists and libraries if custom date columns exist in lists or libraries. Additional informationPublished On: October 9, 2018
New feature: @mentions in page comments in SharePoint Online
@mentions is a new SharePoint Online feature. We’ll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap IDs: 30693 and 33470.How does this affect me?
After this change takes place, users will be able to @mention their colleagues in the comment section of modern pages & news posts. This functionality is available in SharePoint Online and in SharePoint Online mobile apps for Android and iOS. The person who is mentioned will be notified via push notification in the SharePoint Online mobile app and in email. If the mentioned individual does not have access to the page where they are mentioned, then no notification is sent to the user. When mentioning a person, the commenter is made aware if the person does not have access to the page they are being mentioned in, and that they will not be notified of the mention. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations in mid-October 2018 and the roll out will be completed worldwide by mid-November 2018.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: September 04, 2018
New feature: Modern library content types and document templates in SharePoint Online
We are rolling out a new feature in SharePoint Online that will allow adding document templates to a SharePoint library as any content type. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID 33039How does this affect me?
With this new feature, we are adding the streamlined ability to add document templates to library content types. We’re also adding the ability to edit the New menu to add, hide, or reorder the new file type options. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release customers in early September, and the worldwide rollout is expected to be completed by the end of October.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 31, 2018
Updated feature: New group management capabilities in SharePoint Online admin center
We’re updating Office 365 Group management capabilities in the SharePoint Online admin center. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. In the current Microsoft 365 admin center experience, the following Microsoft 365 admin roles can manage Office 365 Groups: global administrators, user administrators, and Exchange administrators. In response to customer feedback, we will provide additional SharePoint Online administrator permissions to manage Office 365 Groups in the new SharePoint Online admin center. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 32864How does this affect me?
After this change takes place, SharePoint Online administrators will be able to perform the following tasks to SharePoint Online team sites tied to Office 365 Groups: create, restore and change Owners of a group. We'll be gradually rolling this change out starting in October, and the rollout will continue through the end of the year as part of a broader refresh of the new SharePoint Online admin center. We anticipate rollout completion worldwide by the end of January.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 28, 2018
New feature: Mass delete notification in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business
We’re launching a new mass delete notification feature for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 31754How does this affect me?
To help raise awareness of uncommon or accidental file deletions, we will now make a best effort attempt at notifying your users if a large number of files are deleted, and we will provide the option to restore those files. For OneDrive for Business users, if a large number of files are deleted from a user's OneDrive, the user will receive an email notifying them of the deletion and it will include an option to restore their files from their Recycle Bin. For SharePoint Online team sites, if a large number of files are deleted, the person that deleted them – either the site owner or a member – will be sent an email notifying them of the deletion and it will include an option to restore their files from their Recycle Bin. Notifications are sent to users when a higher than usual number of files are deleted per hour. This is not to be considered a fail-safe file recovery solution – it is a continuation of best efforts we are making to protect your files from accidental loss. Each email notification will include an unsubscribe link at the bottom for those that wish to opt out of this type of notification. We've begun gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations, and the rollout will continue for Standard Release organizations in late September. This rollout is excluded from Office 365 subscriptions in GCC, GCC High, BlackForest, and Gallatin.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 28, 2018
Updated feature: New ways to configure flows in SharePoint Online
Based on the feedback we’ve received from Office 365 administrators like you, we are introducing a new option in our libraries to be able to pick the approval mode desired (Request sign-off, or Content approval), or to turn approvals off altogether. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30551How does this affect me?
-Site owners will now be able to go to lists or libraries, and click on "Configure flows", which will bring up a new panel with settings that will allow them to change the approval mode or to turn approvals off altogether. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations in early September, and the roll out will be completed worldwide in mid-September.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 23, 2018
Updated features: SharePoint Online News and modern pages
We’re updating SharePoint Online news and are improving the modern page editing experience. We'll begin rolling these updates out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap IDs: 32696 &32970.How does this affect me?
After these updates roll out, you will experience the following changes: - SharePoint Online News updates: Besides the new carousel layout in the News web part, we’re enabling you to reuse existing content in the SharePoint Online News distribution system. With News link you can share a link to items like existing news within your company, news from your public website, LinkedIn articles, and so on. The News link will automatically show an image, title, and description for the link when available. Each of these values can be edited by the author. - Modern page editing updates: Users who go to edit a modern page will be able to see if someone else is already editing that page. They’ll be able to see who that person is and how to contact them. Additionally, to prevent unintentional page lockouts, a user’s editing session will time out after 5 minutes if no changes have been made to the page content. These updates will gradually roll out to Targeted Release organizations in early September, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of November.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 22, 2018
New feature: Add a SharePoint Online page, news or list as a tab in Microsoft Teams
Today, team members can work with SharePoint Online files and document libraries directly inside the Microsoft Teams user experience. After this change takes place, when you ‘add a tab’ in Teams using the ‘SharePoint’ tab app, we are making it easier to choose between available lists, pages and news items -- to quickly bring them into Microsoft Teams. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30687.How does this affect me?
