February 2023 kept pace bringing updates across employee experiences and teamwork.
In this episode, we cover: Yammer > Engage rebrand, Viva Topics in Viva Engage, Stream Playlists, SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM), updated OneDrive Home and Shared, external file requests for SharePoint document libraries, export Microsoft Lists as datasets for Power BI, update to rules email notifications, and more. You can listen to the podcast version here and continue to scroll to review further details and screenshots about each feature.
In the podcast episode, I chat with Sesha Mani (LinkedIn | Twitter), Principal group product manager on the SharePoint team focused on admin, security, and compliance. Sesha highlights the value of new SharePoint Advanced Management capabilities when working with proposals, contracts, invoices, and more - to help IT address sprawl and oversharing with a new set of advanced security and content management capabilities - broadly speaking advanced access policies for secure content collaboration AND advanced sites content lifecycle management.
All features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Microsoft 365 as of February 2023 (possibly early March 2023).
Inform and engage with dynamic employee experiences
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Microsoft Syntex | SharePoint Advance Management (SAM) Add-on (GA)
To help SharePoint and IT Admins address sprawl and oversharing, we are thrilled to announce the general availability of Microsoft SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) add-on, a new set of advanced security and content management capabilities.
SharePoint Advanced Management helps when working with proposals, contracts, invoices, and more -- helping IT with advanced access policies for secure content collaboration AND advanced sites content lifecycle management.
The breadth of the SAM add-on offers:
Learn more about SharePoint Advanced Management and read the announcement blog, “Microsoft Syntex – SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) Add-on – Announcing GA.”
Yammer is evolving into Viva Engage aka – “Yammer Is Engaged”
Microsoft announced the intention to rebrand Yammer into Viva Engage to provide a consistent and delightful experience for our customers. This change will happen across all existing Yammer surfaces-- including web, mobile, and integrations (Embed, SharePoint, and Outlook) and will occur throughout 2023. In the coming months you can expect Yammer to become Viva Engage through the update of brand elements like logo, app icon and name.
We had a great discussion with @MichaelHolste and @espnguyen from the Viva Engage team, about the rebrand and new feature set that hit GA this past month. Learn and listen to this unique episode of The Intrazone, "Viva Engage has the answer."
Viva Topics brings new integrations with Viva Engage (formerly Yammer)
Engage is integrating with and adopting Viva Topics to make community-sourced knowledge easily accessible across an organization and support a consistent experience in Microsoft 365. Among others, this brings: 1) Topic cards will show in Engage when you hover over a highlighted topic, and 2) Topic pages and cards will include content from Engage such as questions and answers, and conversations from the relevant community.
Topics are easy to add to your Engage stories and posts, and it offers your audience a way to dive deeper in line with any topics they aren't yet fully up-to-speed on.
Microsoft Stream (on SharePoint): Create, View and Share Playlists
This one is like making a mixed tape for a friend. And hey, your co-worker peers are your work friends. So why not make a mixed tape for them within your organization.
This feature will allow users to organize their video and audio files into a playlist for easy organization, sharing and playback. Playlist creators can share their playlist with others. People with access to the playlist and to the files in the playlist can watch/listen to the video/audio files in order or skip back and forth between items in the playlist - along with the full player capabilities with chapters, closed captions, playback speeds, and more.
Stream playlists are both built and accessed via Microsoft Lists and can use other Lists capabilities. Playlists can be created directly from Stream and via Lists creation flows across Office, SharePoint, and Lists. Users can add any video and audio files to a playlist that they have access to. Playlists can be accessed from stream.office.com or from the Microsoft Lists home page in Microsoft 365.
Teamwork updates across SharePoint team sites, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams
Microsoft 365 is designed to be a universal toolkit for teamwork – to give you the right tools for the right task, along with common services to help you seamlessly work across applications. SharePoint is the intelligent content service that powers teamwork – to better collaborate on proposals, projects, and campaigns throughout your organization – with integration across Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream, Planner and much more.
OneDrive Home, the new landing experience
We have refreshed the OneDrive Commercial Web landing experience to help you get to the files you’re working on quickly and easily. The new OneDrive Home experience surfaces your most recently used files, along with relevant file activity, so you can see everything at a glance and quickly prioritize where to start working.
You will see OneDrive Home when they navigate to OneDrive on the web. This new view shows all of the files that you’ve used, ordered by when you last opened them. You can filter this list by file type to quickly find the file you’re looking for. You’ll also be able to stay up to date on any changes happening in the file with Activity. This new experience appears alongside files organized in folders within your My files view in the left navigation.
Learn more about getting started with OneDrive (for work and school).
New OneDrive Shared Experience
Continuing with OneDrive, we have made updates to the Shared > Shared with you experience that also lives in the left nav on OneDrive Web -- to make it easier for users to quickly get back to shared content.
