Microsoft 365 innovations for small and medium business in 2023
Brenna Robinson, General Manager, Modern Work, Small and Medium Business We’ve been busy building new products and features for Microsoft 365—all so you can be more productive, creative and grow your customer base. From enabling payments right in the Teams app to enhancing security for your small business, we’ve covered lots of areas this year—and hope to provide even more innovations in 2024. Expand your business Microsoft Teams Payments app In May, we added the Payments app to Microsoft Teams. Getting paid for appointments, classes, and webinars becomes much easier with the Payments app—letting you easily manage and collect your funds from inside a Teams meeting. To make the app a seamless experience, we partnered with leading players in the payments space—a necessary step, since Payments combines collaboration capabilities with ecommerce. The partner support from PayPal, and Stripe mean easier interactions with customers and faster payments for you. Find out how to get started Microsoft Teams In November, we expanded our support for service-oriented small businesses by adding Microsoft Bookings to Microsoft Teams Essentials. Using the Bookings app your customers can easily book a meeting with you or one of your employees, freeing you up from the routine task of scheduling. The schedule synchs for all your Teams users and integrates seamlessly with Teams to enable virtual meetings, too. Of all the apps in the Microsoft 365 portfolio, our customers consistently identify Teams as one of its most indispensable resources once they use it for the first time. If you’re not yet a Teams user, try Microsoft Teams Essentials now without commitment—it's free for 30 days for all US customers. 1 We also made it easier for admins to set up Teams without having to navigate the Teams Admin Center or the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. There’s now an easy and intuitive Admin app inside Microsoft Teams that provides recommendations for your specific settings needs. You can enable or disable features or ask for Microsoft support all without leaving Teams. The app is automatically installed and available to admins in businesses with less than 25 users. This experience is being rolled out gradually to users. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can download in the Teams app store. Unlock the power of Microsoft Teams by connecting with industry experts to get your questions answered about how to integrate Teams into your operations. Use the following links to learn more about each webinar and register. North and South Americas, Europe time zones January 16, 9:00 am PST: Protect and enhance meeting experience with Microsoft Teams Premium January 17, 9:00 am PST: Empower your business with Microsoft Teams devices January 18 9:00 am PST: Collaborate with enterprises using M365 MTO and MTMA Boost your brand recognition Microsoft Clipchamp One of our exciting additions to the Microsoft 365 family in 2023 is the new Clipchamp video editor. If you’ve tried to use video editing software before and given up because the learning curve was too steep, then we challenge you to give Clipchamp a try. We designed Clipchamp with ease of use at the top of our priority list, but we didn’t skimp on functionality. It has all the basic editing tools you probably know, such as trimming, cropping, and speed control. But what sets Clipchamp apart is that you’ll be able to use these tools immediately without having to pore over manuals or deal with a lot of trial and error. Clipchamp lets you make high-quality recordings right out of the box. You’ll go from raw footage to a fully edited video smoothly and quickly. When you’re ready to level up your editing, there are more advanced features available like timeline editing and audio processing. Best of all the app is integrated with all your other Microsoft 365 apps and it will even auto-format your video for third-party delivery channels, including Facebook and YouTube. Find out how to access Microsoft Clipchamp Working even smarter and faster Microsoft Loop Another exciting addition to the Microsoft 365 app family is Microsoft Loop. Think of it as an essential co-creation app, supercharged by AI. Loop keeps your work organized by bringing all the parts of your project together in one place—all while giving you and your team the flexibility to collaborate in your preferred app using Loop components. These are portable pieces of content that you can add to any other Microsoft 365 app, including Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and more. Once they’re added, they’ll keep all of your Loop updates synced inside your favorite app so there’s no need to learn another app. The Loop app is available for all Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Microsoft 365 Business Premium customers at no additional charge and you can add it on a mobile app for iOS or Android. Microsoft Teams Phone We’ve added useful new features to Microsoft Teams Phone. First, there’s shared calling, which allows admins to enable a group of licensed users to make and receive phone calls using a single number and calling plan. For example, a single phone number can be shared by all store personnel at a small hardware to be able to make outbound calls to customers and receive incoming calls to the same number. We