This feature will allow you and your users to select SharePoint Online team site news articles, pages, and lists from a simple dialog box that shows all available content from the connected SharePoint Online team site. Once you choose the desired SharePoint Online-based content, it will appear as a tab in Teams and will remain intact within SharePoint Online. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release "entire org" organizations in late August 2018, and we anticipate rollout completion by the end of September 2018.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 22, 2018
New feature: SharePoint Online view formatting
SharePoint Online view formatting is a new Office 365 feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 32990.How does this affect me?
With this change, you’ll be able to improve the display of views in SharePoint Online lists with formatting. The view formatting text describes the elements that are displayed and their display style. The data in the list doesn't change. Anyone who can create and manage views in a list can access view formatting from the View options menu. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations in late August, and the rollout will be completed worldwide by the end of September.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 20, 2018
Updated feature: Apply existing site designs to associated hub sites in SharePoint Online
In August 2018, we’re rolling out an update to SharePoint Online hub sites that will allow for site designs to be applied to associated sites. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30699.How does this affect me?
Once a site gets associated to a hub site, it not only inherits the theme of the hub site, it can now be further configured using a site design – providing a powerful management option to further configure any associated sites to enforce permissions and configure additional site components using site scripts. You can learn more about site designs and site scripts here: https://aka.ms/spsitedesigns. This is an optional hub site setting. The site design and associated site script will need to have already been published in your organization. If you don’t wish to reuse this site design in self-service site creation be sure to scope it to restrict visibility. You can learn more about site designs scoping here: https://docs.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dev/declarative-customization/site-design-scoping. We’ll begin rolling these changes out to Targeted Release organizations before the end of August and the roll out will be completed worldwide by early October.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
This is an optional setting that can be configured for each hub in your organization. No changes will be made to your current hub configurations, so if don’t want to enable this additional extensibility option for your organization, then no additional action is required. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional Information.Published On: August 15, 2018
Updated feature: Revised versioning settings in OneDrive for Business and in team sites in SharePoint Online
As we previously announced in MC138148, we will be providing an option to opt out of the upcoming document library versioning setting update. The library versioning update will prevent your users from disabling versioning, thus ensuring the availability of recoverable content. You can start opting out today using the SharePoint Online Management Shell cmdlet provided later in this post. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30544.How does this affect me?
If you choose to opt out, your organization will not be able to take advantage of the upcoming version setting update. Document library's versioning can be turned off by end users, and as a result, documents lose the protection of version recovery. Hence, we highly recommend you leave this setting on-by-default for the upcoming version setting update.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
If you would like to utilize the new file versioning settings, there’s nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. If you would like to opt out of the versioning setting update, you can use the SharePoint Online Management Shell cmdlet, and you must do so by September 30, 2018. After September 30, we will begin rolling the new versioning setting out and will honor your organization’s existing settings. The following cmdlets are used to opt out of versioning settings: Command: Get-SPOTenant/Set-SPOTenant Parameter: EnableMinimumVersionRequirement Value: True - default value, opt-in to the versioning change. Fales - opt out. These commands require version 16.0.7918.1200 of the SharePoint Online Management Shell or greater. To download the latest version of the SharePoint Online Management Shell, visit https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=35588. After you run the cmdlet to change the value, please check if the value is set correctly by running the Get-SPOTenant cmdlet. Click Additional Information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: August 10, 2018
New feature: Save for Later in SharePoint Online
Save for Later is a new Office 365 feature. We'll begin rolling this feature out soon. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30692.How does this affect me?
This feature will allow you and your users to save news posts and pages right from the SharePoint Online web interface, just as is possible on the SharePoint Online mobile app today. We'll be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release (entire org) organizations in mid-August, and we anticipate rollout completion to take place over the next few months.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click Additional Information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: August 9, 2018
Updated feature: New header emphasis options are now available in SharePoint Online
We’re adding an option to add rich colors to the site header in SharePoint Online. We'll begin rolling this change out in late August. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30697 30697.How does this affect me?
