Poly (the name for the Plantronics acquisition of Polycom last year) have just announced their new Trio C60 – the companies next generation ‘built for Teams’ conference phone that many poly fans have been waiting for.
I’m usually fortunate to get to test out a fair bit of kit from our strategic technology partners however as this is so new (with availability expected sometime in May this year), this write up is based on the info shared and announced by Poly.
For me a good test of what puts one collaboration device (in this case the new Poly Trio C60) ahead of another is about 4 things
How simple it is to use
The build quality and design
High Quality Audio (and Video)
Clever Connectivity Options
Introducing the Poly Trio C60
Firstly, I’ve not yet got my hands on a new Trio just yet, it certainly seems to ticks all the boxes and it’s (well pending)
certified for Teams (as well as others).
Simple and intuitive to use Built on (and improving on) the great success of the previous generation of Trio and finally certified (well, will be) for Microsoft Teams (as well as Zoom and a variety of the other leading open SIP and UC&C services) it will be easy to use since it will follow the standards defined by Microsoft for Teams powered collaboration devices. In addition the Trio C60 also includes:
Active proximity sensors to wake up the device from about 3 meters away
Volume controls mounted on each side of the device for ease of access.
Build Quality and Design OK so while I haven’t seen one in the flesh, the new Trio looks like the high quality premium device you’d expect from Poly.
Poly say this is designed to stand on its own as a high-quality Teams conference phone, or, it can be used to control other endpoints like the Poly Studio X Series collaboration bar or G7500 camera
It’s powered by a new Quad-core processor and runs Android 9 which Poly say will deliver up to 4x better performance than its predecessors
High quality audio The Trio C60 will have superb HD audio sound quality as Poly devices have always been known for this, and their patented Noiseblock filters out background noise.
Theres also optional wired expansion microphones allowing you to ‘daisy chain’ up to three devices for larger spaces
Clever Connectivity options Poly have listed a host of connectivity options as you would expect including
Optional wired expansion microphones allowing you to ‘daisy chain’ up to three devices for larger spaces.
Will support (later this year) DECT wireless expansion mics
Is wireless enabled, supporting 2.4-5GHz WIFI with multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO)
Has Bluetooth 5.0 support
1xUSB A and 1x USB C port
Summary
The attractive price point (circa £1,000), high quality and familiar design with easy to use features (and being fully Teams certified) will no doubt offer a high quality user experience for all participants.
The Teams device space is extremely competitive at the moment with new devices from Crestron, Yealink, Logitech and Poly.
I’ll update this (or add a new one) once I get my hands on one to test out and hopefully compare it to some of the other vendors such as the Yealink CP960.
We heard a couple months back that big changes are coming to both SurfaceHub 1 and 2S as the SurfaceHub and Microsoft Teams product groups work to continuously improve the meeting and collaboration experiences on Surface Hub.
Starting last week, updates are rolling out to the Microsoft Teams app on Surface Hub which will brings fixes and quality improvements based on the customer feedback. The most important bits are still to come though with this update preparing the hub for new features that will start rolling out later next quarter.
The update will be delivered seemlessly via Windows Update (assuming its enabled) taking the Microsoft Teams app to version 0.2020.84.4301.
The update also sees the SurfaceHub receive a new driver update to complement the Microsoft Teams experience with an improved Microsoft Teams meeting join experience after the update is completed.
Like I said most of the visual updates which we expect to include things like proximity join, improved management, allowing SurfaceHub to join a Teams meeting as a secondary or companion decide etc are coming later this year.
With COVID-19 now dominating our lives and forcing most of us to work from home with lock-downs now in place across most major metropolitan cities around the globe, we (through Cisilion where I work), have been helping our customers either get started with, or rapidly increase their use and adoption of Microsoft Teams to ensure they can stay connected, work collaborately, co-author documents and most importantly get face-time with the people they work with
The focus of this blog is around meetings since I’m sure like me online meetings is something you are doing lot of now we are confined to our homes..
So whether you are brand new to Teams or an experienced Teams Champion, this blog shares my own experiences and tips on how to have the best online meetings in Teams.
1. Use Teams to stay connected with anyone, not just those in your organisation
As the “Hub for Teamwork”, you can use Microsoft Teams to host online meetings with up to 250 people, just like you would a normal in-person meeting. For external guests, just invite them in the same way you would normally in Outlook or Teams. It doesn’t matter if your external attendees don’t have Teams either – they can simply click on the link (no need to download a plugin or install Teams) enter their name, and join the meeting from their web-browser or mobile phone.
Teams Guest Join Browser
Note: Teams also features Teams Live events which allow for broadcast style town-hall type presentations with Q&A, Sentiment analysis and on-demand play back for up to 10,000 (which has today been extended to 100,000 participants).
2. Built in dial-in conferencing keeps everyone connected
For users that cant get on-line or have poor internet for example, or those that just “prefer” to “dial” into a meeting, the Teams meeting invite (assuming the meeting organiser has a Audio conferencing License assigned) also includes audio-only dial-in instructions. Users can simply click on the dial-in number from their mobile phone and their phone should automatically launch the dial-pad, dial the number, and even enter the conference bridge ID.
Teams Dial-in Conferencing
Of course, for the best experience I’d suggest everyone joins the full Teams experience – especially if you are planning to share content.
3. Video, Video, Video : This makes a real difference when we can’t do physical face-to-face.
Since you can’t meet people in person anymore due to COVID-19 lock-downs or when just working from home / remotely anyway, meeting online with video makes a a huge difference and I strongly advise to make all calls video by default. Encourage everyone in your Teams meeting to turn on their video. If your device supports it, I also suggest turning on background blur to keep the focus on you instead of what’s behind you (especially if your home office is a “make shift” space).
