Empowering Small Businesses to Understand AI

In recognition of National Small Business Week, we have curated a list of those resources that may be helpful for small business professionals who want to get started with AI. Establish an AI foundation. Start your AI journey by visiting the Microsoft WorkLab and examining a rich collection of content that addresses the real-world scenarios of how AI is impacting work today. New articles are regularly added that will help you understand not just AI's high-level capabilities, but also the nuances of AI and how to directly apply AI to your day-to-day work. This study provides insights into how employees feel about AI and how long it takes most employees to build effective AI habits. In-depth guides that detail how AI can help the different parts of your business, such as How Sellers Can Use AI to Better Engage with Customers and How Marketers Can Use AI to Unlock Breakthrough Creativity. If you're an IT professional, look at the learning journey for IT Professionals, which provides a thorough grounding on the particulars of AI adoption, deployment, and small business concerns, like data classification and regulatory considerations. You can come here anytime to ask questions, get help, keep up with the latest AI news specific to small and medium-sized businesses and find out about upcoming online or local events. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3UiEnfu Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog

OneDrive Adds New Offline Capabilities

Continuing with our ambition to give you simple and fast access to your files, we're now launching offline mode, which brings both significant speed improvements and offline capabilities when using OneDrive in your favorite browser. One of the primary benefits of this local cache is that it significantly improves load-times for OneDrive in your browser and speeds up viewing and interacting with your OneDrive files in your browser or OneDrive app in Microsoft Teams and Outlook. Once you've set up offline mode, if your internet connection drops or if you decide to access your OneDrive without internet whether you are on plane, in the park, or somewhere else, you will find that you can still access OneDrive and browse, organize, move, copy, and rename your files. With offline mode in OneDrive you can rename, copy, or move files without an internet connection and those changes will sync to OneDrive once you reconnect to the internet. The OneDrive feature Files On-Demand helps you access all the files in your OneDrive through Windows File Explorer or Finder on Mac without having to download them and use storage space on your computer. When offline mode is enabled, you can make files available for offline access from OneDrive for web. Offline mode enables new file states and icons in OneDrive. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3JCvhVQ Source: Microsoft Tech Community OneDrive Blog

Multi-tenant organization capabilities now available in Microsoft 365

Today we're thrilled to announce a robust set of multi-tenant organization capabilities within Microsoft 365, now generally available to enhance your organization's collaboration, communication, and administration across multiple tenants. These capabilities span Microsoft 365 People Search, Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage and Microsoft Defender XDR, which can be enabled via the Microsoft 365 admin center or Microsoft Entra admin center. This segmentation can cause frustration when users need to communicate and collaborate across tenant boundaries, whilst IT admins need to perform the same set of administrative tasks per tenant to maintain their organization. An image showing a synchronized user profile from another tenant in Microsoft 365. Enable Microsoft 365 multi-tenant capabilities with Microsoft Entra ID. Multi-tenant organization platform capabilities are now rolling out to standard production tenants in Microsoft 365. To deliver the above capabilities, administrators can enable multi-tenant capabilities in the Microsoft 365 admin center and configure which users in the organization can take advantage of multi-tenant capabilities using either Microsoft 365 admin center or Microsoft Entra admin center. For a simplified experience, stay in the Microsoft 365 admin center to sync users into multiple tenants in your multi-tenant organization. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3UxhSoi Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft at TechCon365 and PWRCON

Graphic: A collage of all the Microsoft speakers presenting in Seattle, WA. At TechCon365 & PWRCON Seattle, a Microsoft 365 Conference & Power Platform Conference, the subject matter is divided into tracks and each session is designated for beginner, intermediate, advanced or expert. With 2 optional days of workshops and a 3-day conference, you can choose from over 130 sessions in multiple tracks and 25 workshops presented by Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, Microsoft Teams, Viva, Azure, Copilot & AI's top experts! Whether you are new to Microsoft 365, Power Platform and SharePoint or an experienced power user, admin or developer, TechCon365 has content designed to fit your experience level and area of interest. See how the Microsoft 365, SharePoint Power Platform, Azure, and AI ecosystem is growing and evolving by speaking with technical experts from the local Microsoft field and diverse channels within the Microsoft Partner Network - all in our exhibit hall. Microsoft keynotes and AMA. Hear from Microsoft leadership revealing the latest innovations shaping the flexible, innovative, and secure business environments of the future. Find us in the Community Lounge - A place to connect with Microsoft MVPs, MCM, Microsoft Regional Directors, and user group leaders via Ask the Experts tables and in the Community Lounge when you can pick up some laptop stickers and learn more about community programs in the Exhibit Hall. It is crucial to ensure your organization is technically ready for the full potential of Copilot for Microsoft 365. I hope you will join us in Seattle, WA for what will be a fantastic week in the PNW! We're looking forward to the action alongside the community, MVPs, and Microsoft product members from Copilot, Teams, Office, SharePoint, OneDrive, Loop, Viva, Power Platform, Lists, Planner, and more. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3vW46lZ Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

