In right now’s episode of #O365 Hours, we’re joined by UnlimitedViz Inc. President Ed Senez to debate how Microsoft 365 analytics have advanced over time and the way they’re being shaken up right now. Watch our dialogue beneath or learn the total transcript at your comfort!
Visitor: Ed Senez, Co-Founder and President of UnlimitedViz Inc. (go to his web site right here)
Questions Coated:
- What’s presently taking place with private and workforce analytics inside Microsoft 365?
- How will you really remodel what you are promoting with these nice new applied sciences like Microsoft Viva?
Transcript
Christian Buckley: Hey, good morning. And thanks for becoming a member of this morning’s workplace hours webcast. My identify is Christian Buckley. I’m the Microsoft regional director and MVP and the Microsoft go-to-market director for AvePoint, and this workplace hours broadcast is coming to you each different Wednesday morning at 11:00 AM Jap. I feel that’s proper, ed 11:00 AM already offering worth. Take a look at that. Thanks to our company right here. You possibly can subscribe for future information notifications, this present that occurs each different Wednesday. For those who go to AvePoint or a V E P t.it, I do know virtually add level there slash oh 3, 6, 5 hours. We’ll share the hyperlink there, after all, however I’m joined this morning by ed senators. Who’s the co-founder and president of tie graph and Microsoft companion and ISV. We’ve bought an awesome subject. And so Ed welcome.
Ed Senez: Sure, thanks, Christian. Happy to be right here right now and it talks to me about certainly one of my favourite matters, which is analytics.
CB: So let’s leap proper into it. The large focus right now is on the bulletins round Microsoft Viva and particularly insights as a part of Viva, which can be type of an enlargement of what’s been happening with my analytics capabilities. So what’s actually taking place with private and workforce analytics inside Microsoft 365?
ES: Properly, I feel the path is admittedly nice as a result of presently we type of have information unfold information in every single place and it’s actually arduous for individuals to grasp which indicators they need to I take note of and what’s necessary to them. One of the crucial necessary issues about information is , it wants to inform a narrative. It must have a objective, like what enterprise downside are we attempting to unravel? So, I feel Insights is one thing that’ll present focus for that. It type of is available in three flavors proper now, however there are two which are actually predominant. One is my analytics insights and for individuals who have subscribed to it, they might have seen it of their feed and electronic mail reminding you that, “Hey, you’re not getting sufficient sleep.”
ES: And a few of these wellbeing issues, some markers, , the flexibility to, to educate an individual on focus time and issues of that nature, proper? Taking a look at individuals’s calendars and seeing, , how a lot vitality are they spending in conferences doing these different numerous duties, responding to emails, after which offering some steerage and training all to the lens of, of actually serving to the worker from a wellbeing perspective. So I feel Viva actually, or Viva insights particularly actually begins to drive that residence. And, and so they’re together with different issues. So, so the wrapping and issues like Headspace, proper? So, , type of a meditation app as, as a part of that , taking breaks prompts, which apparently I want occasionally
CB: Inform individuals too, that I, so I’ve once I was, once I used to run extra her and however once I exit strolling and issues, so I’ve my, my apple watch and, and, and, , for those who have an apple watch, they’re conscious of this, like, you get the little, the colourful in your wrist and look down, it says breathe. And I’m similar to this leap, this one on. And one of many issues that’s occurred during the last 12 months, 12 months and a half, and particularly with COVID taking place, I’m beginning to concentrate to these issues. I’m like, you don’t, I haven’t stood up shortly. I ought to get up, stroll round, fortunately I’ve a canine. So I am going and stroll, however having that type of, , that type of, , information level and having the ability to report again and take a look at, , what are my unhealthy practices, as a result of I feel that the assembly fatigue display screen fatigue is an actual factor for those that didn’t suppose it was an actual factor. After which they began working from residence like the remainder of us and so they realized that having some information and having the ability to go in and monitor and be extra self-aware of your individual habits and unhealthy habits of how a lot time you’re sitting and what you’re truly doing together with your time is necessary to your long-term well being.
