Office 365 Distilled

Steve and Marijn have a wide ranging talk background dancers, events, colonoscopy, their Scotland travel with Scottish Summit, whisky, episode 200, visiting their own whisky barrels, AI in SharePoint, Claude and they end with a taste of Marijn's daughters whisky barrel, a Linkwood that is now 5 year old but already amazing to drink!

Steve takes his bag of shit to the SmartBytes evening and talks about the gifts that AI has brought us. They end up with a very good household-name dram.

The boys put on their harness and see how they can govern AI. 

The boys take a leap of faith when discussing AI.. Where will it lead to next?

Ducktails - woohoo!!
The boys are talking about the random spawning of ducks in Steve's house, conference travel, new website url's they bought and Steve's changing jobs.
The whisky of the episode? The Ledaig Castaway - which turns out to be superb!

Marijn got fanmail, a user that had a real usecase and was looking how to tackle a problem. So the boys become cunts - I mean consultants and do some live consultancy!

The boys start off with an AI created intro, Marijn gets winded up about the use of "and honestly" he sees everywhere, Steve talks about lady gardens, but they are interrupted by a ruckus on the street. Thank goodness there is a Danish Dirty Bastard!

The boys have a whisky-infused talk about AI use cases, share fun stories and have 4 different English whiskies throughout the episode.

Marijn came back from MVP Summit in Seattle, but can't say anything, because NDA! The topic changes in what AI can do for you, and why people are the secret ingredient for AI success! They end with an American whisky "Straight Triticale Distillarium".

On this special day of the day, when we celebrate Saint Paddy, the boys taste 4 whiskies while they work out how to measure collaboration.

Happy Birthday to 25 year SharePoint! The boys reminisce and share war stories. They end with an amazing smoky dram.

In this episode of Microsoft 365 Distilled, the boys celebrate Burns Night in true Scottish fashion: with tartan‑level enthusiasm and a whisky that would make even the Bard raise an approving eyebrow.

They go hunting for insights in places no one has ever thought to look.
The mission?
To see whether the timeless wisdom of Burns, actual old-school poetry can shed new light on the ever evolving universe of Microsoft 365. And to everyone’s surprise (including their own), it absolutely does.

Expect hilarious interpretations, dramatic readings, suspicious Scottish accents, and philosophical detours that some...

Happy new year everyone! The boys are back and making plans for fun events this year. Marijn hates the fact that Steve is now higher up the CommunityDays speaker board list than Marijn. They reminisce about past events and eventually get on topic: AI doesn't care if your sites are pretty. So how much work do you need to put in to make SharePoint "pretty" for AI (AKA readable)? So what is the ratio for human eyeballs vs AI? The boys finish off with a superb Danish whisky, Skippers Glow, kindly donated by friend-of-the-podcast Kasper Larsen.

It...

The boys discover Jura and their wheel to describe the full range of whiskies. They compare it with different SharePoint elements, techniques and ingredients to put in the cauldron and to make new potions!

Marijn makes a total arse of himself at a whisky tasting. Because why not. The boys are talking about undiscovered gems in SharePoint,which they uncover in an old-school method.

This time, the boys are not alone! Anouck Fierens, co-host of the FusionTalk podcast is joining them for a dada-dram! The talk of tonight? How, and what people think. About technology, automation, communication and change.

The boys talk about Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke. In short: the 5s methodology.
After Marijn's session on Marie Kondo, this is another methodology to clean up your content.
Whiskies come out, and boy..these are something else! 

The boys are at Collabdays Zagreb and talking to Frane Borozan and Danijel Cizek, from Syskit. They are enjoying some Croatian whisky (well, some of them...) and talking governance, AI and life in the beautiful city of Zagreb.

Marijn for once, does something useful (in Steve's house).A new Modern Workplace workshop arises, so that means the boys will be live workshopping (aka pisstaking) around it. Marijn tells his Copilot horror stories. The boys end with such a unique whisky that only 1 bottle exists.

Marijn talks about his new session that is delivering in Helsinki and Oslo. That one is about finding a methodology to handle data, and Marijn chooses the Marie Kondo method. Initially, Steve can't stop laughing about it, but he is won over when Marijn says the magic word (which is not whisky). The whisky is a sherry finished Islay bomb.

"You never listen to me", might be the start of a old fashioned shoot out in the wild wild west. Thankfully, the boys are much more civilized (so they say) and talk about the Frontier Firm. They end with a Kavalan, that has been on the shelve for ages and finally gets opened.

