Too often, I find myself beating up on Microsoft. I pick apart Outlook; I make fun of Word. I really have an unending disdain for PowerPoint. For these transgressions, I am sorry. I am a victim of judging Microsoft for being Microsoft. Truth be told, no matter what any tech-idiot-guru tells you, there is nothing wrong with Microsoft’s products that could not be fixed by simply taking the word “Microsoft” out of the equation.
Poor little MS is still getting crap from people like me for the crap they created ten years ago. No one noticed that they have left the Vista years behind and have been quietly creating amazing and useful products that are slowly creeping back into fashion. Kinda like Bell Bottoms, Chrysler , and Adidas…
We gave 80’s fashion another try; how about event professionals having a revisit of Microsoft? I gotta tell ya, if you have not tried Microsoft Office lately, you might be surprised to find that it kicks ass on a whole lotta levels. Around here, it is slowly making its way back into vogue with our clients and my office-mates.
A little bit of awesome can also be found in MS’s new iPhone/Android Scanner app called Lens. Evernote users will find it similar to Scannable, which we talked about just a few weeks ago.
While Lens is not a game changer that will make Evernote or Google users jump ship, it is one of those small things that make Microsoft Office users confident enough to stay and not look for greener pastures. Meeting and event planners can rest easy knowing that they are not missing out on some fantastic features that the other guys have and they don’t. Basically, if you are working in the Microsoft Ecosystem (meaning you use Word, Outlook, OneNote, etc), Lens is a fine addition to your daily work habits.
BEOs, receipts, floor plans, sketches, whatever… You can use Lens like a visual Hoover to suck up all of that stuff and make it searchable and editable.
Here is a nifty little video they have created to explain it.