4. Share Share Share – screen, apps or presentation.
When in a Teams call or meeting, you can share/present content in Teams. You are in control at all times as to what others can see. You can decide whether you wish to share
Your entire desktop (or screen)
A specific window/application
Upload a PowerPoint presentation directly into Teams – so attendees can review/mark-up and event advance slides
Start / Open a digital whiteboard for real-time collaboration like you would on a normal pen and ink board in a meeting room – more this next.
Sharing in Teams
If you or someone else is sharing their desktop or an application, any one else can “request” that the presenter gives control – you can also take it back at any time!
If you are sharing content that has audio/video within it, you can also choose to have the system audio shared/included.
5. Whiteboard the hell out of your meetings
I love a whiteboard me! When I’m in a face-to-face meeting, I cant help but draw and scribble on a whiteboard and usually find other meeting attendees love to draw and annotate on a board when planning a project or approach to something.
This is where Office 365 and Teams come to life – Microsoft Whiteboard, as well as being available on the web and via a App on Windows and iOS, is also integrated and available in every Teams meeting, enabling meeting attendees to join in with their pen and touch (our mouse and keyboard) and collaborate / contribute in real time with digital ink.
These Whiteboard sessions are saved as part of every meeting and available for future use and reference and can even be opened outside of the meeting directly in the Whiteboard app – which provides a host of additional features too.
6. Make the meeting on demand too – Record it live!
Teams can also (if enabled by your admins) record your meetings for you. Instead of relying on a summary email only or “I’ll update you later” conversation – you can simply record your Teams meeting.
The recording captures everything, video, screen share, presentations, whiteboard, everything and unlike Skype for Business (RIP), the meeting is stored in Office 365 Cloud with a link provided within the meeting chat / or Teams space.
What’s more, attendees of the meeting can also search the meeting (yes it transcribes the audio to text) and jump to the point in time of the meeting where a particular phrase or topic was talked about.
7. Live Captions helps with Accessibility
While today only available in English, every call and meeting in Teams support real-time live captioning allowing participants to read subtitles.
This is a game changing feature for any attendees who may be hard of hearing, or have different levels of language proficiency. More languages are rolling out shortly we are told.
8. Finally – Secure and Control your meetings
Making sure only the people you intend to join your meeting can join, participate and see content is key – after all you wouldn’t let a random person into your office and into your in-person meetings unless they were invited.
Teams provides meeting organisers with options to allow them to define the roles and permissions for attendees of their meetings. These can also be set and controlled in part by IT admins at a organisation level if needed.
Meeting organisers can choose to (or not to):
Enable the meeting lobby feature (its on by default), which lets the organiser define when and who is admitted into the meeting – this can include automatically people from your organisation but not guests, allowing or not allowing PSTN dial-in users to automatically join etc.
Designating who can present, mute attendees, and start/stop recordings.
Privacy is a right within Teams and is always secure
Teams does not disclose things like IP addresses or computer names or any other information that could identify the machine or user to anyone not specifically invited and all recorded content is under the control and access by the organiser / presenters.
Finally – if your organisation uses technology like Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to protect sensitive or GDRP type data, then these polices also flow into Teams, meaning confidential or sensitive data not allowed to be shared outside your business still cant – even in Teams! – this is not covered in depth here by the way!
Stay safe, stay in doors and work smart!
Thats it from me – hope you find this useful. Look forward to hearing how you are getting on during COVID-19 lock down.
Microsoft’s Azure Cloud and Office 365\Teams collaboration services have seen a significant, in fact colossal, spike in usage over the past week as companies globally continue to deal with an increase in remote workers due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and lock downs that are being put in place to help control the infection rate and curb the impact on the world’s health services like our incredible NHS.
Microsoft said yesterday that in the last week it has seen a 775% increase in the use of its cloud services in regions where enforced social distancing and lock downs have been put in place such as here in the UK, most of Europe and many States in the US.
Microsoft Teams is seeing more than 900 million meeting and calling minutes per day.
Microsoft had previously stated just last week that they was prioritising traffic for critical front line and public services such as NHS as well as also tuning and reprioritising services to cope with this unprecedented demand. This includes prior temporary limits on free offers (outside key workers and NHS for example) to prioritise capacity for existing customers and the downgrading of video in Teams for example to help manage traffic. Microsoft has said that these limits are typically being isolated to regions/locations that are seeing the most demand and that customers impacted can use alternative regions to get around some of the performance hits while they even out and scale out their services to handle the new demands.
Last week, Microsoft has some issues with adding new services to Azure in some regions, including the UK which caused them to “drop below the typical 99.99% success rates.”. This was caused by the huge surge in new Azure Virtual Desktop services being spun up as organisations looked to quickly enable remote desktop to facilitate homeworking after the UK mandated work from home as part of the UK Covid19 lock down measures.
COVID-19 sees huge demand and growth
Microsoft said last week that Teams has “seen a very significant spike” in usage and counted more than 44 million daily users. This week new numbers have revealed that last week they also saw more than 900 million meeting and calling minutes per day.
Windows Virtual Desktop has also seen a 300% increase in the last week with hundreds of thousands of new Desktops being added globally.
Other collaboration platforms like Cisco’s Webex and Zoom have seen similar surges in network traffic tied to the COVID-19 outbreak.
It’s not just Microsoft though…
Microsoft of course isn’t the only Web conferencing provider seeing such growth. Other collaboration platforms including Cisco Webex and Zoom have seen similar surges in network traffic tied to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Cisco has also reported large growth and demand and said Webex traffic from China had increased by more than 2,000% since the outbreak began and that more than 30% of its enterprise customers have reached out for help getting their employees set up to work from home.
