Sharing Minds

📣 Combat Rising Cloud Hosting Costs with an M365 and Azure Audit 📣
With cloud hosting expenses on the rise, it’s essential to ensure you’re not overspending on your M365 and Azure services.

Optimising and managing these costs effectively are crucial for maintaining budget control and operational efficiency.

To effectively manage rising cloud costs, collaboration between engineers and architects is key. Bringing these roles together provides a fresh perspective on your environment, uncovering optimisation opportunities that may otherwise be missed. As highlighted in the Infoworld article linked in comments, engineers are well-positioned to manage cloud expenses but may be overwhelmed by their existing responsibilities. Integrating FinOps teams can provide the necessary support for comprehensive cost management. READ MUCH MORE IN COMMENTS...

Curious about setting up a simple yet powerful Intranet? Meet Intranet Chef, your all-in-one Intranet solution powered by SharePoint! Quickly deploy your intranet with industry-leading templates and standards.
Benefit from our comprehensive services: initial setup, ongoing support, and customisable options to perfectly fit your business needs. Get your team operational fast and scale your intranet as your business expands. Plus, take advantage of our special promotion running for the rest of the month! Let's create something extraordinary for your business together!

📱 Call 1300 611 359
💻Email [email protected]

We're thrilled to celebrate the success stories of three recent customers who participated in our Discovery Workshops, designed to create Roadmaps for Productivity Improvements.

✨ One partner revolutionised their communication across multiple channels, achieving surprising efficiencies.

☁️ Another discovered a seamless pathway to migrate their legacy application into the cloud.

🔒 The third now has a clear set of priority projects that will reduce manual processing, enhance security, cut costs, improve stock accuracy, and minimise data entry errors.

MORE IN COMMENTS 👇

Last week our CEO travelled to PNG for meetings and training sessions with a banking client to help them use Microsoft 365. We love spending time with people to help them use technology to achieve their goals, and what’s even better is when it’s a complete climate change from the home weather!

Adam tells us he enjoyed the humidity and spending time with their friendly team.

🚀 As the 24/25 Financial Year Approaches: Optimise Your M365 Usage with Our Audit Service! 🚀

As we edge closer to the end of the financial year, businesses are gearing up for the next already. It's evident that many of our customers are being expected to achieve more with less, spotlighting the need for strategic resource allocation and waste reduction.

🔍 Why Consider an M365 Audit?
Our M365 Audit service is gaining traction, and here’s why:
Comprehensive Review: We conduct a thorough audit of your M365 tenancies to ensure you're fully leveraging your resources.
License Optimisation: We assess and recommend how you can adjust your licensing based on current needs, ensuring cost-effectiveness.
Architecture Improvements: Our experts pinpoint enhancements in your architecture to allow you to optimise your total cost of ownership (TCO).

💡 Real Results:
Significant Savings: One of our clients slashed over two-thirds of their spending through our strategic audit.
Validation for Leadership: Technology leaders have utilised our audits to demonstrate to CEOs and CFOs the efficiency of their environments, showcasing the stellar performance of in-house teams.

🌟 Act Now for Future Savings:
If your business could benefit from clearer budgeting and cost reductions for the upcoming financial year, now is the time to act. Consider investing any surplus from this FY into a pre-paid engagement like our M365 Audit. It’s an investment that pays forward, unlocking potential savings for the future.

📞 Interested?
Let’s give you the peace of mind and a clear strategy to reduce next year's costs. Reach out to us today at:

[email protected]
1300 611 359

This week, we were approached by a forward-thinking CIO who had discovered that, despite his best efforts, two different AI tools had infiltrated his enterprise via SaaS platforms. Rather than shutting these tools down, he recognised that while some AI can be stopped, fighting against it might be a losing battle.

In response, we partnered with this CIO to conduct a comprehensive AI readiness assessment. We went beyond merely discussing which tools might be beneficial. We examined the roadmaps of all the applications the business was using to determine when and how AI would be implemented within these tools. Additionally, we audited the data structures within the business to create a map that illustrated the potential impact of any given tool, using AI if implemented within the enterprise.

We also overlaid the compliance requirements specific to this business to provide a full risk assessment and AI readiness report. As a result, our client now has the information needed to understand what is coming, how to prepare, what can be prevented, and what will be so embedded into tools that AI cannot be avoided.

