In today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape, maintaining network reliability is paramount. Our team in Microsoft Digital, the company’s IT organization, keeps the company connected and maintains foundational network services for all our employees and guests. With an environment comprising 64,000 network devices, over 700 buildings supporting 350,000 users with over 1 million connected devices generating 170,000 incidents per year, traditional methods of network management can often be insufficient.  

To manage at this scale, we’re envisioning and executing a future of AI transformation and are creating new AI solutions that will help us to be more efficient and agile. This is a critical part of our role as the team that’s responsible for powering, protecting, and transforming our digital employee experience across devices, applications, and hybrid infrastructure at Microsoft.

“As the organization that acts as Customer Zero for the company, we are leading with AI to help power Microsoft and keep things like our network infrastructure secure and reliable,” says Brian Fielder, vice president of Microsoft Digital. “We must aggressively experiment and adopt AI agents to foster innovation and model the future of service engineering.”

Within Microsoft Digital, our AIOps and Network Infrastructure Copilot (NiC) AI solutions have emerged as transformative new tools for enhancing network performance. These tools take advantage of AI-powered capabilities by turning data and knowledge into powerful insights and, eventually, meaningful actions to run the industry’s most secure and reliable enterprise network. 

These tools share a common data architecture comprised of millions of telemetry points but perform unique AI functions in both running and supporting the network. AIOps is an automation solution that uses data insights to prevent and resolve network issues before they become impactful. NiC is an interactive experience that helps network practitioners, and a variety of other personas more easily interact in natural language with complex network services to get rapid answers and intelligent suggestions.  

AIOps: Transforming how we deliver operational excellence 

AIOps integrates AI into IT operations by automating and enhancing various aspects of network management. This approach significantly reduces manual intervention, allowing network engineers to focus on higher-value tasks. Key components of AIOps include: 

• Automated ticketing and remediation: AIOps automates the creation and resolution of tickets, reducing the time and effort required to manage incidents. This automation is particularly beneficial in environments with high ticket volumes, ensuring timely and efficient resolution of network issues. 
• Ticket noise reduction: AIOps uses AI-powered ticket correlation, suppression, and enrichment capabilities to significantly reduce ticketing noise, enabling engineers to concentrate on the most critical issues.  
• Automatic remediation: AIOps executes automatic troubleshooting and remediation actions on behalf of engineers to mitigate issues and keep outage duration and the associated business impact to a minimum. This is accomplished based on troubleshooting knowledge and successful remediation steps executed. 
• Postmortem report generation: AI-powered tools generate detailed postmortem reports for network incidents, providing insights into the root causes and recommended remediation steps. This capability enhances the learning process and helps prevent future occurrences. 

AIOps components mapping (based on Gartner’s AIOps model)

Network Infrastructure Copilot (NiC): The everyday AI assistant

NiC is an AI assistant designed to support network engineers in managing complex network environments. NiC provides powerful data insights and documentation, enabling engineers to design, configure, analyze, and troubleshoot network issues using natural language queries. Key features of NiC include: 

• Data insights: NiC helps engineers extract valuable data insights from various sources, such as wikis, SharePoint libraries, troubleshooting guides, and the infrastructure data lake (IDL). This capability streamlines data analysis and enhances decision-making to take impactful actions. 
• Network artifacts interpretation: NiC understands key artifacts such as device logs and configurations, providing engineers with concise and relevant information. This capability greatly reduces the cognitive load on engineers to access and process the most critical data and insights required to manage a complex network environment. 
• Simplified network observability: NiC enables non-networking personas (such as conference room technicians and facilities managers) to get quick glances at the health and configuration of their services without requiring deep understanding of network protocols and taxonomies. 

“NiC has dramatically reduced the time engineers spend searching through documentation and other network artifacts to yield actionable insights, slashing effort from 25 minutes to under 5 minutes,” says Phil Suver, a principal group product manager in Microsoft Digital. 

Transforming network engineering with a Copilot agent

Driving impact through AIOps and NiC 

The integration of AIOps and NiC has significantly improved network reliability in several ways: 

• Efficiency gains: The automation of routine tasks and the provision of actionable insights through AIOps and NiC has drastically reduced the cognitive load on network engineers. In the past several months, network practitioners have cumulatively saved over 11,000 hours in network service management. This efficiency gain frees up engineers to focus on strategic initiatives that further enhance network performance. 
• Rapid issue detection and resolution: AI-powered anomaly detection and automated remediation ensure that potential issues are identified and resolved before they impact network performance. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and enhances overall network reliability.  

