Microsoft 365 Admin Monthly Digest

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, get ready for the next AMA on Microsoft 365 Copilot, learn about Bing Chat Enterprise, and the latest enhancements to the Microsoft 365 admin center. We'll be hosting the next AMA focused on Microsoft 365 Copilot and Bing Chat Enterprise on August 10 in the Microsoft 365 Copilot Tech Community. Particularly for Microsoft 365 admins, Microsoft 365 Backup was introduced to help you back up and quickly restore your organization's data to a prior point-in-time after a catastrophic event or unforeseen data loss. You can access the service through the Microsoft 365 admin center, Org settings > Microsoft Edge to configure Microsoft Edge browser settings for your organization and apply these settings by group assignment or group policy. In continued efforts to make it easier for IT departments to manage change with greater predictability, Microsoft recently made feature release status in the message center for Teams, and Outlook on the web, and Microsoft 365 admin center available worldwide to customers. As always, stay current with the latest updates Microsoft 365 admin center from the Microsoft 365 roadmap and the message center. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3OLLJH3 Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Introducing Teams Essentials and Teams Phone together, now available at a special price.

To help SMBs improve their collaboration, Microsoft is now making it easy to buy and adopt Microsoft Teams Essentials and Microsoft Teams Phone at the same time with a special promotional bundle and a choice of calling plans. Teams Essentials is a stand-alone, cloud-based Teams app, for SMBs who do not have an active Microsoft 365 Business subscription-facilitating online meetings, chat, and collaborative file sharing all in one app-available on desktop or mobile. Teams Phone is a cloud-based phone system built specifically to compliment Teams. Learn more about Teams Phone and newly available features. For new customers, we are introducing special promotional offer that includes both Teams Essentials plus Teams Phone with a choice of calling plans. For businesses that already have Teams Essentials or Microsoft 365 and are actively using Teams today, you can add Teams Phone with a choice of calling plans. The discount offer is available to new and existing customers who license a 12-month Microsoft Teams Essentials and Microsoft Teams Phone bundle through Direct and CSP direct channels between July 17, 2023, and January 17, 2024. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/43EiOss Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog

Fighting crime in real time Microsoft The Intrazone podcast

In this episode, we dig into two real-time, data-driven public service scenarios - both about systems and people that support policing at-scale. You'll hear solution-oriented clips pulled from two episodes of the 'Public Sector Future' podcast, with show host Olivia Neal - Director of Public Sector Center of Expertise at Microsoft. Then a conversation with Joseph Courtesis, former Inspector of the NYPD who helped rationalize millions of data points from multiple data sources to save police time, in real time. Watch your head as we head down to the precincts and learn how tech and people are working on solutions to help fight crime. 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/43MLZJL Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

View and edit shape data in Visio for the web

Today, we're excited to announce that users with a Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2 license will now be able to view and also edit shape data in the Visio Editor. Here, they can easily view and also edit the existing shape data, which is accessible in the Shape Data pane by right-clicking on a shape in the diagram. To view shape data for an object in a diagram via the Visio Editor, right-click the shape and then select Shape Data from the drop-down menu. How to edit and add shape data in Visio for the web. An image of the Shape Data pane demonstrating how to select and edit existing shape data. An image of the Shape Data pane demonstrating how to add shape data. Check out what features are in development or coming soon on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, or view roadmap item View and edit shape data in Visio for the web. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3rLAZ2g Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

June 2023 content updates for Microsoft 365 learning pathways

We are happy to announce new content updates to Microsoft 365 learning pathways, our free and customizable, on-demand training solution. The June 2023 update included new playlists for Microsoft Loop and Microsoft Viva Goals, under the Microsoft 365 training section. Since 2019, M365LP has been helping drive healthy usage and adoption of Microsoft 365 apps and services, providing customers with content streamed from Microsoft for key services such as Microsoft Teams, Office apps, Planner and more. Microsoft 365 learning pathways, your customizable, on-demand training solution. Our upcoming releases will include Viva Engage and Yammer in August, and Viva Insights and Viva Topics in September. Use this new content and our upcoming releases as an opportunity to update your app and re-engage your users. On-demand, micro training is a great way to help people learn in the flow of work. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3OqGZ9w Source: Microsoft Tech Community Driving Adoption Blog

Introducing a new SharePoint Web UI kit!