If you're interested in learning more about how we can help your business navigate the complexities of AI integration, feel free to reach out. Let's discuss how we can guide you through the AI landscape via [email protected]

Read this: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2108511/trying-to-keep-ai-from-sneaking-into-your-environment-good-luck.html

www.computerworld.com

The article below highlights a trend we're observing in the market: AI is being deployed without a clear plan, proper training, or a genuine use case. This issue is further exacerbated by tools like CoPilot, which often are not setup to provide staff with the necessary data across the enterprise to fully leverage AI in a way that delivers results or, at the very least, CONSISTENT results for all users.

At Sharing Minds, we prioritise preparing our clients for AI adoption. We explore all available options—CoPilot is just one of many. Our approach involves helping clients implement the right tools with the appropriate training. More and more, we're seeing CIOs opt for cost-effective tools that expose a subset of company data to the entire business, enabling AI to deliver consistent results. By doing so, they’re standardising the expected outcomes, building user confidence and accelerating genuine adoption.

Just this past week, we assisted yet another CIO in developing a comprehensive AI roadmap. With our guidance, her business plans to transition to CoPilot in the mid-term. However initially they have deployed a lower-cost, lower-functionality tool to build user skills and justify the longer term investment in CoPilot.

Interested in learning more? Contact us to discuss how we can help navigate the AI landscape and make the most of this transformative technology: [email protected]

Where’s the ROI for AI? CIOs struggle to find it: https://www.cio.com/article/2112589/wheres-the-roi-for-ai-cios-struggle-to-find-it.html

🌟

www.cio.com

At Sharing Minds, we're not just about ensuring Microsoft 365 works, we're dedicated to maximising its potential and extending its capabilities to give our clients a competitive edge. Our commitment goes beyond basic functionality—we innovate and customise to leverage the full power of M365.

🔍 We're on the hunt for a dynamic leader to join our DevOps team. If you're passionate about technology, hold multiple Microsoft certifications (especially in Dynamics, Modern Workplace, and Architecture), and excel both in hands-on innovation and leading a talented team towards best practices, we want to hear from you!

👥 We prefer direct connections and genuine conversations, so please reach out to us directly. We do not engage with agencies.

Join us in transforming businesses with Microsoft 365. Let's innovate together!

[email protected]



https://www.sharingminds.com.au

Like a teen without wifi, we’re delighted to let you know we’re back online. Calls, emails and web surfing has returned to normal. Love to hear from you!
Call 1300 611 359
Email [email protected]
Web www.sharingminds.com.au

It’s only a proper Monday morning if the technology decides to sleep in. Our emails/web is temporarily down, but you can still reach us on 1300 611 359. Chat soon!

Announcing the Top Three Teams of the 2024 Imagine Cup! Learn more about the top teams who will advance to the World Championship live at Microsoft Build

Unlock the full potential of your in-house service desk with our Support on Demand, from as little as $500 per month. As a trusted Gold Microsoft Partner, we seamlessly integrate as both an escalation point and capacity overflow for your M365 application support. Bridging the knowledge gap between your team and Microsoft, we offer responsive on-shore support for 200+ service activities spanning 15+ M365 applications. Beyond mere break-fix solutions, our dedicated team accelerates your service delivery by collaborating on configuration changes and setting up new tools, empowering you to maximise the capabilities of the M365 Suite.

Elevate your service desk experience with Sharing Minds’ Support on Demand today! Contact us at [email protected] or call 1300 611 359 to learn more.



https://www.sharingminds.com.au/contact

One of the sessions we’re excited to hear about from this week’s in Orlando. Does your business need to freshen up employee communications and engagement?

Kick off your Transformation track with best practices to modernize employee communications and engagement with Transform Workplace Experience: Strategies and Best Practices with Steve Clayton at The Microsoft 365 Community Conference

Learn more at aka.ms/m365generalsessions

Please put your safety first and be careful on the roads up in far north Queensland 🚗🚙🚧

2023: The year of AI 2023: The year of AI The pace of AI innovation in 2023 was astounding — but even more impressive was how people applied this technology to make a real difference in their careers, communities and countries. Here are some of their incredible stories.

Or C. All of the above 😆

Need a little extra bang for your buck? Buy 100 or more Block Hours and receive 10% extra for free! Use these hours for your last-minute plans, for something to really impress, or to close out a longer-term project before the end of the year. It’s completely up to you, but you’ll be getting 10% more.

Buy 100 hours, get 110.
Buy 500 hours, get 550.
Buy 7,000 hours, get 7,700… you get it.

