Microsoft 365 Admin Monthly Digest – Nov 2023

a banner depicting the title of the blog with tagline ”Your monthly IT admin blog for all things Microsoft 365”

Welcome to the Microsoft 365 IT admin blog, your monthly source of tips, insights, and best practices for managing and optimizing your Microsoft 365 environment. In this edition, we cover the upcoming AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot, briefly recap a knowledge-filled Ignite, and talk about the latest enhancements and updates relevant to Microsoft 365 admins including end of support for Office 2016 and Office 2019, setting up auto-claim policies, and adding organizational data to Viva. 

Join the next AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot  

We’ll be hosting the next AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Microsoft 365 Copilot on Wednesday, December 6, in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Tech Community. The upcoming AMA will be focused on Copilot for Microsoft 365 and follow up on any questions you might have coming out of Ignite 2023. In our previous AMA, we had great discussions on how to use Copilot and what to expect, extending Copilot through Microsoft Graph connectors and plugins, and admin controls and how to measure success. You can catch up on the previous AMA here.  

You can send in your questions to the event page now, and a team of experts will join us to help answer them during the event. 

Recapping Ignite 2023 

Earlier this month, Microsoft hosted our annual Ignite conference in Seattle. Some highlights this year include announcing the Private Preview of Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin, enhancements to simplify managing multi-tenant environments, an in-depth look under the hood of Copilot for Microsoft 365, and how you can prepare for Copilot. Check out this blog for the highlights at Ignite that are most relevant to Microsoft 365 admins.  

In case you missed them, here are some session recordings and videos that are highly recommended: 

• What’s new for Microsoft 365 admins: This session covers the latest updates for Microsoft 365 admins with topics ranging from Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin, the cloud.microsoft unified domain, managing multi-tenant and cross-tenant environments, to network provider data and actionability 


• Getting your enterprise ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365: Hear from experts on preparing an organization for Microsoft 365 Copilot including information protection, compliance, privacy, deployment prerequisites, information access optimization, and extensibility options. 


• How Copilot for Microsoft 365 works: Go behind the scenes to understand the architecture and dataflows behind Microsoft 365 Copilot including retrieval augmented generation techniques, app commanding, and options to securely connect to external data. 

Highlights across Microsoft 365 administration 

Let’s check out some of the latest features we launched in the Microsoft 365 admin center and how they can help you get things done.  

End of Support for Office 2016 and 2019 clients connecting to Microsoft 365 services 

In October, Microsoft announced that it had ended support for clients connecting to Microsoft 365 services for Office 2016 and Office 2019. Customers affected by these End of Support milestones should transition to a supported Office version to prevent potential security, compliance, and productivity risks. Organizations seeking a solution that is always supported are recommended to consider transitioning to Microsoft 365 E3 that comes with not only the Microsoft 365 Apps, but also capabilities like foundational security, streamlined endpoint management, and enhanced productivity and collaboration features. 

For customers who are unable or not yet ready to move to the cloud, there are other options. As previously announced, we will be making the next version of Office LTSC generally available in the second half of 2024. For our server products including SharePoint Server and Exchange Server, we are also committed to supporting our on-premises customers as long as there is substantial demand. 

New eligible products for Auto-Claim policy and license request notifications 

Auto-claim policies help reduce the need for admins to go into the Microsoft 365 admin center and assign licenses to individual users. With Auto-claim, you can now set up a pool of licenses on a per product basis that automatically gets assigned to a user they launch an application or service that a policy has been set for, helping reduce time for user onboarding and admin time spent on repetitive tasks. Microsoft recently added support for PowerApps and PowerAutomate to auto-claim eligibility, with support for Microsoft Project coming soon, and more. To learn more about setting up auto-claim, check out this article. 

New devices available for Teams Rooms and more market availability 

Microsoft now offers IT admins the ability to discover and purchase devices from the device store in the Teams admin center in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Ireland, France, and Portugal with availability in Austria, Spain, Greece, Belgium, and Netherlands coming soon. Microsoft recently announced new devices available through the store specifically catering to customers who have simpler requirements. For more information on some of these offerings, check out this article. 

Organizational data now supported in Viva 

We’re excited to announce that Microsoft 365 now supports importing organizational data as part of your subscription. Upload your organizational data via .csv file to power high-value capabilities and new scenarios across Microsoft Viva and Microsoft 365, such as Viva Amplify reporting and more personalized experiences in Viva and Microsoft 365.

Organizational data in Microsoft 365 is built on Microsoft’s current commitments to data security and privacy in the enterprise. There is no change to these commitments. Organizational data in Microsoft 365 is integrated into Microsoft 365 and adheres to all existing privacy and compliance obligations. To learn more, check out this article.

Stay Updated 

As always, stay current with the latest updates on the Microsoft 365 admin center from the Microsoft 365 roadmap and the message center. In addition, we also highlight new feature releases and enhancements released each month in our What’s new in the Microsoft 365 admin center article.  

Comment below if there are IT admin or change management topics you would like us to explore in future! 

Copilot in Microsoft 365 – Support Tips

The Microsoft 365 Commercial Support Team resolves customer support cases and provides you assistance to be successful and realize the full potential and value of your purchase. Our support services extend across the entire lifecycle and include pre-sales, onboarding and deployment, usage and management, accounts and billing, and break-fix support. We also spend a considerable amount of time working to improve the supportability of Microsoft 365 services to reduce the number of issues you experience as well as minimize the effort and time it takes to resolve your issues if they do occur. 

Today, we’re excited to share more about some of our supportability work with Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

Copilot for Microsoft 365 combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your organization’s data – all in the flow of work – to turn your words into one of the most powerful productivity tools on the planet.  It works alongside Microsoft 365 Apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more.  Copilot provides real-time intelligent assistance, enabling users to enhance their creativity, productivity, and skills.  Copilot for Microsoft 365 has been in use by tens of thousands of enterprise customers as part of our Early Access Program (EAP) for several months and our support teams have been there every step of the way assisting IT Admins with their questions. Starting November 1, Copilot became generally available for enterprise customers worldwide. 

A small group of senior engineers in our Microsoft 365 Commercial Support Team have been working closely with the Copilot product engineering teams since the early stages of development, well before the first customer ever onboarded, to learn the service and build readiness and training assets for our global support teams. Today, I’m excited to welcome three of these engineers to share their knowledge, insights, and guidance on getting ready for Copilot for Microsoft 365and ways IT Admins can be most effective in deploying, managing, and supporting Copilot with users in their organizations. 

Brian: Welcome Jason, Rob, and Parth! It’s great to have your Copilot expertise here and I know you’ve been working with Copilot for Office apps (Word Excel, PowerPoint), Outlook, and Microsoft Teams for quite a while. What’s it been like getting the support team ready for the Copilot for Microsoft 365 launch?  How has it been different than other product releases that you’ve worked on over the years? 

Jason: The development cycle was really rapid and accelerated over a compressed period of time, especially from when we first engaged to the launch of the Early Access Program in July.  It required a lot of teamwork and coordination to gather and digest information from across various sources and product technologies and then turn that into consumable content for support engineers. The synergy and the way teams have come together within support and across product engineering and marketing has been super impressive. I’m sure it will contribute to a positive experience for customers. 
 
Parth: Just to add to Jason’s comments, Copilot was definitely a unique experience given how quickly it went from concept to getting into the hands of our valuable Early Access Program customers. Keeping up with feature progress, and specifically on which platform they would be landing, meant paying really close attention to engineering team progress daily. Our planning program managers were super awesome in coordinating with the engineering teams to get us access to new Copilot features and information so we could use and test the service and develop troubleshooting documentation. 

Brian: What are some things that customers should know about the Copilot service and how it operates, including how data, security, and privacy are handled? 

Rob: Copilot for Microsoft 365 respects the permissions model and only shows you data that you have permission to view. It’s important to use the permission models in Microsoft 365 to make sure the right people have access to the right content. Copilot only searches for information within your organization, and it does not search in other organizations that you might have access to. When you use Copilot, your prompts, the data retrieved, and the results stay within the Microsoft 365 service boundary, following our privacy, security, and compliance commitments. Copilot uses Azure OpenAI Services, not OpenAI’s public services, so all of the processing stays within the Microsoft 365 service boundary. Here’s a great illustration of the Copilot architecture, showing how this works across the different components: 

Illustration courtesy of Microsoft 365 Copilot Overview 

Brian: What are some of the key considerations for IT Admins to keep in mind as they prepare for onboarding and deployment? 

Jason: First, get really familiar with the various public Microsoft resources available, at minimum the Learn article that describes requirements: Microsoft 365 Copilot requirements | Microsoft Learn.  We have a Tech Community blog that steps through how to prepare your organization for Microsoft 365 Copilot:  How to prepare for Microsoft 365 Copilot – Microsoft Community Hub.   In addition, there is a Microsoft Learning path specific for Copilot so would recommend that too: MS-012 Prepare your organization for Microsoft 365 Copilot – Training | Microsoft Learn.  

And then keep in mind a “Copilot” not an “Autopilot,” particularly when it comes to new content creation.  Copilot is highly proficient at generating content, but as it pertains to newly generated content, it always needs to be factually verified. 

Rob: Prompts are the commands or questions that you type or speak to Copilot to request assistance. If you are not sure what to ask Copilot, try choosing from our selection of prompts to create, edit, and get more done over at our Copilot Lab on https://aka.ms/CopilotLab. 

Brian: Talk a little about indexing with Semantic Index and what to expect at both the user and tenant level following Copilot purchase and license assignment. 

Jason: Semantic Index is an indexing map of data within the tenant and triggers automatically after Copilot has been purchased. It provides semantically related results in Search and Copilot based on the indexed content and relationships, which is important for providing context and keeping the results “grounded” in relevant data. Note you can disable specific SharePoint sites from appearing in search and omit them from the index. 

 
Semantic index does not require any administrative configuration. The indexing process is automated and adheres to the same trust standards as the rest of the Microsoft 365 suite. The indexing process at the tenant-level works through about 95% coverage of OneDrive and SharePoint Online text-based documents within a week, with full coverage taking up to 28 days (about 4 weeks).   

Semantic indexing respects any site and library indexing restrictions as well as the People and Item insights settings found in the Search & Intelligence admin portal. User-level indexing includes user mailbox content, which is indexed in 2 days, with outliers taking longer, sometimes up to 2 weeks.   

After initial indexing is complete, updates are likewise automatically done in near real-time, with OneDrive/SharePoint document content sometimes taking up to 48 hours (about 2 days) to be added to the index. 

Check out this video to learn more – Semantic Index for Copilot: Explained by Microsoft. 

Brian: Can you share some tips and guidance for some of the most common questions you’re seeing from customers right now? 

All:  Make sure you’re fully aware and understand the Copilot for Microsoft 365 requirements. For the Microsoft 365 desktop apps, make sure they are on the Current channel and running the latest build. This will also apply later when Copilot appears in the Monthly Enterprise Channel (MEC). 
 
Parth:  Right now, it can take up to 72 hours for Copilot license assignment. We expect that time to reduce in the near future as Copilot continues to evolve. 

In terms of language support, here are the languages currently supported by Copilot for Microsoft 365 for prompts and responses: Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish.  Note that Copilot in Excel is currently supported in English only. 

Here are a few other suggestions for getting the most out of Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions: 

Do’s
	Be Clear and specific.  Provide specific instructions to Copilot, such as topic, purpose, tone, and required length.		Check for accuracy.  Occasionally, Copilot may make mistakes. Always check Copilot’s responses for accuracy, grammar, and style, and watch out for irrelevant or inappropriate content.
	Keep it conversational.  Give feedback to Copilot based on the quality of its responses to help the AI learn and match your preferences.		Provide details.  Provide Copilot with contextual details to help it generate more accurate, consistent responses. For example, the genre, characters, and plot to a story.
	Give examples.  Use clear and specific keywords or phrases when asking Copilot to write a piece of text for you. This helps it generate more relevant and creative copy.		Be polite.  Using kind and respectful language when chatting with Copilot helps foster collaboration and improves the AI’s responsiveness and performance.
	Ask for feedback.  Requesting feedback from Copilot helps it to understand your needs and preferences, and to provide you with more relevant, helpful responses.
	Write legibly.    Use correct punctuation, capitalization, and grammar when writing prompts, as this will help the AI produce better quality text and responses.
Don’ts
	be vague.  When prompting Copilot, avoid using vague language, and be as clear as possible to receive better quality responses.		Give conflicting instructions.  Prompting Copilot to perform a task that includes multiple or conflicting pieces of information in the same request can confuse the AI and result in lower quality responses.
	Request inappropriate or unethical content.  Copilot is not responsible for the content or the consequences of your writing. You should respect the local laws, rules, and the rights of others.		Interrupt or change topics abruptly.  This could disrupt the Copilot’s writing process. Always close or finish a task before starting a new one. When starting a new task write “new task”.
	Use slang, jargon, or informal language.  This may cause Copilot to give low quality, inappropriate or unprofessional responses.

Issue	Recommendations
Copilot is not showing up or shows up only in some places.	When Copilot is not appearing as expected, and all requirements have been met, consider the following:  After assigning a Copilot license to a user, it can take up to 72 hours (about 3 days) for the background refresh of you license to take effect in Windows apps. You can force a refresh via the File > Account > Update license button (located directly under the Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise logos).  Verify the active signed-in account is licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot if you have multiple accounts connected to Office.    Reference: FAQ about Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing Opens in new window or tab
Some SharePoint content is being excluded.	Content for any site or library that has been excluded from search indexing will not be included in Copilot results.      https://learn.microsoft.com/sharepoint/make-site-content-searchable
Impact of Search & Intelligence portal controls on Copilot behavior.	Disabling People or Item Insights will prevent “people data” from document collaboration and recommended documents from being included in Copilot results.      Disabling will also have an effect beyond Copilot such as in the microsoft365.com Feed and My Content areas.

Brian: And finally, what are some of your favorite resources and sites that admins should know about and keep close at hand as they work with Copilot? 

All:  Here are a few of our favorites: 

• Copilot requirements: Microsoft 365 Copilot requirements  


• Features currently available in Copilot: Microsoft 365 Copilot – Service Description 


• Copilot learning site: Microsoft 365 Copilot documentation 


• Microsoft Mechanics YouTube playlist on Microsoft 365 Copilot:  Microsoft 365 Copilot Mechanics – YouTube 
  Prompt engineering:  Copilot Lab (cloud.microsoft) and Get tips on Copilot prompts (aka.ms) 


• Responsible AI: Empowering responsible AI practices | Microsoft AI 


• Data, Privacy, and Security for Copilot: Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot (aka.ms) 


• Microsoft Teams & Copilot: Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support 


• Microsoft 365 Blog: Copilot articles 

Brian: Thank you, Jason, Rob, and Parth, for sharing all these great insights and information! 
 
 

Jason Haak is a Senior Support Escalation Engineer in the CSS Modern Work Supportability Team focused on Office with Microsoft 365. 
 

Parth Sharma is a Support Escalation Engineer in the CSS Modern Work Supportability Team focused on Microsoft Teams with Microsoft 365. 

Rob Whaley is a Senior Support Escalation Engineer in the CSS Modern Work Supportability Team focused on Exchange and Outlook with Microsoft 365. 

Brian Stoner is a Director in the CSS Modern Work Supportability Team where he leads a team of technical and business program managers. 

The CSS Modern Work Supportability Team delivers innovative self-help solutions and diagnostics, in-service enhancements, and support programs to help customers get maximum value from their Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions and create an easy-to-use, connected support experience. 

Ignite 2023 – What’s New for Copilot and Microsoft 365 admins

a banner image of Microsoft Ignite 2023

As the backbone of any modern organization, your role is to ensure your users are most productive while maximizing value from your current investments. With the rapid evolution and adoption of AI, you are facing new challenges and opportunities. Microsoft Ignite 2023 brings the wealth of news and technical knowledge to help you keep up with the latest trends, best practices, and solutions for managing and optimizing your IT environment. Read on to learn about the latest announcements, for admins responsible for Copilot and Microsoft 365 overall, on becoming more productive in the daily admin work, including managing and assessing the impact of Copilot in your organization.   

Increasing efficiency of IT with the power of AI 

Managing Copilot for Microsoft 365 in one place 

To simplify management and configuration of Copilot, available controls and configurations are consolidated into a single Copilot page in the Microsoft 365 admin center and available on the left navigation menu for simple wayfinding. 

an image of the Copilot page in the Microsoft 365 admin center

Starting with the basics, you can get status of your Copilot licenses including how many are assigned and available. You’ll also be able to view the most recent Copilot-related message center posts at a glance and find links to top resources on Copilot. You will also find various controls for managing how your organization interacts with Copilot. If you are using Copilot, controls such as how your users interact with Copilot in Bing, and Copilot’s ability to access public web content are available. You can also manage plugins that work with Copilot for Microsoft 365, manage how Copilot works with sensitivity labels and protected documents, configure retention policies and communication compliance, as well as audit records and search interactions for eDiscovery by using the settings that link to the specific control in the Integrated App settings page and Microsoft Purview portal. Once licensed for Security Copilot, you can also get to the Security Copilot portal to view settings and configurations. To learn more about the Copilot page in the Microsoft 365 admin center, refer to this documentation. 

Introducing Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin 

Today we announced the Private Preview of Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin, harnessing the value of generative AI to boost IT admins’ productivity by simplifying administration of Microsoft 365 (including Copilot for Microsoft 365) and empowering you to focus on more strategic priorities. Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin helps you perform tasks across different Microsoft 365 services using natural language interactions, contextual guidance, and proactive suggestions. Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin also leverages the power of Copilot to access relevant skills across different admin centers and surfaces, helping admins stay in the flow of work.  

You will be able to experience Copilot in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as specialist admin centers like Teams admin center, SharePoint admin center, Exchange admin center, and more. Copilot will help surface information about your users, groups, and licenses, help with wayfinding for specific settings or controls within an admin center, provide guidance and help with troubleshooting. 

The Private Preview begins with a small group of selected Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers. To learn more about Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin, watch the What’s New for Microsoft 365 admin on-demand session. 

