Storytelling for Champions – new resources available

by Contributed | May 5, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

We are pleased to share a set of new resources on storytelling for Champions! 

Our overall goal for delivering these new resources is to enable you and your organization to achieve greater results from your adoption and change management programs. Stories are an amazing way to connect with people through shared experiences, inspire others to act, and are an influential way to communicate. Storytelling can play a key role in any change journey as a powerful way to showcase examples of the new behavior change in action.  

I have worked with enterprise customers at Microsoft for nearly two decades and have seen the impact of great adoption success stories when they are shared by champion business users who have realized the positive impact of change. This has helped them grow and enhance executive sponsorship, lowered resistance to change among later adopters, inspired new ideas, and reinforced the value of the change program.

The resources include:

• A new storytelling guide that includes:




• A framework for finding and growing good success stories: Empower, Capture, Amplify, Learn;


• A sample structure for capturing compelling stories: Situation, Complication, Resolution, The Point;


• And additional learning resources.




• A storytelling course on LinkedIn Learning where you can also earn a certificate for completion.

We encourage you to take a look and leverage with your teams. We also welcome your feedback here on how we can improve this and other resources on the site to keep inspiring your communities to achieve more!

​Access the content at storytelling for Champions.

Sustainability, Microsoft’s commercial marketplace, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

by Contributed | May 5, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

By Christine Alford, Director, Commercial Marketplace Business Team

Previously, I’ve talked about Microsoft’s #BuildFor2030 campaign. As partner to the United Nations, Microsoft has pledged to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of 17 initiatives adopted by member states in 2015 focused on creating a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable world by 2030. Inspired by the UN SDGs, through the #BuildFor2030 campaign, we’re featuring Microsoft partners building solutions that enable a more inclusive economy.

This milestone of the campaign launched on Earth Day on April 22. With this milestone we are supporting climate action and sustainability by recognizing partner innovation for sustainability. Currently, on our homepages of Microsoft AppSource and Azure Marketplace you can find Microsoft partner solutions in our “featured apps” section that are innovating to build a more resilient and sustainable future.

Learn more about how Microsoft partners are helping customers leverage technology to better our environment and create a more sustainable society by reading this blog post by Nick Parker, CVP, Global Partner Solutions.

If you have a solution that supports a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable future, we’d love to celebrate your impact. Upcoming campaign themes this year include enabling nonprofits and empowering communities. Learn more about #BuildFor2030 and how you can participate. Don’t miss out on your chance to be featured! Nominate your solution today.

1:1 Call Recording in Microsoft Teams Deep Dive

by Contributed | May 5, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

This blog dives into how to setup 1:1 call recording, end user experience and best practices for enabling this feature for users.

What is 1:1 call recording ?

This feature gives user the ability to record Microsoft® Teams call made to another user who is using Teams. Note that, this feature does not give you the ability to record 1:1 call with PSTN user.

How to enable call recording settings:
This is enabled using PowerShell. You need to modify the “Teams Calling Policy” using PowerShell. This setting is disabled by default – it must be enabled. You can either enable it for your global policy or you can create a custom policy, which has this feature enabled, and apply that policy to users who require this feature.

Set-CsTeamsCallingPolicy -Identity Global -AllowCloudRecordingForCalls $True

Note that, prior to April 12, 2021, this setting was controlled by the “Teams meeting policy”. If you allowed recording for teams meeting by setting “AllowCloudRecording” to true. After May 31, 2021, this particular setting in “Meeting Policy” only works for recording a meeting, it does not work for call recording.

End user experience:

After enabling this feature the user will have the option to ‘record a call’ in teams.

After a call is connected, users will have to click on the “more actions” icon (…) and it will give the option to start recording. In this example, John called Jane, and John started the recording.

When the recording starts the user on the other end (Jane) will get a notification that recording has started. In addition, a recording icon (red button) appears right next to the timer, even if the notification is dismissed the recording icon will stay active as long as recording is going on, so that the user is aware that the call is being recorded.

The notification still says “this meeting is being recording…” even though it is a 1:1 call, you can ignore this typo.

Where is the recording stored
The recording will be stored either in Stream or OneDrive for the user who initiated the recording. The “other” user – in this example, “Jane” will have read-only access to the recording.

Both users will be notified when the recording is ready. It will show up in the chat window for the call – in this example, John called “Jane Doe” and Jane recorded the call. The link to recording appears on both their chat window and it can be played back right on the Teams client.

In this case both John and Jane are in the same organization within the same Microsoft 365 tenant.

If the user who did not initiate the recording is an external user, then, this “recorded” user will not have access to the recording. The user who initiated the recording will have to share the recording with the user on the other organization.

After July 7, 2021, all recordings will be stored in OneDrive by default, unless your organization decides to opt-out. Following article goes into details about recording and storage for both 1:1 calls and meeting recordings.