Lessons learned in building and deploying AIOps and NiC 

To achieve measurable and sustainable business impact, we established an AI-focused feedback loop that emphasizes rapid experimentation, value validation, and a continuous improvement mindset. The following are key lessons learned from our journey in developing and scaling AI solutions that enhance Microsoft’s network reliability.     

• Prioritization: One of the significant tradeoffs was the allocation of resources. The team had to decide how to distribute resources effectively to support the development of network AI solutions while maintaining other critical priorities such as the Secure Future Initiative (SFI). 
• Change management: Implementing AIOps and NiC required significant changes in how network engineers and other stakeholders worked. The team had to manage organizational changes and enable network engineers to streamline workflows to incorporate AI effectively. This involved providing training, gathering feedback, and continuously improving the tools based on usage and learnings. 
• Impact measurement: Measuring the impact of AI on time savings and productivity gains was essential. The team established baselines and targets—in the form of KPI—to track employee productivity gains realized through AI, helping them achieve more.  
• Scalability and performance: Ensuring that NiC and AIOps could scale to handle the large number of devices and tickets was a critical consideration. The team had to make decisions about the architecture and design of these solutions to ensure they could support the growing demands of the network. 

“By focusing on these key areas, we were able to deploy AI solutions that not only met immediate needs but also positioned us for long-term success and innovation,” says Eddie Lau, a principal product manager in Microsoft Digital. 

Here are four key insights into how AIOps and Network Infrastructure Copilot (NiC) have transformed network management and performance:

• The integration of AIOps and Network Infrastructure Copilot (NiC) has automated routine tasks and provided actionable insights, reducing the cognitive load on network engineers and enhancing overall network performance. 
• AI-powered anomaly detection and automated remediation ensure potential issues are identified and resolved before impacting network performance, minimizing downtime and enhancing reliability. 
• Implementing AIOps and NiC required managing organizational changes, providing training, gathering feedback, and continuously improving the tools based on usage and learnings. 
• Ensuring NiC and AIOps could scale to handle the large number of devices and tickets was crucial, requiring careful decisions about architecture and design.  

• See what your company can do with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

• Learn how we’re transforming our approach to patch management at Microsoft.
• Take a peek inside the councils steering AI projects at Microsoft.
• Read how we’re keeping our network infrastructure healthy at Microsoft with an employee-built AI agent.
• Learn how we’re using an employee-built AI agent to keep our network infrastructure healthy.

• Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we’ll get back to you.

The post Enhancing Microsoft network reliability with AIOps and Network Infrastructure Copilot appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

At Microsoft, the Total Rewards Portal (TRP) is the mechanism by which this value proposition is communicated and shared worldwide to our 220,000-plus global employees on an individual level.

The TRP has been on a journey since it first launched over a decade ago, undergoing several iterations, including initially being hosted by a third-party vendor. In 2021, it was brought in-house and hosted on Microsoft Azure, giving us more control and flexibility to further enhance the experience. As part of this continual improvement, hearing from employees and managers about their usage and satisfaction with the tool has been critical to its overall success and further development. 

“We took a three-phased approach to help us inform the most recent design, as well as guide the objectives, goals, and principles for the future state of this tool,” says Nur Sheikhassan, a principal group engineering manager on the Rewards and Compensation team in Microsoft Digital, the company’s IT organization.

Phase 1—Understand TRP usage 

The goal of phase one was to establish a baseline understanding of usage and gather insights into what was working and what wasn’t. One-on-one interviews were conducted with both employees and managers to obtain feedback. Our key findings included: 

1. Integration of tangible and intangible total rewards: Understanding that total compensation and benefits are often comprised of both tangible elements (such as money) and intangible elements (such as culture and work/life balance), we found it’s important to surface both in order to clearly communicate the total value of the compensation and benefits package and highlight it in a way that provides clarity rather than clutter. 
2. Make TRP more discoverable: The discoverability of TRP, particularly outside of rewards season, had been particularly low. Clearly and consistently branding the site and situating it within areas employees commonly use could help them discover employee tools and content related to rewards more easily.
3. Optimize for the complete task flow: The tool needed to fully consider the complete flow of a potential task. We identified all the information one might be in search of to learn about their total compensation to ensure users do not feel the need to seek out additional resources on other sites and tools.
4. Consider surfacing contextual data: We needed to think critically about the contextual data brought in to TRP, and to use data that will only enhance employees’ understanding of the value of the Microsoft compensation and benefits packages. Focusing on common scenarios—such as hiring, managers’ rewards conversations with directs, and modeling future rewards—would help provide a clearer picture of what data should be included.