Measuring the impact of Copilot for Microsoft 365 in your organization 

Investing in new technologies like Copilot for Microsoft 365 requires insights into a range of areas from deployment to impact on all levels of IT.  We are bringing such information to you through the surfaces you’re already familiar with in the Microsoft 365 admin center, in the new Power BI dashboard (available in Preview today) and, in future, through Viva Insights. 

Delivering key insights to organizational leaders 

Announced earlier today, the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard (Preview) from Viva Insights* is a new Power BI app built for organizational leaders that brings key insights into a single view, including readiness, adoption, impact, sentiment, and relevant news and research. The dashboard is available as part of your Microsoft 365 or Office 365 subscription. The app can be installed by Microsoft 365 admins and shared with organizational leaders. Learn more about the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard (Preview) in the documentation, and get the dashboard today via AppSource. 

Planning for Copilot deployment, tracking usage and driving adoption with enhancements in the Microsoft 365 admin center 

Usage reports 

Usage reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center offers a growing set of metrics for you to understand usage of Microsoft 365 cloud services. Top level metrics include total enabled and active users, the active user rate, the number of first-time users, and total storage usage. As part of the new design, you can see total enabled and active users for all Microsoft 365 products and a breakdown per app. To understand how per-app usership is progressing over time, you can view these metrics as a trend line over the selected time-period. 

An image of the Microsoft 365 admin center Usage reports Overview page

The report offers two sections, Readiness and Usage, covering information you need to assess your readiness for Microsoft 365 Copilot enablement and inform your user licensing plan. 

Specifically, the Readiness section of the report covers: 

• Technical eligibility: an overview of the key requirements in order to use Copilot, including having a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license assigned and being enrolled in the appropriate channel for app updates. 


• License allocation: the total number of available and unassigned Copilot licenses so that you can ensure you’re utilizing every purchased license. 


• Recommended action cards: important actions to take to prepare your organization for Copilot. 


• Microsoft 365 app feature usage: a set of metrics that show the volume of users in your organization who can benefit from Copilot based on their usage of Microsoft 365 apps where Copilot brings value.


• User-level list view: a user table with a list view of individual users’ readiness information including whether they have usage on a qualified app update channel and actively use Microsoft 365 apps. Note: usernames are anonymized by default, and only a Global Admin can change this.

An image of the Microsoft 365 admin center Usage report for Copilot for Microsoft 365 readiness section

The Usage section of the Copilot for Microsoft 365 report includes: 

• Top-level metrics: enabled users and active users, and the active users rate. 


• Adoption chart: enabled and active users of Microsoft 365 Copilot with a breakdown of these numbers for each Microsoft 365 app, with the option to view these metrics as totals or trends for the selected period.

An image of the Microsoft 365 admin center Usage report for Copilot for Microsoft 365 usage section

To help you drive adoption, the Usage report includes organizational messages capabilities enabling you to reach users through the Windows 11 Notification Center with helpful resources on how to best use Copilot for Microsoft 365. Learn more here in the documentation. 

Copilot for Microsoft 365 Usage report

We’re working on a dedicated experience that will provide your admin team the ability to review activity and manage delivery of your organizational messages in a centralized way. Once your team creates a Copilot message via the Usage report experience described above, you can see interaction insights about it within a centralized experience. Additionally, you will be able to create and publish custom messages within this centralized experience, backed by an approval flow that provides oversight and control. For example, you could create a new message regarding the Windows spotlight (i.e., lock screen) that requires review and approval by other administrators before publication. This centralized experience will be available in a limited preview starting early next calendar year.  We invite you to join this program today by visiting https://aka.ms/orgmessagespreview. 

Diving deeper into Copilot for Microsoft 365 adoption by scenario in the Adoption Score AI assistance category 

Adoption Score offers a set of insights across both People Experiences and Technology Experiences. People Experiences covers how people are using Microsoft 365 to drive better communication, meetings, collaboration, teamwork and mobility. With AI rapidly entering the day-to-day experience of people in your organization, you will see a new People Experiences category called AI assistance, set to roll out in the coming weeks. 

Adoption Score AI Assistance

Adoption Score offers a score, on a 100-point scale, to quickly assess how well people in your organization are adopting Copilot in Microsoft 365. You can dive deeper into what makes up your AI assistance score by looking at the specific features and activities that drive impact, like how well your organization is using Copilot to summarize and create content in your organization, be it Teams meetings, Chat, email in Outlook, documents in Word or PowerPoint and more.  

Adoption Score AI Assistance

Here’s an overview of the various ways you can monitor usage and adoption of Copilot for Microsoft 365:

Simplifing how you manage Multi-tenant organizations 

Many organizations manage multiple tenants in their environment to support business needs including mergers, acquisitions or to maintain compliance with local or industry regulations. This can make it harder to work together and administer your environment, which is why we’ve introduced new capabilities in Public Preview and GA that will make your multi-tenant experience better across identity, collaboration, communication and security. These capabilities will enable you to: 

• Share leadership announcements and storylines across tenants and get insights on network and conversation analytics in Viva Engage (GA). 


• Form a multi-tenant organization (MTO) with Microsoft Entra ID that connects your tenants under a common identity and allows cross-tenant access and collaboration (in preview). 


• Search for co-workers in another tenant, have a single chat thread with them, and receive real-time notifications in Microsoft Teams (in preview). 


• Manage incidents and hunt for threats across tenants, and switch between single and multi-tenant views in Microsoft 365 Defender (in preview). 

These new capabilities simplify the process for organizations to arrange their tenants as secure, autonomous entities connected by common policies and foundational services to move their collective mission forward. Learn more about these enhancements here: 

• Microsoft Entra ID Multi Tenant Organizations  


• Plan for multitenant organizations in Microsoft 365 (Preview link) 


• Multi-tenant organizations in Viva Engage  


• Multi-tenant management in Microsoft 365 Defender 

Continuing the transition to cloud.microsoft 

Earlier this year we announced that Microsoft 365 apps and services would be making the transition to a new, unified domain, cloud.microsoft. The new domain is designed to simplify the user experience, drastically reduce the complexity of admin allow-lists, and lay a foundation for better and tighter integration across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Since April, all net-new services for Microsoft 365 have been deployed on the new domain – including some of the first Copilot web experiences. Copilot subscribers can now find Copilot Lab – a hub for prompts and resources to help you learn how to work with AI – at https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/prompts. 

As existing services prepare to transition, rest assured that we are committed to making these changes as seamless as possible for customers. Admins seeking to update their allow lists will find that *.cloud.microsoft has already been added to the official list of  Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges, and end users will find that existing links and bookmarks will redirect them automatically to the new domain when appropriate. To learn more, visit  Managing Microsoft 365 endpoints. 

Enhancements to provide more insights to network provider data

Other enhancements include the new network provider data and insights, which helps you understand how your network provider(s) affects the performance of Microsoft 365. These enhancements help admins make sure their users are getting the best possible performance and experience with good network connectivity, measuring network performance and availability between client applications on user machines and Microsoft’s network. 

This new network traffic feature gives you additional insights into network provider performance and offers you the awareness of network providers used by your users connected to Microsoft 365, by detecting them via ASN, IP addresses, certificates, and virtual interface names.  

We’ll also help you assess the performance and availability of network providers at both the tenant and branch office level by showing signals we detected between your end user and Microsoft, including the network path taken, the network devices handling the traffic, and how these are influencing network metrics that in turn impact user experience.  

Finally, insights into the top performing network providers in each location will help you understand how your users’ network providers compare to other options, to help guide future network provider decisions. 

Enhancements to Microsoft 365 Monitoring 

Lastly, Microsoft 365 Monitoring Preview is available in M365 admin center’s Service Health dashboard with over 40 monitoring scenarios across 6 core services. It allows you to use dashboards to monitor the health of various Microsoft services for your organization’s Microsoft 365 subscription. We’ve recently added enhancements and new additions to scenarios, listed below, to help IT admins and IT decision makers increase their observability, triangulate faster and minimize downtime.  

• Exchange Online Organizational: “Mail loops”, “Slow transport rules”, “Auto-expanding archive”, “Mailbox storage limits” 


• Exchange Online Priority Account: “Mail delivery” 


• Microsoft Teams Organizational: “UDP Stream Establishment”, “Quality of Experience” 


• Microsoft 365 apps for the web Organizational: “Word”, “Excel”, “PowerPoint”, “OneNote”, “Visio” 

To learn more about near-real time real-user usage telemetry with aggregated data and enriched alerts, visit Microsoft 365 monitoring – Microsoft 365 Enterprise. 

Catching up on the rest of Ignite 

For the latest content and announcements from Ignite related to Copilot for Microsoft 365, check out this blog at the Copilot Tech Community. Our Ignite Preview blog for Microsoft 365 admins gives a rundown of our recommended sessions to learn more! As always, stay current with the latest updates Microsoft 365 admin center from the Microsoft 365 roadmap and the message center.  

Footnotes: 

*The Microsoft Copilot Dashboard (Preview) includes licensing and usage data from your Microsoft 365 tenant. The report does not include data from Viva Insights and you are not required to have a Viva Insights subscription in order to implement the report. 

New Copilot & Microsoft Teams innovations for a secure, simple, and smart frontline workplace

Frontline workers are vital for every business, interacting directly with customers and managing on-the-ground operations daily. However, they face a digital deficit challenge – spending more time on finding information from siloed paper-based processes, legacy systems, and the various devices than on meaningful work like customer service and operational efficiency.  

Microsoft is democratizing technology for this essential workforce, empowering them with new innovations to help improve productivity and business processes. And our customers are at the center of the innovation we’re delivering. Customers like Conagra Brands are driving digitization at their manufacturing facilities and modernizing their shop floor operations with Microsoft Teams. With real-time communication and data sharing, Conagra is enhancing collaboration across facilities and removing information barriers to ensure business success.  

Let’s look deeper into how Copilot, Microsoft Teams, and the entire Microsoft 365 platform are innovating to help frontline workers and the organizations they serve to be successful: 

1. Increase frontline operational efficiency with smart and automated features.  


2. Secure and manage your business with new deployment and authentication products.   


3. Connect and engage your workforce with new push-to-talk innovations. 

Increase operational efficiency 

Over 60 percent of frontline workers struggle with having to do repetitive or menial tasks that take time away from more meaningful work (Work Tend Index Special Report, 2022). Now, new AI and automated features give frontline workers time back so that they can spend more time on operational excellence. 

Microsoft Copilot coming to all Entra ID users, starting with Microsoft 365 F3 on December 1, 2023 

Starting December 1, 2023, Microsoft 365 F3 users will be able to access Copilot (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) with commercial data protection so frontline workers can use AI-powered web chat while keeping business and customer data protected. For example, store associates can assist customers in complex product comparison requests when shopping by using Copilot to make a table to compare the potential products against each other, or to summarize long manuals and onboarding documents into a few digestible bullet points for quick reading.  

When signed in with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), Copilot adds commercial data protection so workers can make requests knowing that confidential data stays private and isn’t being used to train the AI model. Over time, we will also expand the eligibility of Copilot with commercial data protection to even more Entra ID users at no additional cost.   

An image demonstrating Copilot with commercial data protection on a mobile device

Shifts plugin for Copilot for Microsoft 365 and new Shifts features  

Now Copilot for Microsoft 365 can pull from not only data sources like Microsoft Teams chat history, SharePoint, and OneDrive, but also from the Shifts app in Teams. The Shifts plugin for Copilot uses prompts to retrieve insights for frontline managers, leveraging data from the Shifts app in addition to user and company data it has access to. 

Frontline managers can quickly get a list of important items specific to their team and location to speed up time-consuming tasks like covering shifts and onboarding new employees. This helps reduce the burden of repetitive and menial tasks that take time away from meaningful work for frontline workers. This feature will be generally available in December 2023. 

An image showing Microsoft Shifts plugin for Microsoft Copilot pulling schedule information to confirm open shifts

We are also excited to share three new Shifts in Teams features that will be generally available in December and click here to learn more about Shifts in Teams. 

Import and export time offs and open shifts via Microsoft Excel 

Many customers use external tools to create schedules and need a convenient way to import those schedules in the Shifts in Microsoft Teams application. Shifts offer frontline managers (schedule owners) the ability to upload schedules via Excel through the web and desktop applications. With this feature, frontline managers will also be able to upload open shifts – enabling them to use the frontline workers’ self-serve capability to fill in unassigned shifts, and time offs – ensuring that data in Shifts app is in sync with the time-off data in human resources (HR) or workforce management (WFM) source of record systems. 

Improved Shifts in Microsoft Teams privacy settings 

Shifts app digitizes schedule management capabilities and creates efficiencies for organization by making the team’s schedule information available on every frontline worker’s device. However, some customers may want to limit the scheduling information that is shared with frontline workers due to privacy or business concerns. With this feature, frontline managers (schedule owners) will be able to precisely control what information is visible to the frontline workers: such as teammates’ time offs reasons & notes, shift notes, break duration, activities, and how far back frontline workers can view coworkers’ schedules 

Marketplace controls in Shifts settings 

The Shifts in Teams application offers multiple self-serve capabilities for frontline workers. For example:  

• “Open shifts” enables frontline workers to sign up for unassigned shifts. 


• “Swap and offer shifts” enable workers to cover each other’s shifts. 


• “Time off requests” allows workers to request days off. 

Organizations can now pick which of these features to enable for their team in the Shifts settings page. These marketplace control settings, which can be changed at any time, give customers control over how they deploy Shifts within their organization.  

An image showing Shifts marketplace control settings

New task publishing enhancements to support workflow management 

Task management is essential for frontline organizations that operate in multiple locations. We are constantly developing new features to help you manage your work more efficiently. For instance, we have recently added a feature that lets you choose which frontline workers will receive notifications when you publish or unpublish a task list for their team. This month, you will also be able to filter tasks by department or area on your mobile device. Watch Task Publishing in Planner to learn more about the newest task publishing features. 

An image showing filtering tasks by department on mobile

New Microsoft Planner in Teams to centralize task management 

Starting today, Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Teams will be renamed Planner and the new app experience in Teams will be generally available in Spring 2024.The new Planner app in Teams will continue to include our task management features for frontline organizations and will become the new central place for frontline workers to track what needs to be done, delegate tasks to the right workers, and monitor progress all from one platform. Frontline features such as task publishing will still be accessible in Planner app in Teams, and we’ll be introducing more features soon as well.  

An image showing the new Planner experience on Teams desktop

Secure and manage your business 

At the foundation of a frontline experience, is a secure device and a simple Teams structure deployed for collaboration from day one. We are committed to making it easier for IT admins to deploy and manage Teams for your frontline workers. Given the large size of the frontline workforce and the high turnover rates, simplicity is key to the admin experience. 

Deploy and manage frontline dynamic teams and shifts at scale  

Whether due to seasonality or the natural turnover seen on the frontline, simplifying user membership is key to easing management needs. Generally available in December, Microsoft has added new capabilities in the Teams Admin Center to deploy frontline dynamic teams at scale for your entire frontline workforce. Through the power of dynamic teams, team membership is automatically managed and always up to date with the right users as people enter, move within, or leave the organization using dynamic groups from Entra ID.  

This deployment tool streamlines the admin experience to create a Teams structure that maps the frontline workforces’ real-world into digital world and makes it easy to set up a consistent channel structure to optimize for strong frontline collaboration on day one.   

An image showing the new frontline deployment capabilities in the Teams Admin Center

Available in public preview in December, admins can deploy and manage shifts for the entire frontline workforce in the Teams Admin Center. This capability allows admins to centrally deploy and manage the Shifts app across their frontline locations. As part of the centralized deployment and management, admins can standardize time off reasons, scheduling groups, and shift settings across all frontline locations.  

An image showing the shifts management capabilities in the Teams Admin Center

New support for Entra ID Shared Device Mode on iOS and Android 

Previously, frontline workers who use Microsoft 365 applications on shared devices had to individually sign-in and sign-out of each application at the beginning and end of their shifts. This made it difficult for frontline workers to quickly start their shift and ensure their device was fully wiped when they gave the device to another employee.  

To address this challenge, Microsoft developed Entra ID Shared Device Mode that allows a user to sign-in and sign-out once for all apps that support the feature. And when used with Intune’s Application protection policies, you can provide additional data protection so other parts of the device do not leave data behind. 

On Android, we have previously shared that the core apps including Microsoft Teams, Managed Home Screen, Outlook, Edge, Viva Engage, and Power Apps have general availability support for Shared Device Mode. Joining the portfolio of supported Android apps, Power BI will be generally available and Microsoft 365 will be in public preview starting December.  

We know many customers also use shared Apple devices and we are excited to unlock key scenarios on iOS. We are announcing the general availability of Intune zero-touch provisioning of Entra ID Shared Device Mode on iOS and iPadOS as well as additional iOS apps support. In addition to Outlook, Power Apps, and Power BI in public preview, Microsoft 365 will be in public preview starting December. Viva Engage will now be generally available and Microsoft Teams and Power BI will be generally available starting December.  

an animated image showing sign-in and sign-out once for all apps, using Teams and Power BI as examples, that support this feature. 

Simplify authentication with domain-less sign-in on Microsoft Teams  

Since a single device is often shared among multiple frontliner workers, they need to sign-in and out multiple times a day throughout a shift or across shifts. Typing out the long username with domain is prone to mistakes and time consuming. With domain-less sign-in, frontline workers can now sign-in to Teams quicker using only the first part of their username (i.e., without domain), then enter the password to access Teams on shared and corporate-managed devices. For example, if the username is 123456@microsoft.com or alland@microsoft.com, users can now sign in with only “123456” or “alland”, respectively. This feature will reduce sign-in time to help frontline workers get to work faster and be available in public preview starting January 2024. 

 An animated image showing domain-less sign-in on Microsoft Teams

Connect and engage your workforce

Communication on the frontline can be difficult to reach the right people at the right time. We created a foundation of communication that applies to every worker with capabilities like chatting and calling. But we have also built specific frontline capabilities natively in Teams like push-to-talk communication for them to do their work, their way.  

Walkie Talkie in Teams: listen to multiple channels and new headsets support  

Frontline workers using Walkie Talkie in Teams will have the option to automatically hear incoming transmission from any of their pinned favorite channels. With this new feature, users can easily stay connected to multiple channels without needing to switch channels manually. This feature will be generally available starting January 2024. Learn more on how to get started.  