ES: And, and it’s, , they they’ve thrown it at even one other layer, just like the idea of a digital commute. So, , I, I used to have this decompress time for about 20 minutes or so within the automobile. And, and, , by the point you get residence, you’ve type of divorced your self a bit of bit from, from that Workday, although, , the transportable stress as I prefer to name it your cell phone, steady to T to taunt you, if you’ll to, to return again to work on a continuous foundation. However, however, however that these, these sorts of issues are, are actually, they’re, they’re utilizing information for good, if you’ll , actually ensuring that individuals are beginning to concentrate to those issues, as a result of as we reworked to this extra digital financial system, these items turn out to be actually necessary. You recognize, we’ve seen it with social media and folks getting consumed by these platforms, I feel Microsoft’s taken a really wholesome place if you’ll, to, to essentially, , get individuals subscribed and understanding that effectively,
CB: That’s how I interpreted the Veeva bulletins generally is that, , now we have, and there’s been an evolution once more, going again to type of our SharePoint routes. And if you happen to take a look at type of the evolution of that SharePoint began off being a really dev centric and it professional centric answer. After which because it bought , the, the expertise bought higher and we bought the broader adoption, we had extra end-user matters into. Now, you go to an occasion after we used to have these,
ES: The great outdated days.
CB: Greater than half of the viewers could be finish customers and energy customers, however we get to some extent the place now we have the broad adoption and the place we’re not spending our time worrying a lot about retaining servers up and lights on. If in case you have a variety of questions that folks ask, it helps spotlight, , not a transparent understanding of what the out-of-the-box capabilities are. You need to grasp the out-of-the-box earlier than you progress on to the superior capabilities, however now individuals are beginning to ask, and this sort of will get to my level round Veeva , we, so now we have all these nice applied sciences, like what’s subsequent? How will we really remodel our enterprise? And we’ve talked about, we’ve talked about transformation for years. And but I feel most individuals that considered transformation as effectively, simply swapping out, upgrading the expertise. It’s like, no, the transformation has much less to do with the expertise and extra to do with, , the individuals course of, the enterprise processes after which modifications. Are we getting essentially the most out of the expertise and our processes and our individuals and doing it in a well-rounded manner. Precisely.
ES: And a variety of organizations have con type of gone to this organizational change administration or in, within the Microsoft worry or the adoption change administration applications. Microsoft has employed a whole lot of buyer success managers throughout the globe to essentially assist organizations by way of these transformational journeys and, and allow them to perceive, , it, you elevate an awesome level, proper? SharePoint, we noticed it effectively, I’ve deployed SharePoint, so it’s good. We’re carried out proper. Yammer, identical deal, proper. W we deployed it, we turned it on and, , no person actually used it. And, and, , groups was, was happening that very same street although with, Skype dissolving, if you’ll, and groups coming in and, and the, the pandemic, , definitely the communications channel of, of groups , simply took off like a rocket , as, as you’ll anticipate.
ES: However so, so, , it’s now not simply turning it on it’s, it’s sitting, , it’s the side-by-side with the staff and understanding what enterprise issues they should resolve. After which in structuring your, your surroundings round that, and, and information can actually feed these. Proper. So, so let’s say we run a lunch and be taught, and, and now we have, , data going out to staff. Properly, we’ll discovering out, , type of what’s occurred downstream. Do you, did it, did it have an effect on the telemetry? Proper. Do individuals begin utilizing the merchandise in the way in which that we requested them to make use of it? And if not, do we have to do some course right. If they’re nice. After which we even have, I name it the 12 step program, people who fall off the wagon. So, so the, , that churn, proper?
ES: So individuals, oh, we began utilizing this system, however we determined to not and having the ability to determine these earlier in, within the, within the enterprise cycle actually provides an excellent lens to individuals which are operating these organizational change administration, as a result of they, they’ll have the interview and actually, , get right down to the foundation of the issue. We had an awesome instance, a buyer was attempting to get off of Skype. And what it turned out was it had nothing to do with inner comms. It was the provision chain on the provision chain was nonetheless utilizing Skype. So, so as soon as they found what that downside was by way of the info analytics, they have been capable of shortly get in there and, and course right. And, , inside a really, very quick time period, they, they managed to close down Skype about 4 to 5 months sooner than that they had predicted simply because they have been capable of see what was happening organizationally. Properly,
CB: That’s an awesome, nice level. Is that, so that you’ve, you’ve talked a couple of couple various things. I imply, now we have the private analytics, like what I’m doing with my day, how I’m spending my time. You have got the, , the workload-specific analytics, you may have the workforce undertaking analytics, you’ve bought the analytics you may have. And I, and I do know that, that you simply, as completely different companions in ISD that present options on the market and add level has information as effectively, that’s in a position to take a look at, , anonymized information throughout a number of prospects and be taught issues from that as effectively. However I, I, so I’m fascinated with, so we’re, we’re speaking increasingly more about information. In reality, Microsoft has made this a serious, a serious shift. I’m attempting to recollect how way back it was six, seven years in the past the place they, they slowly type of cleared out the formal, like a variety of the testers, the testing features, and, and stated, effectively, everyone must be testing to some extent, however they constructed up across the telemetry, the telemetry and analytics inside each product space, each undertaking workforce, there was someone that owned the analytics and doing data-driven evaluation and improvement.
