Tag Archives: microsoft
M365 Community Conference: What’s New and Next for Microsoft Viva and the Employee Experience
Session: What’s New and Next for Microsoft Viva and the Employee Experience
Speakers: Kirk Gregersen, Kristi Kelly, Michael Holste, Nick DeFalco
Excited to hear about the future of Microsoft Viva, I was looking forward to this session. I have been involved in this world for a number of years, ever since Microsoft Viva was launched. I was looking forward to hearing about the future, the success stories and how Viva can help organization succeed. Fortunately, I was not disappointed.
The session took us on a journey to tackle the challenges that organizations face transforming their practice with AI and how Microsoft Viva can help them on that journey.
The Challenge
Kirk Gregerson, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Viva steps on to the stage.
Kirk started with a trip down memory lane where he talked about his journey at Microsoft. His first project was one that a lot of us remember. Microsoft Frontpage 2002 with FrontPage Server Extensions, the forerunner of SharePoint and an incredible start to his career!
Copilot Shift
Kirk introduced the effect Copilot will have and how it will affect change within organizations. To be successful, organizations will need to rapidly adapt and involve their staff in the transformation. He mentioned how it offers a terrific opportunity and a challenge for organizations – ensuring they use it to gain and maintain a competitive edge.
Enabling businesses to leverage Copilot effectively involves shifting the culture and empowering the people to harness this transformative potential. The question is how to achieve this.
The Microsoft Viva team spoke with customers on the Copilot Early Adoption Program and shared their insights. The team showed examples of Copilot in Viva and the benefits including case studies.
Business leaders were interviewed on the potential of AI, with the consensus being that it is going to be responsible for the success of their businesses.
Kirk, discussed the core areas where AI will impact businesses, and these included:
Productivity.
Collaboration.
Operations.
User experience.
Wellbeing.
The challenge is that expectations are high and so the question Kirk asked was,
“How do businesses meet the expectations of the business leaders?”
He leads us into how Microsoft Viva’s Employee Experience capability has a huge part to play. Its role is to bring people within the organization on the journey to drive and manage this transition.
This shift starts with people and creating connection between the people and the business. Employees who are connected and bought into the business’s mission are known as engaged employees.
Engaged employees have an enormous impact on the business. Kirk shared some incredible stats on how listening to your people leads to engaged employees and the huge positive impact they have on the business.
89% of employees who feel that companies listen to them and their feedback to drive change are more engaged in the business.
Engaged employees are 12x less likely to leave their company.
Engaged employees are 3x less likely to burn out.
2x businesses with engaged employees had a higher stock price than their competition.
Two key tools that track how Copilot is being adopted and how well it is working are:
Copilot Impact Dashboard
Microsoft Viva Personal Insights.
Kirk talked about how the research and experience team have discovered that high performance teams have the following behaviors:
Measurement of how they are working using insights.
Measurement of how they feel with tools such as Viva Pulse and Viva Glint.
Next, Viva Goals was discussed and how it helps give those teams focus and purpose. This is done by aligning them around goals and business direction.
However, as we all know strategy is fluid and is constantly changing. How do you keep people up to date?
Viva Amplify and Viva Connections are key to addressing this challenge, providing a platform to keep the workforce up to date with the latest thinking and direction so that they can contribute and give feedback.
Finally, Viva Learning and Viva Skills are used to help the business by having the right people with the right skills.
Kirk then introduced Nick DeFalco.
Measure and Productivity
Nick DeFalco, Product Manager for Workplace Analytics, took the stage to talk about Measurement.
Nick talked about how measurement is key to the success of a change management process.
“Without measurement how do you know when you have been successful?”
He asked:
What do you measure?
Where can you find insights and reporting?
He suggested that the place to start is with Microsoft Copilot Dashboard within Viva Insights. Nick took us through some of the key reports. One that stood out was sentiment analysis by Microsoft Entra ID Group (Departments) for distinct characteristics such as quality, speed, punctuality. These can be used to highlight problem areas or anomalies between the different groups of users.
