Starting
in May, Microsoft will offer a preview of Skype for Business PSTN Calling services in
the UK.
With the preview, customers in the UK will be able to trial number
acquisition and assignment, inbound and outbound calling, voicemail and other
features—all provided by Microsoft and seamlessly integrated as part of Office
365. Office 365 customers in the UK can register for the preview today at theSkype Preview sign-up page.
Today, I’m excited to announce that we are activating Yammer for every eligible Office 365 tenant—new and existing—without requiring additional action on the part of admins. This allows all Office 365 customers to gain the full benefits of Yammer. It also marks the culmination of our foundational efforts—including moving Yammer into Microsoft managed datacenters and undertaking identity work with Azure Active Directory—to bring Yammer fully into Office 365.
Seamless availability in Office 365
With this groundwork laid, we’re poised to provide a new set of high-value user and admin scenarios. Every Office 365 user with a Yammer license will be able to easily access Yammer from the Office 365 app launcher or start a Yammer conversation from SharePoint, Office 365 Video Portal and, coming soon, Delve and Skype Broadcast. This enables you and your coworkers to share ideas and work together in the open using Yammer’s flexible workspaces.
Making Yammer available in Office 365 is key to unlocking new experiences for users that span their productivity apps. As a case in point, Yammer will hook into the Office 365 Groups service in the first half of 2016 to deliver powerful cross-suite scenarios that let you escalate your Yammer conversation into a Skype call, schedule a meeting using Outlook calendar, access your files in OneDrive, create tasks in Planner and more, all from your Yammer group.
Covered by the Office 365 Trust Center
Organizations benefit from the industry-leading control, security and privacy commitments of Office 365 when using Yammer—enabling collaboration to take place against a backdrop of trust. Yammer is now covered by the Office 365 Trust Center, which offers the protection of international and regional standards such as the Office 365 Data Processing Agreement with European Union Model Clauses (DPA with EUMC), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Office 365 Business Associate Agreement (HIPAA BAA), ISO 27001, ISO 27018, compliance with Section 508 for web accessibility and SSAE 16 SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports.
We’re also delivering a simpler, more powerful admin experience with the ability to manage key aspects of Yammer from Office 365, including identity, user and license management. Moving forward, we’ll continue to work closely with regulatory bodies to track evolving standards and requirements and offer you controls that help you meet these requirements when you use Yammer and Office 365.
More innovation ahead
Even as we celebrate activating Yammer for millions of new users, we remain focused on finding new ways to drive collaboration forward. Bringing Yammer together with the Office 365 platform puts us in a unique position to help people harness the power of their network through the productivity apps they rely on every day. We invite you to join us on this journey by working in Yammer today.
Microsoft have announced that they are recalling many Microsoft surface power cords and affected customers can apply for a free replacement. This recall applies to:
AC power cords for Microsoft Surface Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 2, and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 devices sold before 15 July 2015
This recall DOES NOT apply to:
AC power cords for Microsoft Surface RT, Microsoft Surface 2, Microsoft Surface 3, Microsoft Surface Pro 3 devices sold after 15 July 2015, Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Microsoft Surface Book
Power supplies with DC power cord for all devices
AC power cords and power supplies for the docking stations for Microsoft Surface Pro, Microsoft Surface Pro 2, Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and Microsoft
Surface 3Microsoft will provide one AC power cord replacement free of charge for each eligible Surface Pro device that you own. No proof of damage is required to receive a replacement AC power cord.
Microsoft will provide one AC power cord replacement free of charge for each eligible Surface Pro device that you own. No proof of damage is required to receive a replacement AC power cord. If you have more than one Surface Pro device, you’ll need to submit a replacement order for each one
Major updates for the OneDrive for Business Platform
Storage plans
Office 365 customers on our premium Enterprise, Government and Education plans will receive OneDrive for Business unlimited storage. Specifically, this includes unlimited storage for individuals in organizations with more than five people subscribing to one of the following plans:
Office 365 Enterprise E3, E4 and E5
Office 365 Government E3, E4 and E5
Office 365 Education
OneDrive for Business Plan 2 and SharePoint Online Plan 2
We will begin rolling out increased storage to these customers by the end of this month, starting with an automatic increase from 1 TB to 5 TB per user. We expect this rollout to complete by the end of March 2016. After this point, customers who want additional storage can request it as needed by contacting Microsoft support.
Customers on all other Office 365 Enterprise, Business and standalone plans that include OneDrive for Business will continue to receive 1 TB of storage per user. While customers on these plans will not receive the full unlimited benefit, we expect it will serve the vast majority of users. Today, most OneDrive for Business users consume significantly less than 1 TB.
Overall, we have taken too long to provide an update on our storage plans around OneDrive for Business. We also recognize we are disappointing customers who expected unlimited storage across every Office 365 plan, and I want to apologize for not meeting your expectations. We are committed to earning your business every day by delivering a great productivity and collaboration service and improving our communication approach.
Next Generation Sync Client for Windows and Mac
After a successful preview program, we are happy to report that the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is now available for deployment. Our top priorities for this release were improved reliability and performance, as well as delivering core capabilities such as selective sync, support for large files up to 10 GB in size and removing the 20,000 file sync limit. For IT Professionals, we’ve provided the ability to silently deploy and configure the client on behalf of your end users. The OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is available for Windows 7, 8 and 10 (8.1 support will be added in the first quarter of 2016) and Mac OS X 10.9 and above. The Windows client is available today with the Mac client being available before the end of December 2015.
With this first release, the Next Generation Sync Client supports OneDrive for Business only, but we will add support for SharePoint document libraries in future releases. In the interim, if customers require sync for both OneDrive for Business and SharePoint document libraries, the Next Generation Sync Client is designed to work side-by-side with the existing sync client.
Additionally, we are actively working on other important features including Office integration to support the co-authoring of documents and sharing scenarios (planned for the second quarter of 2016), as well as a more seamless experience for users who are migrating from the existing sync client (planned for the first quarter of 2016). Go here to learn more and get started.
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Microsoft have just announced that they have started rolling out Office 365 Planner
preview to Office 365 First Release customers today.
Office 365 Planner, a new experience in Office 365 offers a simple and visual
way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for teams to create plans,
organize and assign work, share files, chat about what everyone is working on
and get updates on progress.
Starting today, Planner preview will start rolling out to all commercial First
Release customers in the United States. We expect to complete rollout of
Planner Preview to commercial First Release customers worldwide and to EDU
First Release customers worldwide over the next several weeks. Office 365
tenant admins will get detailed directions on how to enable Planner within
their tenancy. Planner preview is EU compliant but will not be available for
customers in GCC (Government Community Cloud) at this time.
