The following video walks you through using SharePoint Online’s Business Connectivity Services (BCS) to connect your line of business (LoB) systems via a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service. This allows data from the LoB system on-premises to be viewed and edited within your SharePoint Online environment.   (Please visit the site to view this video)   For more info about BCS, see Notes on Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in SharePoint Online .   Thanks to Manas and Alex from Microsoft Support for putting together this video.   Let us know what you think!   The SharePoint Online Community Team  

The following video walks you through using SharePoint Online’s Business Connectivity Services (BCS) to connect your line of business (LoB) systems via a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service. This allows data from the LoB system on-premises to be viewed and edited within your SharePoint Online environment.   (Please visit the site to view this video)   For more info about BCS, see Notes on Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in SharePoint Online .   Thanks to Manas and Alex from Microsoft Support for putting together this video.   Let us know what you think!   The SharePoint Online Community Team  

With less than a few days away, it’s hard to share my personal excitement for next week’s Microsoft Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s been a busy past few weeks and days preparing for this event, and it’s now almost showtime! It will be the best Project Conference ever, do not miss the two keynotes on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am and obviously attend as many sessions as possible. I had the privilege of reviewing lots of them and the hardest decision you will have to make is which one to attend! The two sessions below summarizes well the breadth and depth of the event and our products hence my post title: 8 Billion Reasons why ARM chose Project Server 2010   Closing the Status Loop with Windows 8 Metro and Project Server’s Task Update Feature I’m looking forward to see you next week! Safe travel.

Exactly 10 years ago I joined Microsoft on Monday September 3rd, 2001, in the French office outside Paris. While I could write a lengthy post on what happened during the past decade at MSFT, I wanted instead to mention why I really enjoyed the past ten years and why I looking forward to a continued career at Microsoft. This is my humble opinion so please take it with a grain of salt . First let’s start with a bit of background and what I have done this past decade at MSFT from a career perspective. I basically had two role in two groups during that time: first as a consultant in our Services organization (Microsoft Consulting Services France), secondly as a Product Manager in Microsoft Office Division. I started in 2001 as an Application Development consultant helping customers build e-commerce sites with the beta version of the v1 .Net Framework. It was a very exciting time with tons of learning of the MSFT key products at that time: SQL Server 2000; Windows 2000; .Net Framework v1; Visual Studio .Net; Windows XP, Office XP to name a few. Over time, at MCS, I decided to start shifting my expertise from app. Dev. to server products and looked at Commerce Server, BizTalk and Project Server. I will let you guess which one I started focusing more and more on, helping customers deploy and customize it to their needs. After 6 years as a consultant serving large international customer, I decided it was time to get closer to the product group and learn how we build and ship product and more importantly shift from a very technical role to one with a business dimension and that’s what landed me a Technical Product Manager in Redmond in September 2007. The past four years in marketing have been extremely valuable to date. So what keeps me going to work every day after ten years at Microsoft? In summary I would say because of its people, products and customers. Let me explain: People : people matters, whether back in the French subsidiary or now in Redmond, the people I work with and meet every day are just awesome. Yes, I’m serious, the level of talent whether it’s hard core technical expertise or business acumen (vision, strategy etc…) is just amazing. Did I mention diversity? Historically and still today the brightest, passionate, talented individuals come from all over the world to work here; so it’s amazing to see such diversity at work and that keeps it fun every day! I had a career prior to joining MSFT (yes it happens) and I genuinely believe my peers at MSFT are great to work with from an expertise level, diversity level, and intense passion. Products : for a company that has been around as long as us, and the fact that we ship products that covers the full spectrums of users from consumers using Xbox, for instance, to large enterprises using Project Server to manage mission critical programs; it is simply amazing to see the number of people we help and reach worldwide. Yes, there are plenty of naysayers that criticize us for not innovating but seriously look at what we achieved and show me someone with our legacy to date (interesting post and video from this week alone)? Yes, we missed a few turns in trends, but I believe we have learned from our mistakes and have leapfrogged key competitors in certain areas. I could name drop lots of products but at this point in time two comes to mind: Windows Phone and Windows 8. I just love my “mango” phone, period! Do I need 100,000 app to be happy and productive? No, since it has all the key capabilities I need and more. To be honest, I only use few apps and I keep smiling every day and I’m not jealous of anyone showing off their collection! For Windows 8, I would only point to this blog you need to start subscribing to. OK, I’ll add two more after all J. Xbox/Xbox Live/Kinect – I am an occasional gamer (with a Halo crush, in particular) and have kids who play in the house and we all just love the experience and the latest innovation. Talking about experience, I did not know I have more than one finger until I got a brand new Microsoft Touch mouse this week; I’m now mastering mouse Jedi movements J… Customers : yes again, it’s a true statement that we have amazing customers whether it’s my 4 year old son using Xbox Kinect, my wife using her Windows Phone; or large Fortune 500 customers using their “ strong-positive ” Project Portfolio Management software suite from Microsoft. I also have to mention the passionate end-user communities and advocates like our beloved Project MVPs for instance that are great to interact and work with. I also consider customers, partners, large and small, worldwide, selling services or products built on our stack. Again similar to my comment about People above, they are a lot of fun to work with and keep you on your toes every day, 365 days a year. In summary I learn something, every day, in a fun environment, with great people, products and customers and that’s what keeps me motivated to go to work every day! I’m looking forward to the next decade at Microsoft. Yours truly, Christophe Fiessinger, 10 years after…

