Here's why it's a bad habit...

Most of us (including me) have notifications set to get an immediate alert for a "Chat." It's like a ringing phone or someone dropping by your office. It's an immediate interruption to your focus because it seems urgent. The old word for this, "Instant Message" or "IM," better describes what's happening better than "Chat." 

On the other hand, a Channel Post is not as urgent. Most of us (including me) don't have notifications set up for these. We see them highlighted when checking Teams, but we only do that a few times a day. If you are @mentioned, then you still get the alert. 

So, when getting ready to send a message in Teams, stop and think; if there's a Channel available and the message is non-urgent, Post instead of Chat. And create a culture where you can politely hold each other accountable to these simple productivity boosting tips!

Download our Digital Workplace Communication Etiquette E-book to learn best practices on how to use digital collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams to empower your team instead of derailing their productivity!

However, in some cases, a commercial tenant won't account for specific privacy and security requirements. These cases typically apply to US government entities and agencies or organizations handling information for and with the US government.

Microsoft 365 offers Office 365 Government GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments to fulfill these needs while complying with required certifications and accreditations.

Each environment requires:

1. A validation process
2. All data be stored physically segregated from content in Office 365 commercial tenants
3. All data be stored within the United States
4. Access to all data is restricted to only screened Microsoft employees.

Now that we've established the Office 365 Government cloud, let's break down the distinction between each government cloud.

GCC vs. GCC High vs. DoD

While the GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments meet the parameters discussed above, their main differences come in the accreditations and certifications assigned to each.

• GCC: Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) accreditation at a High Impact level.
• GCC High: FedRAMP High, including those security controls and control enhancements as outlined in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-53.
• DoD: FedRAMP High and the security controls and control enhancements for the United States Department of Defense Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG) for information up to Impact Level 5 (L5).

GCC High and DoD environments are designed to meet the requirements of the United States Department of Defense and contractors managing DoD-controlled unclassified information (CUI) or subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

Functionality in Office 365 Government

Because of the stringent requirements of these environments, there are many features available in commercial and not government Office 365. Let's look at a few commonly used features not currently available.

Exchange Online

Features NOT available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

• Voicemail—Integration of on-premises IP-PBX systems with Exchange Online Unified Messaging isn't supported.

Features NOT available in GCC High and DoD

• Guest Access—No guest access to Microsoft 365 groups.
• Internet calendar sharing—Internet Calendar publishing/sharing works for inbound connection to calendars shared by GCC High users, not for GCC High users connecting outbound to a shared calendar outside GCC High.
• Connectivity with third-party services—Users can't add/sync accounts (e.g., Google, POP/IMAP).

OneDrive

Features NOT available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

• File management—file requests are not available for Office 365 government.

Features NOT available in GCC High and DoD

• External sharing—Sharing is only permitted with other organizations in GCC High. NON-GCC High email addresses attached to user profiles aren't supported and won't allow sending alert emails.
• SharePoint libraries—Document library access to SharePoint ("Shared libraries" in the navigation pane) isn't available in the GCC High and DoD environments.

SharePoint

Features NOT available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

• Migration—GCC environments can't grant consent to the Azure ShareGate Migration app on their SharePoint Online tenants. The ShareGate Migration Tool can't utilize Microsoft's Graph API, the Azure import process, and other features associated with using the Insane mode for Microsoft 365.
• Alerts and notifications—Notifications for file and site activity aren't available

Features NOT available in GCC High and DoD

• Site settings—Changing a site address isn't permitted.
• Analytics and Usage—The following cards aren't available on the home page of the SharePoint admin center for GCC High and DoD customers: SharePoint storage usage, SharePoint site usage, OneDrive usage, SharePoint file activity, and OneDrive file activity. For some government cloud customers, tracked view cards are only available in the SharePoint admin center.
• Automation—Graph functionality within SharePoint Online is currently disabled. Any service that relies on Microsoft Graph may not currently be available.
• Hub News, events, and highlighted content—The news, events, and highlighted content web parts will only pull items from the current site. Content from selected sites or hub rollups from associated sites isn't available.