CB: So there’s rather a lot that’s taking place. That’s altering, therefore the identify by way of evolving, , 365 analytics however within the ecosystem. So type of what are the segments? What are the, the areas of analytics that Microsoft is now formally like specializing in and what ought to it execs and managers be targeted on?
ES: Positive. yeah. Nice query. So Viva particularly, with Viva insights, we talked about private analytics, then there’s one other layer of supervisor analytics. So, so consider a roll-up of knowledge to a managerial place, as a result of candidly staff don’t all the time do what they’re speculated to do, and that’s why now we have managers. So from a well-being perspective , re actually understanding type of what’s happening with, with their employees and, and having the ability to coach and monitor. And if it’s not likely, , don’t give it some thought as type of a giant brother at a employees stage, it’s extra, , departmentally, , how are issues going? Are we, are we trending in the suitable path? You recognize, extra, extra like C-SAT scores with, with buyer satisfaction, proper. You recognize, these sorts of issues that, that drive applications. And, and so possibly it’s, , it’s reminders, possibly it’s, , let’s have a, let’s have a joint session, et cetera, et cetera.
ES: So all kinds of issues that managers do to, to maneuver the needle. After which there’s type of this idea of superior instruments. So what they’ve carried out is that they’ve mainly created a platform if you’ll, that you would be able to plug different instruments into there, there was , you should utilize our, if you happen to’re actually a propeller heads, like a few of our information scientists get into, into that stage of, of analytics and, and doing , all kinds of various issues, however, , a bunch of pre-baked KPIs and so forth, however actually attempting to get a greater deal with on, on what’s happening organizationally is admittedly the place it’s at. In order that I’d counsel could be extra of the I’ll name it exterior of it, kind of perspective. As a result of actually we’re, we’re speaking about type of that HR lens on, on the world from an analytics perspective.
ES: And I feel that’s actually the place insights goes with, with the entire announcement and trajectory that they’re happening. However having stated that, as I discussed earlier, information in every single place we even have the, type of the three pillars past the product analytics, which you’ve already talked about the opposite three pillars of analytics within the Microsoft ecosystem. There’s, there’s, what’s known as the admin heart. So if you happen to log in, if you’re the administrator, you may have the admin heart, you possibly can go in and see telemetry information on every one of many workloads type of the way it’s going. That’s actually extra of an it lens. So, that may be, an IT professional kind of lens then there’s utilization analytics, which is type of a, an extract it’s, it’s very name it excessive stage. So, so fairly aggregated information, once more, supplying you with some good telemetry on what’s happening, on workload by workload foundation. It does pull in some telemetry round HR data like departments and divisions and so forth. If that’s populated precisely in Azure energetic listing, which is an entire 30 subject
CB: Companion options which were developed simply round that space.
ES: Proper. after which lastly, there’s the audit logs proper within the compliance heart w the place you possibly can prescriptively go in and, run a search question and pull again these audit stage information extracts and pull that again. And, and, after which lastly, there’s the, the foundation of all that, which is the graph and the graph has a plethora of information in it that you would be able to pull in and go in and, and make hay with, if you’ll, which is candidly what we do. We, we get at that audit stage perspective stuff.