Use OneDrive for Business and SharePoint for meeting recordings – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs

This feature is for end user and does not replace or complement compliance recording. The user who initiates the recording has access to the recorded file, which in certain situation can violate compliance. For example, in certain scenarios, just the notification that the user is being recorded may not meet compliance requirement, additional disclaimers might be necessary. Another possible scenario – certain users are not allowed to keep recordings of calls in their storage. In these cases, admins need to get formal approval from the compliance team before proceeding with this setting.

Recommendation:

1. Consider compliance requirement prior to enabling 1:1 recording feature.


2. Start with a custom policy where this feature is enabled and add select group users to the policy. If a decision is made to enable the feature for all users, then the feature can be enabled globally.


3. Both 1:1 call recording and meeting recording experience should be similar for specific users – otherwise, it can create confusion for the end-user.


4. Share helpful tips with the user about where the recordings are stored.


5. Consider retention policy to get remove old recordings from user’s One Drive.

Seema Rahman is the Principal Architect of Zodela Technologies. Her primary focus area is Microsoft Teams – over last 3 years, she has helped multiple mid to large size customers adopt teams as their main collaboration platform.

To write your own blog on a topic of interest as a guest blogger in the Microsoft Teams Community, please submit your idea here: https://aka.ms/TeamsCommunityBlogger

Flexible, high-quality training helps teams prosper, says IDC study

by Contributed | May 5, 2021 | Technology

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

This blog post is the third in a series of three examining the results of a recent IDC study,  Leveraging Microsoft Learning Partners for Innovation and Impact.*

Upskilling is a key requirement in today’s IT centers, and Microsoft Learning Partners can help your organization get the greatest impact from your learning initiatives, development programs, and digital transformation efforts. Given the importance of staying ahead of quickly evolving technology, we asked IDC researchers to find out what makes a Learning Partner valuable to an organization.

Our first post in the series, New study shows the value of Microsoft Learning Partners, took a high-level look at the benefits of using a Learning Partner to meet your technical skilling needs. Among the findings: the right partner, along with high-quality content, improves outcomes. The second post, Get results from end-to-end training solutions offered by Microsoft Learning Partners, highlighted the tremendous value Learning Partners bring to organizations through their capacity to provide an end-to-end solution and to deliver value-added services to support a learner’s ability to gain and retain needed skills.

This final post explores the additional benefits. Working with a Learning Partner provides:

• Scale, flexibility, and speed. Learning Partners have the scale to support global organizations, the flexibility to tailor programs to client needs, and the speed to stand up complex programs quickly.


• Quality content and delivery. They also deliver the latest in accurate, relevant content using Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC) delivered by Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs).

Programs with scale, flexibility, and speed meet learning goals

Learning Partners have the scale, flexibility, and speed to set up your IT skills initiatives quickly, provide all the necessary resources, and make sure programs stay on track. As learning experts, they know how to adapt to changing circumstances and schedules and to help ensure that learning initiatives succeed.

The IDC study emphasized three areas where Learning Partners make a difference to organizations:

• The scale to work locally and globally. Whether your IT group is big or small, a Learning Partner works with you to scope and adapt their programs to your organization’s needs, such as rolling out learning across time zones.


• The flexibility to adapt to change. Learning Partners have the flexibility to adapt their deliverables to your changing requirements and business constraints.


• The speed to stay ahead of the tech. Learning Partners not only keep up with the technology but also anticipate changing requirements and help you prepare for the road ahead.

Quality always makes a difference

Quality in learning programs helps accelerate your organization’s business goals, including digital transformation. Tom O’Reilly, Head of Group Strategy at QA, talks about quality as meeting the unique needs of learners and circumstances. “You cannot execute a transformation program without offering a breadth of learning modalities and a high-quality offering in each of them,” he points out.

The IDC study emphasized that high-quality training comes from using official courseware and current content, delivered by certified instructors. Quality extends to the way that Learning Partners address every aspect of the learner experience—beginning with an assessment of your training needs and, for some, ending in certification exam preparation.

Some organizations view certifications as a natural outcome of a quality learning experience. Certified IT pros perform their role better,** and certifications can lead to improved IT performance. Learning Partners can help your workforce prepare for the industry’s most trusted certification.

Next step: Ask an expert about their services

To move forward with your skilling needs, consider working with a Microsoft Learning Partner with the scale, flexibility, and speed to deliver the resources that work best for your workforce—along with the quality content and instructors that can help everyone succeed.

Share your thoughts by posting your comment.

Download the IDC study white paper, Leveraging Microsoft Learning Partners for Innovation and Impact

Download the IDC study datasheet, Top reasons to get IT training from a Microsoft Learning Partner

Find a Microsoft Learning Partner

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Technical certifications could help drive business optimization

* IDC white paper, sponsored by Microsoft, Leveraging Microsoft Learning Partners for Innovation and Impact, #US47225021, January 2021.

** Global Knowledge, 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report, as quoted in Ten reasons to earn a Microsoft Certification.