Geoff Ables
Microsoft MVP, Best Selling Author
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Geoff Ables is a thought leader on digital customer and employee engagement and a Microsoft MVP focusing on Dynamics 365, SharePoint, Teams and the Power Platform.
Geoff's most recent book, "The LUCK Principle: Business Results at the Intersection of People and Profit," delivers fresh insight and inspiration into creating people-centric digital workplaces.
His firm, C5 Insight, has twice been named an Inc 5000 company, and advises clients on digital customer and employee experience projects.
Geoff is also an avid motorcycle and wine enthusiast and has appeared as a guest on TruTVs's, "The Impractical Jokers."
Awards
Area of Expertise
Topics
7 Habits for a Successful Microsoft 365 (Re)Launch
Don't let your digital transformation project become just another statistic! The staggering fact is, a majority of these projects fail to meet expectations - but it doesn't have to be that way. Discover the secret to success and learn the 7 essential components that every successful digital transformation must have.
Join us for a high-impact session where you'll be taken on a journey through the unique planning process, uncovering the keys to creating a unified technology roadmap, full engagement of all stakeholders (including the C-suite and front-line employees), a modern governance strategy, effective communication, learning and development, business automation and ongoing maintenance.
By the end of this session, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to achieve digital transformation success. With practical examples, case studies, training videos, and actionable insights, you'll leave with a solid game plan to bring your digital workplace vision to life. Don't miss out on this opportunity to open the door to digital transformation success.
Understand and Unleash the Power of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data
Are you ready to tap into one of the globe's most advanced Customer Data Platforms? Dynamics 365 Customer Insights now includes both Journeys (for Marketing automation) and Data (the Customer Data Platform or CDP). In this session you'll learn all about the transformative power Microsoft's CDP platform:
Topics and takeaways will include:
* D365 CI-Data Demystified: A simple walkthrough that anyone can understand
* Ingesting Data
* Crafting the Perfect Customer Record: A single comprehensive customer profile that unifies data from any source
* Enhance Profiles: Learn how data enhancements, predictive models, and calculated activity fields can further enhance and add actionability to customer records
* Integration Magic: Push profiles to every touch-point, all the Dynamics 365 CE apps and more - to deliver real-time profile data
Learn how to create longer-lasting more mutually beneficial customer relationships faster than you can say, "Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data."
Transformative Change Management: Creating a Center of Excellence
Creating transformative change across an organization requires more than installing and training on technology. Leaders in change management have found that establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) for change initiatives can be a critical step in successfully driving changes in behavior, thinking, and culture.
In this session you will learn
● What a CoE is
● How this can be applied to many different changes related to Microsoft 365 (such as BI/becoming data-centric, embracing AI, creating a culture of citizen developers using Power Apps and more)
● The four stages of evolving a CoE
● Microsoft's Coe Power App solution and how it can be a part of your CoE strategy
● The first 6 steps in setting up a CoE in your business
The Project Master Guide: 5 Ways to Manage Projects with Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365
Managing projects goes beyond just checking off tasks and setting milestones. It's a meticulous (and sometimes maddening) blend of documentation, communication, teamwork, monitoring, and more. Microsoft makes myriad solutions available to aid in this process - but finding and tailoring the right ones to your specific needs can be challenging.
Join us for this lively session as we demystify the diverse range of Microsoft's project management tools. Our deep dive includes:
• Fundamentals Exposed: Start simple with To-Do and Planner.
• Progressive PM Tools: Delve into Microsoft Project for the Web and Project Operations.
• Create a PMO Solution: Integrate Teams, SharePoint, and Hub sites with your selected PM tools for a comprehensive solution.
• AI in Action: Discover the transformative power of AI in boosting project management outcomes.
There's even more! We'll also guide you through instances where balancing multiple tools is optimal, and times when it's not.
Join our expedition, equipping yourself with the knowledge to lead projects, from the simplest to the most intricate.
Teams, SharePoint and Dynamics 365 CE: Sittin' in a Tree!
Have you experienced the full power of the most recent Dynamics 365CE, Teams and SharePoint integrations?
In this session you’ll get a rapid overview of document management integration, and a deeper dive into latest features such as: sharing records with non-CRM licensed users via Teams, making Teams chat available in D365CE, recording calls, measuring sentiment, and more.
You’ll learn how these features reduce costs, improve collaboration and radically accelerate user productivity.
Best of all, you'll learn how to set all of these up for your organization.