An animated image showing listen to multiple channels on Walkie Talkie in Microsoft Teams 

Walkie Talkie support on Jabra Perform 45 and all Klein wired push-to-talk USB-C Headsets 

In addition, frontline workers often need to instantly communicate with each other even when their phones are locked. This experience is possible with the dedicated push-to-talk (PTT) button on headsets that instantly brings up Walkie Talkie for clear and secure voice communication. We are excited to add Jabra Perform 45 support on both Android and iOS as well as all Klein wired push-to-talk USB-C headsets (such as Drift USB-C) support on Android to our frontline walkie talkie audio accessories ecosystem.   

An image showing a Jabra Perform 45

Learn more about Walkie Talkie and check out the list of walkie talkie rugged devices and audio accessories partners. For any other partners interested to be validated by Walkie Talkie in Microsoft Teams, please reach out to wtpartner@microsoft.com for more information.  

These new capabilities create a secure, simple, and smart workplace for the frontline workforce, so they can spend less time trying to access the right information, people, and processes to do their work and more time on meaningful work like delivering great customer service and operational excellence. Want to see all this innovation in action and headed to Ignite in person? Come check out our frontline session.  

Missing Ignite this year? Don’t worry, we will link to the on-demand session starting November 20th so check back here! 

Unlock organizational knowledge with Topics in Copilot

Microsoft Viva Topics enables your organization to discover, explore and easily contribute knowledge proactively inside of Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. Today we are excited to announce that we are extending Topics functionality into Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. Topics will ground your Copilot experience with knowledge from inside your organization, to bring the best of AI and crowdsourced knowledge & expertise to your flow of work. 

Ground, verify and discover knowledge & expertise 

With Copilot interoperation, Topics uses people and AI to create a powerful knowledge index for your organization that grounds Copilot. Organizations can update, augment, and create new topics to make it easier to connect to information and expertise. Topics enables users to understand what information is organizationally important through the use of a verified badge, while also providing guiderails for Copilot to find relevant content and conversations that enable a meaningful response:   

Guide & curate knowledge 

Organizational controls are available to select roles, scope and exclusions of knowledge indexing, compliance, and sensitivity. Like Copilot, Topics respects all existing privacy and permissions on your content. Knowledge managers in Topics can be assigned by administrators to manage topics and deliver curated topic cards ensuring the desired expertise and knowledge is available for users. Analytics to understand engagement, contribution and health of your knowledge network will also be available.  

Licensing 
Topics in Viva will remain available for users to purchase and use in the same way they do today. Organizations that have purchased Copilot will get access to Topics, which will show up for Copilot users inside of Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, Engage, profile cards and search to provide a blended experience organizations can have confidence in when using generative AI solutions. Organizations with Copilot can learn more about Topics here.  

Roadmap 

Bringing Topics into Copilot represents the beginning of how knowledge and expertise is unlocked with the power of AI and people. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months via the Microsoft 365 roadmap as we discuss the next steps for Topics integration, proactive, personalized discovery and search improvements within Copilot. 

New! Create videos and images at work with Clipchamp and Designer

In a world where videos and images have become a critical part of how we express ideas and consume information, it only makes sense that everyone in an organization is empowered to embrace this powerful form of communication.

With Microsoft Clipchamp and Microsoft Designer, we are democratizing video and image creation. By creating simple and intuitive user experiences, enhanced by AI, and complemented by the Microsoft 365 apps and services, we are making it easy for anyone to confidently harness the power of videos and images in their work, regardless of skill and experience.

After beginning this journey in the consumer space with tens of millions of users worldwide, we are thrilled to now include Clipchamp and Designer in our Microsoft 365 commercial offerings.

Clipchamp now available to commercial customers

Whether you need to explain a process to your teammates, onboard new employees, send an update to clients, or level up your organization’s newsletters, now you can turn to Clipchamp to deliver an impactful message through video at work.  

The commercial rollout process which began over the summer is complete and we are proud to announce Clipchamp is now generally available to anyone licensed for Microsoft 365 Enterprise (E3 and E5) and Business (Standard, Premium) suites.

Clipchamp’s simple user interface and rich array of features make it easy to create professional-looking videos at work.

We have developed these tools in close partnership with many customers, including Advent Health, Amadeus, Murex, and Renaissance, which have helped us ensure that Clipchamp meets the unique needs of companies and organizations. With Clipchamp, their organizations are already seeing evidence of sparked creativity, improved communications, and more efficiency across their user base.

Advent Health, Amadeus, Murex, and Renaissance have all been early adopters of Clipchamp.

Clipchamp has an array of features which make it quick and easy to create and share professional-looking videos in minutes. As part of Microsoft 365, Clipchamp is built on OneDrive and SharePoint and works seamlessly with your other everyday Microsoft productivity apps. The videos you export from Clipchamp can be shared through Microsoft Stream, embedded and played in Microsoft Teams, in emails with Outlook, and on Microsoft Viva Engage, making it easy for you to incorporate videos in your work.

It’s easy to get started with Clipchamp from the Apps page at microsoft365.com.  In 2024, Clipchamp will become available as a Windows app as well for Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business licenses.

Introducing Clipchamp Premium

Next month we are introducing Clipchamp Premium which offers additional value for creating high-quality videos with ease and efficiency. Starting December 1, 2023, commercial customers will be able to purchase Clipchamp Premium to access additional features including:

• 4K exports – Crystal-clear UHD resolution up to 30fps helps your videos to look their best


• Brand kit – Your company’s specific fonts, colors, and logos loaded into Clipchamp make it easy to align with your organization’s branding and ensure consistency across projects.


• Premium stock content – Top-tier images, video, and audio help you produce professional-looking videos that resonate with people.


• Advanced analytics with Microsoft Stream – Visibility to crucial video-level metrics help you engage and improve your output by tracking your user behavior and performance for your video.

Clipchamp Premium includes features such as Brand kit, 4k exports, and Premium stock content.

Clipchamp Premium will be available as a Microsoft 365 Enterprise or Business add-on with an introductory price of $5 per user per month* through June 30, 2024. After that, the price will be $7 per user per month.*

Next month Clipchamp will be offered as a standalone license for non-Microsoft 365 subscribers. The Clipchamp Standard SKU will be $3 per user per month. The Clipchamp Premium standalone SKU will have an introductory price of $7 per user per month* through June 30, 2024, and $10 per user per month* thereafter.

Table with Clipchamp Premium pricing.

Designer app integrations now in Preview for commercial customers

With Designer, all you need is an idea to create amazing images and designs. Just simply describe what you want to create and Designer uses AI powered by Dall-E 3 to generate great looking designs. You can even incorporate your own images, add text, and customize the results with simple commands to ensure you get just the image you’re looking for. It’s a tool anyone can use with confidence to add the right visual impact to their communications, presentations, and announcements.

Designer is coming first to commercial customers through integrations in various Microsoft 365 apps so users can create and customize images within the flow of work. Designer will initially be available as a Preview to users licensed for the Microsoft 365 Enterprise (E3 and E5) and Business (Standard and Premium) suites through the following integrations, with more on the way in the coming months: 

• Designer in Edge is available now.


• Designer in Teams for creating announcement banners will become available in the coming weeks.


• Designer in Copilot for use in Word, PowerPoint and Whiteboard will be available by the end of 2023.

A Preview of the Designer app will become available to enterprise and business customers in the coming months, followed by a general release later next year. Commercial customers interested in participating in a private preview of the app can provide their contact information through this form and we will follow up with you about potential inclusion in that release.

Designer in Edge makes it easy to create compelling designs within the flow of work.

What makes Clipchamp and Designer different?

With visual content becoming more and more prevalent in today’s world, we know there are an increasing number of tools to choose from. But we believe that Microsoft 365 has a unique opportunity to make video and image creation a common part of how people work in three key ways:

1. As part of Microsoft 365, Clipchamp and Designer are easy to find and right where you need them – whether that’s through microsoft365.com or through integrations in the apps where you utilize visual content.


2. We’re focused on making it easy for anyone to use these tools. With the power of AI and intuitive user interfaces, these tools simplify complex tasks, save time by automating work, and stimulate creative thinking. Creative work that once seemed intimidating and complex now feels simple and achievable.


3. We’re tailoring Clipchamp and Designer to the needs of businesses and organizations. With features that ensure consistent brand alignment, enable collaboration among colleagues, and are backed by the security and compliance you’d expect with Microsoft 365, these are tools you can count on for work.

What’s next?

We have plans to drive innovation within Microsoft 365, including new  horizons made possible by AI. Check out this video to get a sense of our vision for what video and image creation in Microsoft 365 will look like:

Learn more and get started

• Check out our Visual Content Creation On-Demand Session from Ignite to learn more and see demos of the products themselves.


• Start using Clipchamp at work.


• To use Designer in Edge, enable the Designer app by clicking on the + sign in the side bar on the right.


• Get a sense of the app experience at https://designer.microsoft.com using your personal Microsoft Account (not enabled for enterprise or business accounts at this time).

No matter what you are creating or why, Microsoft 365 makes it easy for you. Start using Clipchamp and Designer at work – you’ll be amazed by what you can create.

* All prices are in US Dollars

Microsoft Loop’s November 2023 Ignite summary for IT Admins

It’s November 2023, and we’re making the Loop app generally available for customers with Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, and E5 work accounts on web and mobile.

As a Compliance Manager or IT administrator, it’s important to keep current on governance, data lifecycle, and compliance for your organization’s software solutions. We’re pleased to announce that as of November 15, 2023, Microsoft Loop is now generally available! Loop is a multi-player application that’s designed to help your teams think, plan and create together. 

We’ve put together this brief roadmap of upcoming governance, data lifecycle, compliance, and admin management capabilities so you can make an informed decision on Loop in your organization. We welcome your questions and feedback in the comments section as we embark on this journey together, and we hope the timelines for anything that looks critical are close enough to give Loop a try today! And if you need to enable or disable these experiences, that’s documented too for Loop app and workspaces, Loop components. 

Also, we have recently updated our full list of supported capabilities, which can be found here: Summary of governance, lifecycle and compliance capabilities for Loop. Please give that a read!

Loop Storage 

First, a quick aside on where Loop content is stored, as the admin management, governance, data lifecycle, and compliance capabilities are a function of the storage location. Putting that a different way… 

Think of Loop more like you do Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Loop is an app that integrates with the SharePoint platform, Purview, and other Microsoft management capabilities in your organization. And like Word, Excel or PowerPoint, Loop experiences create files in SharePoint – in fact, Microsoft Loop is built on top of SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Syntex repository services, which means Loop content is just like the existing files in your ecosystem. 

To help you understand how Loop content is stored in the Microsoft ecosystem, here’s a high-level diagram showing where the Loop content was originally created determines its storage location: 

Summarizing the created in A > stored in B: 

• Let’s say that with a summary statement. Created in the Loop app > Microsoft Syntex 
  


• Created outside the Loop app in places that have dedicated shared storage (e.g. Teams channels) > SharePoint 


• Created outside the Loop app in all other places that don’t have tightly associated collaborative storage (e.g. Teams chat, Outlook email, Word for the web, Whiteboard) > OneDrive

Roadmap for governance, data lifecycle and compliance capabilities not yet available 

If you’re looking for the big picture, the full list of all capabilities, refer to: Summary of governance, lifecycle and compliance capabilities for Loop. In this section, we’ll put the capabilities listed in that article as not yet available in roadmap format so you can plan for their availability. 

Targeting early 2024

Data Loss Prevention, Information Protection

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy tips displayed for ALL Loop content, whether it’s stored in OneDrive, SharePoint or Microsoft Syntex


• Sensitivity Labeling (MIP/CLP) for ALL Loop content, whether it’s stored in OneDrive, SharePoint or Microsoft Syntex

Targeting mid 2024

Admin Management for Loop workspaces

• Third-Party tools for export and eDiscovery, migration, etc. to programmatically access Loop workspaces and content


• PowerShell ability to
  
  
  
  • View storage in the enumeration list of loop containers
  
  
  • Multi-Geo re-home of Loop workspaces and .loop files as needed
  
  
  • get and set conditional access policy, block download policy
  
  
  
  


• SharePoint Admin Center
  
  
  
  • Enterprise management capabilities in Admin Center for Loop workspaces
  
  
  • Capability to delete, recover & permanently delete workspaces
  
  
  • Capability to add and update sensitivity labels in the Admin UX
  
  
  • New admin role integration with Admin UX and PowerShell
  
  
  
  

Data Lifecycle Management for Loop workspaces 

• Setting or overriding the all SharePoint sites Retention policy on an individual Loop workspace 


• Retention labels 

Conclusion 

By reviewing the above information, you can make an informed decision on whether Microsoft Loop is ready for use as a software solution in your organization. Up to date and full documentation can be found here: Summary of governance, lifecycle and compliance capabilities for Loop to help you make the best decisions for your organization. 

Related topics 

• Overview of Loop components in Microsoft 365


• Manage Loop components in OneDrive and SharePoint


• Overview of Loop workspaces storage and permissions


• Manage Loop workspace experiences in Microsoft Syntex repository services

Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup Storage at Ignite 2023

You have critical data stored in Microsoft 365 which means business continuity is more essential than ever in this era of rising ransomware attacks and security threats. Recovering large volumes of content is difficult when copying data at a scale from a remote air gapped location requiring weeks or even months to get your business back up and running.   

To address these challenges, we have developed Microsoft 365 Backup—a new storage architecture for backup and data protection inside Microsoft 365. This storage lives inside the Microsoft 365 trust boundary, so you manage the security of your Microsoft 365 data in one place. 

Microsoft 365 Backup allows us to accelerate large scale backup and recovery times by an order of magnitude. Preliminary testing has shown recovery speeds with this new approach are more than 20 times faster than traditional backup architecture. Your data is kept in its native format, encrypted, geographically distributed, and secured within Microsoft 365.  

Microsoft 365 Backup provides these capabilities:  

1. Backup all or select SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts, and Exchange mailboxes in your tenant.     

2. Restore OneDrive accounts, SharePoint sites, and mailbox items to a prior point in time for your entire tenant.  

3. Search or filter content in your backups using key metadata such as site names, owners, subject, creation/modification dates, and event types restore point date ranges. 

Microsoft 365 Backup Demo

 
The paid public preview of Microsoft 365 Backup will begin later in 2023 and will reach General Availability in the first half of 2024. Backup for other Microsoft 365 sources, such as Teams chat and other Microsoft 365 services, and granular file-level recovery are part of our post-GA roadmap.  

Partner Solutions 

You can get the benefits of Microsoft 365 Backup by adopting a partner’s application built on top of our  Backup Storage. Our partners can provide unique and powerful experiences within a single pane of glass integrating your Microsoft 365 and non-Microsoft 365 data sources. By leveraging the Microsoft 365 Backup Storage, partner apps can deliver the same exceptional backup and restore speeds provided by Microsoft assurances – all while keeping that Microsoft 365 data within the trusted Microsoft security and compliance domain.  

Our partners who are dedicated to bringing the advantages of Microsoft 365 Backup Storage to our customers are AvePoint, Cohesity, Commvault, Rubrik, Veeam, and Veritas. We appreciate their support on this journey. 

AvePoint Cloud Backup Express

Cohesity DataProtect

Commvault Cloud Backup and Recovery for Microsoft 365

Rubrik Data Protection for Microsoft 365 Backup Storage

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365

Veritas Alta™ SaaS Protection

Conclusion

Microsoft 365 Backup uses our new Backup Storage platform to provide protection for Microsoft 365-based data sources. It backs up and restores your OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange data at scale – while also keeping multiple redundant backups within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary to maintain business continuity.

Calls to Action

The paid public preview of Microsoft 365 Backup will begin later in 2023. You can access the user guide now to learn about setup and activation for Microsoft 365 Backup.

Visit our adoption page for additional information.

Partners can learn more about applying to our Content AI Partner Program to get preview access to Microsoft 365 Backup Storage and more.

Sign up for ongoing information about Microsoft 365 Backup and the rest of our content management solutions management solutions.

Backup is one part of our growing set of solutions for advanced content management across Microsoft 365. Learn more from this week’s announcement of the new SharePoint Premium at Microsoft Ignite.

What’s New and What’s Coming to OneNote on Windows

The OneNote app on Windows continues to get the latest features and improvements. In addition to improving the meeting details experience with Loop components as announced in our recent blog post, we’ve introduced other features that are intended to make capturing your notes richer, organizing your notes quicker, and your life easier. Let’s do a recap of the ones that have recently landed and take a quick look at some of the new experiences coming soon. Continue reading to learn more!
(While the OneNote experience continues to be improved across all your devices, this article will address only the OneNote on Windows app. We encourage all users on OneNote for Windows 10 to begin transitioning to the OneNote on Windows app for the latest features and best sync .)

Enhanced Text Pen and Ink Gestures

With the enhanced text pen and inking gestures, you can do more with your digital pen (or stylus) on OneNote on Windows. With the text pen selected from the Draw tab, you can convert your handwriting to text as you write and edit your converted notes with natural gestures, such as selecting text with a strikethrough, deleting text by scribbling over it, and more. Learn more about the new text pen and available ink gestures in

We’ve also added tools to help you better annotate, take handwritten notes, and draw. This includes an all new Draw tab, improved ink reliability, and a quick shortcut to get help specifically built for ink!

(If you don’t have a digital pen enabled device and have a touch device instead, or already have handwritten notes that you’d like to convert, select your handwritten notes through Draw > Lasso Select and choose Ink to Text on the ribbon to convert your handwritten notes to text. More information in this article.)

Faster Notetaking with Text Prediction

Following Outlook and Word, inline text predictions are now available in OneNote on Windows. Text Prediction in OneNote lets you capture your notes faster by completing the current word and anticipating the next word or phrase of your sentence based on the context that you’re typing in. These predictions appear in real-time as inline ghost text and are inserted on pressing Tab or the Right-arrow key.

New Layout Options

For those who love the left-sided layout on OneNote for the web, OneNote for Mac, and OneNote for iPad, you’ll be thrilled to hear that we’ve brought this experience to the OneNote on Windows app! Using the new Vertical Tabs layout option under the View menu, you can use a navigation experience similar to other Microsoft 365 apps and services, such as Outlook and Teams.

