Office 365 Weekly Digest | June 2 – 8, 2019

Welcome to the June 2 - 8, 2019 edition of the Office 365 Weekly Digest.

Three features were added to the Office 365 Roadmap last week - one for SharePoint Online, and two for Microsoft Teams.

No new events were added for this week's post. The spotlight event for this week is the "Upgrade 101: Managing your upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams - Part 1" session on Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 10am Pacific. Note: You can then catch "Part 2" on June 17th or June 20th.

Blog posts in last week's roundup include the May 2019 roadmap summary for OneDrive, a brand new centralized hub for adoption resources, announcement of the ability to save Office deployment configurations to the cloud, and several short videos focused on how to create a plan on how to protect data in Microsoft Teams and governing access to Microsoft Teams.

Noteworthy item highlights include the Microsoft 365 Updates for May 2019 video, the final installment of the Top 10 actions to secure your environment series, the release of the Microsoft Graph Application Access Policy feature for Exchange Online PowerShell, and more.

 

OFFICE 365 ROADMAP

 

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

 

Feature ID

App / Service

Title Description

Status

Added

Estimated Release

More Info

51933

SharePoint

SharePoint hubs limit raised to 2,000 Hubs enable connecting related sites together to create a shared navigational and content experience. In order to meet the needs of many organizations, we are increasing the hubs limit from 100 to 2,000 providing even more flexibility on how you can organize your sites.

In development

06/04/2019

June CY2019

n / a

51927

Teams

Microsoft Teams – Interoperability (1:1 Teams – Skype for Business chat) in Office 365 Government GCC A user that has been upgraded to Teams-Only mode can continue to communicate via chat with other users in the organization who are still using Skype for Business by using the interoperability capabilities between Teams and Skype for Business. This helps users stay productive while the organization transitions from Skype for Business to Teams.

In development

06/05/2019

June CY2019

n / a

51448

Teams

Microsoft Teams – Priority Notifications Share urgent messages and time-sensitive information more effectively with Teams. Priority notifications alert a recipient of an urgent message on their mobile and desktop devices until a response is received, every two minutes for up to 20 minutes. Note: For a limited time, unlimited Priority Notifications in Microsoft Teams will be made available for all customers. This promotion will run from July 2019 until December 31, 2019 and during this time all Teams users will be able to send unlimited Priority Notifications. Starting on January 1, 2020, licensed users will be able to send Priority Notifications according to the terms of their subscription. IT Admins will be given reporting on priority notification usage to support appropriate user licensing.

In development

06/07/2019

July CY2019

n / a

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

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.

 

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.

 

Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks (Part 1)

Designed for those who are already familiar with Microsoft Teams, our Tips and Tricks sessions offer insights, best practices and advanced functionality to help optimize how Teams can work for you. Each session will also include a few real-world examples of how customers are using Microsoft Teams today. Part 1 is focused on tips for conversations and meetings. Many of our interactions start as a simple chat. Learn how you can take those conversations to the next level, including: (1) Formatting messages to help increase response rates, (2) Managing conversations to easily track and follow-up, (3) Organizing conversations, keeping important and active chats front-and-center, (4) Expanding conversations into a full meeting experience, and more. Prefer to watch this session on your own time or simply want a refresher after attending the live training? Access the consolidated on-demand version of Tips and Tricks here: https://aka.ms/teamstipsandtricksondemand.

 

Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks (Part 2)

Designed for those who are already familiar with Microsoft Teams, our Tips and Tricks sessions offer insights, best practices and advanced functionality to help optimize how Teams can work for you. Each session will also include a few real-world examples of how customers are using Microsoft Teams today. Organizing your workflow and projects in Teams can really help simplify productivity. Join us for Part 2 of this series, where you'll learn tips including: (1) Implementing effective strategies creating and managing teams and channels, (2) Leveraging best practices for channel-based conversations, (3) Utilizing a personal team to manage your own productivity, (4) Designing your workspace to quickly find relevant content in Teams, and more. Prefer to watch this session on your own time or simply want a refresher after attending the live training? Access the consolidated on-demand version of Tips and Tricks here: https://aka.ms/teamstipsandtricksondemand.

 

Maximizing Teams Meetings

The average employee spends approximately 30% of their working life in meetings. But meetings in Microsoft Teams are designed to be flexible and enable different types of connections for all the ways that work needs to get done. For users who are familiar with Microsoft Teams but want to better understand and optimize the Teams meeting experience, this session provides guidance into how to create spontaneous and scheduled meetings, leverage the pre, during and post-meeting features, identifying supported devices, and more.

 

Azure Active Directory Webinars for June

When: Multiple sessions currently scheduled from June 4 - 13, 2019 | Are you looking to deploy Azure Active Directory quickly and easily? We are offering free webinars on key Azure Active Directory deployment topics to help you get up and running. Sessions include Getting Ready for Azure AD, The Basics of Governing your Azure AD and Office 365 Deployment, Securing Your Identities with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication, Choosing the Right Authentication Method for Azure AD, and more. Each 1-hour webinar is designed to support IT Pros in quickly rolling out Azure Active Directory features to their organization. All webinars are free of cost and will include an anonymous Q&A session with our Engineering Team. So, come with your questions! Capacity is limited. Sign up for one or all of the sessions today!  Note: There are also some sessions available on-demand.

 

Upgrade 101: Managing your upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams (Part 1)

As an existing Skype for Business customer, we understand that upgrading to a new technology can be confusing and are committed to supporting you on your journey to Microsoft Teams. Through our two upgrade classes, you will find everything you need to plan and implement your upgrade. Part 1 is focused on upgrade planning and user readiness. Targeting project stakeholders with accountability for Skype for Business to Teams upgrade success and user readiness/change managers, this session serves as the foundation for your upgrade planning, including: (1) An overview of our proven, upgrade success framework, (2) Real-world customer examples, (3) Insights into facilitating user readiness and upgrade acceptance, and (4) Orientation to key upgrade guidance resources.

 

Upgrade 101: Managing your upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams (Part 2)

As an existing Skype for Business customer, we understand that upgrading to a new technology can be confusing and are committed to supporting you on your journey to Microsoft Teams. Through our two upgrade classes, you will find everything you need to plan and implement your upgrade. Part 2 is understanding coexistence and interoperability. Designed for the IT Pro/technical experts implementing the migration from Skype for Business to Teams, this session will arm you with the information you need to know before migrating your users, including: (1) End user experiences during the upgrade, (2) Available journey options an organization can take from online or on-premises as the starting point, and (3) Routing and federation experiences.

 

Microsoft IT: Speaking of Security - Privacy Compliance

When: Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 10am PT | During this webinar, the speakers will discuss the Microsoft security teams approach to privacy compliance. We'll address how we approached the topic and new requirements from GDPR. We'll answer your questions and talk about governance, compliance, and transparency, including all of the elements necessary to build a privacy program. Finally, we'll share some of the key things we learned on our journey. There are other sessions now available on demand at the Speaking of Security webinar series site.

 

Customer Immersion Experience: Simplifying your data privacy & compliance journey

Join us for a hands-on introduction to Microsoft 365 Compliance features and an opportunity to experience powerful solutions across the data lifecycle of assess, protect and respond. During this 2-hour interactive session, you will explore how to: (1) Understand your compliance from a single pane of glass, (2) Make identity the new perimeter, (3) Discover and govern sensitive data across clouds, devices and apps, (4) Recognize attacks, detect breaches, and recover quickly using automation, and (5) Streamline your operational processes and understand your security posture. Each session is limited to 12 participants, reserve your seat now.

 

BLOG ROUNDUP

 

OneDrive Roadmap Roundup – May 2019

After an exciting SharePoint Conference 2019 (SPC19) filled with OneDrive innovation disclosures, we are back with the monthly roadmap roundup of what's landed in production in the month of May (2019). If you are not already caught up the latest feature announcements at SPC19, do check out the blog to learn about how OneDrive can better connect you to all your files in Microsoft 365, as well as harness collaboration and productivity. Here are the latest functionalities that have begun rolling out in May 2019: (1) Microsoft Search powers OneDrive search from Office 365 suite header, and (2) Configure OneDrive to automatically sync your SharePoint team site shared libraries.

 

NEW: Microsoft Adoption Resource Hub

You asked for a central place to find Microsoft 365 adoption resources and it is now LIVE! View our first step in streamlining our adoption resources for Microsoft 365 at our unified Microsoft Adoption Resources page located at https://aka.ms/MicrosoftAdoption. This page pulls together existing and new resources to help you chart your path to productivity with our Microsoft services. It includes: (1) An updated Microsoft 365 Adoption Guide & workbook, (2) A new Security and Compliance adoption toolkit, (3) A new Teams in Government and Teams Devices Flyers (via the Teamwork Adoption Toolkit), (4) An updated SharePoint adoption guide, and more. Throughout the calendar year we will continue to align these resources to our updated Microsoft 365 adoption framework and what many of you have been studying in our Service Adoption Specialist on-line course.

 

Save your Office deployment configurations to the cloud

Keeping to our promise of continuous innovation and improvements to make Office deployment easier, our team released a new feature that allows you to save the deployment configurations that you create in the cloud. This allows you to create, edit and access your deployment configurations from one central location, your Office 365 tenant. Not only can you save your deployment configurations, but you can access them directly using an anonymous URL that can be copied from each deployment configuration and used with the Office Deployment Tool. This allows you to skip the step of downloading the XML and just reference it directly on the command line when executing the /configure, /download or /customize commands. The Office Deployment Tool will access the XML directly from your tenant using the anonymous access URL. | Related: Video - Manage your configuration files (Office Deployment Insiders)

 

Microsoft Teams: Security & Compliance

Microsoft Teams is the hot topic on the streets these days with everyone from small business to large enterprise using it or in the process of deploying it. No doubt it is instrumental in driving digital transformation and changing workplace culture, and in return, modernizing the workplace. But, what about security and compliance? The short videos in this post will help you to understand and create a plan on how to protect data in Microsoft Teams and governing access to Microsoft Teams using Microsoft 365. | Related: How to get started with Microsoft Teams – 10 questions to ask yourself to help you get started!

 

NOTEWORTHY

 

Video: Microsoft 365 Update for May 2019

Format: Video (3 minutes) | This month, we're introducing new tools to help simplify compliance, app updates to boost productivity, and features to foster secure, collaborative user experiences. Updates for May include: (1) enhancements to Microsoft Search, (2) OneNote Dark Mode, (3) Updates to Microsoft Forms, (4) Integration between Microsoft To-Do and Planer, and many more. Learn more at https://msft.social/dMQsnY.

 

Top 10 actions to secure your environment: Step 10 - Detect and investigate security incidents

The "Top 10 actions to secure your environment" series outlines fundamental steps you can take with your investment in Microsoft 365 security solutions. Step 10 is the final installment in the blog series. Here we walk you through how to set up Azure Advanced Threat Protection (Azure ATP) to secure identities in the cloud and on-premises.

 

How Microsoft Marketing and Consumer Business Radio Show Use Live Events in Yammer

Microsoft has been going through transformation of their own and recently launched Live Events. Various groups throughout the organization have started to use it as part of their communication strategy to engage employees. There are different groups using live event capabilities in Microsoft 365 to create, run, and share events that connect employees using a single robust solution to produce events ranging from global all-hands meetings to specific topical webinars, leaders across the company foster employee engagement, information sharing, and meaningful conversations while achieving their communication goals, reaching various audiences, and working within any budget. | Related: 3 ways to use Enterprise Social to leave a digital legacy

 

Secure your journey to the cloud with free DMARC monitoring for Office 365

As a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, Valimail provides a critical free service for Office 365 customers who want the benefits of DMARC enforcement. DMARC enforcement, together with the anti-spoofing and anti-phishing capabilities in Office 365, will effectively stop an entire class of phishing attacks. Valimail Monitor for Office 365 makes the service-discovery component of DMARC implementation far easier, providing a fully automated visibility service, free of charge. With Valimail, Office 365 users can easily see all third-party services sending on their behalf, as well as potential imposters that are spoofing their brand. It eliminates the need to wade through XML-based aggregate reports or try to interpret which IP addresses correspond to which cloud services. Valimail Monitor for Office 365 provides a clean, clear, human-readable interface that lists services and their email volume on the domain in plain English.

 

Scoping Microsoft Graph application permissions to specific Exchange Online mailboxes

We're excited to announce the release of the Application Access Policy feature for Exchange Online PowerShell. This feature allows Exchange Online administrators to scope application permissions for Microsoft Graph to allow access to specified mailboxes in their Office 365 tenant. Why would you need to do this? Well, imagine Contoso, an Office 365 customer that has thousands of employees spread across multiple departments. Contoso has built and deployed an appointment booking app that helps their customers book service appointments with specialist technicians employed by the company. The app Contoso built uses Microsoft Graph to identify free appointment times on the technicians' calendars and uses them to book appointments. Because the app requires access to multiple technicians' mailboxes, it uses the OAuth 2.0 client credentials grant flow, and application permissions were granted to it, enabling the app to access all mailboxes in the organization, not just the mailboxes belonging to technicians. Using Application Access Policies, Contoso administrators can now restrict the app's access to only the technicians' mailboxes via a security group and disallow its access to other mailboxes.