“We have evolved as a species to pay the utmost attention to that which is just beyond our reach.”
A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles.

Welcome to our first post! Our blog is all about teams. Both the groups of people and Microsoft Teams. We’re experts in both categories. This is our 7th startup and we’ve succeeded in the past by picking good people, inspiring them to share a single objective, and then leading them to success.

We formed KLIPPAS Technologies in April 2020, spent a month deciding what to do, and then signed up to become a Microsoft Partner and Developer in May. We’ve spent the past year trying to climb the learning cliff that is Microsoft’s technology stack. And yes, it is a cliff, not a curve.

Don’t get me wrong. The depth, breadth and integration of Microsoft’s technology stack ensures that if you can imagine an app, you can build it. But its support services are weak and its documentation is a nightmare. True; there are some great overviews of their products and services. But getting the details you need to use them, ends in one of the three ways:

1. You can’t find anything about the subject, other than the 50,000 foot view.
2. You find precisely what you’re looking for, but the document is out-of-date and its instructions can’t be followed because the UI has changed.
3. You find something useful, but every 5 lines into reading it, you click a link to learn more; then you’re ten topics away and have to start again because of information overload.

But! A year after leaping off the cliff, our Teams bot, Kippa is enjoying his Beta test in two, soon to be three, great organizations!

If you have a question about teams or Teams, or enjoy reading about either one, it’d be a good idea to bookmark this page.

Here’s what you can expect in future posts:

1. Updates on the progress of our cute little elephant, Kippa: important dates like when you can buy a copy, ways people are using him to never miss a deadline or important event, and sales and marketing news.
2. We’ll share some of our expertise on teams. You know what they are, of course, but we’ll give you ideas on what separates a good team from a not so hot one.
3. We’ll sometimes be moved sufficiently to give you our opinion on a current event which impacts teams, or Teams. Or people, because teams are one-headed people with many hands.
4. And sometimes our opinion will be about design, especially the design of an App’s user experience. Something we are fanatical about, and which today, sadly, most developers are not. And we’ll have plenty to say about the user-hostile way Microsoft throws an app at its users.
5. We’ll answer questions on teams or Teams, if you post them as comments. Use our contact page to ask questions you’d rather not share publicly.
6. Lastly, if you have an idea for a post, or a Teams app, or just want to say hi, please use the contact page to tell us what you think.

I’d like to personally thank every health-care worker, everywhere, for their incredible dedication, commitment and self-sacrifice during this difficult time. Team Health has saved millions of us, and, with some luck, Team Science may restore our lives to normal.

Teams achieve greatness when they strive for that which is just beyond their reach.

Bit-by-Bit #185