Supercharge Productivity with OneNote Copilot

In line with our recent announcements on Copilot availability, Microsoft 365 Copilot is coming to OneNote on Windows starting in November. Copilot in OneNote helps you create, capture, organize, and recall information with confidence. As your AI-powered notetaking partner, Copilot uses your prompts to draft plans, summarize your notes, generate ideas, create lists, organize information, and more. Learn more and explore what’s possible with Microsoft 365 Copilot from our official blog and support site.

Preview Stream Videos Inline

Starting soon, you can directly preview Stream videos (on SharePoint) within OneNote without needing to switch to another application. This seamless integration allows you to stay focused on your notes and maintain your productivity without any interruptions. This also adds Stream (on SharePoint) to the list of links that can be enriched by an inline preview. Learn more about embedding content on OneNote and supported links from our support article.  

FAQ

Which features can I try?

Starting October 2023, users in the  Current Channel will receive the following features

• Text Pen


• Draw + Hold Ink Gesture*


• Text Prediction*


• New Layout Options


• Preview Stream Videos Inline

The remaining features discussed in this post are coming soon. If you have product feedback as you try out the new features or other suggestions, we’d love to hear from you! For features that have not yet rolled out, stay connected with us on X to get notifications when they start to roll out.

*Requires active M365 subscription

Which version of OneNote does this post apply to?

We have some exciting updates for OneNote on Windows to share with you in this document. We want to remind you that these updates are only for the OneNote app, not the OneNote for Windows 10 app. If you’re still using the OneNote for Windows 10 app, we highly recommend you switch to the OneNote app as soon as possible. The OneNote app has new features you’ll love and an updated sync experience. The OneNote for Windows 10 app will no longer be supported in 2025. You can find out more about how to switch and why in our blog post on this topic.

OneNote on Windows has some new updates that we think you’ll love. This post will show you what’s new and how to use it on your Windows device. And if you use OneNote on other devices, like a Mac, an iOS or Android phone or tablet, or the web, we have good news for you too. We’re constantly updating OneNote on all platforms – we’ll let you know about the changes in separate posts. Depending on how you installed OneNote, you may see these updates at different times. If your organization has chosen a delayed update schedule, you will get these updates later in the year. If you bought a license that does not include regular updates, such as LTSC/Office 2021, you will not get these updates, as these versions are designed to remain unchanged.

Not sure which OneNote app you’re using? Check out our support article to learn more about OneNote versions.

How do I get the OneNote app?

The latest OneNote Windows app is available as part of Microsoft 365, it may already be included as part of Microsoft 365 on new Windows 11 devices and can also be downloaded as a free standalone version from the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft 365 Admin Monthly Digest – Oct 2023

a banner depicting the title of the blog with tagline ”Your monthly IT admin blog for all things Microsoft 365”

Welcome to the Microsoft 365 IT admin blog, your monthly source of tips, insights, and best practices for managing and optimizing your Microsoft 365 environment. In this edition, we cover the upcoming AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot, general availability of the new Teams desktop app, take a peek into the impact of hybrid work on carbon emissions, and explore new and upcoming features in the Microsoft 365 admin center including enhancements to Migration Manager, device management, and new RBAC roles in Microsoft Purview.   

Join the next AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot  

We’ll be hosting the next AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Microsoft 365 Copilot tomorrow on Thursday, November 9, in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Tech Community. The upcoming AMA will be focused on getting ready for Copilot and Ignite. In our previous AMA, we had great discussions on how to use Copilot and what to expect, extending Copilot through Microsoft Graph connectors and plugins, and admin controls and how to measure success. You can catch up on the previous AMA that was focused on Microsoft 365 Copilot here.  

The event is a great opportunity to hear from members like you and have the team of experts answer questions. You can send in your questions to the event page now, and a team of experts will join us to help answer them during the event. 

Upgrade to the new Microsoft Teams – now generally available 

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced the general availability of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows and Mac, including education customers. Public Preview is also rolling out for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and government cloud customers (GCC, GCC-H, DoD). 

The new Teams app now has full parity with almost all features of the previous version, and new features and enhancements in the future will be available exclusively on new Teams. No migration is required, and automatic upgrading will be rolled out over the coming months. To get started today, users simply have to flip the toggle in the upper-left corner of the class Teams app. 

Some of the benefits of new Teams include: 

• Performance and memory improvements, which is up to two times faster and uses 50% less memory and disk space than classic Teams. 


• Security enhancements, which uses a containerized app model, simplifies app updates, and supports web security policies. 


• New personalization options, allowing users to switch between light or dark mode, select color sensitivity themes, and use keyboard shortcuts more effectively. 


• The multi-tenant organizations (MTO) and multi-tenant, multi-account (MTMA) capabilities of enabling seamless cross-tenant communication and collaboration with coworkers in different groups and accounts. 


• A cross-cloud authenticated meeting feature which allows users to join a meeting hosted in any Microsoft cloud without signing out of their home tenant.

Climate mitigation potential of hybrid work 

Since the pandemic pushed most information workers into remote work, there’s been an ongoing period of discovery for companies to define the balance of remote and in-person work that works best for them. A recent peer-reviewed study published by researchers at Microsoft and Cornell University explores hybrid work from a different angle, assessing how the location of work affects its carbon footprint.  

In this study, the researchers found that remote work could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 58% compared to onsite work, mainly due to reductions in office energy use and commuting. However, the benefits depend on the number of days worked remotely, the type of transportation used, and the configuration of home and office. Notably, the researchers found that the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) usage on GHG emissions is negligible compared to other sources. They recommend that organizations focus on other factors such as commute decarbonization, facility downsizing, and renewables penetration to mitigate GHG emissions of remote and onsite work. You can read the full report here.  

What this means for IT: Supporting remote and hybrid work can increase the complexity of IT management and security – but striking the right balance can have implications well beyond the organization, including for global climate. Remote employees need to access company resources from outside the corporate network. IT admins should ensure that remote access is secure and that employees follow best practices for password management, data protection, and network security. Having the right collaboration tools is also necessary to support a productive organization and IT has become even more responsible in the process of acquiring tools and driving adoption with their users. 

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a new Emissions Impact Dashboard for Microsoft 365 that can help admins and IT leaders track emissions from their Microsoft 365 use. To learn more about getting the dashboard running, check out this article. 

Highlights across Microsoft 365 administration 

Let’s check out some of the latest features we launched in the Microsoft 365 admin center and how they can help you get things done.  

New Role-based Access Control (RBACs) in Microsoft Purview 

In November, more Role-based access control types will be available in Microsoft Purview to prepare for upcoming features and capabilities relevant to those role groups. Additional roles will be added to Microsoft Purview built-in role groups for Compliance Administrator, Information Protection related role groups, and Privacy Management related role groups.  Microsoft Purview also supports the creation of custom roles, if needed, to support more unique needs of organizations. Learn more about RBACs here. 

Enhancements to Migration Manager 

Migration Manager is a powerful tool, hosted within the setup page of Microsoft 365 admin center, that helps seamlessly transfer data from various file sources, such as BOX, Google Drive, Dropbox, and File Share, to Microsoft 365. Microsoft recently made a number of improvements including migrating File Level Permissions for Dropbox, Box and Google Drive, support for Box Notes conversion, multi-project support on a single source, and optimization to the summary report bulk download process. For a rundown of all the updates, check out this article. 

Enhancements to device management in Microsoft 365 admin center (channel updating) 

Currently rolling out, Microsoft is improving how admins manage user device update channels in the Microsoft 365 admin center to simplify getting ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot and manage devices in general. Admins can soon activate Current Channel updates in Cloud Updates, configure various settings for Current and Monthly Enterprise Channel to exclude groups, create exclusion windows, configure rollout waves, update deadline, and manage rollbacks. There will also be new channel switch functionality to move channels of devices or AAD Groups in Inventory with a single click. For more information on managing channels, check out this article. 

It’s not too late to register for Ignite digital experience 

From November 15-16, Microsoft will be hosting Ignite 2023 and there’s still time to register for the free digital experience. The event will showcase the latest innovations in AI, Cloud, and security, with numerous sessions covering the latest for IT admins across Microsoft. While tickets to the in-person event are sold out, registering for the digital experience gets you access to livestream keynotes, breakouts and discussion sessions, Microsoft Cloud Skills challenges, and attendee networking. Next month, look out for our Ignite preview blog for Microsoft 365 admins! 

Stay updated 

As always, stay current with the latest updates on the Microsoft 365 admin center from the Microsoft 365 roadmap and the message center. In addition, we also highlight new feature releases and enhancements released each month in our What’s new in the Microsoft 365 admin center article.  

Comment below if there are IT admin or change management topics you would like us to explore in future! 

3 Ways Microsoft is Shaping the Future of Frontline

Frontline workers are the first to interact with your customer and the first to manage on-the-ground operations. But due to labor shortages and fragmented processes, it becomes difficult for them to focus on the 20% of their work that really matters when 80% of their time is consumed with manual processes, gaps in information and device overload. This bogs operations and customer experiences down and plagues every industry with burnout and retention issues for their frontline workers.  
 

At Microsoft, we are innovating around how automated solutions and next-generation AI can help frontline workers and the organizations they serve in three major ways: 

1. Intelligent Operations 


2. Effortless Communication 


3. Trusted Experiences 

Intelligent operations 

 
Lighten the load by automating necessary but exhausting processes with streamlined tools and next-generation AI, freeing frontline workers to focus on what matters most.  

Microsoft 365 Copilot 

Enhance schedule management 

Between fluctuating team schedules and staying up to date with their often large and dispersed frontline team, maintaining end-to-end visibility on operations can get time-consuming for frontline managers. Enable managers to quickly identify open items such as open shifts that need to be covered with a new Shifts plugin for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Soon Microsoft 365 Copilot can ground prompts and retrieve insights for frontline managers leveraging data from the Shifts app in addition to user and company data it has access to such as Teams chat history, SharePoint, emails, and more.  

With requests to swap a shift, take time off, or unscheduled sick leave, scheduling shift-based workers can get time-consuming for managers. Enable frontline managers to quickly identify who can cover a shift and take an action, ensuring the shift is covered while saving managers’ time. Frontline managers can quickly check the roster to find other workers who may be able to cover the shift based on availability and location and help them quickly craft a message about requirements for that shift to send to replacements.  

Microsoft 365 Copilot can help a manager understand open shifts in a specific department for the week by leveraging the Shifts plugin for Microsoft 365 Copilot. 

We have also implemented several changes to Shifts notifications to enhance the overall user experience and ensure effective communication of shift schedules:  

• Streamlined Notifications: Managers now have the ability to selectively notify only the relevant team members about assigned shifts and/or open shifts. This feature reduces unnecessary notifications and ensures that notifications are received by the intended employees, rather than all team members. Learn more here. 

• Enriched text in Notification and Activity feed: Notifications now provide more comprehensive details, including the shift date, time, and location on mobile and desktop. Learn more here. 

• Enhanced Deep Link Routing: Clicking on notifications now seamlessly redirects managers and employees to the relevant pages within Shifts. Learn more here. 

• New automation tools to the Shifts app using Power Automate, allowing managers to create shifts automatically when certain conditions are met.  Learn more here.  

Click on “Share with team” to share the schedule 

Gain operational visibility 

Between fluctuating team schedules and staying up to date with their often large and dispersed frontline team, maintaining end-to-end visibility on operations can get time-consuming for managers. Enable frontline managers to quickly identify open items to address throughout the week and ad-hoc, time-specific work items that need follow-ups by retrieving insights across files, chats, and open shifts.  

Microsoft 365 Copilot can help understand open items for a frontline manager by pulling from files, chats, and open shifts. 

Each time a new frontline worker joins the team, managers spend time compiling and sharing onboarding documents, policies, and resources to ensure their teams are up to speed. These documents can be difficult to locate and are updated regularly, resulting in time consumed for a manager to find the latest resources. Managers can prompt Copilot to gather relevant onboarding steps and associated documents together quickly, and then provide them to a frontline worker trainee to get started with reference links and resources populated in the response. This empowers frontline managers to onboard new employees faster, eventually creating better customer experiences and more efficient operations.  

Microsoft 365 Copilot can help onboard a new frontline worker by pulling together relevant documents and resources. 

Power Virtual Agents 

Recently announced Generative AI in Power Virtual Agents (PVA) can enable frontline workers with the information and assistance needed to complete their daily tasks. Frontline workers can benefit from generative conversations which provide answers and takes actions via a chat bot, while frontline managers can also use generative assistance to more easily build chat bots using Copilot in Power Virtual Agents.  

Generative Answers in Power Virtual Agents boosts conversational coverage by dynamically generating multi-turn answers, based off an organization’s internal content like OneDrive and Sharepoint or designated external resources, in real-time in response to unanticipated questions. A maintenance worker can ask the bot how to diagnose faulty equipment or even onboarding processes. The bot will chat over your data provided, which now includes direct document support, stored in Dataverse, now available in preview. You can try a demo at aka.ms/PVAdemo or a trial at aka.ms/TryPVA. 

Power Virtual Agents generative answers supporting document support through Dataverse. 

For organizations looking to build their own custom Azure AI service and connect it to a chatbot, you can use the “deploy to Power Virtual Agents” experience directly from the Azure AI Studio and refine and publish refine the bot within Power Virtual Agents, now available in preview at aka.ms/aoaiservice. 

Azure OpenAI Studio, now featuring the deploy to Power Virtual Agents feature at the top right. 

Copilot in Power Virtual Agents provides AI assistance in building topics, designing and modifying the bot all through natural language. Copilot makes suggestions such as topics and trigger phrases so your PVA bot can be built quickly. This is Generally available in the US. 

Learn more at www.powervirtualagents.microsoft.com 

Tasks in Teams 

In July, we introduced our newest capability in Tasks where organizations are now able to add checklist completion requirements to tasks. This feature ensures thoroughness and accountability in task execution by preventing completion until all checklist items are marked complete. Today, we are excited to share two additional features coming soon that will further improve task management and execution experiences. Organizations will soon be able to choose which members to notify when publishing or unpublishing a task list, enabling targeted communication within teams. This feature will be generally available in September. Additionally coming soon in November, the mobile experience in Tasks will soon enable easier filtering of tasks by specific buckets, providing users with a focused view of tasks in their respective areas or departments. 

Zebra Task Management ™ app in Microsoft Teams 

To better streamline task management and execution with work-based communication, we are excited to announce the Zebra Task Management ™ app is now available for preview. Integrating two best-in-class solutions ultimately empowers your frontline by providing expanded functionality from Zebra Task Management ™ under a familiar user experience and feature set in Teams. 

Users can seamlessly access all communications and store tasks all within Teams by navigating Teams chat/channel and Task Management modules.  Discover the real-time store task feed presenting all relevant projects and task information natively within Teams.  Execute scheduled walks and custom site inspections through Teams to improve visibility and drive compliance. Zebra’s Pinboard feed (showing your KPIs and key activities) now includes unread Outlook email and Teams chat notifications. Learn more and sign up today! 

 
Zebra Tasks Management ™ app in Microsoft Teams on Zebra mobile device 

 
Effortless communication 

 
Currently, the inability to find information is a top pain point for frontline workers. There is a massive reservoir of data and insights that lies largely inaccessible and untapped today. The frontline workforce wants data in the palm of their hand to make informed decisions faster, create better customer experiences and enable more efficient operations.  

Viva Connections 

Announcements in Viva Connections 

Effective communication is essential to the success of frontline workers, yet getting the right message to the right people can be challenge. Now, Announcements in Viva Connections lets companies target communications and create notifications for frontline users within the home experience of Teams. This new feature makes it easier to deliver timely updates like store updates, safety incidents, etc. and provides an easy way for managers to create, publish, and target these announcements out to frontline teams. 

Announcements are coming to tablet and mobile experiences. The ability to view announcements on desktop is planned for future releases. 

• In Teams: Users will get a Teams notification alerting them of a new announcement on their device’s lock screen and in the Teams activity feed when the user has enabled them. 

• In Viva Connections: Announcements will display towards the top of the Viva Connections experience where more details can be viewed. 

Announcements in Viva Connections can send out push notifications that deliver to the home screen and surface in the home experience in Teams. 

To enhance the home experience in Teams for organizations with many frontline employees that span multiple brands, we are excited to announce that an organization can now have multiple experiences. This new feature allows companies to provide a tailored experience that reflects each brand’s look and feel and customize the dashboard for each brand’s unique needs. Multiple home experiences are now available through the Viva Connections app in Teams. Learn more about the recent enhancements to home experiences in Teams. 

Multiple experiences in Viva Connections allows for different dashboards within a single tenant. 

This new integration from ServiceNow connects workers to the tasks and information they need to accomplish their job right from Viva Connections. Employees can be informed of tasks that need their attention, including approvals, trainings, and daily duties.  They can also quickly access their Employee Center, where they can get help, stay informed of news and changes, and manage their tasks and requests. Get the ServiceNow Employee card for Viva Connections from the ServiceNow store today. 

A new dashboard card from ServiceNow is available for Viva Connections 

Viva Engage 

Targeted Campaigns 

It’s important for company communicators and leadership to be able to target frontline audiences and drive engagement around your organization’s mission and core priorities. With new Targeted Campaigns in Viva Engage, you can now select specific audiences to reach with your communication campaigns and initiatives – perfect for scenarios like safety campaigns, policy changes, and other initiatives where you want to get the word out to employees and get people involved.  
 

You can now promote campaigns to targeted audiences in Viva Engage. 

Copilot in Viva Engage 

Copilot in Microsoft Viva Engage helps leaders create compelling and inspiring posts from simple prompts or trending topics within workplace communities and storyline conversations. Copilot offers suggestions to personalize messages with options to adjust tone and length and to suggest relevant images, all to help drive authenticity and engagement. Further, leaders can utilize Copilot to analyze engagement metrics, assess sentiment, and recommend responses. Learn more about Copilot in Viva here. 