Links to the material:
2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born
https://buckleyplanet.com/2025/08/how-to-become-a-frontier-firm

The boys had it with M365. Done. Dusted. But what are alternatives? If you want to use spreadsheets, run an intranet or collaborate, what are the real serious contenders? Let's find out, and have a great Irish whisky (yes, without an e!!).

When the boys are left alone.. they come up with great ideas. New models for whisky that also work for Microsoft 365? Why not!

The boys are renewed as MVP. But what does that even mean? How do you become one? Would you want to be one? What are the perks? And how much work is involved? And how much whisky?

The boys try something new this episode. What started as a great idea, turned into a drinking game! Marijn got some great Teerenpeli Finnish whisky samples from Vesa Nopanen (which they always exchange). Every time we drink, we ask a question. Let's see how far they got!

In this episode, the boys talk about migrations in the wild, and the experiences they had. They end with a brilliant whisky from one of their favorite distilleries.

The boys discuss 1 billion SharePoint users, agents and all the other sweet stuff coming out of #M365Conf in Las Vegas. Steve talks about his conference in Amsterdam with Agent 2 Agent experiences. We end with Frey Ranch whisky bourbon.

It is getting hot in here! Not only are the boys talking governance, intranets and whisky, but Steve might not have a lot of clothes on...

The boys start off talking about intranets and Marijn's new gig at Involv. Then they talk about the concept of the decentralized intranet architecture. The whisky today is a Japanese Akashi that is just perfect with Sushi.

OK, we are alte... well Steve is late in publishing this episode... no excuse except travelling to the Microsoft world... but then again this is what this episode is about... if you could change anything about M365... what would your expectations be.

The Boys are back! Marijn and Steve embark on an intergalactic journey through Microsoft 365 in search of the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything—aka their own '42'.

From the deep trenches of SharePoint to the swirling galaxies of Teams, Sway, Exchange, and beyond, they explore the quirks, wonders, and hidden gems of the M365 ecosystem. Expect a whirlwind of insights, unexpected discoveries, and the kind of tech wisdom that would make even Deep Thought raise an eyebrow.

Join us for a fun, fast-paced, and thoroughly entertaining ride as we unravel the my...

Steve comes back from Collabdays Miami and tells the story about the 4th revolution that is currently happening in the world.

Well this is a conversation about Intranets that the boys dont start arguing about...  too much anyway.

OK, the boys ramble on a bit about the money and about AI.  The way we pay for SharePoint and M365 services and new ways to pay for Azure services then budgeting for your SharePoint services changes and increases as you are more successful with Copilot.

But are we actually paying more or are things just changes... but then we got distracted... something that happens very rarely for Steve and Marijn... well...   OK check it out and enjoy... and maybe get prompted for a few ideas and the odd Golden Nugget...

So, this turned out to be fun after the boys could not get excited about a big single subject... except whisky... but being broke after the holidays cheap whisky became a talking point... then Steves's mum joined the call and AI became a talking about along with a M365 Comparison with many things Whisky... 

But then the boys got serious and talked about some very nice drams all priced around the 30-50 euro mark that taste like things double the price.

Steve and Marijn record this just before Xmas and decide on 4 whiskies as they have a send-off for Viva Goals recently announced to be deprecated by Microsoft.

Check out this episode to find out why we think it has disappeared and if a hole has been left that needs filling more importantly laugh as we work through the last episode we recorded before Snow fell and Santa delivered presents.

Six years ago the boys recorded Office365Distilled 001.  6 years and 155 Episodes ago and talked about Ignited 2018.
So the opportunity arose to check out what was announced at Ignite 2018 and compare it to Ignite 2024 which has just happened.
So enjoy a little reminiscing of the past whilst looking at the future.

The boys are starting to realise that it is time to get practical and talk about how governance has changed and how they approach SharePoint Governance specifically in todays work of SharePoint, MS Teams and OneDrive and how they approach the subject with Clients.

Marijn talked about the underlying ABC pyramid approach with A being for ALL = Intranet, B being about Business = SharePoint sites and C being about Collaboration = MS teams and OneDrive as a location for sharing.

The describe how these layers work out in reality and how as consultant it is explained to...

OK, so MS Teams gets new way to look at Channels and Chats under a Sectional title.  Steve and marijn take a look at the value of such change and go to discussing the value today and potential value tomorrow.

A very old Teeling gets a tasting after Tikit for MS teams brings their 3 series to a close with a great whisky

The boys talk to Geoff and Adam, from Tikit by Cireson. Tikit is a helpdesk solution build on Microsoft Teams. We talk about planes, journeys, AI (ofcourse) and much more. They are our whisky sponsors for the episode!