Planning for Success: Creating a Digital Workplace Annual Plan
Learn how to engage your leadership team in creating an annual plan for your digital workplace that generates vision, excitement and new innovations. You’ll learn principles that apply to Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, Dynamics 365, and more.
Oftentimes business leadership teams aren't aware of the breakthrough potential of Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365. And Microsoft is releasing new apps, features and functionality so fast it is a challenge to keep up. This session will dive into how to engage your leadership team in an annual process that will drive continuous innovation and improvement of your digital workplace. Attendees will learn what should be included in your annual plan, how to build it, measuring ROI, and benchmarking user satisfaction.
You'll take away a workbook with how-to instructions for creating your plan, and a list of ideas for either a new project launch or an annual plan for moving an existing project forward.
Migrating to Microsoft 365: Best Practices and Common Mistakes
Migrating all of your email, documents, intranet and other content to Microsoft 365 is a great step in creating a modern digital workplace.
That goes both for those who are brand-new to Microsoft 365, and those who have been using the platform for a while, but still have some content in other places (like file shares, other cloud drives, different intranets, or other internal social engagement platforms).
This session equips attendees with insights and practical guidance on navigating through their migration journey.
Key topics covered include:
● It's not longer an "intranet" it's a "modern digital workplace" - learn the roles of Teams, SharePoint, and Viva Engage to create a complete communication, collaboration and document management experience for your team
● Understanding migration solution options
● Information architecture - why it's important to plan your structure before migrating
● Real-world case studies - learn from the successes and struggles of others to get to know the best practices and save yourself from potential pitfalls
Microsoft 365: Engaging the Executive Suite
Harvard Business Review reports that when executives and managers actively use digital to run the organization, revenues increase by an average of 10%. But 81% of organizations are still weak in digital leadership and management.
But how do project leaders and technologists influence their leadership to embrace digital approaches? Go beyond the hype to explore the realities of transforming into a true digital workplace, with 5 case studies of success and struggle.
In this session we will explore the role of business leaders and managers in leveraging Microsoft 365 to become a true digital workplace that drives innovation, customer and employee loyalty, and profitability. Practical tools and case studies of how executives have used digital as both a leadership tool, and a driver for company performance and innovation will be shared.
Take home the 5 step framework of digital workplace leadership success, and actionable insights you can apply in your role as an organizational leader.
Improving User Adoption and Change Management for Microsoft 365 Deployments
Get your team to not only adopt all of Microsoft 365, but to view it as an invaluable tool for leaders and users.
It's no secret that full adoption of Microsoft 365 is a challenge.
The reality is that adoption is a complex and nuanced topic dependent on multiple factors. Whether you're just starting a Microsoft 365 project, or you're struggling with adoption, this workshop delivers over 26 ideas to drive up adoption of your digital workplace.
In this interactive seminar/round table format, the audience will pick which ideas to learn more about, gain an overview of best practices, and get access to additional tools and content to dive deeper after the session. We'll explore new features that help with adoption (including Copilot), as well as both conventional and unconventional approaches to adoption that have proven successful.
From Struggle to Success: How to Create an M365 Recovery Plan
The struggle is real - almost every SharePoint and Teams project meets challenges with configuration, adoption and leadership engagement. In this session you'll learn to create a plan to get a struggling project back on track.
Forbes reports that nearly 80% of digital workplace transformations fail in their first 1 or 2 attempts. Harvard Business Review reports that organizations that report effective digital engagement, consistently have a roadmap. Initial or annual planning for digital employee engagement is a unique process. This session dives into what should be included in your intranet roadmap, how to build it, getting the team engaged, building your business case, measuring the ROI, benchmarking user satisfaction, and constantly improving through annual planning and governance.
You'll take away a framework for getting a your intranet project back on track, or for starting a new project with the right foundation.
Key Takeaways:
• Clearly understanding the value of your intranet project and articulate it to management
• Creating the annual plan
• Strategies for engaging your users and leadership in the planning process
• Why supporting your intranet project can sometimes conflict with your project plan - and how to do both at once
• Participate in group planning exercises that you can bring back to your team
From Newbie to Power User in a Day: Diving Deeper with SharePoint and Teams
This workshop is for those who are new, or early, to SharePoint and Teams. We'll take you from basic skills, to creating and designing Teams and Team Sites in a single day.