To provide more site branding flexibility, we are enabling you to modify the color shade of your site headers. This header emphasis will be based on the currently applied site theme color and can either be a lighter, softer color or a darker, stronger one. The site owner always has the option to set the color to gray or revert to the original. Please note that this option currently only applies to SharePoint Online themes and not custom ones. Color shade adjustments to site headers can be made by accessing the "change the look" settings panel. We will begin gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release organizations in late August, and we anticipate rollout completion worldwide by the end of September.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
You don't need to do anything to prepare for this change. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional informationPublished On: July 27, 2018
We’re rolling out multiple feature updates for SharePoint Online self-service site creation
This July 2018, we’ll begin rolling out several improvements to the SharePoint Online self-service site creation experience. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap IDs: 31070, 32588 and 31088. How does this affect me? - We’re making modern team site templates available for sites not connected to Office 365 Groups (31070): Previously, when Office 365 Group creation in SharePoint Online was disabled, site creators were limited to only creating a “classic” team site. This change lets site creators use modern team site templates even if Office 365 Group creation is disabled. Additionally, your users can now create communication sites even if Office 365 Group creation is disabled. As a result of these changes, the “hybrid” option in self-service site creation settings is no longer necessary and we’re removing the selection from the settings. If your organization is using the “hybrid” setting, you will notice the title selections have changed. A site that currently uses one of the new team site, communication site, or “classic site” templates will become “A new team site or communication site.” - We’ve improved subsite creation settings (32588): In the past, subsite creation settings were enabled for all SharePoint Online templates and could be disabled for Office 365 Group-connected team sites. These settings only appear in the menus display on site contents page. With this change, we’ve extended these settings to apply only to “classic” site templates and we are enabling the option for you to disable them for all site templates. If you have elected to hide the subsite menu command for Office 365 Group-connected team sites, the setting title will change to “Show the subsite command only for classic sites” and when selected, will hide the option for all modern site templates. - Language selection options for SharePoint Online sites (31088): Lastly, we’re adding a language selector setting on the self-service site creation form, which allows your users to specify a default site language that’s different from your organization’s default setting. We’ll begin rolling these changes out to Targeted Release organizations this week and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of August.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
If you want to let your users create modern sites but they were unable to because Office 365 Group creation was disabled, then no additional action is required. You will now have the ability to enable/disable the option for using modern site templates during self-service site creation and should review your current settings and adjust to the desired configuration for your organization. Additional informationPublished On: July 2, 2018
Update on Visio Web Access from SharePoint Online
Action required by September 29, 2019 Last September, we announced that we would be removing Visio Web access from SharePoint Online (MC120728). Since then we have listened to your feedback and are extending the timeline to September 2019 to allow more time for the migration of your existing Visio content to the newer platforms. Beginning September 30, 2019, Visio Web Access (Visio Service) and its Web Part for SharePoint Online will no longer be available. Instead of Visio Web Access you can now use Visio Online and migrate your organization’s web parts to a newer experience with the new JavaScript (JS) APIs for Visio Online. Visio Online enables high fidelity viewing, sharing, and collaboration in your favorite browser, without installing the client for all Office 365 licenses. It supports embedding Visio diagrams in SharePoint Online using a modern file viewer web part and with IFrame along with JS API programmability.How does this affect me?
Beginning September 30, 2019, users in your organization will only be able to view Visio diagrams in their browser, but not create or edit. Visio Online viewing is available to most Office 365 subscriptions.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
Before September 30, 2019 you should migrate any of your existing Visio content to the newer platforms. Please click Additional Information for more detail about how to migrate your existing content. Additional informationPublished On : May 30, 2018
SharePoint List Views: List and Document Library web parts in SharePoint Online
We’re updating the List and Document Library web parts. We'll be gradually rolling this out to First Release customers in early June, and the roll out will be completed worldwide by the end of August.How does this affect me?
You and your users will notice improvements to the List and Document Library web parts including: drag and drop upload, support for column formatting, pinning, tile view, nested grouping view, and open in client option. All existing list and document web parts will automatically reflect these new updates.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for this change. Please click this article for information about the List web part. Please click this article for information about the Document Library web part. If You Need more help with SharePoint or Office 365, click here.Published On : May 30, 2018
Weather? Check Out our web part and improvements to the Image web part in SharePoint Online
In order to enhance the SharePoint page authoring experience, we are introducing a new "Weather" web part and updating the existing "Image" web part. These features will begin rolling out soon to Targeted Release customers in June and the update will be available worldwide by the end of July. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 27740.How does this affect me?
