Store for Business coverage at Ignite

• THR1013: Simplify app discovery and distribution with Windows Store for Business, Monday, September 26, 1:00pm - 1:20pm
  • THR1013R: REPEAT due to popularity in pre-registrations: Tuesday, September 27, 2:10pm- 2:30pm
• THR1016: Manage internal LOB apps with Windows Store for Business, Thursday, September 29, 11:05am - 11:25am

• BRK3238: Dive deeper into Windows Store for Business, Thursday, September 29, 12:30pm - 1:45pm
• BRK2065: Build and distribute enterprise apps with the Windows Store for Business, Friday, September 30, 12:30pm - 1:45pm

• IDL2092: Set up Windows Store for Business to deploy apps in your enterprise

• BRK2124: Enhance Windows 10 security and management with ConfigMgr, Intune, and new cloud services, Wednesday, September 28, 4:00pm - 5:15pm
• BRK3012: Explore Windows 10 in education: innovations for using and deploying in schools, Wednesday, September 28, 10:45am - 12:00pm

• More information for Windows 10 IT Professionals  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/05/05/windows-store-for-business-now-with-more-apps-and-new-intune-distribution-option/
• More information for developers https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2016/05/05/sell-apps-to-organizations-through-windows-store-for-business/

Windows Store for Business gives IT professionals a flexible way to find, acquire, manage, and distribute apps to Windows 10 devices. Manage Windows Store apps and private line-of-business apps in one inventory.  Organizations can choose the best distribution method: directly assign apps, publish apps to private page in Windows Store, or connect with management solutions for more options.

Learn more or sign up today https://www.microsoft.com/business-store

Is task and work management enough? What is right for me?

People, teams and organizations are looking for smart ways
to plan and track their work. Almost all are looking for software tools that
seamlessly blend into their needs – this post highlights important
considerations on the journey from individual task management to
cross-organizational portfolio management.

Tasks - Individuals, daily work, accountabilities, making the work done.

On personal level individuals maintain a set of “tasks”–
usually in different forms (from pen and paper to software tools) to track and
remind themselves what needs to be done. There is indeed plenty of options,
it’s up to everyone’s taste. The most important is how to prioritize and tackle
possibly ever-growing list of tasks so it does not become a graveyard of the
past… It almost seems that many prefer to block their time on calendar, rather
than capture a task that levitates above all the workload.

As you see - just adding a task either on paper or in a tool
- is not enough. There must be a will and desire of the individual to use the
list effectively. Yes I agree it’s simple to do and everyone can figure out
what works the best. The important takeaway is - as we move further in the
complexity to work, project and portfolio management all individuals need to be
enlightened, trained and motivated… because they work on a team effort.

Work Management – working with and through others

Work management is means of organizing and managing work in collaborative
environment. The focus is on what and who. This is a natural evolution of task
management, where individual “tasks” are no longer only your own – but you
share them with your teammates to ask them for their contribution. Now clearly this
could be challenging situation as different people have different priorities
and participating in your work management effort could - for some - be
additional agenda.

These activities can become complex rather quickly,
especially if you are interested in sequencing the work, involving more people
across departments, creating dependencies and tracking what was done and when –
and this is where the more formalized and structured cousin - project management
comes in.

Project Management – deliver measurable outcomes and deliver the result

Projects typically are complex one-time activities lasting
months. The process of leading the entire project is usually controlled by
project manager. Projects typically have lifecycle starting with idea that needs
to evolve into a business case – summary
of key outcomes and key goals of the entire project. After approval – the right
resources are found and project execution starts. Project manager needs to
balance the project delivery – deliver project goals and keep eye on budget and
resources. Once project is successfully completed evaluation is done.  

And since projects can be very complex they often fail to
either deliver the intended result or fail completely mid-way. Project Managers
and organizations demand analytics and insights that would reveal and highlight
problems to be addressed as soon as possible.

Now it’s clear that there is a necessity of rigor, processes
and habits that the organization has to establish for all this to work
properly. You don’t want to become a fool with a tool! Are you thinking this is
too much for your organization? Is it too big investment? Do an ROI analysis –
and decide accordingly… In this cloud era – the tools are becoming simpler to implement – but the process is what
takes the most and it is the most important.

Portfolio Management - solving the next big priority for the entire
organization

Multi-project, cross-departmental environment – where tens
of projects with different goals are running and competing for funding at the
same time. This environment is usually controlled and aligned with
organizational strategy that dictates priorities and funding.

OK, so which one is right for us?

The biggest challenge of task and work management is that
they are not aligned with the organizational strategy, they are bottom-up
driven and usually lack the big picture, especially in larger organizations. They are great to make things done, but not
as good to make sure the right things are done. This may not be a concern
for really small organizations, but for larger – this could be a huge
deficiency. It’s not surprising however that all the above techniques and tools
usually co-exist side-by-side. With co-existence it’s important to ask the
right questions about integration and how all data captured in any system can
flow upstream or downstream and seamlessly integrate in dashboards and provide
the right level of visibility on all levels. There great one-vendor tools (hint:
Microsoft) with consistent user interface and seamless integration to make the
“toolset” decision super-easy.

Maturity, processes, training and habits.

Maturity, processes, training and habits. Here we are again.
The lack of project and portfolio management (PPM) maturity or processes – caused by poor project management
implementation is effectively “degrading” PPM to work management.

It’s very clear that as we move from task management to
portfolio management – the right processes need to be in place BEFORE the tools
can start delivering results. This does not mean that you should stay with work
management forever – this means that since project and portfolio management is
more complex due to scope, duration, cost and impact – it requires more
thinking, more preparation and more attention during execution. This however
also means that more people are involved and they need to understand why and
how to do things right.

It’s obvious however that if your organization was to easily replace project management tools with
work management – then CLEARLY you don’t have the right PPM processes and/or
PPM was poorly implemented or you simply don’t need PPM (which I’m happy to challenge :) ).

Thought? Feedback?

Jan

I have decided to switch gears into new exiting space where the cloud services converge with devices – and provide daily value to users in every organization. I have joined the Windows 10 Store team, and I’m responsible for the Business Store for Windows 10 that you may have heard of that will do exactly that – enable organizations of all sizes to find, acquire, distribute and manage the right software across the company and to grow developer opportunity at the same time. For more information – please see this blog post https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/04/29/distributing-windows-apps-to-the-world/ from Todd.

Thanks

@MeetJKalis

We started with following the big game in the expo hall and had a great time! 

Jared, Ludo and Sajan Kicked off Monday with keynote – great demos and surprising announcements!

We had over 130 stunning sessions!

Many partners on the show floor!

And of course a GREAT party in sold out House of Blues!!!

All other photos available here https://www.jankalis.com/PC14/n-XZ36s/. Please note all photos are property of Microsoft.

THANKS EVERYONE!

Hope you enjoyed all of it!

Have safe travel back to your homes and families!

Jan

I have become designed photographer for PC14 this year and I will be Tweeting the photos right from my camera, so please follow @Project and @MeetJKalis on Twitter to get your latest updates!

See you all tomorrow! Make sure you are on time for the big game in the Expo hall at 3:30pm! If you registered for pre-days – they start at 8:00am. Breakfast included!

Jan

I would like to express my BIG thank you to EVERYONE who is working hard on the Project Conference – all the speakers, sponsors, partners, customers, our stunning event agency and our entire team – including Yana, Tad (@tadhaas), Mark, Yahya and our manager Sajan! Great team effort – can’t wait for this coming Sunday!!!

Have not registered for the Project Conference 2014 yet? Do it now!

Jan

Speakers – thanks for doing an outstanding job of working on your sessions, decks and demos for the Project Conference 2014! We are going thought session reviews with all of you now – during these we focus on the content and logistics, but not much on the form of speaking and presenting.

We do offer you FREE training session that will focus on the form of speaking and presenting because we want to make your session SHINE! It’s NEVER fun to be at the bottom of the evaluation list… We hope to see you all on 11/30/2014, we are giving you two options – choose which one suits you the most, the content will be identical.

The session details are below and already in your calendar – if you missed the invite, please send a note to pcsprk@microsoft.com and we will re-send or extend the invite! 

Let’s rock at #ProjConf!

Talk to you soon!
Jan

Title: Let your session shine at the Project Conference 2014!

Facilitators: Dux Raymond Sy, Tad Hass, Jan Kalis

Description:

Despite all three facilitators delivered hundreds of sessions, they still learn from every single one and they are here for YOU to share their best practices – and are ready to answer your questions! Join Dux, Tad and Jan as they facilitate this interactive 75 minute session to help you deliver your best session ever at the Project Conference 2014!

The session is divided into two parts – the first will provide key framework for delivering great session and the second is a panel discussion. Do you want to hear best practices connecting with the audience? Do you want to hear the most embarrassing moment they had on stage and how they recovered? Join us!

Objectives:

As you may know, it takes a lot of preparation and practice to be the public speaker you want to be. The ability to speak confidently and deliver a clear, concise and engaging presentation is what every presenter aims to achieve. 

In this interactive session, you’ll learn how to:

· Speak publicly in a convincing, confident and concise style

· Identify and apply key skills of effective public speaking

· Employ an effective four-step method to create presentation materials

· Develop the best approach for delivering technical demonstrations

· Keep the audience focused on you and your message

· Interactively open and close your presentation

· Panel discussion

· Q&A