Since the start of the outbreak, Microsoft, Zoom and Cisco have made their platforms available for free to most businesses affected by COVID-19 and are having to work relentlessly to expand the capacity of their services to ensure as few disruptions as possible…. All have had growing pains and as the lock downs continue globally, it probably won’t be the last time!
I talked yesterday about about the tremedous growth of Teams (partly due to the impact covid-19 is having with increased working from home) but today as Teams Turns 3 a wealth of new features have been announced to the public which focus on two key themes.
Building the very best online meeting experience; and
Bringing technological solutions to traditionally underserved professionals, including firstline and healthcare workers
Here are all the new features coming soon to Microsoft Teams that have been announced today:
Real-time noise suppression during calls, which should help you better understand what your others are saying especially when people are out and about or have poor signal
Raising your hand… When you are in large meetings, a new raise hand feature will let others know you have something to say.
Pop out chats: a features missed by many from Skype for Business, the ability to pop out chats into a separate window is also coming soon after being in private preview for a few months
Offline use :Microsoft Teams is finally getting offline and low-bandwidth support, making the app still useful without an Internet connection
First-line workers using RealWear head-mounted devices will soon be able to get information and communicate hands-free due to new Teams integration.
New collaboration bar devices certified with Teams, such as the Yealink VC210 collaboration bar for meetings.
Microsoft has announced that the daily users of Teams now sits as 44 million (up some 37‰ since last week and have also highlighted a number of global businesses with over 100,000 users on Teams including Accenture, Continental AG, Ernst & Young, Pfizer and SAP which demonstrates the true global scale of Office 365 and Teams.
Microsoft has said that the user count last Wednesday was 32 million, but 12 million have since been added due mainly of course to the impact of travel restrictions brought about globally by COVID-19.
In a statement, reported by CNBC, Microsoft VP Jared Spataro said that the COVID-19 outbreak will be “a turning point for the way people will work and learn, Our customers have certainly turned to Teams during this challenging time, and we’ve seen usage spikes in markets most impacted by COVID-19,”.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO has that “As organisations around the world are changing the way they work in response to this situation, we’re going to learn a tremendous amount to transform how we work together”
We are seeing this ourselves at Cisilion where I work as many of our customers are acceleraring their Teams deployment and migrations away from traditional voice solutions, enabling voice in Teams to achieve a truly Unified and integrated experience across Office 365.
When the world finally emerges from the grips of COVID-19, I truly beleive there is going to be fundamental change in how organisations work and transcend some of these geographic boundaries and how they truly empower people to work anywhere.
As part of a huge tech aid programme in response to COVID-19, Microsoft has made Microsoft Team available to the entire 1.5m NHS workers for free which was announced in a tweet by Simon Eccles, Chief Clinical Information Officer for Health and Care.
Teams free for NHS
NHSX is a UK Government body that has responsibility for setting national policy and developing best practice for the National Health Service (NHS) IT and technology services.
This will allow all NHS organisations that use run NHSmail (a customised and hosted Exchange email service run by Accenture) will now have access to Microsoft Teams, (they will need to configure it or work with a partner or Microsoft Fast Track local administration and configuration). NHS Digital have also said that they will support the implementation of Microsoft Teams locally via its NHSmail support site.
Those NHS organisations that don’t run NHSmail will need to contact Microsoft directly to get access to Microsoft Teams but this will be a simple process.
Whilst Teams is one of the most effective and fluid ways for indivials and teams to communicate, not all conversations are suited in teams. This month (though you have to look for it) there is new 2-way integration between Outlook and Teams to make it easier shift conversations from one medium to another. Users can now:
1. Move an email conversation from Outlook (along with attachments) into a Teams chat or channel conversation by clicking on the ‘’Share to Teams’’ in Outlook.
Outlook to Teams
2. Share a conversation from Teams to an Outlook email by clicking on the more options (‘’…’’) icon in a conversation.
2. Updated @tags in Chats and Channels
Microsoft have made it easier toget connected to right people with “targeted communication”. For example, if you need to send a message to say, all of sales or all managers, it’s now possible to quickly message everyone assigned to a specific tag at the same time by simply @mentioning the tag name in a post. By using tags, team “owners” can now organise users based on a common “tag” , relevant to a role, project, or location etc.
Tagging in channels
3. New File Experience.
The Teams file experience is “powered by SharePoint” and as well as looking a little more modern, includes the ability to sync files to your computer, see rich previews across over 320 file types, create views, see document life-cycle signals, review on-hover file cards, pin files to the top, take actions like check in and check out, and loads more.. In fact everything you can do in SharePoint, because, well.. the Teams file store is SharePoint anyway.
New File Experience
I wasn’t a huge fan of this at first as I quite liked the simplistic view in teams but if you work with files and lot (and have a lot in your teams and channels) then after a few days you’ll wonder how you manged without it! That said.. Be nice if you could tune it a bit to suite.
4. New Live Captions in Meetings
This has actually been in preview for a couple of months so if you, like me have been using it, you may not have realised that it’s now in ‘General availability state’.
Basically, you can use live captions to give subtitles to your Microsoft Teams meetings. Let’s think for a minute.. This is really powerful and great for accessibility but also if you are in a meeting where noisy surroundings (coffee shop, loud office, airport etc) where you may struggle to hear all of what is going on..
With live captions you can turn on live subtitles during your Teams meetings so you never miss what somebody is trying to say as you can read what people are saying in real time. English only at this time with more language support coming soon we are told.
Live captions in Teams
5. New Security and Compliance Features
2 new features were added to a team this month too which bring some of the wider Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance features natively into Teams
Legal Hold for Teams Private Channels
Communication Compliance which helps HR and admin detect capture and take remediation actions should inappropriate communications be used in teams that could impact well being or lead to abuse or bullying.