You will find files and folders shared over email, chats, and meetings all in one place. In addition, you can identify updates to files by using the activity column, as well as leverage filters to easily find files.
SharePoint: External File Request in SharePoint Document Library
Initially, this feature was released for OneDrive. And we're pleased it's now here for SharePoint document libraries. You now have an easy and secure way to request and obtain files from anyone. Just choose a folder in a SharePoint Document Library where others can upload files to - this accomplished with a unique, secure share link that you share with them.
Recipients who upload files to you upon your request can only upload files; they can't see the content of the folder, edit, delete, or download files -- or even see who else has uploaded files. To use this feature in the SharePoint Document Library: 1) Admin enables Anyone links at the tenant level, and 2) Admin configure view, edit, and upload permission for Anyone links.
Export list as a dataset to Power BI
We are adding a new option under the "Export" menu for Microsoft Lists: Export to Power BI. With this feature, users can easily and quickly create a dataset based on their list in the Power BI service, in their environment of choice.
Give it a try | From within your list, click on the Export drop-down menu > Export to Power BI. You’ll land in Data hub within the Power BI service (as pictured above).
Datasets are sources of data that are ready for reporting and visualization in Power BI. This adds to the options of inline reporting with Power BI in Lists, and now the ability to export list data as datasets and use them in the Power BI app.
SharePoint: Update to Rules Email Notifications for Lists and Libraries
Rules can be created for lists and libraries to send automatic email notifications based on events in the target list or library. Previously, these email notifications were sent from SharePoint Online <no-reply@sharepointonline.com>.
To improve the security of the rules feature, email notifications will now be sent from the email account of the user who last modified the rule. If the rule was newly created, this will be the creator's email address.
Related technology
Microsoft Teams: Wiki retirement and the future of note taking in Teams Channels
We are announcing that Wiki's will be retired from Teams. We are offering note taking capabilities through Teams Channels powered by OneNote.
With this release, users have an option to export their wiki content to OneNote notebooks in Teams standard channel. After exporting, users can go to the Notes tab to collaborate using OneNote in channels. Note: With this change users can continue to access and edit existing wikis but can’t create new wikis in Teams channels.
OneNote provides enhanced note taking experiences: Easy collaboration across the team, view all channel notes in a team in one place organized within a single notebook, rich editing with typing, ink annotations, highlighting, file attachments, etc., and easy recall & search for channel notes within OneNote on any platform.
Microsoft Teams: Automatic lowering of a user's Raised Hand after speaking
Keeping your hand raised can be virtually tiring. And when you forget to lower it, you might be prone to your digital hand falling asleep. Got to hand it to the Teams team, this feature alerts you and saves you from that tingling feeling and keep the meeting moving forward.
Attendees in meetings that have raised their hands and have spoken – presuming their question has been addressed – will have the hand automatically lowered; and it’s easy to “Keep it raised.” This will allow meeting organizers to focus on unanswered questions.
Note: This release will be rolling out only to Microsoft Teams Desktop users.
Use Microsoft Teams to produce Yammer Live Events
The value of live events carries forward. It’s the where you start to produce one that has evolved. Live events can be held in a public group to reach all employees or in a private group so that only those with membership in the group can participate.
Yammer live events have historically used Stream live events for video processing. Microsoft is retiring Stream live events in September 2023. Teams live events is the successor service that will allow you to create, host and produce live events within Yammer with the same functionality that you get with Stream.
Note: Live Events videos created using Stream will continue to function - attendees can continue to watch those videos on demand broadcasted on Microsoft Stream. However, you should migrate those videos from Stream to SharePoint.
Schedule Send Suggestions Available in Microsoft Teams Chat
When composing a 1:1 message in Teams chat after-hours, users will see schedule send suggestions that enable postponing message delivery until the start of the chat recipient’s working hours.
Visio Personal App in Teams
Visio will be available as a Teams Personal App. There are no changes to the existing file open behavior, however there are new abilities that the Visio Personal App can provide. With a private workspace, users will be able to view and edit Visio files in a central location without leaving Teams.
You’ll be able to pin the app to the Teams app bar (left rail). From the Visio app home page, you can navigate documents, view recommended files, create new files, and see all the activities on your Visio diagrams.
March 2023 teasers
Psst, still here? Still scrolling the page looking for more roadmap goodness? If so, here is a few teasers of what’s to come to production next month…
… shhh, tell everyone.
Helpful, ongoing change management resources
Thanks for tuning in and/or reading this episode/blog of the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop – February 2023. We are open to your feedback in comments below to hear how both the Roadmap Pitstop podcast episodes and blogs can be improved over time.
Engage with us. Ask those questions that haunt you. Push us where you want and need to get the best information and insights. We are here to put both our and your best change management foot forward.
Stay safe out there on the road’map ahead. And thanks for listening and reading.
Thanks for your time,
Mark Kashman – Senior product manager (SharePoint/Lists) | Microsoft)
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