Nick introduced Viva Insights, which allows measurements and reports to be customized to give better insights. An example of this is Case Handling times. By monitoring this metric, it is possible to see which teams perform better and which don’t. This understanding of behavior in those teams can help improve this metric.
Another important thing to measure is the feelings of people who work in different ways. How do the working experiences of employees vary when they work from the office, home, or hybrid?
One of the main take aways that I took from this session was a scenario where the team were looking to answer – why were the high performing sales people high performing?
Using Viva Insights and the metrics available an investigation was performed. The question was:
“What differentiates the most successful salespeople from everyone else?”
Copilot in Viva Insights was used to ask which metrics should be considered to answer this question. This led to Copilot suggesting that one key differentiator was the number of internal connections that the salespeople have.
The finding from this investigation was that a salesperson with 85 or more connections was 3.1x more likely to be successful! This meant that the salesperson was able to look after their customers better, because they knew who to speak to within their company to unblock orders and give the customer better service!
“A salesperson with 85 or more connections was 3.1x more likely to be successful.”
However, after gaining this insight, how do we influence and increase the connections that the rest of the sales team have?
Nick showed the Network analysis overview report with Microsoft Viva Insights. Originally in November 2023 the organization could see that there was not much connection between Sales and Customer Service. This resulted in changes being made to connect the two departments more. And by February 2024 the connection between Sales and Customer Services was much stronger. This helped improve the overall sales team’s success and improve the business success overall.
Nick then turned to Viva Glint and Organizational insights.
One of the key questions that organizations should ask in employee surveys is, “are you clear on your goals?”
Whilst there is value in the measurement-based questions, there is gold in the verbatims provided by the employee survey.
However, the process to identify the themes and key points is time consuming. Copilot in Glint can summarize the information from these surveys.
The findings from the employee feedback were:
“Overall they feel happy but need clearer view of the priorities in the organization and need more information from leaders so that they can support the strategy of the business.”
The discussion turned to new joiners and seeing how the employee feedback changed for new starters. Viva Glint can use Tenure and drill down into a subset of the users. The findings were: new joiners really struggled to find content about strategy and vision. This really impacted on how effective they felt they could be. This is likely to impact if they will stay in the short-term.
These comments were essential to being able to find the real concerns of the employees. With Copilot the team were able to distill 7000 responses down to 22 main comments. These can then be used by the leaders to focus and understand the key actions that they need to take.
Copilot in Viva Glint has been in a private preview and one of the customers getting huge value from the platform is Phillips 66.
Kirk introduced Cassidy Pott from Phillips 66 to the stage and a fascinating fireside chat ensued.
Cassidy is the Employee Experience lead and looks after 55000 employees.
Her journey from IT Management Systems has given her a unique insight into the art of the possible. She could then apply her skills and experience from this and help her as the Employee Experience Lead.
The first comment that she had was how easy Viva Glint was to use. She was a bit skeptical about Copilot in Glint. However, this shifted quickly. The surveys that were conducted with question suggestions from Copilot in Glint resulted in feedback from management that they had the best discussions with their teams.
“Managers fed back that the survey’s resulted in the best discussions with the teams they had ever had!”
The first step on Cassidy’s journey was organizing the migration from Viva Glint in LinkedIn to Microsoft 365. She was expecting a slow and complex process and was surprised that the migration was incredibly easy. She and the IT team stated it was probably the easiest migration they have been involved in!
Kirk asked Cassidy, “What are the benefits that you are seeing?”
Cassidy said that the tooling was integrated into the current workflows, which was the main advantage. They did not need to add new tools and another separate application, but they could use Microsoft Teams to distribute things. Also, since the toolset is part of the Microsoft 365 platform, they can link content together without obstacles between the different systems.
Next, the conversation turned to Copilot in Viva Glint.
Kirk asked what Cassidy’s experience had been with Copilot in Glint. She was very positive about the experience and described it as follows:
“In 2 minutes, I realized how fantastic it (Copilot in Glint) was and the capacity that it is going to create”.
Cassidy described how she started to use Copilot in Glint. When she puts together a survey, she will spend time designing the survey and then gets the results and reports on it.
