M365 Weekly Newsletter
Issue #172
☁️What’s on my mind
I find it interesting that Microsoft sends purely technical messages to end customers. They are completely confused by this.
How is an office worker listed as a contact in their organization’s tenant supposed to know what it means that the GDAP relationship between their organization and their IT provider has expired?
Microsoft upgraded from Delegated Admin Privileges (DAP) to Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP) to fix a not-very well-thought-out admin rights system. It was enough for a rogue actor to gain access to a Microsoft partner and consequently get global admin access to all their customers.
GDAP allows for more explicit roles and time-bound access parameters, reducing risks between partners and clients. This transition also helps partners meet regulatory requirements for least privileged access.
If you’re unfamiliar with GDAP, you can find quite some info on the official FAQ page.
Have a nice week,
Matic Z.
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☁️Productivity & Modern Workplace
How to back up important documents on your PC to OneDrive for Business. Safeguard important documents on your PC by utilizing OneDrive for Business’s hidden gem – backing up local files to the cloud. Easily configure the backup using the OneDrive Sync client to protect files in Documents, Pictures, and Desktop locations. This ensures data safety even if your device is lost or damaged.
Conditional Formatting in Outlook – color your Inbox. Outlook now offers conditional formatting, allowing you to highlight emails in your inbox based on specific criteria, similar to Excel. You can create rules to highlight emails based on the sender, your recipient position, or even the subject. This simple yet useful feature can help you better manage and organize your inbox, especially when dealing with a high volume of emails daily.
Create Organization Wide Office Templates in Microsoft 365. Create a dedicated repository for organization-wide Office templates by setting up a SharePoint site and using PowerShell. This allows you to develop specific templates for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that everyone in your company can access. Once uploaded, these templates will appear under the organization name in the respective applications, streamlining the process for all users.
☁️Copilot & AI
Work Smarter: Copilot Productivity Tips for Analyzing Competitors. Stay ahead of the competition with Copilot, a powerful AI assistant that can help you analyze market trends and competitors. Copilot can create charts comparing competitor strengths, helping you identify gaps in the market and areas for improvement in your products or services.
See what’s possible with Copilot in Excel part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. Dive into the exciting world of Excel Copilot with a new weekly series showcasing its potential to revolutionize your workflow.
7 Proven AI Prompting Hacks To Enhance Productivity. AI prompting hacks can significantly improve your productivity by generating content with a consistent style and tone. By building responses, refining ideas, and providing feedback, AI tools like Co-pilot can help you create content for various platforms. Additionally, you can ask the AI to use specific language, format the output, and even customize coding for tasks like creating tables on your website.
☁️Sysadmin Stuff
How to Enable External Sharing in Microsoft OneDrive. Microsoft OneDrive allows the configuration of external sharing settings at both tenant and individual site levels. Understanding dependencies and restrictions is crucial, as OneDrive settings cannot be more permissive than SharePoint’s.
What If Tool to Test Conditional Access Policies in Entra ID. Microsoft’s Conditional Access What If tool lets you simulate sign-in scenarios to test policy impacts on users in real-time. The new preview experience, powered by Microsoft Graph, offers enhanced evaluation capabilities like Continuous Access Evaluation and improved insights for advanced conditions.
☁️Security & Data Governance
Checklist for Terminating Employees with Microsoft 365 Accounts. When terminating an employee, follow a checklist to remove their Microsoft 365 access. Be mindful of encrypted items, meeting recordings, and chat messages, and consider automating the process for added security.
Information Protection 101: Advanced Settings – Information security and compliance. Master advanced sensitivity label settings in Microsoft 365, including default sublabels, custom colors, and content analysis management. Don’t forget to enable container support for encrypted files, while being cautious with settings that may impact other functions.
Rarely Asked Questions (RAQs) about Microsoft 365 governance. Strengthen your Microsoft 365 governance by addressing RAQs, such as balancing security and user autonomy, managing external sharing, and tackling Microsoft Teams sprawl. Minimize shadow IT risks and invest in automated governance tools to enhance data protection, maintain compliance, and optimize M365 tool usage for cost savings.
☁️Noteworthy (long)reads
Microsoft 365 License Management Rationalization Benefits. Microsoft’s consolidation of license management in the Microsoft 365 admin center has faced criticism for its performance and functionality. However, enabling user and license administrator roles to process self-service requests and introducing a GUI for managing purchases may improve the experience for administrators.
Slack: There Are Five Types of AI Users. Slack’s research team identified five AI personas among full-time desk workers, revealing different levels of AI adoption and enthusiasm. As people’s perspectives change over time, understanding these personas can aid in motivating employees to adopt AI-enhanced workplace tools.
☁️Classifieds
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☁️On a Less Serious Note
☁️ Last but not least …
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