SharePoint Intranet Festival, May 22, 2024, promoted by SWOOP Analystics in collaboration with Microosft

The event is managed by our partner SWOOP Analytics and is packed with experts and content to help guide your broader employee engagement strategy and org-wide communications decision making. To help kick it off, members of the Microsoft SharePoint product team will kick off each time zone to provide additional product insights and engage in the live discussion. Learn how Microsoft is transforming the authoring experience, for you to create and consume content more easily. We've lots of demos to share, sample guidance and best practices, and recent customer examples - all to help you make the most of your SharePoint-Microsoft 365-based intranet investments. SharePoint powers more and more experience across Microsoft 365 including the latest innovations in OneDrive, Loop, Lists, Stream, SharePoint itself, and more. Join us and industry leaders as we unveil invaluable strategies and share experiences shaping the future of intranet content governance and development! Thank you to our partner SWOOP Analytics with special kudos to Cai Kjaer, Serena Pacifico, and team for organizing the event, wrangling all the content and speakers, and supporting the goodness and value of intranets today and going forward. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/4aGTh6r Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Unleash the Power of Productivity: Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 Preview

We are pleased to announce that the commercial preview of Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 is now available for both Windows and Mac. Office LTSC 2024 will include features from past Office releases as well as a subset of new features already available in Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. Because we know that many customers deploy Office LTSC on only a subset of their devices, we will continue to support the deployment of both Office LTSC and Microsoft 365 Apps to different machines within the same organization using a common set of deployment tools: Click-to-Run on Windows and Apple Package format on Mac, just like Office LTSC 2021. Microsoft 365 continues to deliver the most secure, productive, and cost-effective Office experience, and positions customers to unlock the transformative power of AI with Microsoft Copilot. LTSC 2024 will be a valuable upgrade for customers who need to keep their Office apps on-premises. For instructions on how to install and activate the previews of Office LTSC, Project, and Visio on a Windows device, visit Install Office LTSC Preview. For instructions on how to install and activate the Office LTSC for Mac Preview, visit Overview of Office LTSC for Mac Preview. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/4d6epEL Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Tell us your thoughts at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference and earn a $20 gift card

The Microsoft User Researcher team is offering several group sessions that will focus on Copilot, Loop, Mesh, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and Viva. These 60-75-minute sessions will give you an opportunity to learn about some of our product ideas and provide your own ideas and feedback. To participate, you must complete this survey and sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. The survey includes a brief description of the different session topics available and will take 10-15 minutes to complete. You can choose the sessions that interest you the most and fit your schedule. As a thank you, you will receive a $20 Starbucks card for each session you participate in! We hope to see you at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference and at the Microsoft User Research sessions. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3JqNkP0 Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft at the European Collab and Cloud Summit in Wiesbaden, Germany

The European Collab Summit and European Cloud Summit are co-located in 2024 - converging on Wiesbaden, Germany, May 14-16, 2024 - with two pre-event and one post-event workshop days. With nearly 3,000 attendees, the European Collaboration Summit is a big opportunity to learn a lot and meet with Microsoft and MVP experts across numerous areas - your tech community peers included. You'll hear the latest product updates and guidance from over 45 Microsoft product makers - filled with real-world solutions across a combined general keynote, four general sessions, numerous breakout sessions, and pre/post event deep-dive workshops to build your expertise - presented alongside Microsoft MVPs and community experts. Hear from Microsoft leadership revealing the latest innovations shaping the flexible, innovative, and secure business environments of the future. Attendees can expect interactive demos, enlightening discussions, and a deep dive into Microsoft's strategic direction with advances in cloud. You can review each full agenda for Collab sessions and Cloud sessions. I hope you will join us in Germany for what will be a fantastic week! We're looking forward to the action alongside the community, MVPs, and Microsoft product members from Copilot, Teams, Office, SharePoint, OneDrive, Loop, Viva, Power Platform, Lists, Planner, and more. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/4aXuJWj Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Microsoft OneNote now available on Apple Vision Pro