Call 1300 611 359 or email [email protected] - this deal runs out on 22 Dec 2023.

https://www.sharingminds.com.au/2023-block-hours-bonus-deal

GREAT MINDS AT SHARING MINDS | Our Practice Lead for Support Services is the wise and witty Rob Bayly 🧙‍♂️ Here's a snapshot of what's on his desk!

Sharing Minds: Blog We’d love to introduce you to Rob Bayly , our Practice Lead for Sharing Minds Support Services , who has been with us for over 9 years. His skills and experience have saved the day more times than we can recall, and here he is to share some weekday wisdom! What are two things you’re currently w

RANDOM TECH TUESDAY | A musician and inventor has programmed a vintage Game Boy to play a 100-year-old church organ. We love the creativity and thoughtfulness that went into this!

Musician uses Game Boy to play church organ Musician and inventor Sam Battle collects vintage technology in his museum in Ramsgate, Kent.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET EMAILS FOR THE WRONG PERSON | Getting messages directed to someone else is annoying, but only if you don't have fun with it. Thanks for the laughs, WIRED.

What to Do If You Get Emails for the Wrong Person Getting messages directed to someone else is annoying, but only if you don't have fun with it.

🚀 Elevate your workplace collaboration with the ultimate Intranet Chef! 🔥 Our recipe for a successful intranet includes seamless communication, efficient workflows, and a dash of innovation. 🌐 Ready to transform your workplace experience? Let's turn up the heat together! 🔥👩‍🍳

Sharing Minds: Brisbane Sharepoint Consultant | Sharing Minds - Sharing Minds - Block Hours - Microsoft Certified Professionals - SharePoint Office 365 Consulting Modern solutions need modern commercial arrangements. Our block hours model allows our clients to constantly redefine value throughout delivery.

💥BONUS ALERT! | Coming into the end of the year there are always some ‘extra’ projects that you don’t quite know how to approach. We'd be delighted to help! Take advantage of this bonus offer while you can - it runs out on 22 Dec 2023.

Call us today 1300 611 359 or email [email protected]

READ MORE: https://www.sharingminds.com.au/intranet-chef-enquiry

‘WHY’ IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ‘WHAT’

We‘ve worked with many different businesses over the years in diverse industry sectors, but in each case our approach has been to understand the 'Why?' of the project.

This in turn drives the design requirements of the system, and ultimately leads to an implementation that is based on a solid business needs foundation.

In other words, our solutions are designed to wrap around and underpin your business process, not the other way around.

This generates a solution outcome that is stronger, more accepted and has higher user engagement and organisational acceptance.

Let’s get your systems running at their peak efficiency this Summer. How about we buy the coffee, and you spill the beans? Tell us what you need.

Call 1300 611 359 and ask for our Sales Team.

https://www.sharingminds.com.au/what-we-do

How Minecraft makes learning about sustainability a breeze The Crown Estate have developed two new Minecraft worlds (a wind farm and Windsor Great Park) to teach students about sustainability.

We’re looking forward to this year’s conference and joining online with loads of other leaders prepping for the future. Registration has opened and we’d love to know if you’re heading across to Seattle ✈️

Microsoft Ignite - Join us November 14–17, 2023 Learn about the latest AI innovations directly from experts. Sharpen your skills through live breakouts and interactive workshops while expanding your network.

Are you after a rapid intranet solution?
Today's intranets are the true digital front door to your organisation.
Leveraging the best aspects of Microsoft 365, we’ve perfected an intranet recipe that delivers everything you need to enhance productivity and user experience, whilst working within a modest budget. We can build you a solution that allows you to be more productive and collaborative.

Our team can help you out, starting with a chat about where you're at and what your intranet could be 👇

https://www.sharingminds.com.au/intranet-chef-enquiry

Sharing Minds: Brisbane Sharepoint Consultant | Sharing Minds - Sharing Minds - Block Hours - Microsoft Certified Professionals - SharePoint Office 365 Consulting Modern solutions need modern commercial arrangements. Our block hours model allows our clients to constantly redefine value throughout delivery.

will be held virtually 18-19 July to give Partners worldwide the chance to connect. Take note of the key dates and deadlines here: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/partner/microsoft-inspire-2023-and-microsoft-partner-of-the-year-awards-nominations/

Announcing Microsoft Inspire 2023 dates and Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards nominations - Microsoft Cloud Partner Network I’m pleased to announce details for the upcoming Microsoft Inspire — this year’s event will take place digitally, giving us the incredible opportunity to include partners from all over the world. The event is of no cost to attendees and will be held on July 18-19, 2023. Please save these dates...