Microsoft Inspire Overview

Microsoft Inspire has produced a lot of excitement and innovation within the tech community this week. Microsoft channel Chief Gavriella Schuster has stated that Microsoft are looking towards a security intensive focus for the year 2020.

Schuster also suggests that due to COVID-19 the need for security and cloud-based platforms has increased as many organsaitaions have realized they are not well enough equipped to deal with any major security issues.

Overall there are five key updates announced at Inspire 2020 in Microsoft 365, Teams and Microsoft business apps.

TEAMS

The most important update from Inspire is that the Microsoft Teams Premium cloud-based IT service is readily available. The solution allows customers to have a certified partner or Microsoft itself manage their Teams Rooms.

They have also announced the new Power Bi personal app for Teams. Releasing in August the app will give “a single place for all their data visualizations and a place to find more data from across their organization,”. Meanwhile, developers of Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents chatbots will be enabled to create, manage and use their apps/bots inside of Teams through new native app experiences, the company said.

MICROSOFT 365

Microsoft is constantly evolving its 365 suite to bring the best user experience and thus it has transformed again. The suite will get the new Microsoft Lists app starting in late July, allowing users to “track issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory and more using customizable views, rules and comments to keep everyone in sync,” Microsoft said. The app also includes templates to provide an easier way to start lists, and Power Platform integrations are enabled as well.

Furthermore, Yammer collaboration app is getting a new design which will help with integration and engagement.

MICROSOFT 365 SECURITY

Microsoft said that new security capabilities are aimed at providing greater visibility around security issues and improved data protection, which are crucial for organizations that currently have large numbers of remote workers.

Microsoft introduced us to a preview of the insider risk management and compliance features.

Another key Microsoft 365 security capability now in public preview is Double Key Encryption, which enables protection of important confidential data as well as encryption key control. The feature provides two keys for data protection—one of which is controlled by the organization and the other by Microsoft—which prevents others from viewing the data since they would need to have both keys.

Finally, Microsoft unveiled Endpoint Data Loss Prevention will be built into Windows 10, office apps and the edge browser.  Organisations will immediately be alerted through M365 compliance centre when access to sensitive data occurs to ensure a solution can be creafted.

DYNAMIC 365

Dynamics 365, Microsoft’s combination cloud CRM and ERP system, is getting several updates in connection with Inspire 2020:

Customer Voice aims to improve customer responses by enabling organizations to “capture and incorporate real-time feedback into a unified view of customers and drive action in the moments that matter,” Microsoft said.

Connected Store is a tool that leverages data sources such as video data and IoT sensor data to “deliver triggered alerts and actionable recommendations that can make your retail spaces more efficient”

Fraud Protection, while already available, is now adding Account Protection and Loss Prevention capabilities.

POWER PLATFORM

The Power Platform solutions are pre-built and customizable this is aimed at helping organizations safely bring employees back to their workplaces and creating an office environment once more.