Today, we are introducing the newest member of the OneNote family, on the Apple Vision Pro. We have worked closely with Apple for many years to bring these experiences to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Now, with Apple Vision Pro, OneNote will make use of the infinite canvas of spatial computing and can appear side-by-side with other great Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and Teams at any scale for incredible multitasking. You can plan trips, practice daily habits, and create/edit your task list, all in spatial reality - the OneNote experience on the Apple Vision Pro helps you stay productive, no matter where you are. To learn more about Apple Vision Pro, watch this video from Apple. From your Apple Vision Pro, go to the App Store and search for Microsoft OneNote. Enter your Apple ID and password, if prompted, to start the download. Once the app is installed, tap to launch it. OneNote for Apple Vision Pro only supports personal accounts and work accounts that are not managed by your organization. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3xyBKym Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

SharePoint content sessions to be delivered at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Microsoft is sending over 175 Microsoft product makers - to share and discuss innovation and real-world solutions across keynotes, sessions, and pre/post event deep-dive workshops to build your expertise. Expect clarity on what SharePoint is today AND directions content management and communications for the future. To see all that Microsoft is planning for the event, please review our Microsoft 365 Community Conference event guide. Join us to learn how AI-powered content management in Microsoft 365 enables content intelligence, optimizes critical business processes, improves governance, and prepares your content for Copilot. See the full list of 18 workshops available on the pre days and post day. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3PSJeCU Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Microsoft 365 Community Conference IT session spotlight

If you are an IT admin who is responsible for deploying, configuring, and securing Microsoft 365 in your organization, you don't want to miss this year's Microsoft 365 Community Conference in Orlando, Florida on April 30 - May 2. The conference will feature over 100 sessions covering several topics related to Microsoft 365 and Copilot, such as security, compliance, governance, collaboration, productivity, and more. A healthy, secure, and well-managed tenant significantly increases time to value for generative AI tools like Copilot for Microsoft 365. Whether or not you've purchased Copilot or other AI tools, this session covers best practices on how you can drive data security, privacy, and governance within Microsoft 365 so you can confidently deploy Copilot. Join us for an interactive and engaging conversation with other SMB leaders who are using Copilot for Microsoft 365 to boost their productivity and efficiency. We're excited to have you join us at this year's Microsoft 365 Community Conference! Continue the conversation or start your own in the Small and Medium Businesses community, Microsoft 365 community, or the Copilot for Microsoft 365 community! Make sure to Follow or Subscribe so you don't miss any updates! -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/4atzUxs Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Apple Vision Productivity on The Intrazone Microsoft podcast

It's time to unveil the mysteries of productivity within the Apple Vision Pro. John takes us into the realm of spatial computing as it blends with the productivity stack of Microsoft 365. John is an enterprise architect at EY and Microsoft MVP who specializes in Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage, Stream, and Virtual Events. Not only is John a great resource to understand the ins and outs of Microsoft 365-based communications and collaboration, but he recently invested in an Apple Vision Pro and started testing the pro'ductivity of Teams and Outlook from within the visionOS experience. We talked about some of the headset features, challenges, and benefits, John's experience using his persona during Teams meetings including the spatial audio experience, we centered on the visionOS experience of Microsoft Teams and Outlook apps, and last - we asked John what he wants to see next, both from Microsoft app integrations for the Vision Pro and what Apple can do to support better integration with other Apple devices. Fun meta fact: We recorded the interview via a normal 1:1 Teams meeting AND John joined in true Teams tech fashion using his Vision Pro + Teams to join. What John Moore saw when wearing the Vision Pro during our Teams meeting recording; you can see I was closing my eyes envisioning that I, too, was wearing a Vision Pro headset ;). John Moore's persona joins the Teams meeting to record The Intrazone with Mark Kashman. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3TWapxN Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Improve cost-effectiveness by utilizing forecasting service in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Predict and manage support needs with forecasting in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The feature considers operational metrics such as service level, shrinkage, and concurrency when forecasting agent demand. By considering these factors, organizations can ensure that the agent ability forecast aligns with service level agreements and operational constraints, maximizing efficiency and customer satisfaction. To enable the case forecasting report, find the Case forecasting row, select Manage, and then toggle Enable case forecasting. To enable the agent forecasting for conversation report, find the Agent forecasting for conversation row, select Manage, and then toggle Enable agent ability forecasting. Requirements: You need customer service license in Dynamics 365 Customer Service to access Forecast Service functionality. This feature is available now to all Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service users. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3J6YKHv Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Easily sign-in to all Microsoft accounts using Outlook app

Now you can use Outlook for Android as a sign-in verification method for your Microsoft apps and services. With Outlook sign-in verification, you don't need to remember or type any passwords or use a onetime SMS code, you can simply use the Outlook app plus a biometric or PIN to approve a sign-in on your phone. This sign-in verification functionality will be automatically enabled when you use the latest version of the Outlook app. Figure 1 Auto enabled when user opens Outlook app on Android. To learn more about the new Outlook sign-in verification feature for Microsoft account and for support, click here. We are rolling this out to all Outlook Android users. Support for Outlook on iOS is on the roadmap, and we will share more details at a future date. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/49s08za Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Brainstorm your next big idea with mind maps in Visio for the web

