SharePoint – Environment a little unstable?

Boy, got to take a break. Right now, I’m working on that ACA and it’s just round the clock scrutinizing the numbers. Last weekend I was sick so I had to reserve my energy for working on the ACA and sleeping to get better. No website posting or doing art or doing readings. Later I’ll do a post, and a rant, on the ACA but for now, just a quickie post on something else – SharePoint and Microsoft’s updates.

Microsoft has these continuing updates and now some people either can’t open their files or their files are not saving properly. The system changes just enough to cause propblems and these managers are not technically oriented – they are people oriented. The opening files problem stems from a new way of opening the file – different from what we first had to do in order to open a file with macros. There is at least one person whose file won’t open at all, no matter if she is using the newest way of opening the file. BOO!

An even bigger problem is the issue of file sync: I think sometimes the file will sit in a queue waiting to be uploaded. It could be due to a SharePoint environment issue, or due to everybody trying to save their files at the same time or internet issue. I don’t know which it is. At least one time it was a SharePoint environment issue but I also think we have internet issues. I can’t get too technical with these managers – it’s hard enough trying to get them to check if the file has uploaded onto SharePoint. It’s in one ear and out the other for some of them. I can repeat ad nauseam and they just don’t “hear” it. So never mind asking them to check on the “Office Upload Center” and see if the file is in pending mode.

The SharePoint environment has some great features (but I don’t think we’ll use them, such as the web like features, just like most people don’t use Pivot Tables when it could help them) but there are some disappointing features and syncing is one of them. And the constant updates that break something, including my macros. I often have to tweak my macros to make them work after I receive an update.

But I did learn something about Power BI. I was not crazy or stupid: it is not designed for distribution of reports such as we need to do unless the receiver has a Pro license or we subscribe to a Premium license. So it was not because I was unable to figure it out – I finally was vindicated. We had a meeting about two weeks ago and a guy (a consultant) said we could use reporting services (something I had read about but never was able to fully pursue because I knew it was going to take a LONG time to figure out – I barely could get past the connection stage) and one of the operations manager wanted a real proof of concept that the reporting services would work. Yep, I got a sense that he was not disappointed that Power BI would not work as we had hoped.

So, yes, I’ve been vindicated.