Hotline phones (also known as Private Line Automatic Ringdown) 

Microsoft Teams certified phone devices can now be programmed to directly dial a pre-configured phone number or contact, such as emergency services in a manufacturing plant or an organization’s help desk. Users simply pick up the handset of the device, which automatically dials the designated phone number or contact for scenarios that require quick and easy connections. Phones enabled with a Teams Shared Device License can be configured directly through the device settings. Learn more about how to configure this feature here. can be configured directly through the device settings or from the Teams admin center. 

UI of the home screen of a phone device programmed to dial a hotline (left) and UI of an active call to a hotline (right) 

Set up Android devices as common area phones 

Leverage Teams as your calling solution to connect with teammates, customers, and suppliers. This month, frontline workers will be able to make and receive calls through shared mobile Android phones from wherever their work takes them. Walkie Talkie, basic, and advanced calling features such as voicemail, call park, and call queues, will be available through the Teams Android app when mobile devices are set up as common area phones. Learn more about the Teams Shared Device license needed to enable common area phones.  

Calls screen on the Teams mobile app for Android with pre-pinned speed dial contacts 
 

When organizations invest in fast time to value technology for their frontline workers, it not only drives positive outcomes for business’ bottom lines but also for frontline employees. At Microsoft, we continue to innovate on all of our products to deliver exceptional products for frontline workers. Learn more about how Microsoft Teams is leading the way. 

Motorola Walkie Talkie & Windows 365 

Earlier this year we announced that Microsoft and Motorola were partnering to bring the best Microsoft productivity experiences to Lenovo and Motorola business customers. We’re excited to announce two new productivity experiences are being integrated into the Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola and will be available starting in September: push-to-talk integration with the Walkie Talkie app in Microsoft Teams and the support for Windows 365. 

The push-to-talk integration with ThinkPhone’s iconic Red Key will allow frontline workers to instantly communicate with the push of a button using the Walkie Talkie app in Teams.  Additionally, ThinkPhone support for Windows 365 will allow companies to deliver a Windows 365 Cloud PC experience, that gives employees secure access to their personalized Windows apps, content, and settings, to get more done, wherever they’re working.  

Walkie Talkie Favorite Channel 

Frontline workers often engage with multiple departments and need to easily switch between channels to communicate effectively. Starting in September, users can pin up to 5 favorite channels on the walkie talkie home screen, enabling them to quickly switch between these preselected channels to listen to incoming messages or initiate push-to-talk with their coworkers.  

 A GIF showing Walkie Talkie app in Teams with pre-pinned favorite channels on home screen 

We are excited to announce new accessories that support Walkie Talkie from Klein Electronics.  Their new USB-C line of audio accessories with PTT also feature a wide range of capabilities designed to meet customers’ needs, allowing customers to enjoy the latest technology in PTT convenience and performance.  

 
Trusted experiences 

 
Enable flexibility by providing frontline workers with a digital identity that allows them to seamlessly access and move between devices needed to do their work. With personalized device experiences, frontline workers can now spend less time logging in and out of devices and organizations can be more secure.  
 

New Android and iOS apps that support shared device mode with Intune 

Frontline workers need to simply and quickly sign in and out of shared devices. Today, Microsoft Intune enables organizations to enroll Android devices into Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory, shared device mode, so they can provide sharable mobile devices to their frontline workers. With shared device mode, frontline workers have a simpler authentication experience, because they only need to sign-in and sign-out once whenever they use a shared device.  

For organizations using Microsoft Intune, we are excited to announce that shared device mode support for Power BI Android app is in public preview starting September. This is in addition to the supported Android apps: Teams, Outlook, Edge, Power Apps, Viva Engage, and Managed Home Screen. For customers that need shared device support for iOS devices, Intune provides access to Teams and now Outlook, Power Apps, and Power BI in public preview starting September.   

A GIF showing single sign-on and sign-out experience with shared device mode 

SOTI and VMware Workspace ONE support shared device mode on Android 

Organizations using SOTI and VMware Workspace ONE as their third-party unified endpoint management solutions for Android can also enroll devices in Microsoft Entra ID with shared device mode. SOTI’s support for shared device mode will be generally available for Android starting September. Customers will be able to use the applicable Microsoft 365 Android apps that support shared device mode.  

Give your shift workers access to personalized Cloud PCs with Windows 365 Frontline 

Windows 365 Frontline makes it easy and affordable to extend the power of Cloud PCs to shift workers, allowing them to securely access their personalized Windows experience on any device. Instead of the common hassles that come with sharing physical PCs, Windows 365 Frontline provides personalized Cloud PCs freeing your frontline employees to work from anywhere, helping to boost their productivity and job satisfaction.  When workers log in, they have immediate access to their personalized apps, desktops, data, and settings, so they can pick up where they left off, regardless of their device or location.  

Deploy Teams at Scale with dynamic membership management in Teams Admin Center  

Frontline works are organized by where they work and in what capacity. IT admins can now easily deploy teams at scale for frontline workers using dynamic membership management in the Teams Admin Center. Dynamic teams will automate member management to ensure your teams are always up to date – by creating a team for every location with a channel structure that is consistent across all locations. Now in Public Preview. Read more.  

365 EduCon & PWR EduCon coming to Seattle, WA | Aug. 21-25

365 EduCon is a five-day educational event that brings together the world’s leading experts in Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, and Azure. Microsoft users at all levels are welcome. Whether you are a new product user that wants to learn more about how these products can help you grow your business, or are an experienced power user, admin, or developer that wants to learn about new features or tips and tricks, 365 EduCon offers sessions designed to fit your experience level and area of interest. [@365EduCon | 365EduCon.com] 

Mark your calendars from August 21 – 25.  365 EduCon – Seattle is one event you don’t want to miss. This conference delivers executive keynotes, a plethora of breakout sessions, workshops, and fun—all delivered by Microsoft technical experts and community leaders who share a passion for knowledge and for helping small and medium businesses like yours. 

The Microsoft-led sessions will feature the latest product news, demonstrations, customer stories, best practices, and insights into Microsoft’s product and solution strategy.  

• When: August 21 – 25, 2023 (2 optional workshop days + 3 full conference days) 

• Where: Seattle Convention Center – Seattle, WA, USA  

• Presenters and Topics: 50 speakers delivering over 130 sessions plus 25 workshops on SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Viva, Azure, Power Platform, and breadth of Microsoft 365. 

• Cost: $795 – $2,795 USD (from single day workshops to multiple-day options) 

• Use code: MSCOMM10 to save 10% on your ticket 

• Review the event conference options and register today 

Microsoft keynotes & “Ask Microsoft Anything” sessions – Learn about vision and strategy 

Hear from Adam Harmetz, Vice President of Sharepoint Experiences, as he reveals the latest innovations shaping the future of work.  

Opening keynote | “Future of Work” with Adam Harmetz (VP) | Wednesday, Aug 23, 8:30am PST – 9:50am PST. 

Adam Harmetz (VP – Microsoft) and other Microsoft product leaders will highlight the value and benefit of Microsoft 365 innovation and where Microsoft is taking productivity into the future.     

Day 1 closing event | “Ask Microsoft Anything” with Microsoft leaders and experts | Wednesday, Aug 23, 4:40pm PST – 6:40pm PST 

Join Microsoft experts for an interactive Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA)—a broad question and answer session about Microsoft 365, SharePoint, OneDrive, Viva, Teams, and more. Bring your best questions, eat some pizza, and drink some refreshments). 

In addition to the 130 sessions and 25 workshops, 365EduCon will also feature the following breakout sessions for small- and medium-business (SMB) users: 

• “Grow Your Business with Microsoft Teams” with Mariela Passalacqua, Microsoft 365 SMB Product Marketing Manager. In this session, Ms. Passalacqua will share how businesses like yours can get the most out of Microsoft Teams—including a demonstration of how Teams can integrate with technologies you are already using today to help you do more with less. 

• “Empowering SMBs to do more through the Community” with Tiffany Lee, Microsoft Product Manager, Customer Advocacy Group, Microsoft Teams Engineering. Ms. Lee will share top tips and tricks to help you run your business and better collaborate with customers and partners. Ms. Lee will also share resources to help connect with Microsoft Engineering, get sneak peaks on upcoming product releases, and learn from other SMBs just like you! 

Thank you to community members and the 365 EduCon team who are working hard to make this event a success—supporting and promoting the knowledge and expertise that reaffirms the statement that Microsoft 365 has the best tech community in the world! 

Learn more 

• Read the Microsoft 365EduCon event guide blog article 

• Visit 365EduCon.com and follow the action on @Twitter: @365EduCon, @SharePoint, @OneDrive, @MSPowerPlat, @MicrosoftTeams, and @MSFTAdoption. 

Microsoft 365 Admin Monthly Digest – June 2023

A banner image with the text: “Microsoft 365 Admin Digest: Your monthly IT admin blog for all things Microsoft 365.”

Welcome to the Microsoft 365 IT admin blog, your monthly source of tips, insights, and best practices for managing and optimizing your Microsoft 365 environment. In this edition, we’ll explore how you can get your tenant ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the impact of healthy Microsoft 365 adoption on talent acquisition and retention while embracing generational diversity. Learn about enhancements to the admin center and read on to catch up about all things Microsoft 365 administration. 

Get your tenant ready for AI (and join the community)

We’re excited to help you start preparing for Microsoft 365 Copilot. While availability is limited to select customers as part of the Early Access Program, Microsoft published a series of articles on steps you can take now to get your tenant ready. 

In the first blog post in the brand-new Microsoft 365 Copilot community, we provide best practices and recommendations that you can implement to help you get ready for Copilot. Microsoft 365 Copilot uses your existing permissions and policies to deliver the most relevant information, building on top of Microsoft’s existing commitments to data security and data privacy in the enterprise. This emphasizes the need for good content management practices to begin with. Therefore, understanding permissions and sensitivity labels, implementing data loss prevention policies, and leveraging reports on data access governance are good practices for a healthy digital environment.

The blog also provides additional details on security, privacy, and data residency, and tips for staying up to date with changes and announcements, so you can help drive Copilot adoption with your users.

The new Microsoft 365 Copilot community is a hub for the latest news and updates from Microsoft on Copilot. There, you’ll find relevant discussions across Microsoft 365 apps and services and a space to interact with other members. We look forward to having you join the community and be part of the conversation. 

Highlights across Microsoft 365 administration

Let’s check out some of the latest features we have launched in the Microsoft 365 admin center and how they could be useful for you.

In our continued effort to make it easier for you to drive adoption, Adoption Score is now available to all commercial customers by default. Group Level Aggregates, now included in Adoption Score, offers data segmentation by Azure Active Directory attributes to help you better assess your adoption data by different areas within your organization. Also, in preview for organizations using Adoption Score, Organizational Messages allows you to use these insights to send relevant tips and guidance on usage best practices directly to your users. Accessible in the Microsoft 365 admin center, Adoption Score is a set of anonymous user metrics and tools that give you visibility into how your organization works with Microsoft 365 and provide insights into where you can improve user experiences by sharing best practices for using Microsoft 365 features. Additionally, Experience insights, now in preview to customers with at least 2000 seats, can help you better support users and increase satisfaction. With Experience insights, organizations gain visibility into sentiment, help article consumption, and usage of Microsoft 365 applications such as Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and more. This data is curated in a single view to help you identify and address issues that may hinder productivity or cause frustration for users. Read the full announcement here.

In addition to tracking adoption, you can use the Microsoft 365 Health dashboard in the Microsoft 365 admin center to understand how well apps and services are running in your organization. Designed to give you a snapshot of the overall health of your environment, the dashboard helps ensure you are keeping updated with the latest software, following best practices for security, and using the products and service you’re paying for. At the bottom of the dashboard, you’ll also find recommended actions for improving your organization’s health across the Microsoft 365 environment.

The Microsoft Edge management service was recently made available for Public Preview (Roadmap ID 123856). You can access the service through the Microsoft 365 admin center, Org settings > Microsoft Edge, and can configure Microsoft Edge browser settings for your organization and apply these settings by group assignment or group policy. Through the portal, you can also manage browser extensions and policies or view user requests for browser extensions. To learn more, read about the Microsoft Edge management service.

An image of the Microsoft Edge management service portal in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

We know you spend a lot of time ensuring your Microsoft 365 tenant is secure from threats. Microsoft is making it easier for you to protect user accounts right from the start with Microsoft 365 security defaults. When turned on, security defaults provide settings that keep your organization safe by establishing strong multi-factor authentication (MFA) settings. To enable or confirm enablement of security defaults, go to the Azure portal, click on Manage Azure Active Directory > View > Properties > Manage security defaults. Learn more here.

Furthermore, it’s good to ensure that you’ve taken all the necessary precautions with your admin accounts because of the elevated privileges they have. Simple best practices include Global admins having at least one other Global admin account created with another user as backup, and keeping their admin account only for administration activities while using a separate user account for their regular use of Microsoft 365 apps. You don’t have to assign a Microsoft 365 license to the administrative account since it won’t be used. Requiring MFA should be a given, and general best practice is to avoid custom permissions for admins and instead use the default permission groups for simpler management. Read more about protecting admin accounts.

The MS-102: Microsoft 365 Administrator exam launches in early July. Currently in beta, this certification confirms the ability to perform Microsoft 365 tenant-level implementation and administration of cloud and hybrid environments. Covering a range of foundational topics including administration and establishing a Microsoft 365 tenants, the exam is also a prerequisite to the Microsoft 365 Administrator Expert certification. Microsoft certifications accredit skills that not only align with workplace needs but can also open doors for Microsoft 365 administrators in their career. To learn more about other certifications across Microsoft administration, check out this blog post.

Viva Pulse is a new employee feedback experience that will be available for use with your Viva Suite subscription. Viva Pulse empowers managers and project team leaders to request and receive feedback from their teams at any time. Global admins will be able to enable the preview for their organization by visiting the Viva Pulse site. From there, select Manage access, then toggle Public Preview access on.

Support Microsoft 365 adoption and embrace generational diversity

A recent study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group explores how organizations in the Public Sector are facing a generational shift in their workforce, navigating a wave of retiring baby boomers and the challenge of attracting and retaining millennials and Gen Z. Taking lessons from the study, empowering your workforce with modern productivity, collaboration, and security tools can help your organization embrace generational diversity and across four critical areas: recruitment, retention, productivity, and learning. In the constantly evolving work environment, creating a healthy digital environment to attract new talent and retain experienced employees ultimately helps keep companies competitive in their field. Read the blog here. 

An infographic depicting the findings of the Enterprise Strategy Group research study outlining the positive benefits of healthy Microsoft 365 adoption across Recruitment, Retention, Productivity, and Learning.

IT departments are increasingly tasked with ensuring digital tools are successfully adopted, and this digest blog series has previously covered tools provided in the Microsoft 365 admin center and on adoption.microsoft.com to help track utilization and offer recommendations on how to improve it. Check out the Transforming State and Local Government IT blog post to learn more.

Join these upcoming Tech Community events

1. Viva Engage & Yammer Rebranding – What’s next! AMA on July 11th, at 9:00–10:00am Pacific time


2. Adoption Score AMA on July 12th, at 9:00–10:00am Pacific time


3. Microsoft 365 Copilot AMA on July 13th, at 9:00–10:00am Pacific time

Stay updated

As always, stay current with the latest updates Microsoft 365 admin center updates from the Microsoft 365 roadmap and message center. In addition, we also highlight new feature releases and enhancements released each month in our What’s new in the Microsoft 365 admin center article.  

Comment below if there are IT admin or change management topics you would like us to explore in the future!

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “Joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 Blog space!

Save time and effort with Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics

The Microsoft 365 Commercial Support team resolves customer support cases and provides support to help you be successful and realize the full potential and value of your purchase. Our support services extend across the entire lifecycle and include pre-sales, onboarding and deployment, usage and management, accounts and billing, and break-fix support. We also spend a considerable amount of time working to improve the supportability of Microsoft 365 services to reduce the number of issues you experience as well as minimize the effort and time it takes to resolve your issues if they do occur.

Today, we’re excited to share more about some of our supportability work with Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics.

As an IT administrator, you know that troubleshooting issues with Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, Outlook, SharePoint, Microsoft Viva, and OneDrive for Business can be time-consuming and require effort from both you and your users. Fortunately, Microsoft 365 includes more than 50 self-help diagnostics that can help you identify and resolve common issues quickly and easily without opening a support case. Taking advantage of these built-in diagnostics can help you save time and reduce IT support costs as well as help keep your users satisfied and able to stay productive.

In this article, we’ll explore the capabilities and benefits of Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics and how they can make your job easier. We’ll also touch on the platform and the work happening behind the scenes with our diagnostic development team to bring this all to life.

Self-help diagnostics overview

Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics are a set of tools available from within the Microsoft 365 admin center when you’re logged in as an administrator.

From the navigation pane, select Show All > Support > New service request, and then briefly describe the issue.

Using Machine Learning (ML) powered search functionality, the Microsoft 365 admin center then determines whether there is a diagnostic that could potentially help solve your issue.

For the past 5+ years, a small development team within the Microsoft 365 Commercial Support organization has been steadily building and scaling up diagnostic service platform capabilities and adding new solution assets to address more scenarios and issue types. The team works in close partnership with our global support and field teams to deeply understand the technical challenges facing our customers and how they solve them, as well as with many Microsoft 365 product engineering teams on the core foundational design and product feature capabilities that can then be automated.

Our core objective has been to transfer the knowledge of our in-house product experts into an efficient, scalable, and multi-market self-help platform and set of solutions that are easy to use (i.e.: remove dependencies on PowerShell) and help administrators accelerate deployment and adoption of Microsoft 365 in their organizations by quickly unblocking setup and configuration issues. Each year, our diagnostics are run more than a million times by thousands of Microsoft 365 customers assisting them with troubleshooting their issues.

The Microsoft 365 diagnostic service is built on Azure and enables rapid development of diagnostics in a consistent and reusable format that returns results for a reliable and action-based user experience. This lets us continually innovate to make improvements and add new diagnostics on a regular basis. It’s been a multi-year journey to factor in a wide range of technology, business, and customer driven considerations to build and enable the breadth of solutions available today.