That’s it for now… Look forward to seeing what’s new in March!
I spend much of time with customers (new and existing) talking about and helping them envisage and recognise the business and worker benefits of adopting a true Modern Workplace.
Modern workplace isn’t really a thing as such. It’s a way of working that supports working where ever and however you need; whether that’s being in the office, your virtual office (anywhere with Internet), customer and partner sites and of course working from home.
The Modern workplace for me consists of a toolkit… For me that’s a Microsoft Surface Device, (I’m currently using a SurfaceProX), MicrosoftTeams and of course my Office Apps and services. It’s also includes my trustworthy Plantronics/Poly 6200 headset and my “carry with me” portable speakerphone the Yealink CP700.
Every agile worker needs a Speaker Phone
Mobility and productivity is always important when I am out and about since I still need to communicate and collaborate in the same way no matter where I am working. MicrosoftTeams makes this really easy but when I’m in a Teams call with a customer who, does have Teams or a decent meeting room/video conferencing solution I find my self using Teams from my Surface.. This is where a portable speakerphone is key.
Late in 2019, Yealink released its CP700 portable speakerphone which since getting hands on one has been simply brilliant. I’m fortunate to get to test out a fair bit of kit from our technology partners and for me a good test of what puts one audio device (in this case a speakerphone/ ahead of another is about 4 things
How simple it is to use
The build quality and design
High Quality Audio (pick up and receive)
Clever Connectivity Options
So how did the Yealink CP700 do in my experience?
Introducing the Yealink CP700?
The Yealink CP700 ticks all these boxes and it’s certified for both Teams and Skype for Business.
Yealink CP700
Simple and intuitive to use The CP700 has Multiple buttons with LED indicators which provide easy-to-understand guidance with no training needed. Since it’s a Teams certified device (meaning it’s not just a USB speakerphone) it has deep integration with Microsoft Teams and even has dedicated Teams button, making it even easier to achieve Teams collaboration with a single touch (whether you are using on your smart phone or connected to your laptop/tablet
Build Quality and Design This looks and feels like a premium high quality device and it is! It support USB (C) and Bluetooth connectivity (to multiple devices), is extremely light (just 220g) has gently lit LEDs which seem to be ambiant light aware and has a great little pop out stand to allow you to angle the speaker as needed. There’s also a muti colour led ring around the centre of the device for connectivity status and things like volume (a bit like Amazon’s alexa).
Yealink CP700 (Teams)
The CP700 is ideal for on-the-go use but also works really well as for semi-perminant set up in a hone office or break out space for example. The included protective protective pouch comes in handy too.
High quality audio The CP700 HD audio sound quality is incredible with a perfect balance of bass, mid and treble for clear and natural sound.
It includes omnidirectional microphone and full-duplex allows meeting participants to be heard and involved in the meeting. Feedback from colleagues at the remote end is always really great compared to using your laptop speaker and mic and most say better then when I use a headset.
Clever Connectivity options The Yealink CP700 is able to pair with not 2 but with 3 Bluetooth-enabled devices simultaneously. This means that calls from two different devices can be merged into one, by connecting the CP700 through Bluetooth on one device, and with USB-C connection on another device.
Summary
If you work remotely or ever need to run or join Teams call from home, customer offices or in break outs/hotels etc, the Yealink CP700 is a must. Yes there’s others from other vendors but this is one of the best I’ve used to date. (Feb 2020)
The attractive price point, high quality and fashionable design with easy to use features offer a high quality user experience for all participants.
I talk to a lot of customers about Exchange Online and about the need and desire to use 3rd party add on services like backup, DLP threat protection and archiving.
Many don’t realise or are not up to date on the continuous updates and improvements to Exchange Online in particular and it’s unlimited archive feature is just one of the services that could help you save costs and simplify your management. That’s not to say there is never a need for 3rd party complementary services (there is sometimes a use case), but I wanted to highlight the power and extent of this archive feature.
What is “unlimited archiving”
Exchange Online Archiving is an enterprise-class service that assists these organizations with their archiving, compliance, regulatory, and e-discovery challenges while simplifying their on-premises infrastructure, thereby saving costs and easing the IT management overhead. (source:Microsoft)
In Exchange Online, Microsoft provides archive mailboxes which provide users with additional mailbox storage space. Once a user’s archive mailbox is enabled (it’s not on by default), up to 100 GB of additional storage is made available automatically.
Previously, whilst this feature did exist, it was quite hidden away and the only way to active it was to contact Microsoft and request additional storage space for an archive mailbox. This is no longer required and the process is fully automated (if enabled).
This “unlimited archiving” feature called auto-expanding archiving, provides additional storage in archive mailboxes once the storage quota in the primary archive mailbox is reached. Exchange Online then automatically increases the size of the archive, meaning users won’t run out of mailbox storage space and Exchange Admins don’t need to traukt through storage alterts, respond to help desk requests or contact Microsoft to request additional storage for archive mailboxes.
How auto-expanding archiving works
Once enabled, Exchange Online periodically checks the size of the users archive mailbox. When an archive mailbox gets close to its storage limit, it automatically creates additional storage space for the archive. Should this space also run out (now that’s a lot of mail), more space is automatically added to the user’s mail archive meaning now additional management the archive is needed. Here’s how it works.
Image from docs.microsoft.com
Archiving is enabled for a user mailbox or a shared mailbox. An archive mailbox with 100 GB of storage space is created, and the warning quota for the archive mailbox is set to 90 GB.
Exchange Online admin enables auto-expanding archiving for the mailbox.
When the archive mailbox (including the Recoverable Items folder) reaches 90 GB, it’s converted to an auto-expanding archive, and extra storage space is added to the archive.