One of the huge challenges with the survey are the results. The sheer volume of data, taking all the answers and making sense of it all takes a lot of time. How would you read and manage the 14000 comments?
However, with Copilot in Glint this becomes very easy. Within 20 seconds, Cassidy was able to summarize all the comments. What was great is that it matched the feedback that they had manually put together. What was more, Copilot picked up on something that had been missed!
Due to the speed of feedback, Copilot allowed them to start doing more research. This included other themes such as communication and collaboration. Previously, they just did not have the time to do this additional research but now they can!
Cassidy told a story about how one of the managers was looking for some answers from the research and asked how long it would take. Cassidy responded that it would be about two months.
Well, with Copilot in Glint, Cassidy was able to give the manager an answer before they had finished the meeting! The result was that Copilot in Glint allowed them to do something that would have taken two months in one hour!
What Next
Kirk asked, “What is next?”
Cassidy explained that they want to spend more time going over the comments and seeing what other insights and feedback they can glean from the content.
She is really looking forward to being able to do real-time analysis and feedback more quickly. They also want to bring these tools to the leadership team so they (the management team) can analyze and work on the findings too.
Advice?
Kirk asked “Do you have an advice?”
A good way to start using Copilot in Glint is to use a survey that you already have findings for. Cassidy did this and this built trust with the tool because the results matched her findings. Using this approach, you can get fast feedback and check if the results are correct or not.
Communications
Next up, Kristi Kelly, Principal Product Manager of Copilot and AI Experiences for Microsoft Viva, walked up on the stage and coolly addressed the audience with “Well I didn’t trip up the stage!”
Kristi moved the conversation to Communications and the impact of Viva Amplify and Viva Connections.
In most organizations with Microsoft Viva the conversations start in the Employee Hub, this might be with Viva Connections or the SharePoint Intranet homepage.
Viva Connections is an incredible ecosystem with over 1500 Viva Connection card applications published by third parties. Amazingly, the application is in the top 3 of most used Microsoft Teams applications. Actually, this should not be a surprise because it is the Microsoft Teams mobile app where Viva Connections shines and makes up a big part of the story.
Viva Connections is key at pushing out news and campaigns.
Kristi announced that Viva Amplify will shortly be rolling out Viva Connections as a direct endpoint.
Kristi then introduced a case study where an organization needs to upskill the workforce in AI. The goal is to communicate and direct people towards this outcome and a set of overall goals.
She explains – to achieve this we need to reach out to people via different channels including Outlook, SharePoint/Viva Connections and Teams.
Viva Amplify analytics and the Publication Report helps the team identify that the distribution and reach is there but the engagement is low. The insights gleaned from Viva Amplify show that the messaging needs to change and be more engaging.
The network analytics from Viva Engage are key and with these reports it is possible to see how to keep people engaged and the topics that are most important for the employees. Additionally, these reports help us retain staff by keeping them engaged.
One of the key reports to monitoring staff retention levels is the Employee Retention report, which shows how communication is influencing employee retention levels.
Copilot resources.
The Viva Engage team have built a community template, the Copilot Adoption community which helps organizations increase the reach of Copilot within the business. This is available in your Microsoft 365 now.
The template helps organizations to engage, share best practice and built a knowledge base which the rest of the organization can use.
Time for a demo
Kristi showed how Viva Answers can help teams to find answers to their questions and increase the capture of knowledge. The top questions feature is a great way of showing everyone how important knowledge is to the organization and aims to inspire the teams to ask more questions and seek more answers.
AI powered questions means that users can get answers automatically if the question has already been asked and this means that 66% of questions are automatically answered without the need to post the question!
“With Viva Answers, 66% of questions are automatically answered without the need to post the question.”
Copilot in Viva Engage can really help community leaders to work out the type of information that communities need. The use of Copilot allows to keep the flow of questions and information going and this really helps engagement. As these questions help people understand how they contribute and help and support others. This helps make the community stronger and have more engagement.
Kristi talked about how conversation starters are research backed and provided by experts within Microsoft.