Phase 2—Develop common TRP scenarios 

The next phase was designed to build on the learnings from phase one, leveraging common TRP scenarios to help us understand what’s working and what’s not. Exploring these scenarios uncovered opportunities for consideration and started to light up themes around the need to get to overall rewards understanding faster, to drive meaning through contextual data, and to seamlessly connect related tools and sites. The three key themes that came out of this phase were: 

1. Clearly communicate the value of total rewards opportunity: We wanted to display total rewards clearly, succinctly, and comprehensively, indicating relevant timeframes and breaking out cash base value and bonus. We looked at utilizing data visualizations (i.e., charts) more strategically to help give users a clearer view of changes and trends; otherwise, more detailed data in a table was considered to increase usability.
2. Empower rewards conversations: We needed to provide more conversation starters or pointers within the tool to help managers be prepared and have more meaningful rewards conversations with their teams.
3. Optimize rewards workflows: Better access to related content and websites to enable task completion across the tools in the HR ecosystem was evaluated. This helps managers traverse the fragmented manager-tool ecosystem by providing relevant links, on-ramps, and off-ramps to related tools and information for a more seamless experience that improves workflow.

“It was abundantly clear the immediate appeal the new TRP design had on employees and managers alike.”

Jennifer Hugill, principal program manager, Rewards and Compensation team

Phase 3—Optimize TRP design

Building on the learnings captured from the first two phases, a redesigned user experience was developed, including a high-fidelity prototype. The goal of phase three was to assess the usability of the new site and ultimately ensure that user needs and pain points were addressed with the new design.

“It was abundantly clear the immediate appeal the new TRP design had on employees and managers alike,” says Jennifer Hugill, a principal program manager on the Rewards and Compensation team. “The clean, welcoming visuals and the ability to see more detail on each page in an easy-to-understand layout were all enhancements that were very well-received.”

Total Rewards Portal: Employee view

Key benefits of the newly configured site include: 

1. Seamless task completion and delightful moments: Core tasks were easily completed, with participants noting the ability to see multiple pieces of information in a single view. Calculations that had real impact were already done for the user, and thoughtful additions like talking points and personal notes are considered both helpful and delightful. 
2. Continued focus on aggregation of information as a key value-add: Bringing together information from disparate systems and tools is important to users. For individual contributor (IC) views, it means showing all compensation-related information in TRP, including hourly wages for hourly workers and revenue and/or commitment-based incentives for sales employees. For managers, it’s bringing together information on direct reports into a single table. 
3. System “insights” that help fulfill business and user goals: Providing system-derived “insights” in both manager and IC views allows employees to spend less time connecting the dots between pieces of information and more time making decisions and taking action. For managers, it provides team insights to ensure fair compensation and talent retention. In an IC view, it showcases opportunities to take advantage of additional benefits left on the table. 

“Ultimately, the goal of the TRP is to show the value of an employee’s individual rewards, while empowering rewards conversations for managers and providing a complete data set to inform decisions.”

Nur Sheikhassan, principal group engineering manager, Rewards and Compensation team

“The Total Rewards Portal provides seamless access to information about my team’s comprehensive rewards and compensation, allowing me to have meaningful discussions with my employees and leadership during Connect season and beyond,” says Michelle Huenink, a Microsoft manager and global enablement leader in Customer Service and Support.

Total Rewards Portal: Manager view

Vision and future state

Putting all the user research findings together leads to clear business objectives and user experience goals for the future state of the TRP solution. These foundational elements ensure the right principles are in place for the product team, providing the guideposts to stay true to the product objectives and goals. 

“Ultimately, the goal of the TRP is to show the value of an employee’s individual rewards, while empowering rewards conversations for managers and providing a complete data set to inform decisions,” Sheikhassan says. “Keeping these core objectives at the heart of our future enhancements enables us to continue to have a tool that provides a consistent experience that our employees will use and enjoy as part of their overall Microsoft employee experience journey.”

Key takeaways

Here are some of our top learnings from our experience with the Totals Rewards Portal:

• In a competitive talent market, having a tool like the TRP helps clearly represent the value of Microsoft compensation and benefits and reminds employees of the company’s investment in them.
• By using multiple micro-services, we can build a better experience to represent employee compensation at various stages of an employee’s journey with Microsoft.
• Developing and using the Total Rewards Portal is providing us with a strong return on investment (ROI) over time, especially because it was developed in-house and is now hosted on Microsoft Azure. 
• Our sensitive compensation information for 220,000-plus employees stays securely within the control of Microsoft while still informing our employees of their compensation value. 

Try it out

Learn more about the benefits of Microsoft Azure and how you can try it out for free.