CB: So I need to ask this simply because I do know that I’ve seen a number of of your requests hit and so your CTO, John White—a fellow MVP—commented throughout the MVP circles on eager to see an enlargement of the API capabilities. And there’s all the time these property which are on the market from companions. And a variety of that, , for, for patrons which are questioning about this , that what this visibility is, , as, as ISV has suppliers, that time tie graph the, precisely the identical, the place we’re being requested by our shoppers, they need sure capabilities that we go and attempt to do both if we are able to’t do out of the field that we attempt to do throughout the API APIs, the capabilities, the companion capabilities that Microsoft gives us, however there’s consistently a listing of asks that round there. What do you suppose are the, what, what do you’re feeling are the gaps which are nonetheless on the market from an analytics telemetry standpoint?
ES: So, , SharePoint had their analytics and whatnot, and what have been the, the graph was type of that unifying engine. So, so what’s taking place now could be we now have type of this frequent information platform to proper. Issues to, so, so now not are we placing issues into different buckets and repositories all, it’s important to go to the SharePoint administration console to go get that SharePoint information, and then you definitely, you, , et cetera, et cetera. So, so what we’re seeing now could be a bit of little bit of extra homogenous [inaudible] there, there are all kinds of, , particular person use circumstances the place we might actually make that higher. However, however, however actually that, that’s type of the w what we’re seeing , w what we’re doing is a variety of harmonization throughout the platforms as effectively.
ES: So, so although these, these indicators are coming in, if you concentrate on groups, proper? So, so groups sounds easy till you begin unraveling it. So now I’ve bought name information, I’ve bought assembly. If we file this assembly, I’ve bought a gathering, recording information, that’s going right into a one drive. I’ve, I’ve bought information across the information which are being shared in groups. So, in order that’s one other completely different vector. Then I’ve bought groups and channel chat messages, and folks responding and liking and so forth. In order that’s one other set of information and all of that persists in, in type of completely different repositories behind the scene. So, so, , that, that harmonization of that information set is admittedly type of , the vector, I feel we’re touring down, however we’re definitely not down that street but.
CB: Yeah. There’s a, one of many different type of areas or gaps. I imply, so going again to love the, my analytics and I get these, , these emails each morning that claims, , right here’s the way you’re spending your time. And, and one of many main gaps, and that is it is a little factor, however I work inside a number of tenants. I work throughout a number of cloud environments. And so it doesn’t seize every part. It’s nice for all of the issues that I’m doing inside my tenant, inside my main chemo proper there. However like, I nonetheless have nonetheless all of my neighborhood actions, the MVP issues that I take part in there’s calls each week round product bulletins and issues which are happening, different issues which are in between Yammer and groups and simply, , on-line that aren’t picked up and captured in these analytics. So it typically will inform me that I’ve far more free time to collaborate that I truly like, it didn’t really feel like I had all that free time. Yeah,
ES: Let’s see my private calendar. I’m, I’m golden there concern with analytics
CB: As effectively, as a result of more and more, I imply, what number of corporations are on the market that solely work inside one OEM, one ecosystem, like we’re like, we’re a Microsoft store and that’s all we do. If it doesn’t have Microsoft concerned in it, like we don’t contact it type of factor. The truth is that whether or not it’s their gross sales platform, their CRM platform, whether or not they’re working in different ERP platforms, they’re a part of different networks working cross this, after which there’s instruments. They could be passionate groups, customers, however nonetheless I’ll be operating the opposite competing options as effectively. I do know it’s stunning that that occurred, however , it’s, it’s what we don’t discuss brazenly, however , so from the catalytic standpoint, yeah,
ES: That’s an excellent perspective office analytics as instance, which is the opposite so there, there’s a type of that private mine analytics and office analytics, which is extra the supervisor analytics. These are key very a lot on alternate indicators. So what they’re doing is that they’re calendar, they’re free time, free house and calendar to calibrate that focus, time calculations and so forth. And, and, after which additionally, , how busy, , from a ship, obtain perspective on emails and so forth , it’s, it’s, it’s pretty much as good as they’ll do proper now with, with the tooling that they’ve. And, and, and the, the opposite factor to be cautious of as a result of, , one of many huge matters was this entire productiveness rating that bought a bit of little bit of a fanfare.
CB: My subsequent query, anyway, however possibly let me ask the query. Yeah, completely. A variety of considerations from components of the neighborhood or people throughout the neighborhood in regards to the information that Microsoft was capturing as a part of the productiveness shops scoring and who truly had entry to this. I imagine that essentially that the people who have been complaining the loudest about that understood it, the least yeah. Like the way it was getting used. Possibly you can type of enlighten us of, , what it was and what it wasn’t.