also included the reverse, namely a private line feature. This lets you set up a second phone number for a single user or group that bypasses any admins, assistants, or delegates. Think of it as a hotline for your most important calls. You can also receive alerts for protected voicemail (encrypted voicemails left by either internal or external callers.) There’s also the new click-to-call feature, which makes it easy for customers to reach your sales and support teams directly from your web page or app. Developers can add, customize, and program the widget to connect customers to a specific Teams user, call queue, or auto attendant. We want you to know about our promotional offer that includes both Microsoft Teams Essentials and Teams Phone with a choice of calling plans. Discover more online or visit your preferred reseller. 2 Join us for an engaging and informative webinar as we delve into the world of the Microsoft Teams Phone and discover how it can revolutionize communication and collaboration for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs). January 15, 9:00 am PST: Grow your business with Microsoft Teams Phone (North and South Americas, Europe time zones) Reliable security in Microsoft 365 fender for Business offerings. Microsoft Defender for Business Cyberattacks are constantly growing more sophisticated and your security needs to keep pace. 3 Traditional security layers like antivirus and antimalware just aren’t enough, which is why we enhanced Microsoft Defender for Business throughout the year. Defender for Business now has next-gen Defender Antivirus which not only protects against known threats, but also identifies and helps protect against emerging dangers. We’ve also added post-breach technologies such as Endpoint Detection and Response, and AI powered Automated Investigation and Remediation and Automatic Attack Disruption. These technologies both detect and respond to threats. We’ve simplified mobile security so employees using Android or iOS devices can stay secure on the go without the need for add-ons or device management. Finally, the new monthly security reports in Defender for Business make it easier to gauge your business’ security status across the entire threat landscape, including access and identity, devices, information control and apps. They also provide recommendations for outstanding issues and closing any gaps that might still be open. Find out more on the Microsoft security web page for small and medium business. Microsoft 365 Business Premium brings the Office apps, Microsoft 365 services and Teams, with a comprehensive security suite to SMBs—offering protection across identity and access with Microsoft Entra ID Plan 1 (formerly Azure AD Premium Plan 1), endpoint security with Defender for Business, protection across email, Teams, OneDrive with Defender for Office 365, data protection with Azure Information protection and device management with Microsoft Intune. Find out more about Microsoft 365 Business Premium Always evolving These are just a few of the new features and capabilities we added to the Microsoft 365 platform in 2023, and we’ve already got more in the works for 2024. We are committed to providing tools that help you move your business forward. Keep current on what’s coming to Microsoft 365, by visiting the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. Resources Find the right Microsoft 365 business plan for you. Learn more about how to set up and use your Microsoft 365 subscription and find tips and templates to help you accomplish your business tasks. Get free resources, tech training, and guidance to keep your business thriving and growing. Partners can access training resources, customer decks and deployment checklists to do more with Microsoft 365. After your one-month free trial, you will be charged the applicable subscription fee. Credit card required. Cancel any time to stop future charges. The discount offer is available to new and existing customers who license a 12-month Microsoft Teams Essentials and Microsoft Teams Phone bundle (with or without a Microsoft Teams calling plan) through Direct and CSP direct channels between July 17, 2023, and June 30, 2024. This promotion is valid in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This annual subscription automatically renews and is subject to recurring billing at the regular price and selected term. Customers can cancel at any time to stop future charges. Microsoft reserves the right to cancel, change, or suspend this offer at any time without notice. 82 percent of ransomware attacks target small businesses per The Devastating Impact of Ransomware Attacks on Small Businesses and cost of cybercrimes to small businesses reached $2.4 billion worldwide in 2021 per Accelerating Our Economy Through Better Security: Helping America’s Small Businesses Address Cyber Threats May 2, 2023.Loop governance, lifecycle, manageability for IT Admins – Nov 2024
Dive into our latest update on Loop governance, lifecycle, and manageability tailored just IT admins! Discover how Loop's seamless integration with Microsoft 365 can transform your team's productivity with real-time co-authoring, versatile components, and enhanced security features. From Copilot Pages to comprehensive manageability roadmap items, this blog has everything you need to confidently pilot and fully enable Loop in your organization.