What gets moved to the archive storage space?
The process is fully automatic. In order to make efficient use of auto-expanding archive storage, folders may get moved as part of the archive move.
What items and folders are moved is determined by Exchange Online whenever additional storage is added to the archive. Sometimes when a folder is moved, one or more subfolders are automatically created and items from the original folder are distributed to these folders to facilitate the moving process.
When viewing the archive portion of the folder list in Outlook or Outlook Online, these subfolders are displayed under the original folder.
The naming convention used to name these subfolders is <folder name>_yyyy (Created on mmm dd, yyyy h_mm), where:
yyyy is the year the messages in the folder were received.
mmm dd, yyyy h_m is the date and time that the subfolder was created by Office 365, based on the user’s time zone and regional settings in Outlook.
What about Compliance and Data Governance?
eDiscovery: if your organisation uses Office 365 eDiscovery, such as Content Search or In-Place eDiscovery, the additional storage areas in an auto-expanded archive are also searched.
Retention: When a mailbox is placed “on hold” by using tools such as Litigation Hold in Exchange Online or if an Office 365 eDiscovery case holds and retention policies in the security and compliance center, content located in an auto-expanded archive is also placed on hold.
Messaging records management (MRM): If you use MRM deletion policies in Exchange Online to permanently delete expired mailbox items, expired items located in the auto-expanded archive will also be deleted.
PST Import service: You can use the Office 365 Import service to import PST files to a user’s auto-expanded archivenof up to 100 GB of data.
Common Questions
Can I access my archive at anytime or does need IT input? You can access any folder in thearchive mailbox, including ones that were moved to the auto-expanded storage area.
What about search? Can I search items in the archive? Yep.. But the search process is a little different. You can search for items that were moved these additional storage area but only by searching the folder itself. If the archive folder contains subfolders, you have to search each subfolder separately. This is due to performance and speed since the archive folders are stored on lower tier disks within Exchange Online (well it is an archive).
Can I delete items from the mail archive? Yes, You can delete items in a subfolder that points to an auto-expanded storage area, but the folder itself cannot be deleted manually.
Interested to hear how other Exchange Online Archiving compares and if you see the need for 3rd parties still…?
Yes – you read that correctly. At Ignite in November 2019, Microsoft announced a new set of features to provide tighter integration between Microsoft Teams and Outlook aimed to:
Help ensure conversations that are meant for Teams can be easily “moved” to Teams and
To ensure that users/groups that aren’t yet using Teams can still be included in conversations by allowing chats/discussions to be “shared” to Outlook.
Part 1 – Teams to Outlook
The first part of this integration is rolling out now (probably already in your Teams experience – go check). This now gives users the ability to share a Teams conversation to Outlook.
To do this, select any message in your private or Team Channel chat, click on the … (the three dot ellipses) menu and choose Share to Outlook.
This shares the message and all it’s replies to Outlook.
The Outlook-WebApp window will open up and you can add any comments, customise the email and of course add the recipients to the email message. You can add/do all the other things you’d expect in an email message (it is an email message) and can even apply sensitivity information if configured.
When you are happy with your email, just click send!
What the recipient sees
The recipient (yes I did email myself for this example), sees the email and the Teams conversation thread in their email box. From here, they can click on “Go To Teams” to join and carry on the conversation within Teams or can of course, respond to the email directly in email.
When and Why should I use this?
I have been asked this three times today since making people aware of this nice (or not feature), but this wouldn’t have been added to Teams unless there is a need and demand for it.
As far as I see it, there will always be a time/situation when you need to share some information that is within Teams to people who are not in your Team site – or of course there will be those users that may well be in the Team but still live their life in email and simple “don’t use teams”
This feature makes this really easy to do without the need to try to copy and past or take screen shots of your Teams Chat.
Be careful..
Whilst a useful feature, please be careful….as this can lead to chats moving outside your Teams chat and breaking the very heritage of that concept of chat…..
Another…. since this feature makes it really easy to share information that is within Team to an email thread and therefore potentially to people outside of this Team or chat.
Therefore, IMO it is important to make sure that sensitivity labels and DLP are enabled to help ensure your business can still protect sensitive information and prevent chats meant from Teams from being shared in the right way.
Oddly….
At the time of writing, there seems to be no way of “replying directly into a Team” from the email message other than a link to “Go to Teams“. As Microsoft add more context based replies to Outlook, this might be a feature that lights up.
Microsoft has announced that they are no longer planning to release the Surface Hub 2X processor upgrade cartridge originally planed for released this year that would have allowed existing SurfaceHub2S owners to upgrade the processor and Graphics Processing Unit through a special cartridge upgrade that would enable a host of new cool features including advanced tiling, multi device tiling and fluid device rotation, essentially turning the Surface Hub 2S into what they called the SurfaceHubX
For the record, Microsoft has said they will still be developing the promised tiling and rotation features which “might not require an upgrade for Surface Hub 2S customers, or they might not require a paid compute cartridge swap,”. “We don’t have plans to release a compute cartridge in 2020, because the best way to release those capabilities — tiling and rotation – may not require us to take that path.” Microsoft have said in a leaked partner webinar.
Is not all doom and gloom though as there is actually some long awaited good news still coming for all existing SurfaceHub owners.
Huge software coming instead for SurfaceHub 1 and 2S
Microsoft are planning to release a “major software update” for Surface Hub 1 and Surface Hub 2 customers which will be based on the first 2020 release of Windows 10. This will include much needed deployment, and manageability features as well as new features for users. Microsoft have said they will be releasing this update free of charge for all Surface Hub v1 and Surface Hub 2S devices, whereas the (un unnouced) price-tag 2X processor cartridge upgrade would have only been available for Surface Hub 2S devices.
