Office 365 Weekly Digest | 2020-01

Weekly Digest  0 Comments

Happy New Year, and welcome to the December 29, 2019 – January 4, 2020 edition of the Office 365 Weekly Digest.

Right before the holidays, four features were added to the Office 365 Roadmap, including updates for Outlook on iOS and the Office 365 Admin Center.

The new year is kicking off with several events, including lots of Teams-focused sessions. The spotlight event of the week is the “Protecting Identity, Apps, Data and Devices” customer immersion experience session on Thursday, January 9th at 9am and 12pm Pacific.

Blog posts in last week’s roundup include the December 2019 update on the SharePoint roadmap, the latest updates for To Do on iOS, and bringing clarity to “Zero Trust”.

Noteworthy item highlights include a video on the future of applications in Teams, details on the latest updates to the SharePoint admin center, and information for Azure Active Directory on-demand training webinars.

OFFICE 365 ROADMAP

Below are the items added to the Office 365 Roadmap last week…

DescriptionFeature IDEstimated ReleaseDetails
Outlook for iOS: Rich text options54805February CY2020Added: 24 December 2019
Status: In development
App / Service: Outlook – iOS
Access text formatting options when creating or replying to an email on your iPhone and iPad such as fonts, font sizes, bold/italics/underline, links and bullet lists.
Office What’s New Management is generally available60010February CY2020Added: 24 December 2019
Status: In development
App / Service: Office 365 Admin
Each release of Office includes new and improved features. The What’s New content in the Office desktop apps highlights an editorially curated list of new features being released for that application, with a short description, and often a picture or a video to help customers learn how to use the feature.? This content is created by the team that is releasing the feature. Historically, Microsoft has chosen which set of features are promoted to end users in the What’s New section of Help. The Office What’s New management feature in the Microsoft 365 admin center puts you in control by allowing your organization to decide which features are shown to or hidden from end users in the Office desktop app. It gives you visibility into new content for each release version and channel, along with the capability to hide or show each feature’s What’s New content.
Office What’s New Management Preview supports Office Apps admin role and Semi-Annual Channel60009January CY2020Added: 24 December 2019
Status: In development
App / Service: Office 365 Admin
The Office What’s New management Preview now supports the Office Apps admin role, extending the feature to this new role best suited for admins managing the Office end users’ experience. It enables admins to manage the What’s New content in the Microsoft 365 admin center without having to have Global admin permissions. In addition, starting on 1/1, admins will be able to see the Semi-Annual release What’s New content and proactively manage it in the Office What’s New management Preview. It will appear under version 1908, along the Monthly and Semi-Annual (Targeted) content.
Outlook for iOS: Support for .ics and .ical attachments57014January CY2020Added: 24 December 2019
Status: Rolling out
App / Service: Outlook – iOS
New events can be created by opening and saving .ical or .ics file formatted email attachments.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Learn Tips for Taking Teams to the Next Level: Part 1 – Effective Workspaces

Designed for those who are already familiar with Microsoft Teams, our Tips & Tricks sessions offer insights and best practices. Learn how Teams can help organize your workday and make it easier to stay connected with colleagues. In Part 1 – Effective Workspaces, you will explore ways to determine the best approach for creating workspaces for projects and workgroups. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Decide if your team is best served by a team and channels or a group chat and meetings, (2) Create a workspace for your team to provide the best collaboration experience, (3) Use a personal team to simplify your productivity, and (4) Determine best practices for Teams. Access the consolidated on-demand version of Tips and Tricks here: https://aka.ms/teamstipsandtricksondemand.

Microsoft Teams: Identify your upgrade approach

Determine the most suitable approach based on your current Skype for Business implementation and upgrade goals. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Understand common scenarios and upgrade approaches, (2) Visualize the user experience for each approach, and (3) Determine the optimal upgrade approach for your organization.  IT Admins are the primary audience for this session.

Microsoft Teams: Plan your upgrade (Start here!)

Discover everything you need to facilitate a successful upgrade to Teams. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Understand why a formal plan is crucial for upgrade success, (2) Identify the steps to the upgrade success framework, (3) Recognize common attributes of successful customers, and (4) Create and implement their own upgrade plan. The audience for this session is All (Business Sponsors, IT Admins, User Readiness/Change Manager, Project Lead).