NOW ON DEMAND | Microsoft Loop Learning Series [Six webinars]
Are you ready to learn more about Microsoft Loop? We have five upcoming Loop events for you – numerous opportunities to see Microsoft Loop in action, to learn about upcoming roadmap items and Copilot/AI innovations, ask questions, get time-saving tips and tricks, and provide direct feedback to the Loop product team.How Microsoft Teams + Microsoft Loop can make your meetings better
Meetings are an important way to work together, helping you to connect with others and share information easily and quickly. But if your meetings are not always very effective, you’re in good company. Many small and medium-sized businesses struggle to optimize precious face-to-face time—you may end up having a meeting to discuss results from the previous meeting or leaving meetings with no clear outcomes at all. Collaborative Notes in Microsoft Teams can help. With Collaborative Notes you can organize agendas, take meeting notes, and track tasks together. And because Collaborative Notes are Microsoft Loop components, they automatically sync across all the places you share them. Let’s take a closer look at how a business can use Collaborative Notes. It's all about the agenda An agenda is important for a great meeting. But running a business can be busy. How can you make an agenda, incorporate feedback from the other participants and share it before the meeting? To start a Collaborative Note, click “add an agenda” when creating a meeting in Teams. Once you send the meeting request, everyone invited can easily add, edit, and reorder agenda items. This approach saves you time and effort, but it also results in more productive meetings because it ensures that the most important topics are addressed. Since Collaborative Notes are Loop components you can work on them across other Microsoft 365 web apps, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Whiteboard. Perhaps your business partner can’t attend the meeting, but you’d still like her input on the agenda. Share the Collaborative Note with her in an email and as she provides her input in Outlook, you’ll see her updates in Teams. "When we generate the agenda for an event, like a webinar, it’s very different when we use Loop. With the agenda component, we can collect ideas and ask for feedback before the event. Those requests are just dropped into everyone’s flow of work, so they’re easy to answer and it makes for a far better result than we’d normally get." - Vesku Nopanen, Principal Consultant for the Future of Work at Sulava. Make meetings work for you During a meeting, any participant can use Collaborative Notes to check off or re-order agenda items and take notes and assign follow-up tasks in one central place. For example, you might be preparing a customer pitch or a sales campaign that requires collaborating with people from across your business. During your kickoff meeting, each participant can capture notes, follow-up tasks and timelines related to their role—or tag items for other participants—while seeing everyone else’s notes, too. In the task list, you can use “@” to assign people a task and set a due date. And if you prefer a more visual task list, you can turn your list into a board view. Because Collaborative Notes are Loop components, you can add links and other components directly in the notes. Coordination like this across your business can help make sure that all key aspects of a project are well managed and allow your team to work more effectively. "It’s so cool that whenever I have a Teams Meeting, I can start collaborating without having to think about where the meeting notes should go. I can start work inside Teams and then continue with the same folks or loop in other colleagues if needed." - Karoliina Partanen, Chief Future Scientist at Sulava. Keep the momentum going Now that you’ve had your most productive meeting yet, don’t stop there! Even after the meeting is over, Collaborative Notes help you keep the progress going. Tasks and deadlines created in Collaborative Notes or other Loop components automatically sync with Microsoft Planner and the Microsoft ToDo App. This helps keep everyone informed, accountable and organized. Get started with Collaborative Notes and Loop today If you’re a Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Microsoft 365 Business Premium customer, you can try out Collaborative Notes right now in Microsoft Teams. Find out more about how it works: Take meeting notes in Microsoft Teams. Business Standard and Business Premium customers can also try Loop anytime since it’s part of your subscription. If Collaborative Notes are the start of your project, check out the Loop app where you can create a workspace for all the people and moving parts of your project to come together. It’s the perfect place for your whole team to plan and create collaboratively. Go further with Copilot for Microsoft 365 If you have Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Microsoft 365 Business Premium, you can also purchase Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 as an add-on; Microsoft 365 Business Basic customers will also be able to purchase Copilot. With Copilot in Teams, you can get an AI-driven summary of your Teams meeting and add it to your Collaborative Notes. You can continue using Copilot in the Loop app where you can create and summarize important information quickly and easily. And if these new capabilities seem like something your business needs, but you’re not a Business Standard or Premium customer, then you can change that right now by checking out our Microsoft 365 plans and choosing the one that’s best for you. Resources Find the right Microsoft 365 business plan for your business. Learn more about how to set up and use your Microsoft 365 subscription and find tips and templates to help you accomplish your business tasks. Get free resources, tech training, and guidance to keep your business thriving and growing. Partners can access training resources, customer decks and deployment checklists to do more with Microsoft 365.Adaptive Card-based Loop components – Now in developer preview!
We're thrilled to announce developer public preview for Adaptive Card-based Loop components - which are live and actionable units of productivity that always stay in sync and can move freely across Microsoft 365 apps, starting with Microsoft Teams and Outlook.