No Windows 10X OS upgrade though yet
While this update will be based on the latest Windows 10 release, it will not get (for the time being at least) Microsoft’s upcoming modern Windows Core OS platform that will power new Windows 10X devices like the upcoming Surface Neo and other manufacturer mid form and fold devices.
Microsoft’s plans to release both Surface Hub 2S display monitor for other devices to connect to is still planned for 2020, though as is the release of a new 85″ Hub 2S
Reaching out to Microsoft for an update yesterday we have been told that “The top two priorities for Hub in 2020 are deploying the 85” device and rolling out an OS update that includes many top features customers have been requesting since Surface Hub 2S launched, including improving IT integration, deployment and management capabilities at no cost for all version 1 Hubs and Hub 2S devices. We’ll have more to share in the coming months
That’s it for now.. . What are your thoughts? Do you use Hub1? What updates do you hope for the most?
Microsoft has unveiled its first official TV advert for #MicrosoftTeams which aired this weekend. The slick 30-second ad aired during Sunday’s NFL playoff in the US, and will also be shown here in the UK as well as France, and Germany next month.
Called “The Power of Teams,” the advert opens with old skool boring business meetings, flip charts, aging spider speaker phones, and slidedecks printed on paper. The advert then quickly progresses to show how modern meeting experiences within Teams can transform the workplace.
Microsoft defines Teams as “the hub for Teamwork and #Microsoft365“ and claims to define the way forward for the Modern Workplace and to support the needs of today’s modern and agile workforce which now spans across 5 generations.
After what is almost a year-long journey of testing and feedback from the #edgeinsider community, Microsoft’s new Chromium Edge browser has taken off its’ beta badge and you can now download and use the final release version which is available from today!
Click the blue Download for Windows 10 button and download the new Edge web browser as a .exe file
Run the installer and let it install the new Chromium powered Edge… It will take few minutes to install.
Once done, set up the browser to your liking and take it for a test spin..
Remove your old Google Chrome!! Once your concinved of course!
If you’ve been using the old version of Edge, you will hopefully notice that it has been removed from your Windows 10 PC. New Edge replaces and “hides” the old Edge but you can still get to it should you wish too… You won’t want to!
What is new with Chromium Edge?
Errm.. EVERYTHING.
There is so much new in this version of Edge and its a total rewrite built based on the open platform that is Chromium of which Microsoft and Google are of course major contributors…. (feel like I should queue the “everything is awesome” music from Lego Movie!
What is immediately noticeable (in my view) is the speed and performance increase over old Edge and infact Google Chrome.. Support for a huge number of extensions also sets this apart…
Since Edge is jot standalone, it’s updated regularly… At least every 6 weeks. There are also beta, dev and canary builds you can try which update more frequently if you want to try and feedback on new things as part of the #edgeinsider community. I’ve been running the canary build for about a year since it was first announced..
In a way, I do wish they had changed the name as I don’t think Edge has a good rep as a name and people will immediately think its rubbish…
Fact… It isn’t.. It is really great IMO anyway!
Love to hear your feedback as would #edgeinsider if you are twitter.
Microsoft are about to roll out (early Feb 2020) changes that replace the existing scheduling form with a new form that retains all existing scheduling functionality but makes it more aligned to the Outlook experience. The core changes include:
Improved view of available time
Allows changing event information from the scheduling assistant tab
Includes an option for required and optional attendees.
Includes search within the location picker field.
New Teams scheduling form can be seen below.
New MicrosoftTeams Scheduling Form
As well as the changes above, there’s a number of additional features including:
All day events option – a new toggle like in outlook that converts meetings to an all-day event.Availability status – provides simple people and location search which provides a visual (red) indicator to indicate non-availability on people or resources.
Cancellation with message – provides ability to provide and edit a message when cancelling an event if desired (again similar to what Outlook offers today).
Tabs in edit/view mode – these tabs provide easy access to things like chat, meeting notes, files, scheduling assistant, and of course the meeting whiteboard.
Time zone picker – which now finally allows meeting organisers to select the time zone they wish to use for the meeting.
That’s it… The new update is rolling out in the next few weeks so look out for it.
#MicrosoftTeams and #Outlook integration was announced and Ignite last month and is getting ready to start rolling out this January.
This will include three features designed to help users more easily shift conversations in email (that are really better suited to chat) move / shift the conversation to #MicrosoftTeams.
This will include.
1. Sharing an email message directly to Teams (without having to get the Team email address from the Team site first) which allows the sharing of a copy of an email and any attachments from Outlook to a channel or chat within Team
2. Share a conversation via email allowing a copy of a Teams channel or chat conversation via email directly from the Teams client.
3. Reply to Teams missed activity email directly within Outlook clients, as well as seeing the latest missed messages.
Like many, we are thinking about what things to give up, things to start doing and things we want to do better in 2020. When it comes to our work and the things we do how about thinking about how we can work more efficiently when we return to work this week or next…
You see, people are seen to be as collaborating if one person edits and shares a document (or presentation, spreadsheet, onenote etc), and then at least one other person accesses it or collaborates on the same version of that document.
So what – why are you telling me this?
The more people collaborate, the more they’ll invest in each other’s ideas, which in turn leads to efficient authoring, easier interaction, faster response and more agile decision making. It can also be more secure since access to these documents is controlled, the files don’t end up being shared all over the place (un trackable) via email and everyone is “on the same page”.
Since we are all part of multiple teams within our roles at work, taking these simple steps will help you to save time ever day while increasing your content collaboration, improving security and compliance within the organisation and making it more efficient and effective to work on or update files together rather than emailing multiple versions backwards and forward via email like we did in the 90s (and many still do today).