Self-help diagnostics for Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a powerful collaboration tool that’s used by millions of users worldwide. When issues arise with meetings, calling, messaging, or file sharing, the self-help diagnostics for Microsoft Teams can help. For example, if a user is unable to create or join a Microsoft Teams conference call, a diagnostic can be run that performs a large range of verifications to determine if a user is able to create a PSTN conference call. For more information, check out Self-help diagnostics for Teams administrators – Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

Self-help diagnostics for Exchange Online and Outlook

Exchange Online and Outlook are essential tools for email communication and calendaring in many organizations. Sometimes issues can occur with email delivery, synchronization, and connectivity. When that happens, administrators can use the self-help diagnostics for Exchange Online and Outlook to help troubleshoot and fix common scenarios. For example, if a user is continually prompted for a password in Outlook when connecting to Microsoft 365, a diagnostic can be run to perform automated checks and provide possible solutions to fix the problem. For more information, check out Self-help diagnostics for issues in Exchange Online and Outlook – Exchange | Microsoft Learn.

Sometimes email accounts become compromised when a bad actor steals a user’s credentials and then signs in as the user to perform illicit actions. The ability to react and recover quickly when these events happen is critical for any organization. To assist, our team developed a Compromised Account diagnostic that lets you quickly test and identify suspicious activities against an account and see details and recommended actions to help with recovery.

Enter the email address of the affected user:

An image demonstrating the Compromised Account diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics tool.

Results example: 

An image demonstrating example results after inputting an email address via the Compromised Account diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 self-help diagnostics tool.

To learn more, check out this helpful Learn article: Responding to a Compromised Email Account | Microsoft Learn

Self-help diagnostics for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business

SharePoint and OneDrive for Business are popular tools for collaboration and document management. However, sometimes issues can occur with permissions, file synchronization, or sharing. When this happens, administrators can utilize diagnostics to troubleshoot and resolve many common scenarios. For example, if a user is having trouble accessing a file, an administrator can run a diagnostic to determine if the issue is related to permissions, connectivity, or synchronization and see the steps to take to address. For more information, check out Self-help diagnostics for SharePoint Online and OneDrive administrators – SharePoint | Microsoft Learn. 

List of available diagnostics

The table below shows the full list of Microsoft 365 diagnostics that our team currently makes available for IT administrators. Check back regularly for updates and new additions.

A table outlining the Microsoft 365 diagnostics currently available for Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online & Outlook, and SharePoint & OneDrive for Business.

In closing

Continued investment in our Microsoft 365 diagnostic service platform and the expansion of new solutions to benefit customers and partners is an integral part of our Microsoft 365 supportability strategy. Today, we have more than a hundred diagnostics used internally by our support engineers and global support teams. They help test and ensure diagnostics will effectively help customers solve issues on their own before a diagnostic gets released publicly. We’re especially excited about the progress we’re making with diagnostics in new and emerging areas like Security/Digital Safety and Microsoft Viva.

Be sure to check out our previous blog posts:

1. Helping Customers Fix Their Own Issues with Microsoft Defender for Office 365


2. Helping IT admins save time and effort managing Microsoft Viva

Finally, as part of our ongoing supportability work, we’ve been honored and proud to give back to communities in need through our Microsoft 365 Diagnostics for Social Good program.

We look forward to sharing more in the coming months!

Brian Stoner is a Director on the CSS Modern Work Supportability team where he leads a team of technical and business program managers. 

The CSS Modern Work Supportability team delivers innovative self-help solutions and diagnostics, in-service enhancements, and support programs to help customers get maximum value from their Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions and create an easy-to-use, connected support experience. 

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “Joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 Blog space!

What’s new with Adoption Score and Experience insights in the Microsoft 365 admin center

As your organization continues to invest in Microsoft 365, we recognize the emphasis you place on driving and improving usage, adoption, and user satisfaction. The function of enterprise IT is expanding with new roles, often called Adoption Specialists, Digital Product Managers, or Workplace Technology Experience Managers, strategically focused on the need to improve your users’ digital experiences and realize maximum value from your digital investments. To support these new roles, we continue investing in such product experiences as Usage Reports, Adoption Score and Experience insights in the Microsoft 365 admin center to help our customers decide how to get the most out of their Microsoft investment.

Today, all commercial customers will have access to Adoption Score by default, available within the Microsoft 365 admin center under Reports. Now generally available, Group Level Aggregates in Adoption Score offers data segmentation by Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) attributes to help you better assess your adoption data by different areas within the organization. With Organizational Messages, now in Preview for all organizations using Adoption Score, you can use these insights to send relevant tips and guidance on usage best practices directly to your users. Additionally, Experience insights, now in Preview to customers with 2000+ licenses, can help you better support users and increase satisfaction.

As a foundation for Microsoft 365 metrics and actionable insights, Microsoft remains devoted to helping IT professionals empower employees with user-level privacy in place, and we are deeply committed to the privacy of everyone who uses our products. Within the People Experiences area of Adoption Score, metrics are available at the aggregated, organizational level only.

What’s new with Adoption Score

Adoption Score is now available for all commercial customers

Adoption Score is a set of metrics and tools offering you visibility into how your organization works with Microsoft 365, surfaces insights into where you can improve user experiences, and helps you act on these insights by delivering messages to users with tips and best practices. We’re excited to share that Adoption Score is now available to all commercial customers and is enabled by default. To access Adoption Score, visit the Microsoft 365 admin center > Reports > Adoption Score to start using it today. To learn how to manage the experience, visit Privacy Controls for Adoption Score.

An image of the Adoption Score page in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Assessing adoption by user segments with Group Level Aggregates

While Adoption Score offers metrics and insights across the entire organization, Adoption Specialists often need to segment this data by Azure AD attributes like Company or Department, or by geo regions like Country, State and City. This is especially true for large, distributed, and hybrid workforces. Now, with Group Level Aggregates in Adoption Score, IT Adoption Specialists can assess Microsoft 365 adoption insights by different areas of the organization and give more customized and relevant guidance to improve effectiveness. Group Level Aggregates is now generally available and can be enabled in just a few simple steps.

An image demonstrating the Group Level Aggregates dropdown menu on the Meetings insights page in Adoption Score in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Empower users with usage best practices using Organizational Messages (Preview)

Organizational Messages in Adoption Score, currently in Preview, enables IT Adoption Specialists to deliver clear, actionable, and targeted messages in the flow of work.

Based on your adoption data within the People Experiences categories of Adoption Score, you will find suggested actions to help Microsoft 365 users in your organization improve their experience and maximize their productivity through usage best practices. These include reminders to use products or features that have recently been made available, reminders to use products on multiple surfaces, or recommended ways of working like using @mentions to improve message visibility to relevant colleagues.

An image demonstrating how to create a new Organizational Message within Adoption Score in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

An image demonstrating how Organizational Messages appear to end users in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

An image demonstrating how to enable Organizational Messages in Adoption Score from the Settings menu in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Updates to Experience insights Preview

Gain visibility into Microsoft 365 user sentiment with Experience insights (Preview)

Commercial customers with 2000+ licenses* now can also access Experience insights in Preview. With Experience insights, organizations gain visibility into sentiment, help article consumption, and usage of Microsoft 365 applications such as Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and more. This data is curated in a single view to help you identify and address issues that may hinder productivity or cause frustration for users. By understanding usage and sentiment of Microsoft 365 products, IT Adoption Specialists can make data-driven decisions to improve the overall user experience for Microsoft 365 users.

Experience insights offers several key features including the ability to measure and report app usage, understand sentiment from user-submitted comments across your organization, most viewed help articles by users within your organization, and training suggestions. These features empower IT administrators to proactively address issues and provide targeted training and support to users.

To ensure data privacy and compliance, Experience insights leverages the Microsoft 365 compliance framework and adheres to strict security standards. All data is aggregated and anonymized to protect individual user information.

By leveraging Experience insights, organizations can enhance the productivity and satisfaction of Microsoft 365 users, leading to better outcomes for the organization as a whole. Try Experience insights for Microsoft 365 today and unlock valuable insights to optimize your digital workplace.

Have questions about Adoption Score & Experience insights? Join our experts for a Microsoft 365 admin center Adoption Score & Experience insights AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything) on Monday, July 12th at 9:00 AM Pacific time.  RSVP at the event link and start posting your questions today! 

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “Joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 Blog space!

Footnotes:

*Office 365 and Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 

Enhance the diagramming experience in Microsoft Teams with the new Visio app

Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork, bringing together everything a team needs—meetings, calling, collaboration, chat—and diagramming.

As of today, Visio is available as a personal app or private workspace in Microsoft Teams. With a private workspace, users will be able to view, edit, and create Visio files in a central location without leaving Teams. We’re integrating the Visio app into where work happens to help streamline and improve collaboration on business processes, org charts, product launch timelines, and so much more.

Note: The Visio app is not yet available in the new Teams experience but is coming soon.

Getting started

The Visio app comes pre-installed for enterprise users and can be accessed in several places from within Teams, for instance, in the left pane by selecting More added apps (…). Scroll through the list of available apps and then, select the Visio icon to open the app within Teams.

An image of the More added apps menu demonstrating where to access the Visio app in Microsoft Teams.

From here, users will get a view of all the information their team has saved in the Visio app, including access to available templates, Recommended files, Recently opened files, Shared files, and Favorites.

An image of the Visio app in Microsoft Teams demonstrating how to access available templates, Recommended files, Recently opened files, Shared files, and Favorites.

Pin the Visio app for easy access

Teams enables you to keep your most-used apps right at your fingertips. If Visio is one of those apps, you can pin the app to the left pane by right clicking the Visio icon and selecting Pin.

An image demonstrating how to pin the Visio app in Microsoft Teams by right-clicking the Visio icon. Menu options shown: Pop out app, About, and Pin.

You can change the order in which the Visio app appears in your list of pinned apps by dragging and dropping the icon. Or, if you wish to unpin the app, right-click the Visio icon and select Unpin.

An image demonstrating how to unpin the Visio app in Microsoft Teams by right-clicking the Visio icon. Menu options shown: Pop out app, About, and Unpin.

Pop out the Visio app in a new window

When using the Teams desktop app, users will be able to use the Pop out app option to open Visio in a separate window, allowing users to continue using Teams chat, call, collaboration, and meeting capabilities. To do this, right-click the Visio icon—whether it’s pinned on the left of Teams or from the list of More added apps (…)—and then select Pop out app.

An image demonstrating how to pop out the Visio app in Microsoft Teams in a new window. Menu options shown: Pop out app, About, and Unpin.

An image demonstrating the Visio app popped out as a separate window in Microsoft Teams.

Add a Visio file as a tab

You can also quickly access and manage the Visio files you interact with the most by adding them as a dedicated tab at the top of a Teams channel or chat. To add a new tab, select the plus (+) button at the top of the preferred channel or chat. If you don’t see the Visio icon right away, select the See all icon or type “Visio” in the Search bar. Then, select the Visio icon.

An image demonstrating the app menu that appears after selecting the plus button at the top of a channel or chat in Microsoft Teams.

Here, you’ll be asked to ‘pick an item’ (i.e.: a Visio file) from My files, Recent files, or any file stored in your team’s SharePoint folders. Select the file you want to add as a tab, then select the Save button. After selecting Save, the Visio file will open in Teams and show up as a tab at the top of the channel or chat.

Note: You can add the same Visio file as a tab in multiple channels and chats.

Once the file is open in Teams, you can open it in a new window by selecting the Pop out tab icon from the tab’s drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, you can also expand the tab, reload the tab, copy the link to the tab, rename the tab, and remove the tab, among other actions.

An image of a Visio file open in Microsoft Teams demonstrating a list of options available from the tab’s drop-down menu. Menu options shown: Pop out tab, Expand tab, Reload tab, Copy link to tab, Rename, Settings, App permissions, About this tab, Remove.

When sharing a Visio file in a chat

It’s important to note that any Visio files shared via a Teams chat will open in the Visio app in Teams by default.

An image of a Visio file shared in a Microsoft Teams chat demonstrating the menu options available to open the file in Teams, the Visio desktop app, or the Visio web app. Menu options shown: Open in, Download and Copy link.

The Visio app in Teams is now available for commercial tenants worldwide and is rolling out soon to GCC, GCC High, and DoD tenants. Microsoft 365 commercial subscribers and Visio Plan 1 and Visio Plan 2 subscribers with a Microsoft Teams license will be able to view, edit, and create Visio files in 31 languages supported by the Visio app in Teams.

We are listening!

We look forward to hearing your feedback and learning more about how we can improve the diagramming experience in Microsoft Teams. Please tell us what you think of the Visio app in the comments below. You can also send feedback via the Visio Feedback Portal or directly in the Visio app in Teams using “Give Feedback to Microsoft” in the bottom right corner.

Did you know? The Microsoft 365 Roadmap is where you can get the latest updates on productivity apps and intelligent cloud services. Check out what features are in development or coming soon on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap or view roadmap item, Visio personal app in Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft 365 Admin Monthly Digest – May 2023

A banner image with text: “Microsoft 365 Admin Digest: Your monthly IT admin blog for all things Microsoft 365.”

Welcome to the Microsoft 365 IT admin blog, your monthly source of tips, insights, and best practices for managing and optimizing your Microsoft 365 environment. In this edition, we’ll explore how you can use different admin roles to empower your adoption specialists and improve your user experience without compromising security or compliance, whether you have a large or small IT team. Learn about enhancements to the admin center and read on to catch up about all things Microsoft 365 administration.

Use these roles to appropriately delegate admin center access

As IT departments are increasingly tasked with monitoring and driving adoption, larger IT organizations are delegating these tasks to specialized roles to help drive successful change management. Microsoft developed the Adoption Score and Experience Insights dashboard to help IT departments gain insight into how their users are adopting Microsoft 365 services. But how can IT departments set up their adoption specialists for success using these tools while maintaining least-access principles to safeguard tenant configurations?

IT admins can delegate admin access using least-permissioned roles, which are specific roles that provide limited access to features like, Adoption Score, the Experience Insights dashboard, or Message center without the ability to change settings. Some of these roles include:

• User Experience Success Manager: This role is for people who need to access Experience Insights, Adoption Score, and Message center in the Microsoft 365 admin center. This role includes permissions for the Usage Summary Reports Reader role.


• Global reader: The Global reader role is for people who need to view admin features and settings in the admin centers that the global admin can view, including message center. The global reader cannot edit any settings.


• Reports Reader: The Reports reader role is for people who need to view usage data and the activity reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center, get access to the Power BI adoption content pack, access sign-in reports and activity in Azure AD, or view data returned by the Microsoft Graph reporting API.


• Message center reader: People assigned this role can monitor message center notifications, receive weekly email digest of message center posts, share message center posts, read-only access to Azure AD services.


• Organizational Message Writer: The Organizational Message Writer role is for people who need to write, publish, manage, and review the organizational messages for end-users through Microsoft product surfaces.

For a full list, check out Admin roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Alternatively, people who have been assigned the User Experience Success manager, Reports reader, or Global reader role can pin the Experience Insights app in Teams to view reports from Experience Insights to remain in their flow of work, without needing to go the Microsoft 365 admin center.

What’s new in Microsoft 365 administration?

Let’s check out some of the latest features we launched in the Microsoft 365 admin center and how it could be useful for you.

Microsoft introduced relevancy scores for Message center posts to help to ensure that you are getting the latest news and information about changes and updates that affect your organization. The relevancy score is a numerical value that indicates how important a post is in relation to your environment, based on factors, such as the products and services you use, the number of users affected, and the type of change. You can view and sort the Message center posts by relevancy score to determine which ones are of the most importance. The relevance score is also available in the Experience Insights app on Teams where you can view and share reports on Message center activity and trends.

Furthermore, Microsoft introduced a “Feature release status” on Message center posts that allow IT admins and readers to sort and identify messages that have been updated in the last week or last month, surfacing the most relevant updates for you to prioritize.

An image demonstrating the status options available for “Feature release status” now available on Message center posts, including Launched, Rolling out, Scheduled, Changed within last week, and Changed within last month.

To add further clarity on feature development, Microsoft has also updated the terminology used to describe expected feature status in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap to define deployment flow more appropriately:

• Preview is now Preview Available and indicates development status.


• GA (General Availability) is now Rollout Start to reflect the reality of how deployments occur over time, aligning with the “Feature release status” on Message center posts.
  
  

An image demonstrating the new labels for feature status availability on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. The top image depicts the old labels, “Preview” and “GA”, and the bottom image depicts the new labels, “Preview Available” and “Rollout start.”

Now you can sign up for the Windows release health email notifications about Windows known issues and informational updates. Accessible from the Windows release health page in the Microsoft 365 admin center, you can sign up to be notified when a known issue is an issue that impacts Windows devices and has been identified in a Windows monthly update or feature update. For more information, review how to check Windows release health.

Microsoft also recently rolled out the Accessibility Baselines to the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center earlier this month. These baselines provide a set of accessibility policies and recommended settings for policies to enable accessible document creation across your organization. In short, it empowers you to configure accessibility settings as part of their tenant or specific group’s Cloud Policy, establishing accessibility checker as a requirement for all documents users are working on in your tenant. This blog walks through step-by-step how to configure the policy. For more information, check out Overview of Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365.

Lastly, for tenants with Microsoft Viva Suite, Viva Pulse will be rolling out to public preview beginning July 6, 2023. Viva Pulse is a new employee feedback experience that will be available for use with your Viva Suite subscription. Viva Pulse empowers managers and project team leaders to request and receive feedback from their teams at any time. Global admins will be able to enable the preview for their organization by visiting the Viva Pulse site. From there, select Manage access, then toggle Public Preview access on.

How IT organizations can play a critical role in AI adoption

Microsoft published our latest annual report that surveyed over 31,000 people in 31 countries and analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, along with labor trends from the LinkedIn Economic graph. The report focuses on the opportunity for AI-powered tools to help alleviate digital debt, enable workers to learn new skills, and empower employees.

How will AI fix work, and, more importantly, how can IT help lead the way?

• IT can lead the platform shift to AI. The unique position and role IT plays in the success of an organization’s digital transformation positions them to drive adoption of AI technologies, aid productivity, efficiency, and innovation.