Related links

• Read about the ways Microsoft HR is empowering employees with Microsoft Viva and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
• Discover how we’re enabling advanced HR analytics and AI with Microsoft Azure Data Lake.
• Explore how Microsoft Viva became a business transformation engine at Microsoft.
• Find out how AI is revolutionizing the way we support corporate functions at Microsoft.

We’d like to hear from you!

• Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we’ll get back to you.

The post Helping Microsoft employees understand their value with the Total Rewards Portal appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

Microsoft is in the productivity business, with a mission “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” What matters to Microsoft is not just helping to envision the workplace of the future, but to create it as a sustainable model of productivity and empowerment for its employees.

Microsoft’s headquarters is like a small city. Located in the Puget Sound region near Seattle, the busy corporate campus encompasses over 100 buildings spanning nearly 14 million square feet, accommodating more than 60,000 employees and external staff, plus numerous visitors each day.

We had a pretty audacious vision for what we wanted to do. We were looking for a bold example of a logistics and operations system that could provide efficient business processes, support sustainability, and enable best-in-class employee and guest experiences. Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform was the perfect solution.

—Michelle Schaefer, principal product manager at Microsoft

In 2021, we saw an opportunity to digitally transform our campus logistics and operations. The vision? Empower a relatively small logistics crew to do more with less, resulting in better employee experiences, cost savings and efficiencies, and support environmentally responsible practices.

For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhA72nAk6cs, select the “More actions” button (three dots icon) below the video, and then select “Show transcript.”

“We had a pretty audacious vision for what we wanted to do,” says Michelle Schaefer, principal product manager at Microsoft. “We were looking for a bold example of a logistics and operations system that could provide efficient business processes, support sustainability, and enable best-in-class employee and guest experiences. Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform was the perfect solution.”

But Microsoft’s vision wasn’t limited to our own campus. By using our technologies to implement a best-in-class system at home, we aimed to create a showcase, one that would inspire other companies to transform their own logistics and operations processes, for a campus or for any purpose.

The Solution

To help make this dream a reality, Microsoft turned to our trusted partners and Microsoft ecosystem experts: Accenture and Avanade—a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft.

The team has focused on configuring Microsoft solutions and tools and integrating third-party applications into the overall user interface. Avanade’s in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform helped define the requirements for external vendor applications, ensuring that they could integrate seamlessly and securely with the overall solution.

So, how does the reimagined logistics process look in practice? Consider a day in the life of the small but productive crew working behind the scenes to provide a great experience to an employee who has ordered a new keyboard:

• After the order is placed, a third-party package carrier logs into a Dynamics 365 portal to book an appointment at a campus logistics center to deliver the keyboard.
• The package carrier is checked-in by a campus dock manager with Dynamics 365 Field Service. A Logistics Control Tower Dashboard built on Power BI is used to make delivery schedules more efficient.
• A campus driver loads the keyboard, along with many other packages, onto their vehicle and consults the integrated route optimization and delivery management system to ensure the most efficient route is used and service level agreements are met.
• Once the new keyboard is delivered to the productive employee, a waste and recycling manager uses Dynamics 365 Inventory Management to track reusable items and ensure the old keyboard is properly disposed of and other supplies are re-used if possible.

The solution also includes capabilities to measure and report results, both from a logistics aspect as well as from an employee experience perspective. Easy access to this data will allow the team to address issues and look for opportunities to improve both operations and experiences.

“By transforming our back-of-house logistics, we can closely identify the movement of deliveries and materials as well as evaluate employee feedback,” says Katy Flaherty, senior district facilities manager at Microsoft. “This provides our team with up-to-date status on these deliveries.  We’ve moved beyond more manual processes and lists to real time tracking data. This also gives us the ability to learn from this information and adjust our operations to be more efficient and cost effective.”

For a transcript, please view the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8azD8E2ZtM, select the “More actions” button (three dots icon) below the video, and then select “Show transcript.”

Results

Microsoft’s campus logistics digital transformation provides employees and suppliers with an experience unlike any other workspace in the world. The entire modernization effort has been guided by a commitment to sustainability, with a focus on waste reduction and energy optimization. Benefits include:

• Route optimization for all logistics and operations vehicles results in increased efficiency and a smaller carbon footprint.
• The hundreds of suppliers visiting the campus each week benefit from reliable and efficient delivery and offloading times, enabling them to quickly resume their journey to the next delivery.
• Through efficient ordering, tracking, and management of supplies, the logistics and operations team can visualize data quickly and efficiently for quick decisions and cost savings.
• By automating delivery orders for food, packages, furniture, and more, Microsoft improves the employee experience through improved compliance with service level agreements, reduces costs, and works towards its sustainability goals.