Kristi continued the demo and gave us a tip on how we can help more successful engagement and change with a new initiative by using model behavior. This is where you show the behavior that you are looking for. This is often a problem where people are not sure how they are supposed to behave. So, Kristi uses Copilot to help her get started.
This knowledge and experience help her to engage people and bring them along on the journey so that they get involved and allow us to reach the goal!
Kristi closes her section with an announcement that Copilot in Viva Engage is rolling out today!
A video case study starts with a well-known pizza brand, Dominos. The case study explains how Viva helped them establish a single communications platform and break down barriers across the organization.
Their main challenge has been trying to connect with the store managers across their 100000-person organization.
They rolled out Viva Goals and OKRs throughout Dominos, the result is that they have seen a significant increase in performance.
One of the ways that they measured is by asking their employees “How well do you know the business goals and objectives?”
Dominos at the start of their journey scored poorly. However, with Microsoft Viva to improve communications, the tide has turned, and the score has been increasing with each subsequent survey.
The great response they had has been from the stores. They now feel that they can engage and provide feedback. This is helping Dominos to keep improving and pushing forward across the entire organization.
Skilling
Michael Holste, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft Viva, steps on the stage to talk about skilling with Microsoft Viva.
Michael talks about how organizations need to upskill and reskill, which is where people are trained in new job roles.
He highlighted that these capabilities are key if we are to implement transformation with AI.
Viva Skills
The key question is, how do we get skilling at the end user and organization levels?
One of the key tools is Viva Skills which uses the LinkedIn Skills Graph. This maps skills to job title and links these skills to learning content which can then be used to as the training content to be used to bring those employees up to speed with that ability.
He explains how reporting allows us to see where the gaps are in those skills and the content that can be used to address that need.
Michael introduces a scenario where an organization needed to use AI to transform.
Michael starts by looking at the skill landscape and quickly is able to see that skills are weak in Product Development and Research. Additionally, they found that actually they do have a foundation in the Machine Learning skill, which is fundamental to driving the transformation with AI.
Armed with this information the organization can take action to address these skills challenges.
Ryan turned attention to Viva Learning.
Viva Learning
Michael talks over how Viva Learning brings key training content to the employees. Using the skills found earlier we can find and tailor learning content to the needs of the teams and organization to build capability in those areas.
He explains how the Viva Skills service works. The Viva Skills system will continue to learn and add skills as it understands the skills repertoire found in a business’s Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
A new feature has been introduced is Viva Learning Academies. This feature allows learning to be associated with Viva Goals. Finally, we can link the learning and skills based on the goals of an organization!
Finally, Michael closes his part with a discussion of Copilot in Viva Learning. Here Copilot can help us to find key learning information. He shows a demo where he is looking for introductions to AI. Copilot provides examples of learning courses and more to help people quickly find the right training for their needs.
Close
Kirk returns to the stage and closes the talk, explaining the journey we have been on. He shows a slide of the current state of the Viva Innovations across the Viva Suite of products which shows an impressive array of the latest features and features to come this year.
You can find out more about these Viva Innovations on the Viva Roadmap (https://aka.ms/viva/roadmap).
The session was a great overview with some fantastic insights, learning and inspiring real-world stories which I am personally going to find useful when speaking with customers and my team..
Simon Doy is a Microsoft MVP, Viva Explorer, core team member of the Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 team and owner of iThink 365. He is passionate about helping organizations be successful using Microsoft 365 and through their people by connecting the people to one another and the business to build a happier, more productive and profitable and engaged workforce who are invested in driving the business forward.
Blog: https://www.simondoy.com
X / Twitter https://www.x.com/simondoy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simondoy
Website: https://www.ithink365.co.uk
Viva Explorers: https://www.vivaexplorers.com
Maturity Model for Microsoft 365: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/community/microsoft365-maturity-model–intro
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
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Here is the current formula:
=VSTACK(FILTER(‘AV POWER Overall’!A3:K200,’AV POWER Overall’!K3:K200=’TA00-A101′!N2),FILTER(‘LX POWER Overall’!A3:K200,’LX POWER Overall’!K3:K200=’TA00-A101′!N2))
Screenshot is the combined sheet.