• AI can help IT departments manage the pace of work with the implementation of AI-powered tools. This could include automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and providing intelligent systems that help assist employees, like Microsoft 365 Copilot.


• IT can play an active role in helping evaluate AI solutions and integrations, ensuring necessary infrastructure is in place to support AI implementation. On this, Microsoft recently published a blog on content management tools in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams that can help IT admins ensure data and content is managed appropriately to prepare for the era of AI. Check out this blog post on the new era of content management and security to learn more.


• By promoting AI literacy, IT can also drive AI aptitude and drive adoption of AI-powered tools with their users.

The full report dives into much greater detail and goes beyond the lens of an IT professional, which I highly recommended reading!

Learn about what healthy adoption can mean for your organization

Successful and healthy adoption of digital tools can be a good barometer for an engaged and productive employee. Finding new ways to work and navigating hybrid work rationalization are challenges IT leaders face. The era of modern work is not just contained to private organizations either. Check out this blog post in the Public Sector community, Transforming State and Local Government IT: Discover the Benefits of Microsoft 365 Government to learn more.

Featured in the previously mentioned blog post is a recent study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group who found that organizations with comprehensive adoption of Microsoft 365 technology can enable their IT teams to deliver proactive and predictive end-user support, improving overall productivity and efficiency.

The study surveyed 500 IT decision makers and segmented the organizations into three levels of Microsoft 365 adoption based on their responses to 10 questions. The study’s findings emphasized that comprehensive adoption of Microsoft 365 technology is key to enabling IT teams to deliver proactive and predictive end-user support, which can improve overall productivity and efficiency for organizations. Overall, the study highlights the multifaceted benefits of broader and deeper adoption of the Microsoft 365 platform, emphasizing its importance for organizations seeking to enhance their productivity, collaboration, and security.

With such a rich study, the team will be publishing additional blogs to explore different learnings and what they mean for IT. Whatever industry you are a part of, there will undoubtedly be something insightful for you to take back to your organizations, so keep an eye out for future blog posts!

Catch up on the latest Tech Community events

In case you missed it, Microsoft Tech Community frequently hosts events in many communities across the site. These are often opportunities for community members to connect directly with our product teams and engineering experts and ask questions in a text-based format, like Ask Me Anything (AMA) events.

This month, we hosted three AMAs. On May 10th, we held an Exchange AMA to discuss the announcement of a new transport-based enforcement system in Exchange Online designed to increase customer awareness of unsupported and unpatched Exchange Servers in their environment and drive customer action to remediate their servers.

On May 24th, we held a Microsoft 365 Cloud.Microsoft AMA to discuss the announcement introducing a new unified domain for Microsoft 365 apps and services, cloud.microsoft. The product team connected with community members to answer questions about the top-level domain. If you missed the initial announcement, check out the blog post here: Introducing cloud.microsoft: a unified domain for Microsoft 365 apps and services.

Lastly, on May 25th, we held a Microsoft 365 Insider AMA to discuss the benefits of the Microsoft 365 Insider program and why you should join. It was great to see questions from all who attended. 

Stay updated

While we continue to share IT admin highlights and insights in this blog series, consider also subscribing to Microsoft 365 admin center updates on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Keep an eye out for communications published in the Message center, too. We also highlight new feature releases and enhancements released each month in our What’s new in the Microsoft 365 admin center Learn article.

Comment below if there are any IT admin or change management topics you want us to explore in the future!

In next month’s issue, we’ll explore how organizations can get AI-ready, what tools are available to review permissions, how IT departments can think about data governance, and more.

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “Joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 Blog space!

Helping Customers Fix Their Own Issues with Microsoft Defender for Office 365

A banner image with the text: “Microsoft Defender for Office 365: Help secure your email and Microsoft Teams with advanced protection against phishing, business email compromise, ransomware, and other threats.”

The Microsoft 365 commercial support team resolves customer support cases and provides support to help you be successful and realize the full potential and value of your purchase. Our support services extend across the entire lifecycle and include pre-sales, onboarding and deployment, usage and management, accounts and billing, and break-fix support. We also spend a considerable amount of time working to improve the supportability of Microsoft 365 services to reduce the number of issues you experience as well as minimize the effort and time it takes to resolve your issues if they do occur.

We’re excited to welcome one of our Microsoft 365 Supportability team members to talk more about working with Microsoft Defender for Office 365.

Brian: Welcome Alex! Let’s start with a quick introduction. Tell us a little about your role in the CSS Modern Work Supportability team and what you’re working on these days.

Alex: I work as a Supportability Program Manager focused on Microsoft Defender for Office 365. I commonly liaise between our partners in engineering and support, for example, during the planning and release cycles. I review analytics to find key areas for improvement and share feedback with both organizations, optimize in-product self-help for our customers, and organize any material our support organization needs to be successful.

Brian: Keeping their organizations safe and protected is definitely a top priority for many of our customers. What are some of the different scenarios that Microsoft Defender for Office 365 addresses and what are some of the common questions that the support team receives?

Alex: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (MDO) boosts productivity, simplifies administration, helps prevent and remediate advanced threats, raises employee threat awareness, and keeps a secure posture.

An image of a multi-layered protection stack in Microsoft Defender for Office 365, including edge protection, sender intelligence, content filtering and post-delivery protection.

It is part of Microsoft 365 Defender, a security solution which automatically correlates and analyzes threats across many workloads. With 65 trillion signals synthesized daily and 37 billion email threats blocked last year alone, it leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically stop attacks and remediate affected assets into a safe state.

An image of a Microsoft Security data chart for 2021, 2022 and 2023 depicting the number of security signals synthesized per day, including number of customers affected, password attacks per second, suspicious emails blocked per year and signals analyzed daily.

Most common support questions are around onboarding and customizing Anti-Phishing, Safe Links or Safe Attachments policies, integrating email with industry authentication standards, such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), and questions around detection effectiveness and improvement.

Brian: It sounds like you spend a lot of time working on self-help solutions for MDO and ways customers can quickly help themselves without having to contact support. What are some of the key considerations and things you think about when building solutions?

Alex: There are a lot of things I factor in when developing self-help assets. Here are a few of the key questions I think about:  

1. Who is the target audience of this information? Our solutions are written for a wide range of customers, from novice administrators onboarding to Office 365 to manage their Small or Medium Business (SMB) to advanced Security Operations (SecOps) teams.  
   
   


2. What are the top support queries in this area? Real-world questions and potential issues with the MDO service are analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence (HI), split into categories by issue type or product functionality. Then, solutions and diagnostics are created to provide the right answers per issue type. 
   
   


3. Is the solution promoting healthy security behaviors? Depending on what you do with the product, you can have different outcomes. When recommending one solution over another, we review if it won’t inadvertently cause other issues down the road. Then we select the most secure, best-practice solution to surface.   
   
   


4. What self-help formats are most impactful? Multiple formats are available when we connect issues to possible solutions. We quantify how they helped resolve an issue in the past, and constantly learn and improve our toolset, both for existing sets of insights and new workflows.

Brian: Wow, so a lot of surface area to cover and take into consideration here with all the customer and issue types. What kinds of self-help solutions could a customer see and take advantage of when working with MDO?

Alex: There are quite a few solution types and here’s a quick list, and keep in mind that this list is constantly evolving with solutions being updated and added as the product evolves:

Insights 

These are the first solutions you will see when you visit the “Need Help” section in any of the Microsoft 365 admin centers and type a question. They are short, relevant to the search query, and may contain links to additional information, such as blogs or video content.

Pro Tip: The more information you can give about the issue, the better the solution we can offer. For example, type “Find and release quarantined messages as an administrator” instead of “Release message.” 

Playbooks 

Supportability has partnered with product engineering to make more useful recommendations and suggest playbooks during SecOps investigations of ransomware or phishing incidents, right from the Incidents page in Microsoft 365 Defender. More in-product integrations are planned, so stay tuned!

Blogs 

In partnership with support and engineering, we publish to a blog series to demystify how email protection works in Office 365. Visit aka.ms/emailbasics to read and subscribe to Email Protection Basics in Microsoft 365. You may find links to blog articles when searching for “how-it-works” -type questions.  

Videos 

Microsoft Security has a great library of videos on their YouTube channel that cover common Microsoft Defender workflows. We include relevant videos from the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 playlist in self-help insights. There are many helpful 3-5-minute videos that can explain a feature better and faster than text. 

An image of the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 playlist on the Microsoft Security YouTube channel.

Diagnostics 

Many times, we can solve an issue just by running a few checks on how your MDO environment is configured within your organization. Currently, some email protection validations, like DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), are part of the larger Exchange and Outlook Self-help diagnostics tool set. 

An image of the Support Central Diagnostics pane in the Exchange and Outlook self-help diagnostics tool set.

Step-By-Step guides 

Here’s a new set of step-by-step guides made to help you configure, use and diagnose common issues with MDO. Relevant guides are selected and surfaced in self-help insights, since they answer many common customer questions.  

Product Documentation 

This type of content is offered in every search query, even when we couldn’t surface more specific insights. This is the most complete and up-to-date Office 365 security content library. Microsoft 365 Defender for Office 365 documentation has information on permissions you’ll need to view features or make changes, detailed instructions on how features work, relevant videos, and other learning content. Some security best practice guides span multiple Office 365 workloads, like in the Configure your Microsoft 365 tenant for increased security document, for example.

Brian: That’s a lot of self-help solutions and assets! Any tips, insights, or guidance to share or highlight here on best ways to utilize based on what you see in support interactions?

Alex: These are my top three tips, based on how often these features come up in support queries:

For administrators new to MDO, start with preset security policies recommended by Microsoft, or simply run the setup guide to get started.

An image of the start page for the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 setup guide in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

1. Follow Zero Trust cybersecurity principles, such as “Assume-Breach.” Basically, you proactively assume your systems have been breached and minimize the blast radius. Learn how to recover your organization after email compromise or how Automated Investigation and Response (AIR) works.
   
   


2. When dealing with misclassified spam and phishing emails, report them to Microsoft to quickly regrade them or highlight any configuration issues.

Pro Tip: We cover these and other tips in the Microsoft 365 Email Protection Basics infographic shown below. To save or print for quick access, you can also download the infographic file attached below this blog post.

An image of the Microsoft 365 Email Protection Basics infographic.

Brian: Thank you Alex, this has been super insightful and hopefully helps our customers understand the self-help that’s available for MDO. Any last words?

Alex: Thanks so much for the opportunity to talk about our work. I’m excited to help with the new features and releases to keep organizations secure and keep improving the support experience for our customers and support agents! For more information on Security and Microsoft Defender for Office 365, check out the resources below!

Helpful resources

• Ninja training – Quick link: https://aka.ms/mdoninja
  This training library targets different knowledge levels with multiple modules per level. There’s a knowledge check after each module, and you can even earn a certificate at the end of this training. This training is part of a larger Ninja training set available on demand for Defender for Identity, Cloud Apps, Endpoint and data loss prevention (DLP).  
  
  


• Community
  The Microsoft Defender for Office 365 discussion space in the SCI community is very active and answers many common questions. If you have questions or feedback about Microsoft Defender for Office 365, engage with the community and Microsoft experts in the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 forum or visit the Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Blog in the Security, Compliance, and Identity (SCI) community. 

@Alex Hudish is a Supportability Program Manager on the Customer Service & Support (CSS) Modern Work Supportability team focused on Security and Microsoft Defender for Office 365. 

@BrianStoner is a director on the Customer Service & Support (CSS) Modern Work Supportability team where he leads a team of technical and business program managers. 

The CSS Modern Work Supportability team delivers innovative self-help solutions and diagnostics, in-service enhancements, and support programs to help customers get maximum value from their Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions and create an easy-to-use, connected support experience.

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by “Joining” the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 Blog space!

Microsoft Lists: Easier, Better, Faster, Stronger

Microsoft Lists is designed to unlock your team’s full potential by reducing the strain and drudgery of keeping everybody organized, on the same page, and moving forward together.

Designed with collaboration in mind, Lists enables teams of all sizes to efficiently track what needs to get done, share resources, and organize information of all shapes and sizes.

We’re proud to announce a batch of changes coming later this year that make Lists faster and more powerful than ever before.  Whether you’re overseeing a 20,000-person organization and want to standardize the way projects are tracked and approved, or you’re one half of a team of 2 working on narrowing down gift ideas for an upcoming baby shower, Lists has something for you.

Double the Speed, Half the Hassle

Roadmap #124867:  User experience (UX) Update

Roadmap #117585:  Microsoft Lists:  Applied Filters

To kick things off, we’ll share our favorite update:  we’ve supercharged Lists in the browser, in the PWA, and inside Teams to load in half the time.  Whether you’re driving Lamborghinis or Lists, performance is the ultimate feature.   So if you stop reading here, and don’t change a thing about how you work with Lists, you’re still going to enjoy a summer of lightning-fast views, forms, and fields.  But wait, there’s more!  These performance updates are coupled with a bunch of optimizations to the user experience that put people, content, and essential actions front and center.

Microsoft Lists – Ready to Party

It all starts at the top of the screen, where you’ll see a bunch of new goodies on the same line as the name of your list.  First off, you’ll see the friendly faces of people who are working with you in the List at the same time.  This much-lauded feature from Lists MSA is coming to all Lists this summer!  Everybody should experience the magic of sharing a list in a meeting and seeing those recipients file in and start moving around the list making updates with you.  Next to these presence icons, you see icons for filtering and grouping.  One of the biggest changes in this whole update lies inside that Group By button – this feature now works even when you’re editing items in the grid! 

Your Favorite View is Just a Click Away

 
The true power of Lists becomes apparent when you use custom views that slice, dice, and arrange the right information for specific audiences or scenarios.  We’ve made these views easier to create and access by arranging them into tabs at the top of the screen.  Want to create a new view?  Click the plus.  

Take a Filter Pill

Under the title area, you’ll notice that Lists now clearly shows you which filters are applied to the current view.  You can click these “filter pills” to clear them one by one or all at once to see more items.  This feature even works in lists that have filters saved to the view.  Have you ever opened a list and wondered why a bunch of your data was missing, only to later realize that it was because of some sneaky saved filters doing what they’re supposed to do?  Those days of subterfuge are over!

Focus on Forms

We’ve heard from many of you that creating and editing items inside a side panel doesn’t make much sense; why relegate a critical, focused task to just one side of the screen?  We’ve listened to this feedback and have elevated the core task of editing data in a list form to the prominence it deserves by placing it smack dab in the middle of the screen.

Lists: Rated E for Everyone!

We’re always proud to take vintage features of Lists and bring them to the forefront.  This time, it’s Ratings columns!  Now, it’s super easy to add a Ratings column to a list – do it the same way you add any other column.  The experience of specifying your rating (in the form of a star, or a thumbs up/down) is fast and fluid.  Try it out!

Image Fields: Now with Drag and Drop!

Have you ever been frustrated at Image columns for making you browse through your filesystem to an image saved somewhere on your computer?  Now you can add images using drag and drop, or simply copy an image from the Web or your favorite application and paste it in.

There’s more we haven’t mentioned yet.  We’ve worked hard in this update to bring a bunch of smaller fixes and optimizations to everyday List experiences.  As just one more example – we’ve tweaked date and time columns to respect the region settings on your local machine.  No more editing dates in the time zone and region settings defined by the configuration of the backing SharePoint site. 

Calendar View Improvements

Roadmap #100504:  Microsoft Lists:  Calendar view – week layout

Colorful Calendars, A Week at a Time!

As humans, we often direct the most feedback and encouragement towards those we love the most.  By this heuristic, Calendar view is one of our most-loved features!  Earlier this year, we took your encouragement and used that to fuel our delivery of the much-requested Week layout. 

Coming soon is an improvement to the conditional formatting capabilities of calendars.  If you’ve tried to format a calendar view recently, you might have discovered the need for a clever workaround to make column data available to the formatting engine (Thanks for the post, @techan_k!)  We’re working on a change that will make this a whole lot easier, because we think a splash of color is a good way to brighten up any week.

Fantastic Forms

Roadmap #124865:  Microsoft Lists: A new forms experience to collect information

Collect Data like Never Before with List forms!

We are making it easier to collect and gather information through a new forms experience built right inside Microsoft Lists.  An event organizer, for example, can now create and manage multiple forms for the same list say one for internal users and another for external.  Forms can be made relevant, professional, and beautiful easily with custom logos, names, descriptions, and user-friendly questions instead of column names.  Form designers can hide fields that are not required and add new fields directly.  You can build the whole schema of a list right inside the form designer!  

Forms can be easily shared, and respondents can fill them out using any device.  All the form responses will appear immediately in your list after they’re submitted.  From there, it’s just like any other item in a list – and get the benefits of formatting, automations, and maybe you’ll even feel compelled to add a Ratings column and rate those submissions as they come in!

Turnkey Templates

Roadmap #100502:  Microsoft Lists – Approvals integration

Roadmap #70753:  Microsoft Lists – Custom list templates

Roadmap #117436:  Microsoft Lists – Flows packaged into custom List templates

Microsoft Lists first and foremost is about empowering normal people to create versatile and efficient databases to run their teams.  Custom templates take it to the next level for organizations that want to standardize how things get done.  Templates allow those organizations to provide consistent schema, views, formatting, and automations to define how things get tracked and how they move forward.

Run your Approval Processes inside Lists!

There’s a lot to talk about in the world of List templates.  Earlier this year, we launched Approval integration with two out of the box Lists templates:  Travel Requests and Content Scheduler.  Items inside Lists from one of these two templates can be submitted for approval.  Those approvals can be managed using the Approvals app in Teams or directly inside the List.

Next up is organizational templates.  For those of you who have configured your Microsoft 365 tenancy to receive Targeted Release features, you’ve had this capability for a while now.  This is the core capability that allows organizations to package up a list schema, views, formatting, and rules into a template and have that template appear in the New List dialog.  This feature is coming to all tenancies soon – keep an eye on the roadmap.

Later this summer, we are taking it to the next level by allowing organizations to package Microsoft Power Automate flows directly inside their custom organizational templates.  Structured data and custom workflows are a magic combination that accomplish so much, from routing support tickets, driving internal planning milestones, to keeping business-critical pizza parties aligned and moving forward.  Now you can package all this up into turnkey business applications that anybody can create in just a few clicks.

