Meet Julie Cantwell, one of Centriq’s Microsoft 365 Training Specialists. Julie came to Centriq in 2019 with experience as a SharePoint admin. Julie helps organizations find success with their M365 adoption efforts by training users on fundamentals, incorporating change with new technology and instilling best practice methods in M365 apps and services.
Tell us about yourself and your journey into technology training:
My background and career has primarily revolved around project management in different capacities. It was in this role I came across the SharePoint app. I was looking for an app or program where several different departments could work together on a large account; collaborate would be the best description. From that moment on I have been singing the praises and sharing the tools of SharePoint to many different organizations. My passion for sharing and educating people about the SharePoint app led me to my career with Centriq and corporate training.
What classes do you teach at Centriq?
I teach the Microsoft 365 app courses, such as M365 App Discovery Workshop and SharePoint Immersion Workshop. I also teach some of the Office desktop apps.
What is your favorite class to teach and why?
My favorite M365 course is naturally SharePoint, often referred to as the mothership of the M365 apps. Often people don’t understand its full potential and how it operates and integrates with the other M365 apps. I am a huge advocate of the beautiful pages and news posts you can create.
What do you think is the most underutilized M365 app?
Many organizations launch the Teams app without educating employees on all of the features and functions of the app. When people take our classes they are always excited to learn about content collaboration, the app integration, meeting functionality and how the Teams app is a one-stop shop.
What app do you think everyone should train on?
I am not sure there is one specific app; what I do think people should understand is how the M365 apps work together. It’s the lifecycle of content in M365; starting with your OneDrive, where you create content. Next you may share that content into Teams and from there your content might migrate to an organizational SharePoint site. As your content moves through each app the audience will change, permission sets will change, the tone changes, and governance around the content will change. In my opinion, educating people about the sharing and permissions around content is something you will consistently find throughout all of the M365 apps.
What’s your #1 tip for staying productive using M365 apps?
Educate yourself on the apps you utilize most; stay on top of the technology. Microsoft is constantly improving and making changes to its apps to improve the user experience. Read the technology blogs and follow the Twitter posts; you will find unlimited resources to answer questions and stay informed. It can be challenging at times but it is also exciting. Become a M365 Champion for your organization. Also, there are many ways to bookmark throughout all of the apps; whether its pinning a channel in Teams, following a SharePoint site, saving a new post or favoriting your most important content. Using all of these tools will make you look like a rockstar.
What’s an important M365 app or feature that helps today’s virtual workers support a successful team?
This is an easy one; the Teams app is the way to go for all things collaboration, communication, meetings, and app integration. I use the mobile app from the time I wake up and the desktop throughout my day for meetings, task management, app integration such as OneNote and Planner. I love that I am in constant communication with my team and clients.
Are you ready to sign up for your next class with Julie? Contact us or fill out the form and one of our Customer Success Specialists will help you get started.