The "Weather" web part will allow SharePoint Online page authors to configure the web part to show weather information provided by MSN Weather for a location of the author’s choosing. The "Image" web part improvements will allow authors to provide text overlay on an image, plus add a clickable hyperlink associated with the image.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare for these changes. Please click Additional Information to read about What's new for your intranet in Office 365 including additional details about the new "Weather" web part and updates to the "Image" web part in SharePoint online. Additional informationPublished On : May 30, 2018
Updated feature: Page Metadata and Content Filtering in SharePoint
Microsoft is updating metadata and content filtering in SharePoint Online to make organizing content easier. They will be rolling out this update beginning in mid-June and it will be available worldwide by end of July. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID 27251.How does this affect me?
In SharePoint, your users can now access a page details panel on the page itself to edit metadata properties, as well as utilize the page properties web part to surface metadata to readers. Moreover, they will also be able to filter by metadata in the news and highlighted content web parts.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
You don't need to do anything, but may consider updating your user training and notifying your helpdesk. Please click Additional Information to read about What's new for your intranet in Office 365 including additional details page metadata and content filtering in SharePoint online. Additional informationPublished On : May 23, 2018
Terminology used for Office 365 Groups, Distribution Lists, and Security Groups are changing
Microsoft is updating terminology used across your Office 365 admin center, Exchange admin center, and Azure admin portal to provide you with a more consistent experience when interacting with groups and distribution lists. We have begun gradually rolling this change out to Targeted Release organizations, and we anticipate that the rollout will be completed worldwide by the end of June. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 30574.How does this affect me, and Office 365 User?
With this change, you will see updated terminology across the Office 365 admin center, Exchange admin center, and Azure admin portal. The 'Type' column will now be referred to as ‘Group Type’. This column will now include values of ‘Office 365’, ‘Mail-enabled security’, ‘Distribution list’, and ‘Security’. The concept of ‘Distribution Group’ will now be referred to as ‘Distribution List’ throughout experiences such as group creation, edit, and upgrade.What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
If your organization has a dependency on the previous values being present in the 'Type' column within the user experience, you will need to update your dependencies to use the new terminology. Please click Additional Information for more information about this update. Additional informationPublished On : May 23, 2018
Microsoft Whiteboard – this is Big!
Microsoft Whiteboard will be exiting preview and will be generally available in the next few months. Microsoft Whiteboard is a freeform digital canvas where people, ideas, and content can come together for creative collaboration. The app is built for anyone who engages in creative, freeform thinking before getting to their final output. It’s designed for teams that need to ideate, iterate, and work together both in person and remotely, and across multiple devices.How does this affect me?
Microsoft Whiteboard contains an on/off switch, to give you some control with the rollout of this within your organization. The Preview switch is currently off-by-default, to give you a chance to explore the new capabilities. In the summer, this experience will be turned on-by-default, unless you explicitly turn it off. In the next few months, the updated version of the Whiteboard Windows 10 app will be available for download from the Microsoft Store. Users in your organization will be able to download and log into the Windows 10 app, as long as Whiteboard is enabled for your organization. This rollout is excluded from Office 365 subscriptions in Government, GCC, DoD, Office 365 Germany. If you are in one of these scenarios, you can ignore this message. What do I need to do to prepare for this change? This has administrative controls to enable and disable. This feature will be on by default, when this change takes effect. If you are not ready for your users to use Whiteboard, please disable by going to the Office 365 Admin center \ Settings \ Services & add-ins \ Whiteboard, and Turn Off Whiteboard for your entire organization. Please click Additional information to learn more. Additional information for Microsoft WhiteboardPublished by Microsoft On : May 16, 2018
Versioning Documents for OneDrive and team sites in SharePoint Online
Microsoft Listens! And will be providing an option to opt out before releasing this change. When Microsoft will get ready to provide the opt-out option, they will publish a new Message Center post. To stay up-to-date with progress of this change please refer to the with Office 365 Roadmap ID 30544.How does this affect Microsoft Users?
Once this roll out begins, SharePoint and OneDrive libraries will be set to retain a minimum of one hundred major versions. Existing libraries that have versioning enabled but are set to retain fewer than one hundred major versions will be updated to retain the new minimum. Libraries already set to retain one hundred or more major versions will not be affected, including those with the default setting of five hundred. With these changes, the Document Library Settings page will no longer support the ability to disable versioning or configure it to retain fewer than one hundred versions. Please note: We will be implementing settings which will allow you to opt-out of the new minimum version requirements for SharePoint and OneDrive libraries. Additional informationPublished On : April 6, 2018