Short on Time Summary

Welcome back to your monthly roundup of the latest developments across the Microsoft 365 suite. Each month we strive to keep you updated with the most recent products and features, so you can continue getting the most from your Microsoft 365 investment.

This month we explore exciting updates for the future of Microsoft Copilot, SharePoint, Viva, Teams and more.

What's New in Microsoft 365 May 2023 - Woman sitting at desk looking at laptop

What’s next for Copilot?

Copilot Integrations for Viva

At the Viva Summit, Microsoft announced plans to leverage Copilot in the Viva suite later in the year. Here are some of the highlights.

Viva Goals

Helping leaders create clarity around goals and team priorities, Copilot will generate OKRs from documents such as an annual business plan. Use it to quickly summarise progress, identify possible barriers and plan next steps.

Microsoft Viva Goals - Screenshot of Viva Goals with Copilot suggestions in a side pane

Viva Engage

To boost employee engagement, Copilot will support leaders to create inspiring posts based on trending topics in their organisation. Communicate better with AI-generated recommendations to improve tone and length and add relevant images.

Answers in Viva

Copilot will help users construct better questions to get higher quality answers, focusing on specificity, completeness and more. Knowledge experts will also be prompted to enhance their answers by referencing appropriate resources.

SharePoint

Copilot Integrations for SharePoint

Copilot is coming to SharePoint later this year, working with you to turn existing content from documents and presentations into visually engaging SharePoint sites. The AI capabilities will include rewriting text, changing the site theme, requesting design ideas and much more.

Copilot will incorporate all design elements like fonts and animations while ensuring consistency with the brand guidelines you set up in the brand centre.

Create Pages from the SharePoint app bar

Stay in the flow of work when building a new SharePoint page or news post. With this update you can start creating directly from the app bar by selecting the ‘Create’ button.

These will be presented alongside the content creation options already available in the side pane, such as SharePoint sites, Microsoft Lists and Microsoft 365 files.

Microsoft Teams

Automatic hand lowering after speaking

To improve meeting facilitation, Teams now recognises when you speak in a meeting after using the ‘Raise your hand’ function. You will receive a notification alerting you that your hand will be automatically lowered. Select the ‘Keep it raised’ button if you still have a question.

The purpose of this feature is to ensure meeting organisers and presenters can prioritise unanswered questions. It is currently only available for Teams Desktop.

Reminder emails for webinars

Keep your webinar at the front of people’s minds by sending automated reminder emails to everyone who has registered for the event. Emails will include the webinar details, a link to join the event and a personalised header that represents your brand.

If you have a Teams Premium license, organisers can customise the content and schedule the email to send at their preferred time. Make the most of targeted reminders to increase overall attendance and engagement with your webinar.

Auto Install Approved Apps

Auto Install streamlines the management of applications, reducing the time admins spend on manual processes. Zero-touch install can be enabled when a user signs into SaaS apps using Azure AD (Active Directory) credentials. It works alongside access controls set by admins.

This functionality prevents context switching to improve productivity and the user experience. Users can easily find their favourite external apps within Teams.

Microsoft Teams - Screenshot of Auto Install admin options

Microsoft Viva

Viva Topics: Show Connected Topics in People Cards

Topics associated with an individual will now be displayed to others through their profile card, making collaboration and connection easier when working together in Teams and Outlook. Quickly identify a colleague’s area of expertise and use this information to decide on the best person to reach out to for help.

Additionally, the new Topics app for Teams is available to download, bringing your Topic Centre into the application you use every day.

Microsoft Syntex

SharePoint Advanced Management: Prevent oversharing

Oversharing content is a security risk that results in people outside your organisation having unauthorised access. The rise of hybrid working and the need for more external collaboration has made this problem more common.

Microsoft is increasing the visibility of governance insights in SharePoint, allowing you to easily identify the most overshared sites and act on the most critical ones in order to maintain robust security.

Microsoft Lists

Manage applied filters

Microsoft has optimised how filters can be visualised and adjusted when viewing your Lists. As you modify the filters to refine or broaden the content shown, all of the applied filters are clearly displayed.

Removing filters has become more convenient as you no longer have to navigate back to the column filter pane. With this update users can manage large lists and extract specific information faster.

Microsoft List - Screenshot of different coloured filters in List view

Microsoft Intune

SSO for Apple devices

The Microsoft Enterprise SSO plug-in has entered general availability, enabling single sign-on authentication for iOS apps and sites that use Microsoft Azure AD authentication. This enhances the usability of your applications while maintaining a high level of protection.

We hope you found this month’s update helpful, and you can utilise some of the above features to improve useability and employee experience. We regularly share tips on making the most of your Microsoft 365 investment on LinkedIn or you can subscribe to our newsletter for monthly insights.