Office 365 – April 2017 Updates…

Office 365 received a number of updates throughout April 2017, here is my summary of some of the key updates:

 

Outlook Customer Manager

Outlook Customer Manger makes it easy for small businesses to track and grow customer relationships within Microsoft Outlook. Outlook Customer Manager is available direct from the Office Ribbon to allow quick and direct access to the service. Outlook Customer Manger allows you to keep track of emails, meetings, calls, Tasks, Notes, Files, and Deadlines within the application, to help you keep on top of those important customer engagements.

Like all modern services within Office 365 there is also an Outlook Customer Manager mobile application for when users are mobile between meetings.

Outlook Customer Manager

 

Microsoft To-Do (Preview)

Microsoft To-Do in Preview, an intelligent task management app that makes it easy to plan and manage your day. To-Do helps you stay organized and prioritize your most important to-dos for each day with intelligent Suggestions. Outlook Tasks also sync so you can stay on top of all your to-dos in a single view, wherever you go, across your devices.

Microsoft To-Do is built by the team that developed Wunderlist, who was acquired by Microsoft in 2015. Microsoft To-Do brings the much-needed Outlook tasks and to-do list to your mobile devices with the Microsoft To-Do app.

Microsoft To-Do

 

Security and Compliance

Office 365 Threat Intelligence, now generally available, leverages the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph to help you stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape. Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Safe Links is now available in Word, Excel and PowerPoint to protect users from clicking malicious links. ATP also includes new reports to help you understand your organization’s health. Advanced Data Governance, also now generally available, applies intelligence to help you retain high value data while reducing your risk profile. Lastly, a new Data Loss Protection (DLP) policy management page helps you configure and enforce sensitive data policies across your organization.

The new Security and Compliance Admin portal brings all settings to a single console.

Security and Compliance Updates

 

More Office apps support Office 365 Groups

Support for Office 365 Groups to more Office apps, making it easier for you to access shared team material and work better together. Office 365 Groups is now supported in:

• Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Groups in Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android

With this functionality of Office 365 Groups being added to these applications it does not matter which application you choose to use, modern collaboration at your fingertips.

 

Office 365 Enterprise K1 provides new value

Office 365 Enterprise K1 plan designed to enable your frontline workers to do their best work with tools for schedule and task management, communications and community, training and onboarding, and identity and access management. Office 365 Enterprise K1 plan now includes the following additional products:

• Microsoft StaffHub—Helps frontline workers manage their workday with schedule management
• OneDrive for Business with 2 GB of cloud storage—Provides employees a secure environment to store
• Skype for Business presence and instant messaging—Enables employees to communicate in real-time
• Microsoft Teams—A hub for teamwork that connects employees to the people
• Office 365 Video—Provides employees with a secure, company-wide destination for discovering and accessing video content
• Microsoft PowerApps and Microsoft Flow—Eases the automation of repetitive tasks and workflows

These additional products build upon the core value already offered with the Office 365 Enterprise K1 plan and unlock important scenarios for frontline workers, including the ability to view and swap shifts, take advantage of video-based employee training and onboarding, exchange best practices across the company and even participate in live, company-wide town hall meetings. The Office 365 Enterprise K1 plan gives companies the tools they expect to manage employee access and the digital identity to meet today’s complex and constantly changing security and compliance requirements.

New value in Office 365 Enterprise K1 for frontline workers

 

Other Office 365 Updates

A list of other office updates from April:

• Designer is now available in PowerPoint on iPad – Link
• Planner now supports assigning multiple users to a task – Link
• A MyAnalytics Outlook add-in update is rolling out worldwide – Link
• Yammer post can now be edited – Link
• Office 365 ProPlus updates – Link
• Add parallel branches in flows and five new services - Link