Let's Talk Education

The Microsoft Education commercial support team can help you find the right educational support, at a time that fits your schedule. Brian: Thank you, and I see you are a leader on our Microsoft 365 Education team. Brad: Three years ago, or so, I joined customer success engineering where I lead a team that looks at consumer, small business, and education audiences, like EDU IT admins, teachers and educators, students, and parents of students across the Microsoft 365 usage and support funnel. Brad: This program started a couple years ago, and it was derived in the same way that most of the best things are - from customer feedback! The voice of our customers and what we learned looking at in-product feedback and support feedback was that education IT admins specifically could really use support experiences from a team that not just understands Microsoft 365 - our support teams, do they understand Microsoft 365 very well - but really understood Microsoft 365 education nuances and the uniqueness of the education IT admin workflow. What we developed was this hypothesis, this idea, that a Microsoft 365 Education Generalist team, that is to say a team that understands the whole product suite, not just a couple of parts of it well, but the whole suite, and specialized on Education IT admin workflows within that product suite specifically, could deliver a world class support experience. They all have that base knowledge and on top of that, they have very deep understanding of the education nuances, such as, how Teams Commercial is different from Teams Education. Imagine a seasonally relevant experience where education IT admins receive a differentiated in-product and Microsoft 365 admin center experience to help guide them through all the best practices to ensure a successful school year. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3kWFqUu Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: January 2023

All features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Microsoft 365 as of January 2023. Build your intelligent intranet on SharePoint in Microsoft 365 and get the benefits of investing in business outcomes - reducing IT and development costs, increasing business speed and agility, and up-leveling the dynamic, personalized, and welcoming nature of your intranet. Microsoft Feed provides users with a mix of relevant content from across Microsoft 365 that helps users discover and learn about people and interests relevant at work. Teamwork updates across SharePoint team sites, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams. SharePoint is the intelligent content service that powers teamwork - to better collaborate on proposals, projects, and campaigns throughout your organization - with integration across Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream, Planner and much more. Microsoft delivers two integrated solutions to address our customers' broad insight engines' needs, Microsoft Search available to customers of Microsoft 365 and Azure Cognitive Search available as a platform as-a-service with Microsoft Azure. Whether you're already a customer of Microsoft 365 or you're a professional developer or data scientist, we hope that you can use Microsoft Search and Azure Cognitive Search services to build impactful AI-powered search solutions that solve complex problems and enhance customer experience. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3YaxRb3 Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Creating connections: How Microsoft BookwithMe can help your business grow

I want to take a moment to share an amazing Microsoft product from Microsoft Bookings, BookwithMe, that will increase your productivity and customer satisfaction, making it the perfect solution to improve customer connections. In today's fast-paced business world, connecting with customers is more important than ever. That's why BookwithMe, the appointment scheduling software, is a game changer for businesses looking to establish and maintain strong connections with their customers. BookwithMe finds the best times for meetings based on the availability of all participants, saving both you and your customer valuable time. BookwithMe can be accessed by any device, making it easy for customers to schedule a meeting wherever they are. In a nutshell, BookwithMe helps businesses save time, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately, grow their business. BookwithMe is the ultimate tool for creating connections and building strong relationships with your customers. Read more at https://bit.ly/3j3Tfjs Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Set aside time for 1:1 with Microsoft Bookings in Outlook!

Microsoft Bookings in Outlook is coming to help you reduce the back and forth in scheduling, while helping you maintain control of your calendar. You'll be able to set custom bookable time to share with others so they can easily find a time to schedule a 1:1 meeting with you according to your availability and preferences. . We recently came across many customers whose employees are using Microsoft Bookings to reserve time for 1:1 with their team members. To help their employees book 1:1 time, they configured Microsoft Bookings in Outlook for the task. An image demonstrating how to book a 1:1 meeting via Bookings in Outlook on the web. An image demonstrating how to share your bookable time once the event has been created in Bookings in Outlook on the web. Now, team members can come to the Bookings page and book time for a 1:1 meeting without any back-and-forth conversation. Read more at https://bit.ly/3Hplxy1 Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft 365 admin digest