I have a working VSTACK formula with 2 filters. I would like to insert a blank row or even a copied header row between the two filter in order to separate the data visually on the combined sheet. Here is the current formula:=VSTACK(FILTER(‘AV POWER Overall’!A3:K200,’AV POWER Overall’!K3:K200=’TA00-A101′!N2),FILTER(‘LX POWER Overall’!A3:K200,’LX POWER Overall’!K3:K200=’TA00-A101′!N2)) Screenshot is the combined sheet. Read More
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Hi,
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OneDrive for Business Plan 2 Sync vs Location limits
Need to clarify “OneDrive for Business Plan 2” and it’s limits.
25 TB total storage?
30 million items. Is this correct?
Sync no more than 300,000 items.
– This 300,000 sync limit, is it per Location or all locations added together in one account?
See my screen shot for an example.
One account that has three Locations syncing. One of the current locations has 250,000 items syncing. Am I able to add a fourth Location that has another 250,000 items?
Need to clarify “OneDrive for Business Plan 2” and it’s limits. 25 TB total storage?30 million items. Is this correct?Sync no more than 300,000 items.- This 300,000 sync limit, is it per Location or all locations added together in one account?See my screen shot for an example. One account that has three Locations syncing. One of the current locations has 250,000 items syncing. Am I able to add a fourth Location that has another 250,000 items? Read More
Integrating Project, Project on the Web, Roadmap, Planner and Power BI with SharePoint
Has anyone successfully integrated Project, Project for the Web, Roadmap, Planner, and Power BI with SharePoint? I’m particularly interested in:
Sharing best practices and lessons learned.Understanding the best approach to link a data table from Excel to both a Microsoft Project Web App template and a SharePoint site.
Additionally, any insights into the frequency of data refresh between these tools would be appreciated.
Has anyone successfully integrated Project, Project for the Web, Roadmap, Planner, and Power BI with SharePoint? I’m particularly interested in:Sharing best practices and lessons learned.Understanding the best approach to link a data table from Excel to both a Microsoft Project Web App template and a SharePoint site.Additionally, any insights into the frequency of data refresh between these tools would be appreciated. Read More
Identifying AVD customers tenants with Azure lighthouse
Hello,
We have onboarded customer through Azure lighthouse and I wonder if there is a way to identify customer’s tenants with Azure virtual desktop deployments. Is it possible to run a graph query in Azure graph explorer and get a list of customers in bulk, who use AVD? Suggestions and recommendations are welcomed and thank you in advance!
Regards,
Anna
Hello,We have onboarded customer through Azure lighthouse and I wonder if there is a way to identify customer’s tenants with Azure virtual desktop deployments. Is it possible to run a graph query in Azure graph explorer and get a list of customers in bulk, who use AVD? Suggestions and recommendations are welcomed and thank you in advance!Regards,Anna Read More
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I would like to be able to drag down and the cel stay the same and the sheet number to increase.
At the moment I use the formula
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I would like to drag it down and the cell G7 stay the same but in the box below I need the next sheet. I’m having to pull it down and change the sheet number on every cell. Very time consuming 🙁
Any help will be appreciated
I would like to be able to drag down and the cel stay the same and the sheet number to increase.At the moment I use the formula=sheet1!$G$7I would like to drag it down and the cell G7 stay the same but in the box below I need the next sheet. I’m having to pull it down and change the sheet number on every cell. Very time consuming 🙁 Any help will be appreciated Read More
Azure Communication Services at the European Cloud and Collaboration Summits
We are gearing up for the European Cloud and Collaboration Summit next week from May 14 -16 in Wiesbaden, Germany with four engaging sessions for our developer audience. These conferences are premier events to learn about Microsoft technologies including Azure, Microsoft Teams, and Power Platform and offer an excellent opportunity to network with the community and Microsoft experts. We look forward to connecting with you if you plan to attend either of these conferences.