Microsoft Teams

Features NOT available in GCC High and DoD

• External sharing—Sharing is only permitted with other organizations in GCC High or DoD. NON-GCC High or DoD email addresses attached to user profiles aren't supported or allowed to be added to Teams.
• Calling—No call settings for the secondary ringer, voicemail, and enhanced delegation or cell phone number from the search bar.

Microsoft Forms

Features NOT available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

• Embedding—Embed Forms on other portals (including SharePoint, OneNote, Sway, PowerPoint, and Teams Tab).
• Automation—No integration with Microsoft Power Automate.

Features NOT available in GCC High and DoD

• External sharing—Only people within your organization may complete a form and submit a response, duplicate and share a form as a template, co-author or collaborate on a form and access form results.
• Integrations—No poll in Outlook or Teams or integration with other office products.

Power Platform

Features NOT available in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

• Power Apps—Push notifications; add to Teams from Power Apps Studio; Model driven apps and Canvas App; Dataflows in Power Apps; Power App Analytics.
• Power Automate—Limited support for third-party and first-party (Microsoft) connections. To check if a specified connector is available, view the Power Automate list of connectors.
• Power BI—Power BI US Government isn't available as a Free license. If you've purchased Power BI Premium, you don't have to assign licenses to users to allow them to consume content published to a Premium capacity. For all other access, including access to the admin portal and the ability to publish content to the Premium capacity, each user must be assigned a Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) license. If a user account is given a Free license, the user is authorized to access only the commercial cloud and will encounter authentication and access issues.

Conclusion

Feature availability is constantly evolving. Although not an exhaustive location for understanding features available to government tenants, the Microsoft 365 roadmap is a good place to keep an eye out.

Looking for more guidance on Office 365 government functionality and possible remediations? Reach out to us for a chat!

How to Get Back on Track When Distractions Derail Your Productivity

Here it is: Never type a reply message, or use a suggested reply, when a reaction will do—it's that simple!

Why?

Many users have their notifications set up to alert them whenever a reply comes in. This breaks their focus and interrupts their work to check the message. Let's discuss why distractions are such a big issue at work. Then, we'll review several strategies to help reduce the negative impacts of interruptions.

3 Negative Effects of Distractions

1. Decreases productivity. Studies suggest that a seemingly small interruption can cost up to 23 minutes to recover and re-engage in a focused state-of-mind. So, while it may seem polite to say "Thank you!" you're hurting the productivity of your coworkers. Multiply this number by the dozens of messages that are sent to most people every day and you can see how adopting this small change across your organization can make a noticeable difference!
2. Lowers quality of work. Distractions not only derail productivity, but the over quality of a person's work decreases. Oftentimes, people compensate for being interrupted by working faster, but this can make things worse. In fact, working faster causes more stress, higher frustration, and requires a greater amount of effort to complete the task at hand.
3. Reduces creativity. Interruptions can disrupt the flow of ideas and hinder creative thinking, making it difficult to come up with new and innovative solutions. Getting distracted by bings, pings, and rings can be especially detrimental to creative work that requires deep concentration, such as writing, programming, or design. 

Strategies for Staying Focused at Work

• Turn off notifications. Many users turn off notifications to reactions. They can still see them later in their activity feed, but they don't receive an immediate desktop alert when one comes in. 
• Time block for focused work. Schedule blocks of time during your day to accomplish focused work without interruptions, such as early in the morning or after lunch when distractions are fewer.
• Take breaks. Research shows that taking purposeful breaks (anywhere from 5–60 minutes) to refresh your brain and body increases your energy, productivity, and ability to focus.
• Use a productivity method. Consider adopting a productivity technique like Pomodoro, which encourages working in a series of short bursts (25 minutes) followed by short breaks (5 minutes).
• Practice time management. Plan your day in advance and prioritize important tasks during hours where you tend to be most productive to make the most of your time and avoid last-minute rushing.
• Use one platform for emergencies. Some notifications can be ignored (e.g., reactions or a quick "Thx"), while others require immediate attention. It's best to assign one platform or notification type for emergencies, such as phone calls.