But that’s not all!  Later this year, we’re proud to announce that all this power is coming to the world of document libraries as well.  Keep an eye on the roadmap for future updates and timelines if you’ve been eager to bring the power of templates and packaging to document-centric scenarios.

Microsoft Lists – at work, at home, and on the go

Roadmap #70705:  Microsoft Lists – Commenting (iOS)

For those of you using the Lists MSA preview to organize information for your personal life, your small business, or your side hustle – rest assured, the changes described in this post are coming to those lists as well.

MSA account is coming to our Lists mobile apps!

We’re also proud to announce that Lists MSA support is coming to the Lists iOS app by the end of May, and Android app support is coming by the end of June.  Once this update is rolled out, you will be able to sign in with your work, school, OR MSA account inside these apps, and switch between them.

Comments in Lists are coming to mobile

We’re also bringing a much-requested feature to the iOS app which is the ability to view and edit comments!  Keep an eye on this blog and the roadmap for updates on this.  

Wrapping Up

Thanks for reading this far.  We are always listening to your feedback and concerns.  Don’t be shy; please can use the Feedback button at the top of the page when looking at a List to let us know what you think.

New era in content management and security in SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams

Organizations are seeing massive growth in their digital estate as they continue their digitization journey. Businesses run on content – proposals, contracts, invoices, designs, plans, training videos, and more. Every work day, customers add over 2 billion new documents to Microsoft 365. Microsoft Syntex brings advanced AI from the Microsoft Cloud to your M365 content, simplifying your everyday business processes at cloud scale. Microsoft 365 security and compliance offerings empower you to manage and govern your every increasing digital estate diligently.

For many organizations, content oversharing and governance are real challenges, no matter the size or geographic distribution. Content oversharing is when content is shared beyond the needed audience either intentionally or accidentally. Today at the Microsoft 365 Conference, we are thrilled to announce new content management and security capabilities to address these problems.

Let’s look at these new capabilities under the following pillars:

Oversharing controls – Advanced access policies for secure collaboration

Content lifecycle management

Expanded security controls to safeguard content

Organization lifecycle management

Comprehensive compliance

Oversharing controls – advanced access policies for secure collaboration

SharePoint data access governance (DAG) enhancements – Site access reviews, Restricted Access Control (RAC) policy, and Everyone Except External Users (EEEU) report

As the sprawl of Teams and SharePoint sites contribute to the exponential growth of your organization’s digital estate, it’s important to identify the top sites that require close attention.

A site’s lifecycle starts when it is created and evolves to the active state, which is when users add content and collaborate in the site. During this active state, how do you detect and avoid oversharing or accidental sharing? Look no further, admins can now use the data access governance (DAG) insights dashboard in SharePoint admin center to address these needs.

Today, we are happy to announce that many enhancements are coming to SharePoint Data Access Governance (DAG) insights, notably site access reviews, integration with restricted access control (RAC) policy and a new EEEU (Everyone except external users) report. DAG v1 insights empower you to discover the top-100 and top-10,000 sites that matter the most among the millions of sites you may have. We announced the general availability of DAG v1 a few months back as part of the Microsoft Syntex – SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) launch.

We’re expanding DAG insights with the following enhancements:

1. Site access reviews – This allows a SharePoint admin to request the owners of the top sites discovered in Sharing or Sensitivity label reports in DAG to review and attest that the access pattern seen in their sites is expected. This enhancement will be available in H2CY23.

2. Integration with restricted access control (RAC) policy – From the DAG insights experience, you can now take actions on over-shared sites with single click by enabling restricted access control (RAC) policy for them. This enhancement will be available in H2CY23.

3. EEEU (Everyone except external users) report – One of the common source for overshared sites is users mistakenly share with EEEU group, which will allow all users in the organization except external users. We are now introducing a new report in DAG that will list the top-100 sites (and top-10000 via csv) that were shared with EEEU group. This enhancement will be available in H2CY23.

Interested in learning more? Check out the product article here: SharePoint Data access governance (DAG) insights.

Figure. SharePoint admin views SharePoint data access governance (DAG) insights and triggers site access reviews to site owners, and restricts access for an overshared site, Project Apollo

Restricted access control (RAC) policy for SharePoint sites with security groups – General availability

Data access governance (DAG) reports help you discover overshared sites in your organization. Then, what actions do you want to take next for those sites? You may want to restrict access to those overshared sites such that no matter how widespread the content was shared, or if inheritance was broken at the document level, the access is instantly confined to a set of users only. The solution is here.

In the SAM launch a few months back, we announced general availability of Restricted Access Control (RAC) policy for Microsoft 365 Groups-connected sites.

Today, we are excited to announce that the Restricted Access Control (RAC) policy for SharePoint sites with security groups is generally available. With this advanced policy, you can now restrict access to a non-group connected site, be it classic or communication or Shared Channels-connected site, using Azure Active Directory security groups.

Users who are not the current members of the specified security groups will be denied access even if the site or its content was previously shared with them by breaking inheritance from the site permission. Very powerful access control!

All the admin activities of configuring or updating RAC policy for sites are audited in the Microsoft 365 Audit Logs.

To learn more about this feature, check out the article here: RAC Policy for SharePoint Sites.

Figure. Controlling oversharing of a non-group connected site with restricted access control (RAC) policy

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External/Internal Collaboration Insights – Private preview

Content collaboration is at the center of any organization’s productivity and business growth. While open collaboration may bring more productivity and thus opportunities, external collaboration is the biggest source of corporate data leakage and exfiltration due to accidental oversharing. Knowing your organization’s collaboration patterns allows you to drive positive collaboration trends and to control activities that may pose a security risk to your enterprise. Collaboration insights is designed to synthesize the collaboration patterns in your organization.

Today we are announcing the private preview of external/internal Collaboration Insights as part of the SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) add-on.

With Collaboration Insights you can obtain weekly insights on how users in your organization are leveraging OneDrive and SharePoint to collaborate internally and externally by viewing, editing, and sharing files. Collaboration Insights also provides key aggregate data on the total number of users, user types, and sites so that you can monitor growth trends over time.

Interested in participating in this private preview? Fill out the form here.

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Restricted apps access (RAA) policy for SharePoint sites and OneDrives – Private preview

Security posture of content varies based on its business criticality. General training content should be easily accessible wherein classified strategy content should be accessible only when certain conditions are met. The conditional access requirements should match the sites’ security posture.

Using conditional access for SharePoint sites and OneDrives you can restrict business critical sites requiring additional conditions like MFA (multi-factor-authentication) for users. But you may have several applications registered in Azure Active Directory that get unrestricted access to such business-critical sites. Well, now you can restrict access to applications for such sites.

Today we are thrilled to announce the private preview of Restricted Applications Access (RAA) policy for SharePoint sites and OneDrives. It empowers SharePoint admins to control the list of third-party applications allowed access to a given SharePoint site or OneDrive. You can even require the allowed application to meet certain conditions defined through Azure Active Directory’s authentication context. For example, users who access content through that application must be MFA authenticated. Very flexible and powerful access control for applications.

Simply, run the following SharePoint Online PowerShell cmdlet for a given site!

In the above example, setting BlockAppAccess to true will block all third-party applications access to the site except the two applications whose IDs are called out in the AllowedAppServicePrincipleIds list. Simple and powerful access control!

Interested to participate in the private preview, sign up using this form.

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Advanced sites lifecycle management

Sites lifecycle policies – Inactive sites – Coming in Q2CY23

A site in an active state may enter an inactive state perhaps after a few years. With the sprawl of sites, how would you discover sites that have moved to an inactive state and then take action on them? Standing access, especially by external vendors and third-party applications, to inactive SharePoint sites is one of the sources of data leakage and security incidents. Look no further.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the SharePoint inactive sites policy, coming in Q2CY23. This new feature gives admins the ability to create custom inactive site policies that target specific SharePoint sites, such as Teams-created sites or sites labeled as Public or with an information segment of Research. Once these policies are in place, site owners of inactive sites will receive alerts and can choose to keep, delete, or take other actions as needed.

As a SharePoint admin, you’ll also have the option to apply Restricted Access Control (RAC) policies to inactive sites to protect their content and remove any unauthorized access. And for sites connected to Teams, the inactivity status will be determined by evaluating user actions in both Teams and the SharePoint site. This means that Teams owners, as well as site owners, will be notified of any inactivity.

This policy is included in the SAM add-on and will be activated in your tenant once it’s ready. Keep an eye out for more updates on this exciting new feature in Q2CY23.

Figure. SharePoint admin creates an inactive site policy in SharePoint admin center and site owner responds to the policy notification

If you’d like to participate in our private preview, please sign up using this form.

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SharePoint Change History – Coming Q2CY23

As SharePoint admins, often you are tasked with troubleshooting inaccessible team sites. Also, to understand and manage a site’s lifecycle, it is imperative to know all the activities carried out by site owners. The new Change History capability in SharePoint admin center aims to address these needs.

Today we are thrilled to announce SharePoint Change History general availability coming in Q2CY23. This feature enables you to view all changes made to a site’s properties by other admins and site owners, allowing for faster investigation and resolution of helpdesk tickets. With this historical view, you can quickly identify any changes that may have caused an issue and resolve it in a matter of hours, instead of days.

SharePoint Change History is included in the SAM add-on and will be activated in your tenant as soon as it’s ready. Keep an eye out for more updates on this exciting new capability in Q2CY23!

Figure. SharePoint admin viewing change history report in SharePoint Admin Center

If you’d like to participate in our private preview, please sign up using this form.

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Block download policy for Teams Meeting Recording (TMR) files stored in SharePoint sites and OneDrives – General Availability

Teams Meeting artifacts, specifically recording of the meetings, are such a business-critical asset for organizations and source of day-to-day activities of users. To adhere to your local compliance policy and avoid data leakage, you may want to block users from downloading those meeting recordings.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the general availability of block download policy for Teams Meeting Recording (TMR) files stored in SharePoint sites and OneDrives. With one simple PowerShell cmdlet, you can now block the download of Teams meeting recording files from SharePoint sites and OneDrives. This allows users to remain productive while addressing the risk of accidental data loss. Users will continue to have browser-only access to view the recordings without the ability to download or sync or access them through applications.

Simply, run the below SharePoint Admin PowerShell cmdlet:

You may have a need to exempt some users, say your compliance officers, from this policy. You can achieve that by configuring an exemption list with security groups, which will then allow the members of those specified security groups to download.

Couple of notable considerations: After the policy is turned on, any new Teams meeting recordings and saved in SharePoint and OneDrive will be blocked from download. You must be a SharePoint admin to configure this policy. Note that this policy doesn’t apply to manually uploaded meeting recording files.

Want to learn more about this capability? Check out Block the download of Teams meeting recording files from SharePoint or OneDrive.

Figure: SharePoint admin configuring block download policy for TMR files in SharePoint Admin PowerShell and end user experience showing the policy in action.

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Expanded content security to safeguard content

Search and governance for standalone images and PDFs in SharePoint and OneDrive – Private preview

In Microsoft 365 SharePoint and OneDrive, the current Microsoft Purview compliance policies like data loss prevention (DLP) protect only Office documents. Many organizations have major percentage of their digital estate as PDFs and images and need a way to protect and govern them too. The solution is here.

Today we are excited to announce the private preview of Protection for Images and PDFs in SharePoint sites and OneDrives. With the power of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing in SharePoint and OneDrive the content within images, be it standalone or embedded within PDFs and Office documents, can be extracted along with metadata, and then can be reasoned over. You can configure the OCR setting in Microsoft Purview Compliance Portal.

DLP (data loss prevention) policies can now protect these images and PDFs. To help admins roll out this feature gradually, they can enable this capability only in certain SharePoint sites or OneDrives. For example, if you’ve a DLP policy that includes a data classifier such as the credit card sensitive information type (SIT), then both Office documents and images and PDFs will be protected by that policy.

In addition, end users will start to see search results including images and PDFs through Enterprise Search, much like they see Office documents.

If you are interested in this feature and want to enroll in the private preview, reach out to your Microsoft Field/Account team.

Figure. An image file that contains a credit card image is detected as sensitive by DLP policy and end user views the policy tip details in SharePoint information pane.

Programmatic way to set files metadata like sensitivity labels at cloud scale – Public preview

The assign sensitivity labels Premium API for OneDrive and SharePoint helps you to automatically designate Excel, PowerPoint, and Word files as sensitive to ensure certain protections are applied to these documents. The API allows you to leverage the functionality to assign labels at scale through your applications. This API provides the following key benefits:

• Is a pay as you go consumption-based API, which does not require additional user licenses.
• Does not require third party tools to download, label, and re-upload your files.
• Allows your enterprise to scale your sensitivity labels to the whole organization without the need for end users to read, interpret, and manually label files.
• Does not require the target file to be open and in use, allowing you to protect files, even if no one is actively working on them.
• Provides labeling at volume. You can label up to 75,000 files a day in your tenant at general availability.
• Allows you to re-use your existing manual labels.

Today, we are thrilled to announce that the assign sensitivity labels Premium API for OneDrive and SharePoint is in Public Preview, with general availability coming in at the end of May 2023. Learn more about metered APIs and get started with the Assign sensitivity labels API for OneDrive and SharePoint.

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Organization lifecycle management

SharePoint cross-tenant sites content migration – Private preview

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures (M&A) scenarios are a critical part of an organization’s lifecycle. In fact, many organizations expand their business through M&A.

Imagine Contoso Energy acquiring Fabrikam’s Wind Energy unit in Asia to expand their global footprint in the energy industry, and both Contoso Energy and Fabrikam have a presence in Microsoft 365. As part of this M&A transaction, there is a need to move Fabrikam’s Wind Energy unit employees’ OneDrives and Mailboxes and associated SharePoint sites to Contoso Energy’s tenancy. We announced OneDrives and Mailboxes cross-tenant content migration at Ignite’22. We are addressing the need for moving SharePoint sites across the tenants.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the private preview of SharePoint site cross-tenant content data migration. With this capability you can now move SharePoint sites across two tenants using a simple set of SharePoint PowerShell cmdlets. This includes all kinds of sites like Communication sites, Modern team sites, Teams-connected or Groups-connected sites, etc.

One another notable capability upon site move is that the sharing links to old URLs will continue to work although the URL of the site has changed! This is made possible by the cross-tenant redirect capability that ensures any hit to old URLs is redirected to new URL.

To learn more about cross-tenant move of OneDrives, check out here: Cross-tenant user data migration for OneDrives.

To learn more about cross-tenant move of SharePoint sites, click here: Cross-tenant SharePoint site migration.

To sign-up for this preview, please sign up using this form. 

Figure. Migrating a SharePoint site across tenants and experiencing the redirect behavior for the site URL

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Comprehensive compliance

Information barriers (IB) 2.0 – General availability

Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IB) is a comprehensive compliance platform that allows regulated customers in finance (FSI), legal and consulting verticals to meet compliance requirements to ‘protect communication and collaboration across internal regulated users’.

Information Barriers v2 (IB v2) is now generally available for all new onboarding customers. IB v2 has enhanced architecture which enables the following new features:

1. Large scale segment support: The segment limit in organizations has increased to 5,000 (from 250). This new scale does not require any extra IB configurations.

2. Multi-segment support: Users can be assigned to up to 10 segments.

The new multi-segment organization mode enables administrators to assign users in your organization to up to 10 segments in IB, instead of being limited to just one segment. This allows support for more diverse communication rules between users and groups and supports more complex organizational and operational scenarios. For more information, see Use multi-segment support in information barriers.

Figure. Enable multiple segment support for organization

3. Flexible user discoverability: Organizations can now choose to allow IB-protected users to discover each other while adhering to IB communication and collaboration policies.

With IB v2, administrators can enable or disable user discoverability restrictions in IB. Once user discoverability restricted by IB is turned off, users can discover each other in the people picker, independent of their IB policies. By default, the people picker restriction is enabled for all IB policies. For more information, see Manage information barriers policies.

Figure. Disable user discoverability restriction with Information Barriers

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We know this is a comprehensive list of content management and security capabilities and you need time to digest and learn about!

To learn all the SharePoint and OneDrive announcements from Microsoft 365 Conference, check out Jeff Teper’s blog at:
https://aka.ms/M365/May2/ODSP

For private preview features, you can sign-up here: https://aka.ms/ODSPSecurityPreviews.

For more information about SharePoint Advanced Management and the SAM licensing information, check out the SAM product articles landing page at: https://aka.ms/LearnSAM.

Get started!

If you are new to Microsoft 365, learn how to try or buy a Microsoft 365 subscription.

If you are already a Microsoft 365 customer and have SharePoint licenses, then you can purchase the SAM add-on SKU from your M365 Admin Portal by simply searching for “SharePoint Advanced Management Plan 1” in the purchase services tab. You can also purchase through CSP or volume licensing enrollment.

To learn more about the above features in detail, check out the product capabilities documentations below:

• What is SAM (SharePoint/Syntex Advanced Management)
• SharePoint data access governance (DAG) insights
• Restricted access control (RAC) policy for SharePoint Sites
• Restricted access control (RAC) policy for OneDrives
• Conditional access policy for SharePoint sites and OneDrives
• Secure SharePoint Document Libraries
• Review recent SharePoint site actions – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
• Block download policy for SharePoint sites and OneDrive – SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
• Block the download of Teams meeting recording files from SharePoint or OneDrive.
• Overview of metered APIs and services in Microsoft Graph – Microsoft Graph | Microsoft Learn
• Assign sensitivity labels API for OneDrive and SharePoint.
• Cross-tenant OneDrive migration overview – Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn
• Cross-tenant SharePoint site migration overview (preview) – Microsoft 365 Enterprise | Microsoft Learn
• Information barriers – Microsoft Purview (compliance) | Microsoft Learn
• Use multi-segment support in information barriers – Microsoft Purview (compliance) | Microsoft Learn
• Manage information barriers policies – Microsoft Purview (compliance) | Microsoft Learn
• What’s new in SharePoint Admin Center
• SharePoint and OneDrive Security Cookbook
 
Thank you!

Sesha Mani
Partner Group Product Manager

Jolene Tam
Senior Product Marketing Manager