ES: Yeah. So the place Microsoft did a little bit of a course right, was across the anonymization element of it. And, and, and so they have on December 1st Jared had, had made a proper announcement that, , we’re going to workplace gate this information. So from a group perspective, however it’s actually necessary for managers to have these indicators, proper? Like, so, , in case your staff are burning out and we are able to inform that from the info, it’s actually necessary for the supervisor to grasp that and to have the ability to, to take motion on it. So I don’t suppose Microsoft in any manner, form or kind stepped over the road. And, and now they’ve even, , with their slight course, right. They’ve even been extra tolerant to, to, to these eventualities the place, the place individuals would possibly really feel it’s, it’s a bit of bit too creepy, however, however let’s discuss, , the productiveness rating.
ES: It’s an excellent try. All of those information indicators are simply that they’re, they’re singles, they’re pointers, they’re, they’re saying, , so for instance, we do sentiment evaluation, proper? So, so, so we’re , , message indicators and so forth. And, and, , some prospects will come to us and say, effectively, , Hey, this message was scored low, however it’s actually excessive or vice versa. And, and, , notoriously assist desk rating tremendous low. So that they take care of, they take care of issues, proper? In order that’s within the context, however, however it’s extra round aggregating the indicators and in search of developments and patterns. Proper. And, and, and that’s actually the necessary half. These, , productiveness rating is a path sign, proper? So if I’m an earnings assertion or a sheet, I imply, if I, if I am going to the financials, proper.
ES: And I take a look at, , bills as the one type of telemetry round how my group is doing, I’d have a totally completely different context than , oh, effectively, take a look at income relative to bills, , both good or unhealthy, proper. So, so it’s, it’s aggregating these indicators and, and making clever enterprise choices. So what we’re saying with organizations and, and, and actually the info platforms are actually beginning to help this. And I feel that’s why we’re, we’re beginning to hit an actual good stride. For those who take a look at instruments like Energy BI, and Synapse creating information lakes Microsoft snaps, or Azure snaps relatively to create an information lake and, , put all this information collectively. I imply, we’re creating repositories and, and areas the place we are able to mixture and extra shortly analyze candidly higher than Excel. I imply, , an awesome instrument, however, however, , instruments like energy BI lend themselves to usher in all these different information or so.
ES: So even ourselves, we’re discovering that, , w we offer very distinct enterprise issues that folks resolve round communications, neighborhood administration, , HR, a bit of little bit of it. So, so we resolve these for these issues, however they’re taking these indicators and so they’re fixing for different issues within the group. So, so after we say productiveness rating, deal with it with a grain of salt, proper. I imply, it’s productiveness in a lens, in a context, if I’m actually responsive in electronic mail, is that good? Or is that unhealthy? Proper. Is determined by what my job is. Properly, that, that
CB: Was like one of many complaints on this state of affairs, like if you happen to’ve bought, in case your supervisor goes in and say, , you have been invited, or, otherwise you’re a part of you may have 57 completely different chats final week, and also you solely actively participated in 23 of them,
I imply, the basic downside, I feel you known as it out too, is that it’s about developments to seeing patterns throughout the information, and it ought to inform you about what’s happening. And I imply, I’ve had for years, and I’ve spoken about, written about, and stated involved of, of managers, individuals, managers who handle by spreadsheet with out then having conversations. And I all the time use an instance, a former group operations and help group, the place they seemed on the variety of tickets closed and choose the worth of help personnel by the variety of tickets they closed in a month. And so the person who was persistently on the backside of the record as closing the fewest, often like three or 4 tickets in a month the place the typical was, , two or three tickets in an hour by comparability and a supervisor who was similar to international, we have to, clearly this particular person must go.