The consolidation of disparate data sources through Microsoft’s digital transformation unlocks exciting new opportunities to leverage Generative AI and other data-driven technologies.

“Transforming the logistics and operations for the entire Puget Sound campus really shows the Microsoft, Accenture and Avanade partnership at its best,” adds Schaefer. “We’re bringing possibilities to life and showing the true power of the Microsoft platform. And, at the same time, we’re living out our values of sustainability and empowering people to do more.”

Digital Transformation for Efficiency and Sustainability:

• Microsoft’s campus logistics digital transformation exemplifies how leveraging technologies like Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform can significantly enhance efficiency and sustainability in operations.

End-to-End Integration for Seamless Operations:

• The success of Microsoft’s initiative is attributed to the end-to-end integration of Microsoft solutions and third-party applications, showcasing the importance of a comprehensive approach.

Measurable Results and Continuous Improvement:

• Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in its ability to measure and report results, enabling the team to address issues promptly and identify opportunities for improvement.

Get started with a Dynamics 365 free trial.

• Watch how Microsoft used Dynamics 365 to transform campus Facilities Management
• Discover creating the digital workplace at Microsoft.
• Explore transforming Microsoft’s lobby experience with a new Microsoft Guest Management System.
• Unpack how Microsoft is delivering smart building experiences with CI/CD for Azure Digital Twins.
• Transforming facilities management with Dynamics 365 at Microsoft

Want more information? Email us and include a link to this story and we’ll get back to you.

Please share your feedback with us—take our survey and let us know what kind of content is most useful to you.

The post Modernizing campus logistics and operations at Microsoft appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

While use of apps for Microsoft Teams can be daunting for IT Teams to implement, due to the oversight of such things as security, compliance, access permissions, connectivity, etc., the benefits of the ecosystem greatly outweigh any perceived challenges.

There’s an endless amount of opportunity for organizations that take full advantage of the apps catalog available in Teams. By integrating with other tools and services, Teams apps can help users by automating routine tasks and manual processes and enabling access to the information and resources they need. This can help reduce distractions and interruptions, allowing users to stay focused on their work and be more productive.

—Mykhailo Sydorchuk, senior product manager, Microsoft Digital

I sat down with the Microsoft Digital team responsible for managing the Teams apps ecosystem here at Microsoft to find out what customers should be thinking about when it comes to supporting their organizations. The following summarizes what they had to say about accelerating the deployment and management of apps in Microsoft Teams, what users need to know when evaluating Teams apps, and the lessons we’ve learned as Customer Zero for Microsoft.

“There’s an endless amount of opportunity for organizations that take full advantage of the apps catalog available in Teams,” says Mykhailo Sydorchuk, Teams productivity senior product manager with Microsoft Digital. “By integrating with other tools and services, Teams apps can help users by automating routine tasks and manual processes and enabling access to the information and resources they need. This can help reduce distractions and interruptions, allowing users to stay focused on their work and be more productive.”

How does an organization go about deploying and managing their Teams app ecosystem?

It starts with the Microsoft Teams Admin Center, which allows administrators to customize their Teams app store experience to add company-specific branding and to manage which apps are made available to users. In addition, administrators should consider the following controls for creating a guided experience for users.

Four best practices for administrators to manage how users discover and request apps:

1. Only allow approved apps in the catalog. You want users to know they can trust the apps available to them, so make sure you are only enabling apps that have been reviewed and pre-approved by your compliance team. Additionally, the manage requests function can be utilized by tenant users to request any unapproved/blocked apps, or can redirect user requests to your existing app request process outside of Teams.
2. Use app permissions policies to control which apps are available to users in scenarios where only a subset of company users should have access to a specific app or group of apps. This article provides the steps on how to create an app permissions policy for your organization.
3. Proactively direct users to approved apps for your organization. Use this app setup policies article to help install approved apps for users, so such apps are readily available to them. Additionally, you can utilize auto install approved apps feature for an automatic installation of allowed apps for users who already access these apps on the web.
4. Customize your app store. A branded Teams app store gives users more confidence that its admin team has taken the time to make the experience feel more custom and user-friendly. The customize store location in the Teams admin center allows administrators to select:
   • Organization logo
   • Logomark
   • Background image
   • Text color of organization name
   This article provides more information about customizing your store.

Once administrators have had the chance to set up the above guided experience for their organization’s users. It’s now time for the users to better understand how to best evaluate an app for use. To do this, it’s important to understand a bit about an app’s components and features.

