Deploy custom business applications with ease with the Office 365 Centralized Deployment service

[Sonal Pardeshi]

We are delighted today to announce the general availability of the Centralized Deployment service!

Centralized Deployment enables you as the Office 365 admin, to deploy Office web add-ins to individual users, groups or the organization from the Office 365 Admin Center or using PowerShell scripts. Once deployed, Office users can automatically see the add-in installed and ready to use in Office applications such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint on Windows, Mac or Office Online.

Centralized Deployment in Office 365 Admin Center

What you need to know 

• Support for Windows, Mac and Office Online - for Word, Excel and PowerPoint
  • Add-Ins are automatically deployed on client boot
  • If the Add-In supports Add-In Commands, its buttons will appear automatically on the ribbon.
• Use Office Admin Center or PowerShell
  • Use either Office 365 Admin Center or PowerShell to deploy, assign and modify Add-Ins
• Acquire add-ins from Store or Directly via manifest
  • Acquire and assign from the Office Store if the manifest is same across users
  • Upload via add-in manifest when for example a custom add-in is developed internally for your organizations use by a system integrator or other software vendors

How customers are leveraging Centralized Deployment

Several global customers are already using Centralized Deployment today. See how Genetec Inc., an Office 365 customer, is using this service to solve their organizations needs with the Qorus Office 365 add-ins for RFP's.

"With Office 365 Centralized Deployment we could deploy Qorus easily to our global user base and the process is transparent to users - when they open Microsoft Word or PowerPoint they find the add-in already installed.” - Eric Jacobs, Genetec Inc.

Get started with Centralized Deployment !

      Verify compatibility

• IT admins can review requirements documentation or run a script to determine if the organization has the correct configuration to use Centralized Deployment
• Individuals in the organization can use the deployment compatibility checker add-in to verify supported versions of Office and Exchange. 

           Centralized Deployment compatability checker add-in

      How to access Centralized Deployment from Office 365 Admin Center 

1. Log into your Office 365 account. On the Office 365 portal, from the app launcher , select the Admin tile from the list of web apps and services.
2. Once you are in the admin portal, select from the left navigation, Settings -> Services & add-ins, from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Services & add-ins page, select Upload add-in, to launch the Centralized Deployment dialog and follow instructions to upload your add-ins.

     

      Learn more

• Centralized Deployment Admin Center documentation
• PowerShell documentation
• Determine if Centralized Deployment of add-ins works for your Office 365 organization

• Watch the Intro to Centralized Deployment video

Frequently asked questions:

Q. How do you target add-in user assignments with Centralized Deployment?

A. Centralized Deployment supports users in top-level groups, Office 365 Groups, distribution lists and security groups that are top-level groups supported by Azure Active Directory.

Q. How do I know if my organization is set up for Centralized Deployment?

A. Centralized Deployment requires a recent version of Microsoft Office and OAuth enabled version of Exchange. IT admins can run a quick test to ensure compatibility and determine if their organization has the correct configuration prior to getting started. 

Q. What languages and worldwide Office data centers are supported?

A. Today, we have worldwide support for Centralized Deployment for all supported Office languages. We also support the Microsoft Office sovereign datacenters for Germany, with support for Chinese sovereign deployment coming later in the year.

Q. What type of deployment telemetry is available?

A. Telemetry will be available shortly for IT admins to see data about deployments and usage in reports in the Office 365 admin center, and for developers to see their add-in deployments in the Office ISV Seller Dashboard, their developer portal.

Q. Can IT admins and users turn off add-ins?

A. IT admins may turn on or off the add-ins they deploy for all users from the Office 365 admin center. Soon, we will support the ability for users turn off add-ins that are deployed to them, so they are no longer shown on the Office applications ribbon.

Q. How do I deploy Outlook add-ins?

A. Centralized Deployment currently supports Word, Excel and PowerPoint add-ins on Windows, Mac or Office Online. Today, you can deploy Outlook add-ins from the Exchange management pages. This experience will merge with Centralized Deployment shortly.