Attendees will start by learning the basics of document management with OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. You’ll then create Teams, then a departmental site, and a home page using Modern SharePoint, then integrate it all using the latest Microsoft Viva solutions.
You’ll also learn how to:
• Link SharePoint Teams and Team Sites to your intranet by creating Hub sites
• How to work with Document Libraries to make it easier to know where to go to store (and find) documents
• Integrate your SharePoint home with Teams using Viva Connections and other components of Viva
• Use best practice governance and information architecture concepts for your Teams and Sites to keep content organized and simple
• The basics of SharePoint and Teams security management
• If you’re new to modern SharePoint sites, want to learn about Viva, or are migrating your classic SharePoint to modern –this is a can’t-miss full-day session.
MODULE 1: OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint
• Introduction to document and file management in Microsoft 365
• OneDrive vs Teams vs SharePoint – when to use each
• Using Copilot to Talk to Your Documents
• Migrating your file shares or other document systems to Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Teams power user tips for chats, calls, channels, posts and telephony
• Microsoft Teams – creating and managing teams
• Making decisions on private, public or org-wide teams
• The basics of Teams security and governance
MODULE 2: Team and Site Design
• Creating a Team and Designing a SharePoint Team Site
• Using Copilot as your design partner
• Understanding the connection between Teams and SharePoint
• Working with different types of channels: standard, private, shared
• Setting up a Hub Site
• Design and Planning Best Practices
• Working with News, Events, and other standard web parts
• Using Copilot to create news
• Document Libraries and Metadata -what it is and when to use it
• Creating and Managing Views
MODULE 3: SharePoint Security
• The security hierarchy
• Inheriting and breaking security
• Security best practices
• Changing and maintaining security settings
MODULE 4: Teams Apps
• Working with Approvals
• Virtual Appointments
• Teams Updates
MODULE 5: Automation with Microsoft Lists
• Microsoft Lists
• Learn to setup a List for Issue tracking and management
• Working with List Views
• Integrating Lists with SharePoint Sites and Teams
MODULE 6: Microsoft VIVA
• About the Viva Apps – Connections, Engage, Topics, Learning, Insights, Goals, Sales, Pulse
• Setting up Viva Connections
• Working with Viva Engage
Copilot, ChatGPT and Generative AI: Step Into the Future
Discover the most transformative technology in many years – AI (in general) and Open AI (specifically) – and learn how they’re revolutionizing the technology landscape. From application development to communication and research, you’ll see how AI is already changing the way we work and hear real-life stories of its impact. Get a glimpse into the future with Microsoft’s latest announcements and explore the possibilities of what’s coming soon. Join us for a lively discussion, share your own stories, and hop on board the ride into the future of work.
You’ll walk away with practical tips to get started, and text prompts to:
•Aid you with writing everything from email, to generating blog topics, to writing articles for internal distribution
•Develop and comment code – even if you’re not a coder
•Create captivating images
•Use Microsoft’s latest AI integrations into Dynamics 365 CE, Teams and the Power Platform
Beyond Copilot: Integrating Custom AI Into Apps
Chat GPT has been out for over a year and Copilot has been rolling out for over 6 months. It's time for your company to take AI to the next level and integrate custom AI capabilities that accelerate the productivity of every member of your team.
In this non-technical session, we'll take a look at the capabilities and case studies of AI capabilities available through AI Builder, the OpenAI API, Azure Cognitive Services and more.
You'll walk away with over 20 case studies and ideas for how you can integrate AI into the tasks your team has to manage every day. You'll lower costs, improve productivity, create better customer and employee experiences, and unleash your team to be super-humans!
Better Together: Teams, SharePoint and Dynamics 365 CE
If your team is using SharePoint, Teams and Dynamics 365 CE (or is considering it), then this is the session for you.
In this session you’ll get a rapid overview of document management integration, Teams calling, conversation intelligence, customer service swarming using Teams and more.
You'll learn how to implement Dynamics 365 CE integration with SharePoint and Teams, and how these features reduce costs, improve collaboration and radically accelerate user productivity.
Better Activity Management: Drive Analytics and Adoption with Activity Management
Learn how to improve adoption, analytics and AI through better activity management
Most teams struggle to get full adoption of activity management. Users often complain that planning and tracking activities in CRM can slow them down. Yet without this foundational building block in place, an entire CRM project can fall apart. Perhaps more importantly is that activity tracking is the raw material that fuels better analytics and AI.