1. 1. Understanding app components: Microsoft Teams apps are composed of one or more components defined in an app manifest. Apps by app features are noted in this article that better helps users understand the permissions of and the information accessed. Before adding an app from the app store, a user can see the access an app will have by looking at the app’s features and permissions section in the About tab (example About tab featured below).

      

   2. Understanding app features: In the image above for example, the app features section references Tabs and Messages, these refer to this third-party apps’ features. The following image includes a breakdown of the various app features descriptions, and refers to the components or experiences included in the app.

      

   3. Evaluating app permissions: This is the most important aspect of app evaluation, as this determines what types of data will be shared with the application. Access to M365 data via Microsoft Graph leverage Azure Active Directory (AD) app registrations, which allows access to other services configured in API permissions in Azure AD.
      Teams data sets can also provide access to data with Resource Specific Consent, which provides scoped access to Teams chats, channels and meetings when specified in the app manifest.
      An application can only access the information described and consent is provided. A global administrator can consent on behalf of an organization. The permissions requested by a Teams app can be reviewed in the Teams admin center (Teams RSC permissions) and the Azure AD Portal (other Graph permissions).

      

   4. Microsoft 365 Certification: This certification is designed to show customers that an app has been vetted against controls derived from leading industry standard frameworks, and that strong security and compliance practices are in place to protect customer data. Users and admins can have confidence that if a third-party app has gone through the certification process that it has underwent strict quality controls, further helping to remove any risks.

   With a general understanding of the components, features, and permissions an app has, and with best practices put in place by the IT team to manage the use of apps, a user can feel confident about adding new apps to their Microsoft Teams ecosystem. In addition, if an app has gone through the Microsoft 365 certification process, that is a further layer of protection that users can trust.

   How do Microsoft Teams users know what apps to add to their ecosystem?

   With the wide-ranging apps available to Teams users, it might be overwhelming to know which ones you want to add. There are many that can help increase a user’s productivity or help with team collaboration. For instance, some of the more popular Teams apps include Microsoft first-party apps like Polls, Whiteboard, Power Automate, Praise and the various Viva modules like Learning, Insights, and Engage. While third-party apps like Adobe Acrobat, Trello and Kahoot! can also help make employees more efficient, create a better learning environment, and greatly add to the overall employee experience.

   Consider the following information and additional resources when it comes to making the most out of the Microsoft Teams apps ecosystem.

   1. It’s important to gain a full understanding of the applications and software being used within an organization and identify any parallels that can be used within the Teams ecosystem. Moving those users into Teams could provide additional efficiencies and methods of collaboration.
   2. Have a predetermined compliance process and enforce it in the App Catalog as early as possible. This will help maintain a sufficient security and privacy posture that is consistent with the org norms.
   3. Teams App Store: Accessed through the left rail on Microsoft Teams, the App Store is the best place for users to acquire and get details on the apps available. It shows the full catalog, and the catalog fully respects the admin policies that have been set-up within each environment by the admin team.
   4. Microsoft AppSource: AppSource is Microsoft’s marketplace for all Microsoft apps (not just Teams apps). You can browse through the extensive collection of apps, sorted by categories and popularity. It provides user ratings, reviews, and detailed descriptions of each app to help you make an informed decision.
   5. Peer Recommendations: Ask colleagues, friends and other professionals who use Microsoft Teams about the apps they find most useful. Their insights and experiences can provide valuable recommendations.
   6. Microsoft communities and forums: the Microsoft Tech Community Teams blog is a great place to keep up-to-date on new apps and Teams features, as well as following Microsoft Teams-related social media channels.
   7. Third-party reviews: Look for external reviews and comparisons of Microsoft Teams apps on tech-related web sites. These reviews can often provide an in-depth analysis, feature comparisons and insights into the usability and functionality of different first and third-party apps.

   From Microsoft first party apps to third party apps, to custom apps built by internal and citizen developers, the breadth that’s at our disposal lends to a richer, more integrated user experience. However, administrators and users should carefully consider the benefits of any app and ensure that it meets their organization’s compliance standards. In addition, M365 certification, least privileged access principle, and data classification labels can also help to remove most risks.

   —Dexion Kornegay, senior product manager, Microsoft Digital

   Remember to consider specific needs and requirements when evaluating Teams apps. Consider factors such as functionality, integration capabilities, security, and use purposes. It’s also important to check the compatibility and system requirements for the app to ensure it works seamlessly with your organization’s version of Microsoft Teams. As well as making sure it meets your organization’s compliance standards including security, privacy, accessibility, and licensing requirements.