It was like, wait a second. This particular person is engaged on the ugliest issues and is the go-to particular person with the product workforce to unravel the difficulty. So from it from information of your analytics, in that myopic view of what you suppose meaning with out absolutely understanding of what’s truly taking place, after which utilizing that to tell you to go and discover out extra about what’s happening with this particular person, , that’s the error that’s made with analytics far too typically. And so it’s, it ought to inform it ought to assist with sample recognition. However on the finish of the day, , it’s simply, it’s, it’s only a, it’s simply one other information enter to be a part of your general determination. It may be the largest information enter to be a part of the choice. But it surely’s simply, it’s one indicator
ES: And, and a plug for well-run corporations on the market. You recognize, we we’ve been, what’s been attention-grabbing by way of the final 12 months is knowing how individuals the place, , the, the shift in utilization information and, and, , this time final 12 months, individuals have been saying, , are individuals working and it wasn’t whether or not or not they, they have been working, they have been genuinely involved in regards to the welfare of their employees. I imply, I imply, it was, it was a, it was a really attention-grabbing, I feel, I feel the one factor that’s occurred with all of that is, is the, the staff turn out to be extra human to the, to the company as a result of they’re beginning to see the youngsters within the background. And there’s a humanity that has advanced from this. So of all the rubbish that has gone on within the final 12 months, I feel that’s one factor corporately that that’s actually attention-grabbing.
And, after which we additionally bought requested round, , how are individuals feeling proper? And, , we did some sentiment evaluation, key phrase evaluation, issues of that nature, and, and have been capable of type of derive some indicators. And once more, correlation isn’t causation, however we have been seeing issues the place there was direct impacts, proper? The CEO would make a press release, make a message, land that communication out to the, to the digital water cooler, if you’ll, and, and, and see the impression to the group. So I feel, once more, it’s a sign it may be used for, for, for good or unhealthy. However, , good managers will do good issues, proper. And, I feel, , empowering individuals with extra information is simply going to assist them on these journeys.
CB: Properly, and I’ll put the advertising and marketing hat on right here for a second, too, to grasp how your marketing campaign is touchdown. Nice instance of the CEO needs to get out to the, , the ten,000 staff of the group and going and how after an announcement went on the market or a, a city corridor internally and going and looking out on the metrics and seeing how individuals are consuming, particularly if you happen to put, and there’s all the time good to have like a name to motion in any market initiatives internally do the identical factor, however to go and take a look at how many individuals clicked on this. And so that can then assist inform you, like, are we doing a ok job of getting the phrase out even internally? And that can get you interested by, are we utilizing the suitable instruments? Why is it that overwhelmingly in the identical time zone, these two completely different teams in two completely different cities, one did higher than the opposite completely different about that what’s taking place throughout the tradition of that workplace, that location or not.
So you can begin to have these discussions say, what’s, what’s the, the, the easiest way for our group that we collaborate, that we talk and we share data and data, and to be able to enhance upon these issues. I, I I’m of that mindset that it’s like, there’s, there’s, it’s a technique of continuous enchancment. In fact, we’ve, we’ve heard that it’s Deming stated we’re consistently optimizing that. So search for alternatives. That’s what analytics affords us. It’s not the reply, the reply to these questions, however it can enable you then to go in and refine and enhance, enhance, iterate, and enhance, and consistently fine-tune these methods.
ES: Yeah. Yeah. And if you happen to take a look at the proceed methodology for adoption change administration, organizational change administration, it’s all about that. Proper. It’s construct, measure, and be taught these sorts of applications the place we’re frequently having a look at how we, how, how are we touchdown? How are we, what’s the end result appear to be? So,
CB: Yeah. Yeah. You can’t enhance one thing if you happen to’re not measuring it, that’s for certain. Proper. Properly, ed actually respect your time right now. Individuals need to discover out extra about you and your organization, the place do they go?
ES: Ty graft.com is our vacation spot level. Yeah. Happy to speak to anyone. Who’s extra fascinated with information and analytics. Thanks for having me, Christian.
CB: Thanks once more for becoming a member of me. And once more, as soon as for the individuals which are watching the present, so we’re again each different Wednesday at 8:00 AM, Pacific 11:00 AM Jap and it’s so we’re each different week, it beginning subsequent month, it’ll be the primary and third Wednesdays of every month. However after all you possibly can subscribe if you happen to go to search for AF level out on LinkedIn. And in order that’s the place the first broadcast is going on, and you may see this, however you possibly can truly get notifications to when all these reveals occur. It’d go and enroll. It’s at a V E P t.it whack oh 3, 6, 5 hours. And so simply have a look for add level workplace hours. You’ll discover us effectively, thanks rather a lot. And thanks everyone for watching.
Observe: This episode initially aired on March tenth, 2021.
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