Want to keep collaboration and productivity high, and disruption low? Download our Digital Workplace Communication Etiquette E-book. You'll learn best practices on how to use digital collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams to empower your team instead of derailing them.

That magic spell comes in the form of PowerShell! SharePoint Online Management Shell (a PowerShell module) provides an easy way to complete bulk tasks, change settings quickly, and perform actions not otherwise available.

If you're new to PowerShell it may sound complicated and the image below might look like a foreign language. 

Don't worry—I'm giving a simple, step-by-step process you can follow to make your magic happen in SharePoint!

What Is It Exactly?

The SharePoint Online Management Shell is a Windows PowerShell module. Essentially, we'll be using a PowerShell module specifically for SharePoint. Check out this article from Microsoft to learn more about PowerShell.

How Does It Work?

PowerShell works through "cmdlets" or PowerShell commands. Cmdlets are lines of scripts written in a specific syntax that you can input into the module to change/add/update things on applications. 

The main difference between cmdlets in Windows PowerShell and the SharePoint Online Management Shell is the nouns used. Windows PowerShell starts with MSO, while SharePoint Online starts with SPO.

Simple cmdlets are easy to use even for beginners. Microsoft provides excellent documentation for many commands that users need to only tweak before running. 

In many cases, you'll mostly copy/paste with no need to learn the syntax or write scripts from scratch. I'll show you what I mean.

Prerequisite 

To use SharePoint Online PowerShell commands, you need the SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator role in Microsoft 365. 

Installing the SharePoint Online Management Shell

Every Windows computer comes equipped with the Windows PowerShell app by default, but you'll need to install the SharePoint Online Management shell module.

Select the orange "Download" button on this page and install the application by opening the setup wizard and walking through the onscreen prompts.

Once the installation is complete, you're ready to run your first command!

Let's Get Running!

The first step is logging in to SharePoint Online via a simple cmdlet.

Use the sample cmdlet provided below. You'll need to replace the yellow highlighted section with the URL of your tenant's SharePoint Online admin center. 

Connect-SPOService -Url https://DemoTenant-admin.sharepoint.com

Follow these steps to connect:

1. Copy and paste "Connect-SPOService -Url" into a notepad or Word document. 
2. Go to your SharePoint Admin Center and copy everything before the first "/". Paste that URL at the end of the command. 
3. Copy and paste the whole command directly into the SharePoint Management Shell window (Use CTRL+V to make it easy). Press the "Enter" key to run the command. 

A pop-up will appear asking for your login information. Once you log in, you're connected! You'll need to repeat these steps each time you open the SharePoint Online Management Shell module.

Now What?

Now that you're connected let's get started doing some magic. 

Getting Information

Some cmdlets allow you to display the information you're looking for quickly. Others will get lists of sites, groups, and users.

1. Get a list of the sites in your tenant with this command:

Get-SPOSite

2. Get a list of the groups in your tenant with this command:

Get-SPOSite | ForEach {Get-SPOSiteGroup -Site $_.Url} | Format-Table

Note: This series of commands demonstrates a unique capability in PowerShell known as "piping." Each command is fed inputs from the previous command.

3. Get a list of the users in your tenant with this command:

Get-SPOSite | ForEach {Get-SPOUser -Site $_.Url}

4. Get all users and security groups for a specific SharePoint site.

Get-SPOUser –Site <Site URL>

Tip: Remember that to run a command, you must paste the cmdlet into the window and press the "Enter" key on your keyboard. 

Managing Users and Groups

There are a variety of cmdlets for streamlining your process of adding users and groups to a site. 