Learn Tips for Taking Teams to the Next Level: Part 2 – Get More from Teams

Designed for those who are already familiar with Microsoft Teams, our Tips & Tricks sessions offer insights and best practices. Learn how Teams can help organize your workday and make it easier to stay connected with colleagues. In Part 2 – Get More from Teams, you will learn tips and tricks for managing and organizing work and communications in Teams. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Implement strategies to manage and organize your work, (2) Leverage formatting best practices to help get your messages noticed (and responded to), (3) Easily find files, chats and projects, and (4) Simplify your workday. Access the consolidated on-demand version of Tips and Tricks here: https://aka.ms/teamstipsandtricksondemand.

Microsoft Teams: Implement your upgrade approach

Execute your defined upgrade approach as part of your formal upgrade plan. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Recognize the upgrade settings in your O365 tenant admin portal, (2) Understand technical tips and considerations for a successful upgrade, and (3) Apply the appropriate settings in the Portal to execute your upgrade. The primary audience for this session is IT Admins.

Make the switch from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams: End User Guidance

Designed specifically for Skype for Business end users, this course offers everything you need to help make the transition to Microsoft Teams. We’ll focus on the core communication capabilities you use today, chat and meetings, as well as provide an orientation to additional collaboration functionality Teams has to offer. The session is also available on demand at https://aka.ms/fromskypetoteamsondemand.

Microsoft Teams: Seamless Collaboration with Microsoft 365

Are you still sending an e-mail with an attachment to your teammates when you want to collaborate on a file? How fast do they respond? How do you know if they are working on the file? How do you manage version control? With Microsoft 365 tools for teamwork, you can seamlessly collaborate on files with your team members. Using Microsoft Teams, you can invite your teammates into an environment where they can effectively collaborate and engage in a persistent conversation. Join us for this session and explore how to avoid productivity sinkholes and increase productivity. This interactive 2-hour session will give you the opportunity to test drive Microsoft Teams in a live cloud environment. A trained facilitator will guide you as you apply these tools to your own business scenarios and experience how they can work for you. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

Getting Started with Microsoft Teams

This 60-minute session introduces you to the key activities needed to get started with Microsoft Teams today. From setting your profile, to running a meeting, users will leave this session with the foundation needed to use Teams with confidence. The session is also available on demand at https://aka.ms/teamsgettingstartedondemand.

Run Effective Meetings with Microsoft Teams

Have you spent significant time and resources to prepare for a meeting and still felt it wasn’t productive? Have you attended a meeting only to leave feeling like not much was accomplished? Join this class to learn how to make your meetings engaging, productive and effective. Microsoft Teams can help make your meetings worth showing up for. After this session, you will be able to: (1) Use Teams for your entire meeting experience, (2) Record your meeting, making it easy for those who couldn’t attend to get caught up, (3) Keep important meetings at your fingertips by pinning them for easy access, and (4) Assess which audio and video devices are best for your meeting needs. You can access the recorded version of this session on-demand at Run Effective Meetings with Microsoft Teams – On Demand.

Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Identity, Apps, Data and Devices

Identity is at the center of security: don’t compromise when it comes to your company’s valuable information. Join us to explore how to use secure authentication, govern access, get comprehensive protection and set the right identity foundation. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Enable password protection, (2) Bring multi-factor authentication to your Windows 10 users, (3) Protect your users and data through Office 365 multi-factor authentication, and (4) Use conditional access to protect across devices, locations and apps. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

Microsoft Teams: Ready your end users

Design a user readiness strategy to help your users love and adopt Teams. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: (1) Recognize factors that influence user acceptance and adoption, (2) Define core value messaging for Teams in your organization, and (3) Outline your awareness, training and support activities. The audience for this session is: User Readiness/Change Manager.

Microsoft Teams: Enabling Real-time Collaboration for Cross-functional Teams

How do you bring various stakeholders together across multiple teams to achieve your goal? Do you wish you could reduce the number of meetings or e-mails while still being able to solicit feedback, keep everyone informed, and get consensus? Join us to explore how to bring everything together in a shared workspace with Microsoft Teams. Learn how to chat, meet, share files, and work with other business applications to effectively engage others. This interactive 2-hour session will give you the opportunity to try it for yourself and test drive Microsoft Teams in a live cloud environment. A trained facilitator will guide you as you apply these tools to your own business scenarios and experience how they can work for you. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

Microsoft IT Showcase: IT expert roundtable – Modernizing our SharePoint experiences

When: Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 10:00am PT | In this webinar, experts from both the product group, and the IT side of Microsoft will share candid insights and best practices around modernizing employee experiences including Enterprise Search, Microsoft’s home site (MSW), and the latest on how we manage our authoritative portals. Our experts will also take your questions about our strategy for delivering targeted communications and enabling employees to find the content they need.