Here’s some tips to get you more productive
1. Encourage yourself and others to collaborate better
It’s a proven fact that we work more effectively when we collaborate better. Many of is though, still save our files locally or use VPNs (yes they are still a thing apparently for remote access) and then share files (which we expect people to comment and collaborate on via email attachments).
Let’s be honest, no one likes trying to merge all the changes from the many reply to all emails you get back with multiple versions of the same file (especially when everyone has different ideas or responds to an out of date version).
Improve your collaboration posture, your security ying and yang and be more productive… Heres a short little video to introduce (ok hopefully remind you) of the benefits of saving and sharing files in the cloud, co-authoring in real time, and collaborating with comments and @ mentions.
2. Learn about and adopt the benefits of cloud storage
Hopefully your not still storing stuff on your un protected (not backed up) desktop or using old school file shares.
Using OneDrive (thereby storing files in the cloud) means they’re always backed up, available from other devices, and set up for real-time collaboration and secure file sharing. Watch this quick video to understand the benefits using OneDrive has for you.
3. Replace those email attachments with “shared links”
Rather than sending files via attachments, it far more effective to share a link to your file (assuming you’ve saved it in OneDrive, Teams or SharePoint) within your email message. This way everyone (you decide) can view and update (if you give them permission) the file and see changes and collaborate in real time. This is also far more secure as you prevent recipients downloading or editing the file plus you can always revoke permissions if you wish.
You mentioned the word score? How is productivity measured?
That’s right. It’s now (well it’s in Public Preview right now) to measure how productive your organisation is through a new service within Office 365 called “Productivity Score”.
Productivity Score provides insights that help transform how work gets done. It aims to provide your organisation visibility into how your organisation works, insights that identify where you can enable improved experiences so people can reach their goals, and actions to update skills and systems so everyone can do their best work.
Productivity Score Summary
There are two categories that your (organisation) score is built from, the employee experience and the technology experience and both include a benchmark that helps you compare how you are doing compared to organisation similar to yours (based on size, geography and sector).
The employee experience shows how Microsoft 365 is helping to create a productive and engaged workforce by quantifying how people collaborate on content, work from anywhere, understanding communication styles, and developing a meeting culture.
The technology experience helps you ensure the technology isn’t getting in the way by assisting you optimise your device experiences such as proactively remediating common helpdesk issues and improving PC startup times, and your network to ensure your apps work well.
Available today (registration/sign up request required until it releases formally in early 2020) in the Office 365 Admin Centre.
For more information from Microsoft on this as it develops read the following blog.
That’s it from me. Welcome any feedback and comments and in the mean time Happy Xmas and all the best for 2020!
After abruptly ending production of the original SurfaceHub in 2017, Microsoft originally announced the Surface Hub 2 in April 2018 with an impressive marketing video. In September 2018, we learned more about the reality and timeline of this new device with a “phased launch plan” which saw the introduction of two models: the Surface Hub 2S and the SurfaceHub2X.
SurfaceHub2S
The SurfaceHub2S arrived this year (we got ours delivered in August). This came with an impressive new premium design, looking for like a giant SurfacePro with a modest internals upgrade, superior new 4k screen, plus ability to have it roam on a lightweight battery powered stand. From a software perspective however, it’s identical to the original Surface Hub.
Surface Hub 2X
The SurfaceHub2X was promised for sometime in 2020 with all the new features showcased in the exciting promo video, complete with a rotating display and a software experience that enables seamless transitions between display modes, in addition to other features like active tiling.
As we come closer to this 2020 date, new details of the SurfaceHub2X are now beginning to come to light such the changes to the OS that are expected to power the new device (or upgrade module that will be available for the SurfaceHub2S). While not a suprise to many (and to honest, expected) Surface Hub 2X could ship with a variant of the Windows Core OS that was originally announced at the tail end of 2018.
What’s the big difference?
Unlike the original SurfaceHub and SurfaceHub2S which runs WindowsTeam edition, it is beleived that a varient of Windows Core OS (Windows 10X) will power the SurfaceHub2X when it ships next year. We also expect this to be an upgrade option (via upgraded interface card) for the existing SurfaceHub2S.
SurfaceHub2X Promo
When in 2020 can I get one?
We need to wait a little longer to hear exactly when. If this is indeed dependant on the release of Windows10X which is not expected until mid 2020 at the earliest we could be in for a longish wait…
… But bear in mind the SurfaceHub2S will have upgrade options…
….is a cloud-based phone system built and priced specifically for small and medium businesses which was announced at Ignite earlier this month and is available now.
Microsoft Business Voice enables users to make, receive, and transfer calls to and from landlines and mobile phones on the public switched telephone network (PSTN) directly into Microsoft Teams and/or on Teams certified desk phones, meeting room technology of course corporate or user owned smartphones (which can be protected and data governed by Microsoft Intune and Conditional Access naturally).
Microsoft Cloud Voice extends the functionality of Microsoft Teams bringing together all your calling, chat, and meetings in a single app across any platform, browser or mobile device removing the need for separate/third party web and audio conferencing services and IP Phone/PBX.
This is the same service (complete with SLAs) that Microsoft has provided with Teams (and Skype for Business Online before that) in Office 365 Enterprise, but much more attractively priced for organisations up to three hundred users. (these plans can also be mixed between plans).
This new plan/add-on provides:-
Unified calling & voicemail with chat and meetings in Microsoft Teams
1,200 minutes per use and ability to migrate existing numbers
Global dial-in conferencing capabilities for up to 250 participants
Extend voice services into meeting rooms with Teams Room Systems
Full IVR and auto-attendant services
Support Teams desk phones or break free with soft-client and mobile
What does it cost? Licensing for Microsoft 365 Business Voice Is limited to a maximum of 300 users and Is add-on service and Is available for any customers who have Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 E3, A3 and Microsoft 365 Business, and Microsoft F1, E1, A3, & E3.