In this session you will learn how to configure activity management to drive productivity, adoption and a better user experience. We will walk-through the activity management features in Dynamics 365, methods for improving how they are configured, the best way to use Outlook integration, and best practices for weekly and daily activity management for your users.
Take away a simple 4-step approach to transform your CRM into a proactive planning solution
Key Takeaways
1. 4 steps to better activity management in any organization
2. Identify typical activity management pitfalls and how to avoid them
3. Learn how to get your team to buy-in to better activity management
4. Configure CRM to make activity management simpler and faster
5. Understand how better activity management creates better AI
Around Dynamics 365 CE in a Day: Experience the Art of the Possible
This full-day workshop delivers demonstrations of every Dynamics 365 CE app. For those who are new to Dynamics 365, those who want to explore additional apps, or those who want to see the latest capabilities (including all the current Copilot features and integration with SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and more), this is a great session.
Apps and features covered include:
* Dynamics 365 Sales
* Dynamics 365 Customer Service
* Dynamics 365 Field Service
* Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys (Marketing)
* Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data (CDP)
* Dynamics 365 Customer Voice (Surveys)
* SharePoint Integration
* Teams Integration
* Outlook Integration
* LinkedIn Integration
* Extending and Automating with Power Automate and Power Apps
* Reporting with Included Dashboards, Excel and Power BI
* ERP (Business Central and F&O) Integration
Demos will be presented using slides, dozens of very short recordings (that you can access later), and live demos.
Around M365 in a Half Day: Experience the Art of the Possible
Just starting out with Microsoft 365? Been at it for a while, but want to learn about the many other applications and features that your company should be using?
This is the session for you.
You will experience an art of the possible demo of the complete Microsoft 365 product suite - a perfect way to get the big picture before diving into the technical sessions later in the show.
You'll learn about:
* SharePoint - sites, hub sites, web parts, and many SharePoint site use cases
* OneDrive
* Microsoft Teams - for chat, calls, collaboration, file management and custom apps
* Microsoft Lists
* The Teams Approval Center
* Planner
* To-Do
* Forms
* Power Automate
* Power Apps: Model-Driven, Canvas, Pages, Bots
* Power BI
* Chat GPT
* AI Builder and forms processing
* Dataverse and Dataverse for Teams
* Viva Connections, Learn, Engage, Topics, Goals
* ...and more
Come and reimagine your digital workplace with tons of short demos and case studies!
Around D365 CE in a Half Day: Introduction to the Platform
Fasten your seatbelts - it's going to be a rapid ride through Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement! You'll see how all of these Model-Driven Power Apps leverage the Dataverse to deliver great user and customer experiences.
Experience "art of the possible" demos of the full potential of all the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement apps.
• Sales
• Marketing
• Customer Care
• Field Service
• Project Operations
• Omnichannel
• Pages/Portals
• Dozens of new features added in the last few years
• Teams and SharePoint Integration
• Extensions using Power Apps and Power Automate
• AI and BI Tools
• Power Apps
• Power Automate
If you're new to Dynamics 365 CE, or exploring new functionality to expand into, or your system is a bit outdated, you'll have tons of takeaways. We’ll deliver dozens of "bite-sized demos" in video format that you can watch later, and a live environment to dive deeper, and discussion on the strengths (and "gotchas") of the various modules and features.
Get ready to be inspired to take the next step with Dynamics - and take back dozens of videos to inspire your team!
7 Habits for Modern Workplace Leadership Success
Newly emerging AI and Copilot capabilities are rapidly launching. But it's no secret that modern digital workplace expansion can be a challenge. Adoption, data quality, planning and vision, governance all play an important role in change management.
In this session you'll discover the secrets to success and learn the 7 essential components that every successful digital workplace project must have, and how AI is impacting these habits.
Join us for a high-impact session where you'll be taken on a journey through the unique planning process, uncovering the keys to creating a unified technology roadmap, full engagement of all stakeholders (including the C-suite and front-line employees), a data quality and master data management governance strategy, effective communication, learning and development, business process design and automation and ongoing maintenance.
By the end of this session, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to achieve success (even if you've already started and need to rethink your project). With practical examples, case studies, training videos, and actionable insights, you'll leave with a solid game plan to bring your employee engagement transformation vision to life. Don't miss out on this opportunity to open the door to Microsoft 365 success.
SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities Sessionize Event
Dynamics 365 Saturday Boston 2019 Sessionize Event
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