Customer Immersion Experience: Simplifying Your Privacy and Compliance Journey

Your business needs to control how sensitive data is managed. Join us and explore how to assess your compliance risk, protect sensitive and business critical data, and respond efficiently to data discovery requests. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Simplify assessment of compliance risk, (2) Integrate protection and governance of data, and (3) Intelligently respond to data discovery requests. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Your Sensitive Information

Data needs to be protected wherever it’s stored and whenever it travels, and you need the tools to monitor policy violations and risky behavior. Join us to explore how to implement a comprehensive and integrated approach across devices, apps, cloud services, and on-premises. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Identify, monitor and automatically protect sensitive information across Office 365, (2) Help classify and protect documents and email, and (3) Use policies to enable BYOD scenarios by protecting data at the app level. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

Customer Immersion Experience: Protecting Assets and Empowering Your Defenders

Today’s workforce can work from anywhere, on any device, and on any app. Security teams need to understand threat signals from disconnected products and optimize security with minimal complexity. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Safeguard users from malware attacks such as phishing and spoofing with Office 365, (2) Use the Windows Defender ecosystem to proactively monitor and protect your users, (3) Utilize Office 365 ATP to help protect users from bad links and attachments, and (4) Let machine learning and automation protect users from threats. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

Microsoft IT Showcase: IT expert roundtable – Transforming how employees collaborate on files

When: Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at 10:00am PT | For today’s mobile workforce, providing users with access to the content they need at any time, from any place, and on any device is important. During this webinar, experts from the Microsoft Core Services Engineering and Operations (CSEO) team answers audience questions about our strategy for file management across mobile web, sync and sharing using OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.

BLOG ROUNDUP

SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: December 2019

This post includes all the SharePoint and related tech updates that rolled out in December 2019. This is the all-inclusive roadmap release recap for all things SharePoint and related technology. Highlighted features include Audience Targeting in SharePoint organizational news in Microsoft 365, File Upload for Microsoft Forms, lots of updates to the SharePoint admin center, and new modern list features such as rich text formatting. All the features listed began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Office 365 as of December 2019 (possibly early January 2020).

Discover all our latest features on iOS – Siri shortcuts, share extension and more

The Apple team for Microsoft To Do have been hard at work in the past few months, bringing out lots of great new features including: (1) Siri shortcuts, which are designed to take the normal actions you use in various apps and allow you to add them to Siri, (2) Add a task via Siri, (3) Open a List via Siri, (4) Share links to your lists, and more.

Zero Hype: Bringing clarity to Zero Trust

Zero Trust, conceptually, asserts that traditional security models based on “the walled garden” are outdated, and that security models should assume that all requests should be treated as though they originate from an uncontrolled (external or compromised) network. Whether you think of this as “assuming breach” and operating as though the enemy is inside your perimeter or you think of this as operating in a perimeter-less environment, it’s all about operating as though you are in a pervasive threat environment. This is a simple concept, we don’t need to complicate it or dress it up because it has powerful implications. Let’s dig in a bit.

NOTEWORTHY

Video: The Future of Applications in Teams

Format: Video (12 minutes) | In this video, Prem Mathiyalagan, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft Teams, discusses how he and his team are improving how users can leverage apps in Teams. From a better app store layout to easy access to search, Prem also gives us a sneak peek on what’s next.

What’s new in the SharePoint admin center

Updated: 27 December 2019 | We’re continuously adding new features to the new SharePoint admin center and fixing issues we learn about. Here’s a summary of some of the updates for December 2019: (1) The navigation pane can be customized to show or hide items, (2) On the Active sites page, you can select and replace the root site, (3) On the Active sites page, a new experience lets you manage all site admins in one panel, view site members and visitors, and add site admins to sites that belong to Office 365 groups, (4) The Settings page has been redesigned to let you see the value for each setting without selecting each one for more info, and (5) Classic features can now be found under “More features”.

Azure Active Directory Customer Training Webinars

These Azure Active Directory training webinars have been previously delivered in live sessions, but the on-demand recordings are also available. Available sessions include “The Basics of Governing your Azure AD and Office 365 Deployment”, “Choosing the Right Authentication Method for Azure AD”, “Secure Your Identities with Multi-Factor Authentication”, “Streamlining Password Management Using Azure AD”, and more. The page also includes a link to the Azure AD Deployment Wizard, which helps you understand the key features of Azure AD via a user-friendly interface. The tool also provides step-by-step deployment guidance for the features you are interested in deploying in your environment.

TC Finney

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