The Business Voice add-on license is available for just £12 per user per month via web-direct or via your CSP Partner
This is excellent value When you think this removes the need to use addition phone system (and charges) or 3rd party web / audio conferencing services like Zoom or WebEx (which is ~£25 pupm alone) – you get a hell of lot of bang for your buck (or pound).
Existing organisations already using Microsoft Cloud Voice, can leverage this discounted bundle for up to three hundred users also, so you could save some good money!
Today saw Day 1 of Microsoft’s Annual Ignite conference in Orlando.
As expected there was a lot of hot (mainly Teams and Azure) news announced first thing and after reading many of the blogs, tweets and linked in posts, I’ve tried to summarise and include all the main (and my favourite) highlights (so far) in this one post.
This will likely be out of date before I finishing writing it, as there will be other “smaller” announcements through the day and into the rest of the week. We have also seen some other key big announcements from Microsoft partners and even their “competition” all Microsoft focused of course.
1. Microsoft Teams: Wealth of new features and integrations from Cisco and Zoom.
As expected, Microsoft Teams got some big announcements today, with the much anticipated roll out (this week) of secure private channels. Also announced was early 2020 roll out of pinned channels, multi-window chats and meetings. Microsoft also announced new integrations with To Do, Microsoft Planner, Project, Outlook, Yammer and the newly updated Power Platform.
2. Breaking down the vendor wars with improved meeting room and interop between Cisco and Zoom
Microsoft and Cisco have announced a partnership to work together to simplify the interop between Microsoft Teams Rooms and Phone System with Cisco Webex Room devices and IP voice gateways respectively and includes three new initiatives to help customers to get more out of their current investments.
Cloud Video Interop (CVI): Cisco Webex will introduce an interop solution that will be certified as a Microsoft Cloud Video Interop (CVI) solution and will allow Cisco Webex Room devices and SIP video conferencing devices to join Microsoft Teams meetings with a reliable interop experience. Coming early FY20.
Direct guest join, for meeting room devices: Cisco and Microsoft are also working together on a new approach that enables meeting room devices to connect to meeting services from other vendors via embedded web technologies. They announced a new “direct guest join” capability from their respective video conferencing device to the web app for the video meeting service.
Direct Routing for Phone System: At the heart of Microsoft Teams Direct Routing are Session Border Controllers (SBC). Since many customers also use Cisco Networking technology including SBCs and want both companies to provide joint solutions that do not require replacement of key infrastructure. Support for Cisco as a certified SBC is due in CY2020.
Zoom and Microsoft also announced that they have worked together to enhance conference room interoperability and simplify how users connect to third-party meetings.
This Zoom and Microsoft collaboration provides interoperability between the Zoom conference room solutions to provide streamlined meeting experiences. This will mean Zoom Rooms will be able to join Microsoft Teams meetings and Microsoft Teams Rooms will be able to join Zoom meetings, all without the purchase of additional licenses or third-party services. This is coming early CY2020.
3. Microsoft Flow is renamed to “Power Automate”
So this might take some time to grow on me, but Microsoft Flow, is being renamed to Power Automate. The name change was announced to allow the platform to “better align” with the wider Power Platform. Microsoft Flow (Sorry Automate) is also getting new a bunch of new features including Robotic process automation (RPA) for automating complex processes that span legacy and modern applications.
4. New: Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Microsoft Endpoint Manager is an integrated solution that promised to centrally and securely manage all of the endpoints across an organisation. This the next major milestone for Intune and will bring together Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager functionality while also adding a new intelligent actions and analytics.
Endpoint Manager will deliver a unified, seamless, end-to-end management for Windows, Android and Apple devices, apps, and policies without the complexity of a migration or disruption to productivity.
Expected in Q1 of 2020, Microsoft have also said they will be making Intune available to all existing SCCM customers for Windows PC management, meaning that Starting on 1st December 2019, customers can start to co-manage these devices in Microsoft Endpoint Manager, and start using cloud-powered features like Autopilot and Desktop Analytics.
5. New Chromium-based Edge: Jan 15 2020 Release
Actually one of my favourite #Geekouts right now – Microsoft has said that January 15, 2020 will be be for official release date of their new Chromium-based Edge browser for Windows and Mac. Microsoft announced that a “release candidate” build is available to download today in more than 90 languages which can be installed alongside the Canary, Dev, or Beta builds you may already be running or testing.
If you are a big Google Chrome fan, I urge you to try this out – its a really great browser and has loads of enterprise features built right in including native integration with your Office 365 environment.
I’ve been using this for a while (well a week or so) and today Microsoft is making this generally available for preview. The new Office Mobile app for iOS and Android combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint functionality into a a simple single mobile app, similar to the old Office Hub on Windows Phone for those that remember it!. The new app has a really useful comes with an “Actions” pane, with easy access to common tasks, including scanning documents.
7. New: Project Cortex – a Microsoft 365 application that leverages AI to help better organise company data
Microsoft today, announced Project Cortex, the first new Microsoft 365 app since the announcement of Microsoft Teams that uses AI to analyse business data and in turn create a kind of neuro-knowledge network. The app will be able to organise data into different projects and customers, and make it easier for employees to find important info that can be buried in documents, conversations, or videos across their hybrid IT environment. This to me sounds a bit like Delve on steroids and one I need to read a bit more on (as I’m sure you will too), but it seems to be able to recognise data in documents and pull them together into actionable and useful information.
The follow video is quite an easy watch and shows some of the work they have done with early adopter customers https://youtu.be/K0Y15WKXuws
