What is Office 365?

Click here to RSVP for the webinar on this topic on Thursday August 13th from 11-noon (eastern)

Office 365 is a subscription based service to the Office programs you know and love. It's kept up to date automatically, so there's no software for you to purchase and install. Your subscription gives you access from up to 5 devices, so you can work from your computer, tablet, smartphone, whatever you need.

Office applications
There are a couple different ways to use the Office products with Office 365. You have Office Web Apps, which are basically web based versions of the familiar Office products, as well as the full versions. Office Web Apps have a lot of the same functionality, although not all. And of course you will still have the full versions of the Office products available to install on your computer.

Email
Office 365 keeps all your emails in sync across all your devices. It's also easy to share calendars and view scheduling information for people within your organizations.

Instant Messaging
Office 365 comes with Skype for Business (Or Skype depending on the subscription you choose). You'll have individual and group Instant Messaging capabilities, availability indicators, and calling information. Check out our webinar on Skype for Business for more information on these capabilities.

Click here to RSVP for the webinar on this topic on Thursday August 20th from 2-2:30pm (eastern)

 Communication is critical when working on a project, but how do we best gauge how much is enough? Too much? In person or in writing? By groups or individuals?  Routinely scheduled or ad hoc? The answer depends on the size and nature of the project, the preference of the team, and organizational requirements. And all of this is determined as you create your communication plan.

Your project communication plan can be as simple or complex as you need. It's purpose is to document how various information within a project will be communicated. Some common methods of communication you'll see in communication plans are:

• Project Reports: Probably the most important communication, reports are usually listed specifically by name. You'll also want to document the recipients, the sender, and the schedule of delivery. Oftentimes we'll set variances for reports as well. For example, a standard budget report might suffice, unless the budget exceed 10% of the plan, then perhaps we would want to also include a detailed budget report, and escalate the recipients.
• Meeting Notes: You'll want to determine how to best distribute meeting notes. Options might include saving a document to a shared folder, sending and email, or making an entry in a SharePoint site.
• Contact Information: If you are working with a diverse team, especially those outside your organization, it's great to get everyone's contact information in one place.

Last lunchinar now online:

 
 The Quartet

by Joseph J Ellis

In 1776 we signed the Declaration of Independence.  Then we won the Revolutionary War.  Then we became a Democracy.  Then the Civil War happened.

To a large degree I confess to being mostly ignorant of what happened immediately following the Revolutionary War.  Like most folks, I bought into the Founding Fathers worked together and figured out how to create this new Democratic Republic pretty seamlessly.

Boy, was I wrong.  This is actually one of the better history books I've ready in a while.  I illustrates the disconnect between the ineffective national government (which was truly more of a Confederacy of States than a Federal Government) and the all-powerful State governments.

For those of you who think the Founding Fathers could do no wrong and had singular goals and objectives in mind, read this book.  You'll also realize that much of the mindset was based on compromise (especially dealing with Federal versus State powers).  And that much happened not because it was what all parties wanted, but what was politically doable.

The book focuses primarily on what the author sees as the four men most responsible for the creation of the constitution.  George Washington, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison take up a good share of the narrative.  But there's a decent amount of attention spent on the political issues of the day as well.

A great read.