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Our latest blog post features another video from our BPOS Support series . In this video we learn how to Troubleshoot Access and Connectivity to Microsoft Online Services Portals . Microsoft Online Services can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. Portals allow for secure connections to your company’s Microsoft Online Services accounts. The video below will take you through troubleshooting tips and tricks for Portals. 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.

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.

One question that came up recently was around the different behavior when starting from the same template but creating a new plan in Project Professional 2010 or in PWA through the Project Center or via the Project Web Service Method CreateProjectFromTemplate.

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.

Great white paper published in January from Microsoft Business Intelligence team: Choose the right business intelligence technology to suit your style (white paper) From the white paper’s introduction: This white paper discusses five different styles of BI reporting: Self-Service Analysis – Self-Service Analysis describes free-form reporting and analysis by users so that they can integrate data from disparate sources and drill-down and understand the root cause for data anomalies. These non-technical users value the ability to perform their own reporting and analysis without relying on IT or others. Business Reporting – This style describes formatted reports that are created by advanced business users or analysts. Reports are typically based upon approved corporate data, and then shared more broadly with managers, teams, or departments. In this style, IT involvement is moderate, usually overseeing the distribution and monitoring of the reporting environment and building of the structured data layer upon which the reports are built. Parameterized & Operational Reporting – Similar to the Business Reporting style, Parameterized &Operational Reporting is also characterized by fixed-format reports. The reports, however, are authored and managed by IT instead of business users and usually follow a pixel perfect format and rendering style. Consistency, scalability, manageability, and automated distribution are some of the key characteristics of this style. Performance Monitoring – This style describes dashboard-style reports that allow users to quickly and easily monitor the performance of their business. This style is catered to executive level or department leadership who require at-a-glance visibility on the health of the business, but it often also permits further investigation via interactivity. Scorecarding – Scorecarding is a style that describes highly summarized views with Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) measured and scored against predefined targets such as a balanced scorecard. This style is generally a part of a performance management program, though it can also be used to measure operational performance. This white paper provides readers a practical guide on how to identify both which BI style is being used as well as the tools that best fit each of the styles. The white paper outlines the following: The key characteristic of the BI style in the Description section. The Tool Options to consider along with the recommended “Best Fit” for the characteristics of the style Infrastructure considerations A Case Study highlighting how the “best fit” technology was used to support that style

Microsoft announces expanded BPOS-Standard support for the Mac OS with the introduction of a new Microsoft Online Services Sign In application that supports the recently released Office for Mac 2011 . The new Sign In application for Mac OS is scheduled to be available by the end of March 2011. In addition to support for Office for Mac 2011, the new Sign In application includes a number of bug fixes and enhancements that improve the performance and stability of the application for the Mac OS.

Following the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) last week, and following a session I attended on the benefits of SP1 in Hyper-V I wanted to try it out on the base SharePoint Server and Project Server 2010 demo virtual machine you all have access to ( https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417 ). Basically the two two features with SP1 are Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX (yes there are plenty of content on TechNet, see this for instance for more information Hyper-V Dynamic Memory Configuration Guide :

Changing Single Entry Mode (SEM) isn’t going to be an every day occurrence for most customers so hopefully not too many people will run in to this one – but it can take a while to work out what has happened to your tasks if you do happen to get caught out by this one.

Alex Burton, a Project MVP in Australia, wrote a blog post, Creating a Internet Explorer 9 Jump List for Project Server . Very handy and easy to deploy by a Project Server administrator, to be available to any PWA user with IE9 who pins the PWA landing page to the Windows 7 taskbar.

When: Monday, September 12, 2011 at 9:00 AM – Friday, September 16, 2011 at 5:00 PM (GMT) Where: Technology House Shottery Brook Office Park Timothy’s Bridge Road CV37 9NR Stratford Upon Avon United Kingdom Hosted By: Technology Associates International Ltd Technology Associates International ( www.techassoc.com ) is an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), accredited by the APM Group – the leading accreditation, certification and examination body – to deliver PRINCE2® courses.    As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we have over 18 years experience of delivering training solutions.   Our PRINCE2® trainers are skilled experts who take pride in guiding delegates through the PRINCE2® methodology and help them understand how the material applies to their specific personal and organisational circumstances. Register for this event now at: https://taiprince2120911-rss.com:443 Event Details: The course provides a balance between a learning experince about structured project management and PRINCE2®, and maximising the delegate’s chances of passing the Practitioner examination. On passing the examination, the delegate becomes a Registered PRINCE2® Practitioner. The course starts with a period of directed self-study commencing approximately 2 weeks before the classroom event.   This brings everyone up to a common standard of basic familiarity with the language and underlying principles of PRINCE2®, and ensures that the course gets off to a smooth start. Delegates should plan their time for this self-study to ensure that they gain maximum benefit from this essential element of the course.   A minimum of 10 hours should be scheduled if at all possible. The first three days in the classroom follow the lifecycle of a project, explaining the use and benefits of the PRINCE2® processes, themes and techniques, and how these can be adapted to suit a variety of project types and scenarios.   Approximately 30% of this time is spent on practical work and discussion using a “continuous” case study as a basis for exercises that help to reinforce delegate learning.    The Foundation examination takes place on day 3.  The following two days are dedicated to reinforcing what has been learnt and to preparing for the Practitioner examination that takes place on the last afternoon.   Full explanation is provided of the types of question used in the examination, together with guidance on how to answer them to best effect. Evening work is provided (approximately one-hour) to enable revision and practice of what has been learned each day. Terms & Conditions of Booking: Payment is due on booking.   Cancellations and Transfers More than 20 working days notice before course commences – £50 cancellation fee is payable From 0 to 20 working days inclusive before course commences – 100 % of the course fee is payable   VERY IMPORTANT: If you are unable to complete a course due to illness or any other reason, you will have to pay the full course fee to attend a future course. No refund will be offered for failing to attend any part of the whole course.   A full copy of our terms and conditions of sale is available on request.                 PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.