Back in September at Ignite, we highlighted various features launched in the Microsoft 365 admin center, specifically aimed at benefiting admins. We reintroduced Adoption Score as a set of anonymized metrics for IT admins and adoption specialists to better understand your organization's Microsoft 365 usage patterns. Learn more about the Microsoft 365 Admin mobile app here. For SMB customers, we've also added a new embedded Microsoft 365 Admin app in Microsoft Teams (available in the Microsoft Teams app store), which provides a simplified view that gives admins the capabilities they might often need in one place, such as onboarding new users, managing Teams settings and privacy, and opening support cases. An image demonstrating a setup task that completed in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Our areas of investment will continue to focus on delivering rich and useful experiences for IT admins across their range of responsibilities within the Microsoft 365 admin center and keeping up with the evolving needs of the role. Consider subscribing to updates on specific items in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap and look out for communications published to the Message Center in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Read more at https://bit.ly/3XOoAVN Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Create multiple staff appointments with Microsoft Bookings

As one of the most requested features for Microsoft Bookings, we are pleased to share that you can now create a multiple staff appointment! Previously, Bookings only supported the creation of a single staff service where an appointment is scheduled with a single staff member. With the new multiple staff appointments feature, you can create service with more than one staff member in a single appointment. Your end customers will now be able to create appointments using the multiple staff service and meet all staff members together. Multiple staff: When selected, the booking will be scheduled with all the assigned staff members of the service. An image demonstrating two service type options available for staff: Single staff and Multiple staff. It's also important to note that in the case of Multiple staff service, your end customers will be able to book an appointment only when all the staff members of the service are available to attend. This feature is called a N:N service - a service between multiple staff and multiple attendees. Read more at https://bit.ly/3Wp4Uqk Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Office Insider is now Microsoft 365 Insider!

The Office Insider program is now the Microsoft 365 Insider program, in alignment with the transition from Office to Microsoft 365. We will continue to expand our blog to include features, apps, and services under the Microsoft 365 umbrella. An image demonstrating the new homepage of the Microsoft 365 Insider website. Apps in Current Channel and Beta Channel will continue to receive Insider updates automatically. Unless otherwise noted, Insider updates are delivered through Beta Channel and Current Channel. Check out our Microsoft 365 Insider Handbook to find out everything you need to know about being a Microsoft 365 Insider. Continue the conversation in the new Microsoft 365 Insider discussion space! Share best practices, discuss latest trends and stay updated on news and announcements for the Microsoft 365 Insider program. Read more at https://bit.ly/3HbXdzF Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Bookable time coming soon to Outlook

Microsoft Bookings in Outlook is coming to help you reduce the back and forth in scheduling, while helping you maintain control of your calendar. You'll be able to keep custom bookable time to share with others so they can easily find a time to schedule a 1:1 meeting with you according to your availability and preferences. When someone books a time slot with you using your personal booking page, you will both receive an email confirmation. All users with the following subscriptions will have access to Bookable time in Outlook by default:  . From Outlook on the web, click on the calendar tab on the left navigation menu, click the New Event button, and select Bookable time. An image demonstrating where to find the Bookable time feature in Outlook on the web. An image demonstrating how to change your meeting availability from Bookable time in Outlook on the web. Read more at https://bit.ly/3XkXeGw Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

New solutions to deploy, integrate and extend solutions at scale for your frontline workforce

