Teams Connect
Managing guest access has - until now - been a pain, generally requiring the guests to log out from their environment and into another. This Teams enhancement allows you to invite people to chat on Teams with an email address or phone number and still follow your security & compliance policies.
The shared channel is added to the user's home tenant, allowing them to access both external and internal collaboration resources within Teams.
Availability: end of the year.
2. MESH AND THE METAVERSE
The “metaverse” is a space inhabited by digital versions of ourselves where we can interact with each other and elements within the digital environment, removing barriers of the physical world.
Microsoft has brought this into the enterprise with Mesh, announced at a previous Ignite, allowing people to take the form of avatars and navigate virtual work environments.
Mesh combines “shared holographic experiences” with existing communication tools like virtual meetings, chats and shared documents, and now this can be experienced through Teams. The avatars are supposed to reduce webcam fatigue but still share meaning through accurate gestures and expressions.
The software can be used with a smartphone, laptop or virtual reality device. Mesh for Teams can include an interactive whiteboard, colour-coded tasks or pictures of customers. Prototypes of products could even be laid out on a virtual table. Early adopters Accenture built an immersive digital office environment called “the Nth floor” and have used it to onboard over 100,000 new employees using Occulus VR headsets. It helps new starters experience the culture and grow professional networks.
“The Nth floor brings human connection to our digital world”
Elyn Shook, Accenture
Preview availability H1 2022.
3. MICROSOFT LOOP
Another big announcement this Ignite – a brand new service called Microsoft Loop, built on the Fluid Framework open-source platform. Loop brings together multiple Microsoft 365 apps to create collaborative workspaces, presenting content and ideas from different sources together in one place.
Loop features 3 elements:
1. Loop components: items like notes, lists, tables or Dynamics 365 customer records. Components can be used across chats, meetings, emails and Word docs. Because Loop components stay in sync across M365 apps, you’re always working with the latest information.
2. Loop pages: A canvas for organising components and adding in links, files, or data.
3. Loop workspaces: shared spaces to view and group components. Workspaces make it easy to catch up on progress and react to ideas.
Currently, only Loop components are available, with no timings given for pages or workspaces yet. Microsoft will reveal more details on Loop at Microsoft Build 2022.
The fifth element – Ally.io
Ally.io, a leading objectives and key results (OKR) company, will join Microsoft Viva (H2 2022). This component will communicate company results and track progress on outcomes at a corporate and individual level, bringing strategic planning to a granular level and helping with managing for outcomes.
Ally.io connects everyday work to the company’s strategic objectives and aims to bring deeper connection to work, purpose and results in the hybrid world.
8. BEST OF THE REST
There were WAY too many to list them all, but here are some other announcements of note:
• Vertical Clouds - Microsoft is addressing industry needs with clouds for specific verticals such as finance, health, manufacturing and not for profits, supporting requirements such as legal & security certifications. A new cloud in the preview is Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to help measure & manage carbon emissions, set sustainability goals and actions.
• Microsoft Customer Experience Platform - A series of integrations between Dynamics 365 Marketing and its Customer Insights customer data platform, modules that can be added to Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.
• Physical Spaces – Intelligent speakers and cameras make hybrid meetings smoother and more effective, isolating in-office attendees into individual views and using voice recognition + improved translation in PowerPoint live. “Front row” brings life-size videos of remote participants to the table, and Dynamic view automatically optimizes video display between in-office and remote participants.
• Rich content experiences in OneDrive - Microsoft announced new OneDrive features to streamline workflows, providing better access to top libraries and improving resource-sharing visibility. With the Quick Access feature, you can pin and reorder your shared libraries. Teams meetings video - with transcriptions - are now saved to OneDrive so you can quickly find the section you want.
That’s it for one more year! Click here if you would like to see our 30-minute Ignite Announcements webinar.