   

   “From Microsoft first party apps to third party apps, to custom apps built by internal and citizen developers, the breadth that’s at our disposal lends to a richer, more integrated user experience,” says Dexion Kornegay, senior product manager with Microsoft Digital. “However, administrators and users should carefully consider the benefits of any app and ensure that it meets their organization’s compliance standards. In addition, M365 certification, least privileged access principle, and data classification labels can also help to remove most risks.”

   The Teams app ecosystem will continue to play a critical role in helping our employees and customers connect, collaborate, and get the best out of their overall Microsoft Teams experience. It’s up to the IT team to make the experience as seamless and user-friendly as possible. In turn, it’s important for users to explore and experiment with the vast catalog of apps that are available to help them increase productivity, efficiency, and innovation.

3. 

   • Having a well-documented process with transparent controls improves app onboarding for everyone and creates a guided experience for users.
   • Only allow approved apps. At Microsoft, we only enable those apps that have successfully completed governance review process.
   • Disabling user-delegated consent and enabling user consent requests in Azure Active Directory helps IT to minimize the risk of exposing sensitive M365 data through Graph.
   • Reliance on M365 Certification can reduce compliance assessment load.
   • Providing users with a self-service app request process that lists already approved apps in the same category can redirect them for quicker resolution.
   • There are significant resources available to help users better understand what apps will help them improve their productivity, collaboration, and efficiency to work smarter in Microsoft Teams.

   

   • New Microsoft Teams app helps facilitate employee connectivity in a challenging hybrid work environment.
   • Enabling hybrid work internally at Microsoft with ‘digital fabric’ Microsoft Teams.
   • Microsoft Teams increases collaboration in the modern workplace at Microsoft.
   • Five ways Microsoft Teams has transformed Microsoft.

The post Work smarter in Microsoft Teams by leveraging the apps ecosystem appeared first on Inside Track Blog.

The aim of the new Microsoft Teams Premium experience is to make any Microsoft Teams meeting more personalized, intelligent, and secure. But to ensure these features are indeed a value-add for our customers, Microsoft employees must first use and test them extensively to understand the additional benefits they bring.

After using some of the initial Teams Premium capabilities internally, with the latest technologies including AI-powered language models, Teams Premium is going to provide a real advantage for users. It offers a set of solutions that makes Microsoft Teams meetings highly customizable and intelligent.

—Sara Bush, principal PM manager, Microsoft Digital Employee Experience

For the past several months, Microsoft Digital Employee Experience, the company’s IT organization that is responsible for serving as Customer Zero for Microsoft products, along with the Teams product group, have been working together to ensure Microsoft Teams Premium lives up to its promise and provides an enriched set of features for our customers.

“After using some of the initial Teams Premium capabilities internally, with the latest technologies including AI-powered language models, Teams Premium is going to provide a real advantage for users,” says Sara Bush, a principal PM manager in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience. “It offers a set of solutions that makes Microsoft Teams meetings highly customizable and intelligent.”

How to get started with Microsoft Teams Premium: Get Started with Microsoft Teams Premium – Microsoft Community Hub

To learn more about Microsoft Teams Premium, I spoke with several Microsoft employees who have been at the forefront of testing the new capabilities and are some of the early users to find out more about the new features and additional benefits.

Live translated captions

Virtual Microsoft Teams meetings have allowed more people than ever to connect, engage, learn, and collaborate. Currently, within a regular Teams meeting, you can easily follow along with who’s talking with speaker-attributed live captions and transcription. But what happens if you are presenting to people who don’t speak the same language as you? How do you ensure the conversation is seamless and easy for them to understand?

The new live translation for captions capability delivers AI-powered, real-time translations from 40 spoken languages so meeting participants can read captions in the language that they prefer most. This is thanks to the help of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Service Speech Translation. For instance, if the meeting organizer has Microsoft Teams Premium, then all meeting attendees can enjoy live translated captions. This capability helps break down language barriers, putting participants at ease and allowing for a more productive and frictionless experience.

“Live translated captions is a real game changer, especially for large, global companies,” says Jan Steberl, a product manager in the Microsoft Teams product group. “This feature really puts all meeting participants on an even playing field, no matter what their language of choice is or where they are located. For someone like me, who is based in the Czech Republic and participates in virtual Teams meetings with colleagues from all over the world, it really has been a difference maker.”

Advanced webinar features

Building upon the basic webinar functionality available in Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft 365 offerings, with advanced webinar in Microsoft Teams Premium, users get the familiar and secure experience of Microsoft Teams combined with new host and event management controls that make it easier to connect with your audience. Whether presenting a keynote, training new employees, or showing off a new product to customers, the advanced webinar capabilities deliver a high-quality experience that improves overall event logistics.