Adding a User to a Group

1. Use the Add-SPOUser cmdlet to add users to a group. 

Add-SPOUser -Site <Site URL> -LoginName <User Email> -Group <Group Name>

Adding a Large List of Groups

The easiest way to add a large list of groups to sites is to prepare a CSV file and then utilize a PowerShell command.

1. Create a CSV file with headers/columns corresponding to the parameters defined in the PowerShell script. In this case, we're adding groups to sites, so we'll need to define Group, Site, and Permission Levels. 

The CSV should have those three column headers with the corresponding data below. Make sure you format your data as a table with headers. See the sample below. 

2. Use the Import-Csv command as shown below, replacing the highlighted section with the file path for the CSV.

Import-Csv C:\Users\JohnSmith\Downloads\Groups.csv | ForEach {New-SPOSiteGroup -Group $_.Group -PermissionLevels $_.PermissionLevels -Site $_.Site}

Adding a Large List of Users

Similarly, you can add one or more users to one or more groups.

1. Create a CSV file with headers/columns corresponding to the parameters defined in the PowerShell script. In this case, we're adding users to groups, so we'll need to define Group, LoginName, and Site. 

(Note: There's no need for Permission Levels since the group will already have permissions applied).

The CSV should have those three column headers with the corresponding data below. Make sure you format your data as a table with headers.

2. Use the Import-Csv command as shown below, replacing the highlighted section with the file path for the CSV.

Import-Csv C:\Users\JohnSmith\Downloads\Users.csv | ForEach {Add-SPOUser -Group $_.Group –LoginName $_.LoginName -Site $_.Site}

Ready to Get Started?

This only brushes the surface of what can be done quickly through simple PowerShell cmdlets. Check out Microsoft's Cmdlet reference to get started with simple cmdlets for frequently performed tasks in SharePoint. 

Looking for additional tutorials? Read more from the C5 Insight blog!

Quickly finding an attractive, relevant (and free) Microsoft Teams picture can be a challenge. But, good news, you have an entire library of free icons at your disposal. It takes just a few minutes to set one up. Using the emojis and icons provided by Microsoft as your picture is free and easy. Here's the process.

How to Use Free Emojis and Icons as Your Microsoft Teams Picture

Step 1: Open PowerPoint

To start with, just open PowerPoint. From here you can access emojis and icons and convert them into a Microsoft Teams picture.

Step 2: Select a Microsoft Teams Picture 

Now you'll want to find your ideal picture by browsing either the emojis, icons, or both. Start with a blank slide with a white background.

Browsing Emojis

1. Add a text box to your slide.
    
2. With the cursor inside of your text box, hold down the Windows key and press the period "." button. A pop-up of emojis will appear. You can use the search box to look for just the right emoji.
   
3. If you find an emoji you want to use, hit enter to add it to your text box.
4. You'll probably want to make the font much larger (about 44 point seems to work for me).
5. If you don't find an emoji that will work, then...

Browse Microsoft's Icon Library

1. While still in PowerPoint, click the Insert menu and then Icons.
    
2. You'll see a huge searchable list of icons. Find one you like and double-click to add it to your slide.

Step 3: Give it a Background

1. From the PowerPoint menu, select the Insert tab, select Shapes and then add a rectangle.
2. Fill the rectangle with a background color.
3. Right-click it and select "Send to back."
4. Resize it to be a perfect square around your image.

Step 4: Save Your New Microsoft Teams Picture

You can use a variety of methods to save your picture in a format that can be uploaded to Teams. Here are a couple:

1. You can use a screen capture program like Snag-It.
2. You can group your square shape and picture into a single object, then right-click and select "Save as Picture."

Step 5: Add the Icon as Your Microsoft Team Picture

The last step is to add the picture to your Microsoft Team.