Today, IT admins often need to complete many discrete setup steps and navigate multiple platforms to roll out, integrate and automate solutions for their frontline workforce. With group mailboxes, IT admins can give each frontline department across locations a unified voice, allowing frontline teams to contact each other with ease. Learn more about how to get started with deploying Outlook at scale, which will be in public preview starting in February, to help IT admins create a Teams structure that maps the frontline workforces' real-world into digital world and centrally manage their frontline locations. This new home experience enables frontline workers a quick way to access these key workflows and resources in the flow of work with a centralized location to find key information. The completion of tasks is a fundamental element of operations on the frontline and providing a single source of truth for the work to be completed lets workers complete those tasks more efficiently and focus on additional value-add activities. First, we're adding Business Scenario capabilities, designed for integrations where tasks for a frontline team should be created or updated based on external sources and signals. With Microsoft 365 and Teams, IT admins have a simplified experience to create the right environment and solution for frontline workers to communicate, collaborate and get work done. Read more at https://bit.ly/3GyyKCY Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Easily deploy and use Microsoft 365 Apps on shared devices for your frontline workforce

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. On Android, both Microsoft Teams and Managed Home Screen have general availability support for shared device mode, and last month we shared that Microsoft Edge and Yammer now have public preview support. As part of the National Retail Federation this week, we're excited to share additional support of shared device mode so that organizations can leverage Microsoft 365 apps for more scenarios on shared devices. Microsoft Outlook and Power Apps are now joining Microsoft Teams, Managed Home Screen, Microsoft Edge, and Yammer with their public preview support of shared device mode on Android. Together, these six apps represent the most requested Microsoft 365 apps for shared devices because of the key scenarios they can unlock for frontline workers. We've also heard demand for more support for iOS, so in February, we'll be releasing public preview support of shared device mode for Microsoft Teams on iOS devices and the ability to deploy shared device mode on iOS devices via Microsoft Intune. In addition to shared device mode support on Microsoft Intune, organizations using VMware Workspace ONE and SOTI as their third-party unified endpoint management solution for Android will soon be able to enroll devices in Azure Active Directory with shared device mode. Read more at https://bit.ly/3ICSKHe Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Fast Fridays with Jeff Teper The Intrazone podcast

Fast Fridays are about capturing thoughts, putting them together, and then getting them out there - and that it's OK to be scrappy, consistent, and engaged vs. over-polished and less available. For Jeff, it's all about transparency, communication, and leadership - week to week to week. You'll learn a bit about his approach to leadership, why he creates and publishes his Fast Fridays in the first place, and the importance of Microsoft Teams and other tools for communications all up. Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, we'd love for you to Subscribe, Rate and Review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to visit our show page to hear all episodes, access the show notes, and get bonus content. Stay connected to the SharePoint community blog where we'll share more information per episode, guest insights, and take any questions or suggestions from our listeners and SharePoint users. The Intrazone, a show about the Microsoft 365 intelligent intranet. Read more at https://bit.ly/3vOO9dA Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Exporting policy configurations from the Cloud Policy service

Simply select the policy configuration, click Export, and your browser will prompt you to Open or Save the CSV file. When you open the CSV, you will notice there are two sections. The second section includes detailed information about each policy that is configured along with the individual policy settings and their values. Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 Tech Community! Whether you have product questions or just want to stay informed with the latest updates on new releases, tools, and blogs, Microsoft 365 Tech Community is your go-to resource to stay connected! Read more at https://bit.ly/3VRtIar Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Helping IT admins save time and effort managing Microsoft Viva

Today, we're excited to share more about some of our supportability work with Microsoft Viva. You may have seen this recent article on how Microsoft Viva helps businesses save time and money by improving employee experience and engagement to boost business outcomes. Whether it's locating information, accelerating new hire onboarding, or creating common views of objectives and key results, the employee experience platform delivered by Microsoft Viva helps organizations and the people in them grow and flourish. As the solutions and benefits delivered by Microsoft Viva have continued to expand, our Microsoft 365 Commercial Support team has been learning and gaining new insights on the support experience across the suite. You can also use the Viva employee experience dashboard for step-by-step instructions needed to deploy Microsoft Viva modules for your organization. We look forward to sharing more about our Microsoft Viva supportability progress and plans in future updates! Vikram Kartik Jindal is a Supportability Program Manager on the CSS Modern Work Supportability team focused on Office client and Microsoft Viva. Read more at https://bit.ly/3X9AqK1 Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog