Ever feel like technology is moving too fast for you to keep up with?  I do.  When I was around ten years old, I was lucky enough to have a 12-inch portable television in my bedroom and a ZX Spectrum.  Not to brag, but it was a colour TV and if I got the wire aerial in the right position I could watch any of the three available channels! I also had a record player, and I sometimes had to sit a penny on the stylus to stop my records from jumping.

Fast forward to when my children were that age and things had moved on so fast!  They had bigger televisions, with DVD players, and an X-Box or PlayStation, and a CD player!  Their televisions were hooked up to cable TV and they had countless channels to choose from. So much change in such a seemingly short space of time.

I bet you can guess where I’m going next, 41 years on from my ZX spectrum days, I have all of the above and more in my pocket!  To me, that’s a very short time frame for all this tech to not only have been developed, but tested, and now considered pretty much to be run of the mill.  It can be overwhelming.  I remember the shift from my parents teaching me how to work something (the 8-track player for example), to me teaching them how to send a text message or set the Sky box to record something.

I hope I’m not alone in occasionally feeling overwhelmed with how quickly technology has progressed in our work environment too.  In my case, the biggest development I’m trying to adjust to is Microsoft Power Tools.  I’ve found it difficult to get my head around what each tool does.  What is the difference between Power BI and Power Automate, and what can they actually do for me?

I’m fortunate enough to work with colleagues who have a better understanding of these tools, and they recently hosted a Continuous Improvement Network event which provided an insight into their use.  The event also pointed those in attendance to the useful training and guidance available to all staff.

The first of these is the online, on-demand training for Power BI Beginners, available on MyPlace.  The course can be completed at your own pace, which I always find helpful.  There is a similar course available online for Training for Power Automate beginners. (Please note these resources are only accessible to University of Strathclyde employees).

In addition, the Continuous Improvement Directorate have created the Power Platform Support Hub for staff, only accessible via SharePoint, which is full of useful information, with the option of requesting one-to-one support.

If you are at all like me and find such rapid development to be a touch overwhelming, hopefully these tools will get you on track.

On that note, I’m off to ask my son to reset the digital clock on my oven (there are some things I simply refuse to learn!)

If you’d like to find out more about our Power Platform Hub, please contact us via email.