Today we are excited to launch our first modern UI toolkit to help our customers to confidently design their SharePoint sites and pages. We've used Figma, the industry standard tool for web design, to deliver a set of web parts, styles, and templates that make creating engaging sites much easier than was previously possible. The first iteration of the SharePoint Web UI kit will allow you to design a company and organization news communications site based on the example provided in the SharePoint look book. Add and configure web parts with ease the Figma components for each web part include sizes for each section type. Edit the web parts and add your content to finalize your design. This tool kit includes detailed guidance on how to update and modify the content for each part of the site including the header and footer, sections, and web parts. We will be publishing regular updates to the toolkit, and plan to add more templates and capabilities, including Team sites, more web parts, and multiple form factors including mobile. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3XWHGdE Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Bing Chat Enterprise FAQ

At Microsoft Inspire, we announced Bing Chat Enterprise, AI-powered chat for work that lets organizations confidently take their first steps generative AI. Bing Chat Enterprise, available in Preview, gives your organization AI-powered chat for work with commercial data protection. Once they do so, they'll see that Bing Chat Enterprise has a unique design that distinguishes it from the consumer version of Bing Chat. Bing Chat Enterprise offers the generative AI capabilities of Bing Chat with commercial data protection. Bing Chat Enterprise with commercial data protection means user and business data is protected and will not leak outside the organization, chat data is not saved, Microsoft has no eye-on access to it, and chat data is not used to train our underlying models. Just like Bing Chat, Bing Chat Enterprise answers complex questions by distilling information from multiple web sources into a single response. Initially, chat history, plugin support, Bing Image Creator and Visual Search in Chat are not supported in Bing Chat Enterprise. Users can provide feedback on specific chat responses as well directly from the Bing Chat Enterprise interface by giving a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' and providing more specific comments. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3K5iig9 Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

SMB security New innovations from Microsoft Inspire 2023

Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Microsoft Defender for Business bring enterprise-grade security to SMB customers and partners in tailored solutions that are affordable and easy to use. New security product innovations to help you stay secure. Mobile Threat Defense protects your business from threats on mobile devices, Automatic Attack Disruption defends against sophisticated attacks, and Security Summary Reports provide visibility into security health. Security partners are in an especially important position when it comes to helping customers understand the value of the security solutions they offer. These reports allow partners to easily demonstrate the value of their security investments by highlighting the threats prevented by Defender for Business, the status from Microsoft Secure Score, and recommendations for improving security. Whether you are an established security solutions provider building your own Security Operations Center or want to resell security services, our suite of tools and integrations provides the perfect starting point. Microsoft 365 Lighthouse Innovations - security baselines and configuration drift reports. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3DgPRbg Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog

Start creating diagrams faster with the new Visio Templates page on Micro

An image of the new Visio Templates page demonstrating how to create a new diagram from a blank template or explore more sample diagrams by hovering over a template card. With the new Visio Templates page, users can now browse through a variety of templates and sample diagrams organized by categories that make it easier to find the right diagram for their needs. The Flowchart category is where you'll find templates and sample diagrams for creating basic flowcharts, cross-functional flowcharts, process diagrams, Specification and Description Language diagrams, and newly introduced audit diagrams and event-driven process chain diagrams. An image of the new Visio Templates page showing the available sample diagrams under the Flowchart category. An image of the new Visio Templates page showing the available sample diagrams under the Organization Chart category. An image of the new Visio Templates page showing the available sample diagrams under the Network and Cloud Architecture category. An image of the new Visio Templates page showing the available sample diagrams under the Software and Database category. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3NOD3Og Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

unlock your customer's potential in Microsoft 365 Lighthouse

The addition of Sales Advisor to Microsoft 365 Lighthouse is the result of Microsoft's commitment to helping our partners move beyond traditional customer acquisition and renewal approaches, with a goal of giving you a 360° view of your customers' state and health. Believing that customer success is an organization-wide effort, we're equipping partners with a game-changing capability that allows you to think broader, drive growth, and rethink customer success strategies. Not only does Microsoft 365 Lighthouse provide remote monitoring and management capabilities to effectively manage your customers at scale, its new AI-powered sales opportunities and customer insights through Sales Advisor. AI-driven Insights: In addition to opportunity discovery, you now have the context behind the data, showing you why a certain recommendation is right for a specific customer. Designed with our partners in mind, Microsoft 365 Lighthouse Sales Advisor brings you groundbreaking tools to standardize, manage risk, identify sales opportunities, and engage with customers at scale. Put the power of AI-driven customer insights to work for you today. If you already have Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, let your sales, account management, and customer success leaders know about the general availability of Sales Advisor. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/46PU7fr Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog

Expanded Tenant Management Capabilities

We are expanding our tenant management capabilities in Microsoft 365 Lighthouse to help managed service providers secure and manage more of their small and medium-sized business customers. Lighthouse now offers a limited set of management experiences across SMB customers with no customer licensing requirement. Now, partners can take advantage of several management and security scenarios across all their customers, including those who do not meet the requirements for full Lighthouse management. Granular Delegated Admin Privileges setup and management - Through an experience designed specifically for MSPs, Lighthouse simplifies the process of setting up granular delegated access. User search and user detail pane - Lighthouse users can now dynamically search users across customer tenants and perform user management functions directly from Lighthouse. An image of account management to search users and user detail pane within Microsoft 365 Lighthouse. If you already have Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, sign-in and check out the expanded tenant management features at lighthouse. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3JRDZQT Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog

Oversharing Pop-up in Outlook- Customize experience via GPO settings

Admins can create and configure Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies and Outlook for Microsoft 365 to show pop-up messages that can warn users that the email that they are attempting to send contains sensitive information before the email is sent. Admins can ask them users to provide justification why they are sending an email, or prevent them from sending an email. Below is a sample of how the oversharing configuration can be used to capture the justification from the user before allowing them to send the message. If you're using Group Policy, make sure you've downloaded the most recent version of Group Policy Administrative Template files for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise and navigate to this setting from User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Microsoft Office 2016/Security Settings. Check before send and do not allow sending until policy evaluation is completed: Message is checked when the user hits send, but the message will not be sent until all policies are evaluated. Enabled - The message is checked when the user hits send. The administrator needs to configure the time interval after which the user is allowed to send the mail even when evaluation is not completed. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3pCzUZI Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

365 EduCon & PWR EduCon coming to Seattle, WA

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. 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. 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. 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. 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! -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3D3UOnU Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop June 2023

June 2022 brought us: New Stream web part, Playlist view in the SharePoint List web part, Viva Connections supports different audiences, OneDrive Home update, Loop Components sync with Planner and To Do, get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and more. All features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Microsoft 365 as of June 2023. The updated Stream web part is in use on a SharePoint page in Microsoft 365 - showing both the web part with videos and its associated edit pane. 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. I just used it to add a task for myself to add Microsoft To Do + Apple Watch for The Intrazone roadmap pitstop: June 2023 - how convenient and meta. Microsoft 365 public roadmap + pre-filtered URL for SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer and Stream roadmap items. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3reOHKO Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Improvements to the Tenants Page in Microsoft 365 Lighthouse

These changes improve the usability of the Tenants page and help partners understand their customers' current management status in Lighthouse. Now, Lighthouse partners can use the Tenants page to see a detailed view across their SMB customers, including the status of Lighthouse management, delegated access, and deployment plans. We've also updated the column options so that Lighthouse users can now customize their tenant view and search based on tenant domain name or tenant ID. An image of the Microsoft 365 Lighthouse tenant page showing Choose columns options: Tenants, Tenant Domain, Tenant ID, Lighthouse Management, Delegated access, Baseline, Deployment status, and Tags. The Tenants page now provides recommendations on how to access the full power of Lighthouse for every customer tenant. Since customer tenants must meet a set of onboarding requirements to take advantage of the suite of Microsoft 365 Lighthouse monitoring and management capabilities, we've added a recommendation flyout to provide insights for each customer tenant. An image of the Microsoft 365 Lighthouse tenant page and the customer requirements flyout which highlights the Lighthouse management status and Requirements for the example Tailwind Trader tenant. If you already have Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, sign-in and check out the latest tenant management improvements on the Tenants page at lighthouse. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3NY6zlY Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog