Office 365 Weekly Digest | October 28 – November 3, 2018
Welcome to the October 28 – November 3, 2018 edition of the Office 365 Weekly Digest.
Three features were added to the Office 365 Roadmap last week, with two for Teams and one for Stream which adds its intelligence capabilities to other Office 365 plans.
There are five events this week including the regular Teams Tuesday on November 6th, along with an Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) about Microsoft Information Protection and a couple of other Teams-focused events. The second part of the foundation for modern collaboration series is on Thursday, November 8th at 10am PT.
Highlights from last week's blog posts include "What's New" in Microsoft 365 and To-Do for October 2018, updates for presence in coexistence modes for Teams, a recap of Microsoft 365 admin sessions from Ignite 2018, admin controls for Outlook for Mac, and new resources to help build a modern intranet on SharePoint in Office 365.
Noteworthy items wrapping up this week's post are the latest updates to the Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges, the ability to migrate 250,000 public folders to Exchange Online from Exchange Server 2013/2016/2019, the latest Microsoft Mechanics installment of the Modern Desktop Deployment series, and the general availability of Azure Active Directory group-based license management.
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 |
43332 |
Microsoft Stream |
Microsoft Stream intelligence capabilities become available to additional Office 365 plans | As part of our commitment to empower people and organizations with AI solutions, we are expanding the availability of intelligence capabilities in Stream to additional Office 365 plans. The following Stream features will be automatically applied to new videos in your tenant:
|
In development |
10/31/2018 |
November CY2018 |
n / a |
43374 |
Teams |
Customize your private discussion with tabs | Leverage the power of tabs to make it easy for participants to access frequently used content or services with just one click within your 1:1 or group chats. To add a tab, simply click the "+" in the top navigation, select the desired app, and finish the corresponding the setup. | In development |
11/01/2018 |
November CY2018 |
n / a |
24201 |
Teams |
Microsoft Teams – Call Park | Call Park enables users to put a call on hold and then retrieve the call from the same phone or another phone. The parked call can also be transferred to a department or general area where there is a common area phone. While a call is on hold the original answering phone can stay free for other calls. | In development |
11/02/2018 |
Q4 CY2018 |
n / a |
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 from 10am – 11am PT | Whether you're managing a new project or starting your own business, it helps to have a team behind you to brainstorm ideas, tackle the work together, and have some fun along the way. Now you can use Microsoft Teams to do just that. Join our team LIVE every Tuesday from 10-11am PDT to learn how you can get started with the free version of Teams. In this hour, we'll walk you through the product and key features, share best practices for getting started, and answer any questions you may have. We look forward to meeting you!
Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA): Microsoft Information Protection
When: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 9am PT | We are very excited to announce a Microsoft Information Protection Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) to answer questions about the new capabilities announced at Microsoft Ignite. The AMA will take place on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. PT. An AMA is a live online event similar to a "YamJam" on Yammer or an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit. This AMA gives you the opportunity to connect with members of the product engineering team who will be on hand to answer your questions and listen to feedback. Join in the Information Protection AMA space, or add it to your calendar. We look forward to seeing you there!
Getting Started with Microsoft Teams
When: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 at 10am PT | 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. Check here for sessions in different time zones and other dates.
Upgrade 101: Understanding your upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams
When: Thursday, November 7, 2018 at 10am ET | Looking to better understand the upgrade journey from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams? Join us for this 60-minute session to get familiar with our upgrade paths (Upgrade Basic and Upgrade Pro), our resources, and a walkthrough of our upgrade success framework to help you navigate through your journey. Check here for sessions in different time zones and other dates.
SharePoint and Office 365: Securely sharing, managing, governing and protecting content at Microsoft
When: Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 10am PT | Finding a balance between readily sharing files and protecting corporate assets is crucial. At Microsoft, we get it. With over 400,000 SharePoint team sites, intranet portals, and OneDrive for Business sites, we have a lot to manage. Learn how we use custom solutions, organizational policy, Office 365, and Azure Active Directory to help manage, govern, and protect our data in a highly collaborative environment. | Resource: A foundation for modern collaboration: Microsoft 365 bolsters teamwork
Make the switch from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams: End User Guidance
When: Wednesday, November 15, 2018 at 10am ET | 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. Check here for sessions in different time zones and other dates.
BLOG ROUNDUP
New to Microsoft 365 in October—tools to create impactful content and help transition to the cloud
This month, we released new features in Microsoft 365 that help teams enhance the look and feel of their content with ease, plus new tools and resources to help you transition to the cloud. We're excited to introduce new capabilities that help enhance the visual look and feel and overall impact of your documents and presentations. We're also introducing capabilities across Microsoft 365 to help you move your files and applications to the cloud and help your users easily get help and support when they need it. Read more for details on what's new in October.
What's new for Microsoft To-Do in October 2018
From Ignite in Orlando to the Microsoft Event in New York City it's been an exciting month for Microsoft To-Do. We shared how To-Do can be used to better manage all your tasks across work and life, as well as previewed the latest updates and integrations coming to the app very soon including: (1) Turn emails into tasks, (2) Flag an email to create a task in To-Do, (3) Create tasks in conversations, (4) Dark Mode in Android and Windows, (5) Inking in To-Do, (6) General availability of Intune in To-Do, and (7) Add importance to your tasks.
Microsoft Teams: Update! Presence now respects a user's coexistence mode
Based on customer feedback, we are updating how presence works when organizations are using both Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business. With this update, routing and presence are fully aligned. To ensure that routing follows presence, presence publishing is now based on a user's coexistence mode. If a user is in TeamsOnly mode, then any other user, whether in Teams or Skype for Business, will see presence based on the user's activity in Teams. If a user is in any of these modes: SfbOnly, SfbWithTeamsCollab, SfbWithTeamsCollabAndMeetings – then any other user, whether in Teams or Skype for Business, will see presence based on the user's activity in Skype for Business. If a user is in Islands or Legacy mode, presence is independent and the values need not match. | Resource: Migration and interoperability with Skype for Business – Coexistence modes
Watch the Microsoft 365 admin sessions from Ignite 2018
At Ignite 2018, we showed off new features, now in public preview, that help admins work more efficiently and deliver the best possible end user experience. If you missed the excitement in Orlando, you can still stream sessions and download presentations at www.microsoftignite.com. This post lists a few key sessions that will help you understand the admin strategy and get started with the preview today, including: (1) Admin Updates in Microsoft 365 to save you time, (2) Simplify IT management with the new Microsoft 365 admin experience, (3) Onboarding to Microsoft 365 made easy - protect users, devices and data, and (4) Optimize your Microsoft 365 admin experience to match your organization, role or workstyle. The post also includes details on enabling the public preview of the new admin experience.
Outlook for Mac adds administrative controls
We are rolling out new capabilities to help administrators protect company data and manage Outlook for Mac with ease while supporting a simplified user experience. In the coming weeks, we will add enhancements to support account configuration management and managed preference settings in Outlook for Mac. Features such as: (1) Automatically add Office 365 mailbox, (2) Specify email address or domain of Office 365 mailbox to be added, (3) Add only corporate accounts, (4) Hide text about adding personal accounts, (5) Manage existing in-app preferences, (6) New preferences for data protection, (7) New preference for managing email signatures, (8) New preferences for managing online meetings, and more.
Enhancing Microsoft Secure Score with Compliance and Service Health Information
We understand that many compliance administrators are also using Compliance Manager to help them understand the shared responsibility model reflecting both Microsoft's and their organization's data protection and compliance posture. The Secure Score and Compliance Manager teams thought how we could make these groups better work together and understand each other's world a bit more. To that end we thought it would be great to surface some of Compliance Manager information in the Secure Score controls. We are happy to share that this is now available. As part of every Secure Score action you will now see a new section called "Compliance Controls". This is where we share which standards and regulations like ISO 27001:2013 and European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) along with the corresponding control number in the standard that this action helps you meet. In the future we plan to make more of the compliance controls hyperlinks, so you can go directly into Compliance Manager and get more information on the control about how to design your procedure and people policy.
New resource center page to help build your modern intranet on SharePoint in Office 365
The modern experience in SharePoint is designed to be compelling, flexible and more performant. The modern experience makes it easier for anyone to create beautiful, dynamic sites and pages that are mobile-ready. Modern SharePoint is ready, and we're here to help you get there. It's time to improve the performance from your intranet. It's time to put the power of all your content, people and information in the pocket of each and every employee – especially when they are mobile. It's time to improve your return on investment. Build your modern intranet on SharePoint in Office 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 and welcoming nature of your intranet. To learn more and take action, we invite you to visit and share the NEW "Build your modern intranet on SharePoint in Office 365" resource center page. This page contains: (1) An overview for business, IT and developers, (2) A new FastTrack program to request assistance from partners, (3) Customer highlights - Wavemaker plus twelve other case studies, (4) Helpful 'how to' guidance (12 new helpful resources on branding/design, permissions, search, navigation and more), and (5) recent and relevant blogs and videos (#MSIgnite sessions).
NOTEWORTHY
Updated: Office 365 URLs and IP Address Ranges
October 29, 2018: Includes 29 changes. IPs: 0 added and 221 removed. URLs: 9 added and 26 removed. 39 other attributes changed. The complete list is located here. | Additional Resources: Managing Office 365 Endpoints, Content Delivery Networks, Client Connectivity, and Office 365 endpoint categories and Office 365 IP Address and URL Web Service.
Useful SharePoint Cheatsheets now available in 37 languages
Our Office International team recently localized the "How to customize your SharePoint Online website" & "Work with SharePoint News" cheat sheets into 36 languages. For your convenience we have created a spreadsheet attached with direct links to the language PDFs and PowerPoint templates. We hope these help you, your customers or partners who use SharePoint in different languages.
Announcing support to migrate up to 250K public folders from Exchange On-Premises to Exchange Online
We previously announced we were increasing the maximum number of public folders that could be migrated from Exchange Server 2010 to Exchange Online to 250K. We also highlighted that the migration of public folders on Exchange Server 2013 and 2016 were limited to 100K. We've been working hard to remove this limitation and we are very pleased to announce today that we now support migrating up to 250K public folders from Exchange On-Premises 2013/2016/2019 to Exchange Online. Any Exchange On-Premises customer running Exchange 2010/2013/2016/2019 with up to 250K public folders can now migrate them directly to Exchange Online. | Resource: Use batch migration to migrate Exchange Server public folders to Exchange Online
EOP Field Notes: Figure out which spam filter marked a message as spam
For various reasons, organizations sometimes need to create multiple spam filters in Exchange Online. When troubleshooting a false positive (an inbound message that was marked as spam incorrectly), it can be tricky to figure out which spam filter was used to process the message. Maybe the message was junked because of the sender of the message being on the block list in one of your spam filters, or maybe it was junked because of an Advanced Spam Filter (if this is the reason, you'll see an x-CustomSpam header) option that you now want to disable in the spam filter that processed the message.
Microsoft Mechanics: Windows and Office-as-a-Service - Step 7 of Modern Desktop Deployment
Format: Video (8 minutes) | This is step 7 in the desktop deployment process - staying up to date with Windows-as-a-Service and Office-as-a-Service. In this step you'll learn about and assess the differences between your current software update management approach and how that changes with the introduction of Semi-Annual Channel feature updates. In this video, we explore the update types for Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus - including Feature Updates and monthly Cumulative Updates with security, bug and quality fixes. We also take a look at your options for deployment tools, spanning update Group Policies and install-time configuration options to remote admin tools like WSUS, Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager. Finally, we'll explain how Upgrade Task Sequences in Configuration Manager can be used at massive scale to apply Feature Updates with pre and post installation tasks. | Resource: Modern Desktop Deployment Center
Azure AD group-based license management is now generally available!
We are excited to announce that group-based licensing is now generally available! As part of our general availability release, we made the service more scalable by adding these capabilities: (1) Developer APIs in Microsoft Graph to allow you to programmatically read group-based licensing assignments on groups, as well as programmatically get assignment status and errors, (2) Ability to reprocess group-based licensing assignments for a single user, and (3) Simplified licensing requirements for group-based licensing. Users who are targeted for group-based licensing need Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) Basic (and above), or Office 365 E3/A3 (and above). | Resource: Assign licenses to users by group membership in Azure AD