Standards for Innovation
Alex Simmons, VP of Program Management for Microsoft’s Identity Division, discussed, in a recent article, the role of standards in accelerating innovation. To quote Mr. Simmons, “At Microsoft, we firmly believe that open identity standards accelerate innovation. Some of you might think this is an oxymoron. Let me explain why it isn’t.”
He goes on to describe how innovators are using available technology and coming together to create new possibilities, and how integrating and maintaining interoperability with existing identity management systems—all based on standards—will be key to accelerating this process.
PMI Chicagoland Chapter to Host 8th Annual Symposium
PMI’s Chicagoland Chapter is scheduled, on Friday, October 19th, to host “Transformation, Value, Sustainability,” its 8th annual symposium. The event will host 12+ speakers discussing multiple topics that align with the PMI Talent triangle. Attendees can expect to be immersed in a combination of technical, leadership, and strategic and business management expertise, as well as have the opportunity to dialogue and engage on what additional skill sets are needed to meet the evolving demands of the project management profession.
PMPs will be able to earn up to 7 PDUs at this event.
Microsoft Announces the Addition of AI Features to Excel
As project managers, we may use multiple software and tools for our jobs. Excel is one of them. At the Ignite conference and on Microsoft’s 365 blog recently, the company announced four new features that will utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and make Excel “even more powerful.”
The new features, several of which are already available in Office 365, are:
- Intelligent suggestions with Ideas
- New Data Types
- The ability to insert data from a picture
- Dynamic arrays, which will allow for easier calculation
Project Hosts, Inc. and Brightwork Team Up
Project Hosts, Inc. has announcement a partnership with BrightWork, a leading project and portfolio management solution for Microsoft SharePoint. The two will be teaming up to provide Healthcare organizations a HIPAA/HITRUST compliant cloud based solution on Microsoft Azure. BrightWork’s CEO, Éamonn McGuinness, is quoted in the press release put out by Project Hosts saying, “We are delighted to expand our relationship with Project Hosts to the Healthcare sector and combining their unparalleled knowledge and experience of cloud security with our project management solution.”