Building upon the basic webinar capabilities in Microsoft Teams today, with the new registration waitlist and manual approval capability within Microsoft Teams Premium, the registration experience is now a lot more robust. Enabling the waitlist will allow the event organizer to keep webinar registration open (even after the event has reached capacity), allowing additional people to register and be automatically added to the waitlist. As new spots open, people are automatically moved to the pending approval state, enabling the organizer to approve or reject the additional registrants. In addition, organizers can customize the start and end time and specify when they want registration to start and end, making it much easier to manage an event.

Virtual green room

Remember pre-COVID days, when presenters used to gather with the event host in the physical green room to go through a dry run or hammer our last-minute details of an event? With virtual green room, the host and participants are still able to connect and manage all the behind-the-scenes action prior to the meeting start.

“Anyone who plans virtual events, team meetings, or presentations knows that there are always eleventh-hour changes leading right up to the start, so the addition of the green room has been a much-needed, welcome feature,” says Michelle Strub, an executive and internal communications lead in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience. “It allows presenters a dedicated space, separate from attendees, to hash those final details out, socialize, monitor the chat or Q&A window, and manage what attendees see before the event begins.”

For more information on how to manage the meeting experience go to: Manage your meeting presentation experience for sensitive Microsoft Teams meetings.

And the benefits of green room are there for the attendees of the event as well! As attendees wait for the meeting to get started, green room will provide a welcome screen, and participants can use the chat and Q&A windows to engage with each other or prepare questions for the upcoming presenters.

End-to-end encryption and confidentiality settings

Managing and protecting confidential information in virtual meetings is now much more secure thanks to some of the end-to-end encryption features and advanced meeting protection available in Microsoft Teams Premium.

For those extremely sensitive meetings that require disabling some of the features for an advanced security option, users can apply end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to the meeting. Data is always secure within Microsoft Teams, but there may be some customers that need an extra layer of protection for ultra-sensitive business topics that Microsoft Teams Premium now provides.

Upgrading safeguards for confidential business meetings, like watermarking to deter information from being leaked or limiting who can record a meeting, gives customers the additional assurance they need to keep a virtual meeting private. With Microsoft Teams Premium, meeting organizers can leverage unique watermarks over attendees’ screen shares and video feeds to confidently display and present any confidential information.

In addition to the added benefits you get with Teams Premium, I see it providing a real opportunity for customizing and securing the meeting experience for our customers. Given the myriad capabilities to set options, brand visuals, and even templates for meeting types, it is a huge value-add.

—Chanda Jensen, senior product manager, Microsoft Digital Employee Experience

“These new features are really good for those who are obsessed with security,” says Hongsik Choi, a principal program manager in the Microsoft Autonomy, Space, Critical Industry and Innovation (ASCII) group. “Customers who prioritize security in general tend to worry about the security of online virtual meetings, but end-to-end encryption is very useful and provides that next level security layer for audio, video, and shared screen.”

Through intense internal testing and use and by incorporating the latest in AI-powered capabilities, Microsoft employees are ensuring that Microsoft Teams, and specifically the new Microsoft Teams Premium offering, provides customers with the solutions they need to adapt to the ever-changing workplace environment and improve their organization’s productivity. The increased security, personalization, and modern technology that comes with Teams Premium makes the new offering a no-brainer for customers trying to up their game when it comes to communication, collaboration, and managing virtual meetings. The additional investment will be a boost to our customers, supporting the new ways of working, securely collaborating, and personalizing their enterprise experience.

“In addition to the added benefits you get with Teams Premium, I see it providing a real opportunity for customizing and securing the meeting experience for our customers,” says Chanda Jensen, a senior product manager in Microsoft Digital Employee Experience. “Given the myriad capabilities to set options, brand visuals, and even templates for meeting types, it is a huge value-add.”

Since its launch six years ago, Microsoft Teams continues to innovate at a rapid pace. With the introduction of Microsoft Teams Premium and with new features continuing to roll out, we can feel confident that the feedback we’re providing as Customer Zero for Microsoft will only continue to fuel the innovation and keep the bar very high for Microsoft Teams solutions for years to come.

• Discover transforming Microsoft with Microsoft Teams: Collaborating seamlessly, teaming up fearlessly.
• Learn how we’re enabling hybrid work internally at Microsoft with ‘digital fabric’ Microsoft Teams.
• Unpack how Microsoft Teams increases collaboration in the modern workplace at Microsoft.
• Explore how the new Microsoft Teams app helps facilitate employee connectivity in a challenging hybrid work environment.

The post Making Microsoft Teams Premium better for customers appeared first on Inside Track Blog.