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