With every version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft seems to beef up its selection of keyboard shortcuts. Here’s a selection of useful shortcuts for Internet Explorer 9. Some are new in this version, some have been around for a while (but aren’t widely used), and some are classics that every user should be aware of. Follow our daily tips: • facebook.com/TechNetTips • twitter.com/TechNetTips • blogs.technet.com/tnmag

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at how the UN is taking a page from Microsoft’s datacenters to build more green, and we learn about how one company is utilizing the power of Microsoft Lync to help enterprises collaborate better. UN Taps Microsoft for Green Data Center Tech Datacenters are a crucial part of modern computing. Microsoft BPOS is powered by datacenters across the world and Microsoft has extensive knowledge in researching and developing datacenters. The UN is going to use Microsoft’s green data center technology to build its new office in Nairobi, Kenya. The Microsoft IT Pre-Assembled Components, or ITPAC, is a system constructed with the focus on providing the lowest Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, to decrease energy costs. Microsoft reports that the PUE for their ITPAC data centers is between 1.05-1.15. This a good range considering that the average PUE for data centers is reported to be 1.92, which is considered high by the Environmental Protection Agency. Check out the video below to learn how Microsoft’s ITPAC Containers are built. The UN Nairobi office wants to make its new office “energy-neutral” and is turning to Microsoft for help. What do you think of the “green” datacenter focus? Is it essential for companies to be green when it comes to datacenters? Leave your thoughts below. Telligent Connects With Microsoft Lync Telligent is known for their applications that foster community development. They are taking their community collaboration to the next level by utilizing Microsoft Lync . Microsoft Lync is the next generation unified communications in the Cloud. Telligent is syncing Lync with their social community software and enabling users the ability to harness the power of collaboration. Telligent Connect for Lync will be a part of the Telligent Enterprise and will feature the capabilities of Microsoft Lynch including worker’s online presence and launching instant messaging and meetings via Lync. Are you utilizing a Microsoft’s Cloud to create something? Share what you’ve made in the comments below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an

I posted a while back about Unknown Errors http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/07/02/project-server-2010-an-unknown-error-has-occurred-in-project-center-resource-center-or-tasks.aspx in various places in project “&” here is another one.

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at two stories that illustrate why public sectors are moving to the Cloud with Microsoft. 1. Microsoft Sees Increasingly Rapid Adoption of Its Cloud Computing Services Among U.S. Government, Education Organizations Last week Microsoft U.S. held the Public Sector CIO Summit in which Microsoft announced cloud computing pacts with 16 more government and education organizations. Our first BPOS story takes a closer look at the recent announcement and increasingly popular adoption of Cloud Computing in the public sector. Curt Kolcun, VP of U.S. Public Sector at Microsoft, talked about why Government and Education establishments are looking to the cloud, “Public sector organizations are looking for enterprise-grade cloud solutions, and that means providing high levels of security, functionality and support,” Kolcun said. “We’re seeing government and education organizations of every size and dimension using Microsoft cloud solutions to help reduce costs and increase productivity in support of their missions.” The new Microsoft cloud computing customers are detailed in the article from Microsoft News Center . They include Vanderbilt University, public schools in Portland, and local governments like the city of Chicago. Check out the entire article here to learn why government and education organizations are choosing to go the Cloud with Microsoft. What do you think of the announcements made in this press release from Microsoft? Do you want your local governments to move to the Cloud? Leave your comments below. 2. Microsoft Unveils Public Sector Cloud Deals In our second BPOS article , we unveil more public sector cloud deals for Microsoft. This Information Week article further outlines some of the public sector announcement made by Microsoft. There is in depth coverage and quotes coming from the Public Sector CIO Summit that adds more context to this week’s stories. The article features a quote from Gail Thomas-Flynn, VP of Microsoft state and local government, who talks about competition with Google. “Google is coming at it from a completely online, more consumer orientation,” said Gail Thomas-Flynn, Microsoft’s vice president of state and local government, in an interview Wednesday. “With Google it’s cloud only. … But what if you’re in the cloud and you want to come back on premise? With Microsoft, you have that option.” The interview with Gail Thomas-Flynn provides some more context around why these public sectors are choosing Microsoft. I recommend that you read this article to gain a third party perspective of the Public Sector CIO event. Be sure to leave your thoughts and comments below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

Below is another video from our BPOS Support series . In this video we learn how to Troubleshoot Missing Items in SharePoint Online . SharePoint Online is a powerful web based collaborative tool that is a part of Microsoft Online Service. The video below will assist administrators and users troubleshoot missing items in SharePoint Online. This is a very helpful video that will increase your productivity through identifying what happened to missing items. Some ways an item could go missing include: Deleted and in Recycle Bin of a SharePoint site or site collection Hidden because of the View settings of its SharePoint list or document library or misconfigured Web Part. If you use SharePoint Online, then be sure to take a look at the video below. Learn more about Microsoft Online Services with our other support and how to blog posts . What support videos would you like to see? We want to hear from you in the comments section below or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

In the latest BPOS support video, we explore enabling POP3 in Microsoft Exchange Online Mailboxes. POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol 3, and is the latest version of the standard protocol to receiving email. POP3 is found in most popular email offerings including Outlook. By default POP3 is not enabled for Microsoft Online users, and this support video will provide an overview on how to enable and disable the POP3 protocol for mailboxes.