Mind maps have been a widely requested diagram type in Visio, which is why we're so excited to announce that they are currently rolling out to Visio for the web users with a Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2 license. In the coming weeks, users will be able to create mind maps in Visio for the web using the newly released Mind Map template. An image of a mind map in Visio for the web demonstrating how to create a mind map using the new Mind Map stencil. An image of a mind map in Visio for the web demonstrating how to customize mind maps using available icons and fill colors. An image of a mind map in the Visio app in Teams demonstrating how to collaborate on mind maps with team members. Whether mind maps are used for project planning, strategic thinking, or managing meetings, users like Alex can leverage mind maps to streamline their workflows, enhance their productivity, and achieve their goals more efficiently. If you have Visio in Microsoft 365, you will need to upgrade to either Visio Plan 1 or Visio Plan 2 to create mind maps in Visio for the web. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3VPY4gX Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Blog

Most widely used SharePoint Framework ISVs from the Store

We are excited to see the continuous growth on the submissions of the SharePoint Framework solutions to the app source and on the usage of the SharePoint store for extending experiences for SharePoint and Microsoft Viva. It enables the same code to be used easily across the Microsoft 365 with this widely adopted tooling which uses industry standard tech with easy and automatic SSO and hosting. Deprecation of SharePoint add-in and Azure ACS authentication models - UX powered extensibility should be transformed to us SharePoint Framework powered implementations. This deprecation does not impact SharePoint Framework solutions. Additional capabilities and features for SharePoint Framework solutions in Microsoft 365 as part of the SPFx 1.18 release. We are looking forward to more great solutions that enable innovation, and help our customers get more done with Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. Please see following resources around getting started on building extensibility for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Viva and SharePoint using SharePoint Framework. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/4b3BCWn Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog

Unlocking AI for small and medium-sized business: Microsoft 365 Community Conference 2024

Unlock the knowledge, insights, and skills you need to accelerate your business in the era of AI. Join the small and medium-sized business community at the upcoming Microsoft 365 Community Conference in Orlando, Florida, April 30 - May 2, sponsored by Microsoft. Network with Microsoft experts and product makers, MVPs, industry leaders, and the small and medium-sized business community throughout the week and at the special attendee party hosted at Universal Islands of Adventure. You can review all Microsoft 365 Community Conference sessions here. Microsoft will be hosting a special customer roundtable discussion for small and medium-sized business leaders who are using or considering Copilot for Microsoft 365 to boost productivity and business efficiency. Hear what attendees from last year's event had to say about the Microsoft 365 Community Conference. How to get started with Microsoft 365 Find the right Microsoft 365 business plan for your business. Discount code SMB100 cannot be applied to Microsoft 365 Community Conference workshops and cannot be combined with another offer code. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/4cLy5h2 Source: Microsoft Tech Community Microsoft 365 Business Blog

Microsoft SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop March2024 and The Intrazone podcast

March 2024 brought some great new offerings: SharePoint: New section backgrounds, Answers in Viva content in Microsoft Search, SharePoint Premium: Enable/disable Unstructured, Structured, and Prebuilt Document Processing, Manage SharePoint Embedded containers, Microsoft Lists: New forms experience, New Planner app in Teams, OneDrive: Create with templates, Microsoft Viva Goals: New URL domain, and more. Microsoft SharePoint Embedded, currently in Public Preview, is an API-only solution empowering app developers to leverage the file and document storage in Microsoft 365 to create line-of-business or multitenant applications. Microsoft Loop is an example of a SharePoint Embedded application - and is configured for you by default - and is a great example of what a custom application can do using a SharePoint Embedded repository as its backend storage. It brings together the simplicity of Microsoft To Do, the collaboration of Planner, the power of Microsoft Project, and the intelligence of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 into a single, simple solution that spans from individual task management and frontline task management to enterprise and professional project management. We are updating the existing Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Microsoft Teams to the new Microsoft Planner app, which will maintain all existing app functionality and add new options and features to help users be more productive. Microsoft Viva Goals: New URL. Like we noted for Microsoft Loop a few roadmaps ago, and as part of the broader effort to bring Microsoft 365 apps and service onto the single cloud. Microsoft 365 public roadmap + pre-filtered URL for SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer and Stream roadmap items. -------------------- Read more at https://bit.ly/3vy1SZM Source: Microsoft Tech Community SharePoint Blog