1. From your Team, click the ellipses next to the Team name and select Manage Team
    
2. Go to the Settings tab, expand the "Team picture" area by clicking on the heading, and then click Change picture. 
   
3. In the dialog that appears, choose the Upload picture option, browse to your picture, and save it.
4. Voila - you've created a beautiful and easy-to-find Teams picture you can be proud of at no cost!

The common theme was that there is so much to learn, where does one even begin!? It's a fair statement - there IS a lot of ground to cover!

I decided this would make an interesting blog entry for anyone who might be wondering the same thing. But be warned, this is not an exhaustive list. That said, I do hope this provides a foundation or starting point for those who have an interested in exploring all that the platform has to offer.

First, let's ensure we're on the same page. Microsoft 365 contains a significant breadth of tools and services. It now encompasses Office 365, and essentially focusses on the business application productivity of users (but don't be confused - there is a "home" offering for Microsoft 365 as well!).

For the purposes of this article, the context is that of a business use case. Those who asked the question of me initially were asking because they believed there were various applications to their respective company, hence their desire to learn more.

How to Start Learning Microsoft 365 Tools

1. Research

Look up the various license offerings and the products that come with it. For me, a huge part of understanding the options was digging into products like SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. Just honing in on those alone provides plenty to explore.

I opted to document what each tool was for, and did some research into use case examples from users around the world (look at LinkedIn or Twitter for insights into real world examples). From there, I started to understand how people were using each tool.

2. Start a Trial

You can get a free trial of the applications here.

3. Make a List (Good luck keeping it short!)

For each tool, I started with the basics by reviewing Microsoft documentation. I also looked up various learning paths from Microsoft Learn. This helped me expand my understanding of the various features of each tool.

4. Learn From Others

I had the good fortune of a colleague who had extensive experience in several of the tools. He took a significant amount of time to share his knowledge and structure some demos and tutorials. His insights helped me get familiar with some of the basics and then the more advanced features of Microsoft tools.

5. Be Intentional

I carved out very specific times with specific topics to focus on for my 'learning journey'. This helped me stay focused, and I tracked my progression through a simple OneNote notebook (where I also kept notes of what I'd been learning!).

How to Get Started in Your Learning Journey

I found it challenging at first to lay out what I needed to learn - after all, we don't know what we don't know! I hope the following list can provide some direction with respect to where you might want to get started.

For each one, consider the five W's (what, why, when, where, who) and of course the H (how!). A question for each:

1. What is intent of the feature?
2. Why would this be used?
3. When might this be used?
4. Where is it found?
5. Who would use it?
6. How is it used?

(You may have others, this is just to get your thoughts flowing!)

SharePoint

• General Overview (what even IS SharePoint?!)
• Sites
• Pages
• Lists
• Document Libraries
• Webparts
• Security

Teams

• General Overview
• Teams
• Channels
• Chat & Interactions
• Document Management
• Apps & Integrations

Microsoft Forms

• General Overview
• Types of questions
• Branching
• Form Settings

Other Questions You Might Explore

• How do these tools interact with other Microsoft products (Power Platform, Dynamics, etc.)?
• Power Automate (so much goodness here!)
• Power Apps
• Power Apps Portals

As you can see, there is a TON to learn.

The common theme to my sentiment here is to be organized and intentional in your approach to learning. Looking for tips on how to do just that? Check out this article which touches on some tips for keeping up with application evolution and contains some suggestions on how to do so in an organized way.

I hope this provides some insight into how to approach learning some of these exceptional tools. Happy learning!

The use case is managing agreements in a document library on SharePoint. We're going to deviate a bit from their specific use case so we can generalize it a bit. Our example today will be based on contractor agreements.

The premise is straightforward—each contractor and organization has a formal agreement valid for one year. Contractors are onboarded at various points of the year, so the dates are always unique.

We need a way to see agreements coming up for renewal to know which ones to contact to get the correct information before their expiration, as contractors with an expired agreement are not allowed on the job site. 

To start, we've created a Contractor Agreements Document Library.

You can see that our document library has several metadata columns on it—this information gets entered when we upload the agreement upon signature. Here is a breakdown of the columns you see:

• Name - The document title. We've adopted a standard naming convention of [Contractor Name] - Contractor Agreement
• Status - Represents the agreement as Active or Renewed. Once a new agreement is signed, it's uploaded, and the previous one is updated to Renewed.
• Effective Date - Represents the date the agreement began.
• Expiration Date - Represents the date the agreement will expire.
• Days Until Expiry - This calculated field subtracts the Expiration Date from today's date to show the number of days remaining.

The field has been given a formula only to calculate the status = Active; otherwise, it will do nothing, which you can see in the screenshot's red box.

The formula for this is =if(Status="Active",[Expiration Date]-Today(),"")

These are all of the columns we need at this point. There could be others that you would add based on your use case. SharePoint provides various field types to choose from, so you can build out metadata around your document (or on your list, if you're building a list instead) as you see fit.

We want to embed some conditional formatting to highlight columns or the entire row based on some of that metadata. To do this, we'll click the drop-down next to the column on which we want to establish our conditional formatting. In our example, we want to do the following:

• If the Agreement is going to expire within 11-30 days, highlight the Days Until Expiry field yellow
• If the Agreement is going to expire within ten days, highlight the entire row red 

First, select the column of metadata you want to base your formatting on and click the drop-down next to the column title. Select Column settings and then Format this column, as shown in the screenshot.

A flyout will open on the right side, presenting two options: Format view and Format columns

First, we want to add the logic to highlight the column cell yellow if the day is within the 11-30 range.

To do this, click Manage Rules as seen on the screenshot above, ensuring the Choose Column has the correct column noted within it. A new menu will open on the flyout.

Click Add rule (not shown in screenshots) to display the rule logic and fill in the criteria. In our example, we need two conditions as follows:

• If Days Until Expiry is greater than or equal to 11
• If Days Until Expiry is less than or equal to 30

In the Show list item as area we select the yellow tone and click Save.

Next, we want to add the conditional logic to highlight the entire row red if the Days Until Expiry field has a value of 10 or less. To do this, we return to the Conditional Formatting menu and select Format View.

We click Add Rule (not shown in screenshots) to get into the rule editor.

The process is much the same for formatting columns as we did above. Build out the rule logic on the provided menu, as shown in the screenshot, then click Save (not shown).

Now that we've added our conditions, we can test them out. The screenshot below shows the Days Until Expiry column highlighted yellow because the number is between 11 and 30.

The screenshot below shows the entire row highlighted as red because the Days Until Expiry number is less than 10.

Now, when our team reviews this document library, they'll quickly see which ones are coming up, including those close to expiry.

There you have it! A great way to leverage the conditional formatting features of SharePoint. Note that these features exist for both the Document Library and List functions.

Questions about how you could be maximizing SharePoint for your organization? Contact C5 Insight today!

In part one, we initiated our Forms Processing model and trained it to grab data from a document. This article will delve into how we act on that data.

Our use case involves uploading a utility bill to a SharePoint Document Library. Our goal is to use Forms Processing to identify data from the uploaded form and append that data as metadata on the Document Library.

To accomplish this, we'll use Power Automate, but need two things in place first.

1. The Document Library metadata columns in place

2. The Forms Processing model trained and operational

Power Automate Steps

Navigate to Power Automate and create a new Automated flow to get started. The trigger will be When a file is created (properties only), which provides the uploaded file's properties necessary later. We've pointed this to the Site and Library, where it will upload the documents. 

Next, we'll use the Get File Content action to obtain the content we'll need in the next step to give the Forms Processing model the uploaded document.

Next, we'll add the Extract information from the forms action. We'll point to our model trained in the previous article. The bills are always in PDF format, so we'll select the PDF Document option on the drop-down.

Next, we need to make a slight adjustment. The Forms Processing captures the Bill Amount data as a string but includes the dollar sign ($).

We need to strip that away, so we're left with just the numerical figures. To do this, we'll use a Compose action with a substring expression to remove the first digit in the string.

It looks something like this: substring(outputs({field we want to trim},1)

Finally, we can push that data into SharePoint using the Update File Properties action.

As you can see, we've set the Title column to be a concatenation of the Company Name and Bill Date fields.

When we upload a document to the SharePoint Document Library, the metadata will automatically append within a few seconds!

This process saves a significant amount of time throughout the year as we no longer have to find and add that data manually. Talk about using automation to our advantage!

Are you interested in something similar but are unsure where to begin? Contact C5 Insight today to get started! We'd be thrilled to connect with you!

Recently, we had a situation where a customer was leveraging a SharePoint Document Library to store their utility bills. This particular customer does a great job at identifying critical elements of metadata on their libraries to filter and sort the information to help them glean insights about the data without having to open each bill and review them.

It's a great use case, but they spent a great deal of time each month uploading the bills and then, one by one, opening them and filling in the relevant metadata based on the data contained in the statement.

We talked through how they might streamline this process, and it quickly became apparent that AI Builder's Forms Processing was a great fit.

Why Forms Processing?

Forms Processing is a machine learning-based tool that enables the creation and training of a model to extract information from a form automatically. In our use case above, the scenario is pretty straightforward: upload the bill and identify the relevant information from various locations on the statement.

From there, we can leverage Power Automate to push that data over to the SharePoint Document Library.

In this two-part blog article, we'll explore how to get Forms Processing working and how we can take the outputs of the processing and append them to a Document Library.

Getting Started

First, you need the correct license in place. As licensing models can change over time, we're providing a link to Microsoft's AI Builder licensing page to view the most updated version.

Once you have the proper license in place, you can add intelligence to your business.

Setting Up the Model

To start, navigate to make.powerapps.com and select AI Builder on the left, then tap Build.

Select Forms Processing to get started. It will launch a start-up wizard asking you to name your model. Note that you'll need a minimum of five (5) documents with the same layout to get started and use to train your model.

Next, it asks us to list the pieces of information to extract. We're given a blank slate and asked to create the relevant fields. At the time of writing, the following options appear:

• Field (examples: date, name, category)

• Single Page Table (example: a table on an invoice/bill that displays line items)

• Checkbox (preview) (example: a yes/no box)

Create Collections

Collections are used to group documents of the same structure together. For example, a hydro bill will come in the same format every month and is one collection. You might also have a water bill and a gas bill and each requires its own.

Next, we upload the initial set of documents. Remember, you need at least 5, but as with all machine learning, the more you train the model, the better. That said, in our experience, five seems to do the trick just fine.

Once you upload your documents, map the fields you created earlier with the fields on the forms you've uploaded. It helps teach the model where to find the data it needs and is done by "drawing" around the data and then selecting the corresponding field. It gets completed for each of the documents you uploaded.

Finally, click the Train button to start the training of the model. Here the system will examine the mapping you've provided and learn where to find the data from each document.

Depending on the number of fields and the number of files you've uploaded, it can take several minutes.

Publish your Model

After training the model, it's time to publish it—the model won't be live until you do. It provides the option to perform a quick test to see the model in action. You can upload one of the documents and view the model identify the fields in real-time so you can validate it's grabbing the right ones.

And that's it! We've just trained a machine learning model to process our form, identify the correct data, and grab hold of that information.

In part two of our article, we'll take the information and append it to SharePoint Document Library columns as metadata. If successful, this approach will save us time monthly to spend focused on other aspects of our job.

Looking for more guided articles? Check out more from our C5 Insight blog!

There is a vital intersection between day-to-day work and taking time to think about the processes used to complete them. It seems the former often bumps the latter, meaning organizations take far less time to think strategically than they could, should, or would like.

I could write an entire article on the detrimental impacts of organizations who opt to skip strategic planning, but I can sum it up in one sentence:

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." - Benjamin Franklin

System administrators/owners can help foster a strategically-minded approach to an organization's work. Although as system admins you have much flying your way, taking time to listen and understand your workforce will reveal gaps and solutions.

You'll be able to show your team the system's potential and how they can be more efficient, effective, or succinct in their work. The effort can spur additional creative thinking on the part of the team to identify other areas of improvement or other features that might be valuable.

So how does a system admin/owner do this? By creating a visionary demo.

What is a Visionary Demo?

In simplistic terms, it's a demonstration of the features and functions of your system that opens users' eyes to the system's capabilities. One example is leveraging a trial of the newest version that unlocks the latest features and even some preview ones (planned items not yet available).

Why use a Visionary Demo?

You want users to see what a system can offer. System admins often engage users in discussions about what they want from the system. While this approach is well-intended, the conversation typically looks like this:

Admin: What do you want in the system?

User: That depends. What can it do?

Admin: Tell me what you're trying to achieve, and I'll tell you if it can do it.

User: Hmmm, oh! Manage my activities!

Admin: It already does that. What else?

User: It does? How? What else can it do?

A visionary demo helps end this frustrating cycle of discussion. However, there needs to be a strategy to plan a demo of this nature.

Planning a Visionary Demo

It's easy for people to relate to a storyline—even if not directly related, they can follow the premise along and get the point. Showing multiple features can work, but it becomes a fluid journey the user can visualize when weaved into a story.

To be most effective here, use examples from your organization. To do this, you must listen to your users.

Listen

System admins need to hear what the users are saying and take the time to listen to the data.

Example: "The fields on this form aren't in the right order. I have to move all over the place to enter the data necessary to save the record."

Conducting a regular data review to identify information gaps on customer records or how long processes generally take (how long to solve a case, how long an opportunity is open for) can provide insightful information to a system admin troubleshooting.

Understand

Once you've gathered the information, understand the details. Validate your understanding by circling back to the users to confirm you're on the right track and adjust as necessary.

Connect

Pull it all together by weaving it into a story. I don't mean write a book, but lay out a scenario that you can walk your users through. A very simplistic example is this:

During the Listen phase, the organization identified the following:

• Increase sales results by leveraging AI and mobile features

• Reduce Customer Service resolution time by increasing use of shared knowledge

• Build strong customer retention by providing exceptional service

• Strategically tailor our marketing communications

• Empower customers to use self-service features

Know

These points represent the basis of your story. You can now build a storyline that follows their user personas and shows them the features they could leverage/consider to accomplish these.

The admin needs to be aware of the available features to do this. We addressed tips on how to stay on top of the evolution of Microsoft's Business Applications in an earlier blog found here.

The Demos

While it's tempting to do live demos, they have a high potential of going off the rails. Users can ask questions that cause you to deviate from the storyline, and while we always encourage questions, you want the story to feel complete and thorough.

The idea here is to have the users envision their company with your actively used features.

Pre-recording the features you want to highlight is a great way to achieve this. For example, when addressing the item around leveraging AI and mobile features, you introduce short videos on these specific topics like this:

AI: D365 Sales Insights - Basic

AI: D365 Sales Insights - Sales Accelerator

Mobile: D365 Mobile Features

These short snippets give just enough information to demonstrate the feature. Show them the potential to help them think creatively about how it could help their work.

Address the Benefits

As you work through these snippets, talk about the benefits. Build into your story a glimpse of what the future might look like with these features.

Even something simple like, "Thanks to the advanced AI assistant, Salesperson Pat can quickly identify the most important and probable deals to pursue!"

We hope this provides some insight on how you can foster excitement, creativity, and strategy in your future planning.

Our next article will address how to harness that excitement and process in building a roadmap for your company's application evolution.

Want to chat about how a visionary demo could benefit you? C5 Insight has several hours worth of video demo content prepared, with fresh material created ongoing. We're happy to discuss how C5 Insight can support you in your D365 or M365 journey!