The Microsoft Cloud South Coast User Group recently held an event that showcased the power of document automation and the importance of asking the right questions when building cloud-based solutions. The event, which took place in Southampton, featured three sessions that provided valuable insights and demonstrations of the latest technologies.
Johannes Linder, Lead Technical Evangelist at dox42, kicked off the event with a demonstration of the company’s document automation platform. Dox42 allows users to integrate templates with data from various sources and output to a wide range of targets, including Microsoft Office, PDF, Teams, SMS, Docusign, Azure Blob, and SQL. Johannes showed how the platform can be used to create customized documents based on data from Dynamics, SharePoint, and other sources. He also demonstrated how conditional fields can be added to Word documents, allowing for different Terms+Conditions sections to be pulled in based on the customer’s address.
Next up was Jon Russell, who shared his career history and enthusiasm for Power Platform. Jon discussed how he overcame burnout and found a new passion for helping others through community projects using Power Platform. He emphasized the platform’s ability to solve IT problems and improve mental health.
Finally, co-organizer Nathan Sweeney led a session on the importance of asking the right questions when building cloud-based solutions. He highlighted the many different ways a goal as straightforward as hosting a website can be achieved, using examples from the Azure reference architectures. Nathan encouraged attendees to stop saying “it depends” and instead ask more questions to gather enough information before designing a solution.
Overall, the event provided valuable insights into document automation and cloud-based solutions, as well as practical tips for improving one’s career and mental health. The next Microsoft Cloud South Coast User Group event is scheduled for the beginning of next month, and those interested can register on meetup.com.