Please find below the details of Azure Communication Services sessions. Don’t forget to add them to your agenda.
Build your custom copilot on Azure
May 15, 4:20 PM CEST | By Tomas Chladek
Learn how to build a custom copilot grounded in your data and your unique scenario using the preferred messaging channels be it Voice, Video, or messaging. We’ll cover how to use Azure services to build a pro-code copilot on voice. You can use this knowledge to apply the same process in other communication channels.
AI powered customer communications
May 16, 1:30 PM CEST | By Tomas Chladek
Experience the future of customer interaction with Azure Communication Services and Azure OpenAI Services. Are you using a traditional one-size fits-all Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and chatbot? Tomas Chladek describes how to use Azure to elevate, automate, and transform your customer interactions with AI.
Event Driven Development with Azure Communication Services
May 16, 1:30 PM CEST | By Tom Morgan (MVP)
Azure Communication Services supports Azure Event Grid, meaning it can be used for event-driven development. What does that mean and how is it different from traditional software development?
Join Microsoft MVP Tom Morgan to unpack how event-driven development can help you create scalable robust solutions, using events as examples. We’ll build out a solution during the session to demonstrate how complex scenarios can be broken down into easy-to-understand components. Live demo with audience-participation at the end!
Unleash the power of Azure Communication Services and Microsoft Teams!
May 15, 2:00 PM CEST | By Tom Morgan (MVP)
Have you ever wanted a game-changing solution that simplifies complex communication tasks like voice, video, and desktop sharing? Look no further! Azure Communication Services is here to revolutionize the way developers approach these challenges.
Imagine embedding advanced capabilities into your line of business applications, creating personalized customer video portals, or even having IVRs that use cutting-edge Azure OpenAI speech technologies. Azure Communication Services also seamlessly integrates with your existing Microsoft Teams deployment, taking collaboration to a whole new level.
About our speakers
Tomas Chladek is a Senior Product Manager at Azure Communication Services, Microsoft.
LinkedIn.
Tom Morgan is a Microsoft 365 Develpment Architect and Microsoft MVP. LinkedIn.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
“The Future of AI” Upcoming hybrid meeting with Microsoft Texas Client Director on panel!
You’re invited to join us in-person or virtually on May 23!
IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) TOLA Chapter (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) rotates monthly and hosts chapter meetings in Austin, Houston and Dallas. All meetings are hybrid and anyone is welcome to attend, no matter where you are!
Our May 23rd meeting:
The Future of AI and Its Impact on Your Organization
Artificial intelligence (AI) will change every aspect of digital work in the coming decade. AI’s reach will proliferate in your organization and those of your partners, customers, and rivals, thanks to continued advances in hardware, software, analytics, and the ability to scale these changes.
Join IAMCP for an interactive panel discussion with key business leaders to explore how their respective organizations are using or planning to use AI to advance and improve organization productivity. You will get the opportunity to interact with our panel and discuss the impact of planning, budgeting, and challenges of AI implementation.
Our Panel:
Stephen Elkins – Texas Client Director – MicrosoftRicardo Blanco – Deputy Executive Commissioner for IT and Chief Information Officer at Texas Health and Human ServicesTim Weinheimer – Chief Innovations Officer at Hahn Labs
Join us online or in-person (lunch included) in Austin at the Microsoft office –
10900 Stonelake Blvd., Suite B-225
Austin, TX 78759
11:30am-1:00pm CST
Not a member of IAMCP? You can still attend for $30 or, as a new member, join for $1 for your first 90 days!
I myself have been a member of IAMCP for about 2+ years and I’m the Secretary of the Houston chapter. There are plenty of other virtual meetings every month covering all topics concerning partners. It’s a great way to understand the ecosystem, how to gain designations and credentials, and find partner to partner opportunities.
You’re invited to join us in-person or virtually on May 23! IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) TOLA Chapter (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) rotates monthly and hosts chapter meetings in Austin, Houston and Dallas. All meetings are hybrid and anyone is welcome to attend, no matter where you are! Our May 23rd meeting:The Future of AI and Its Impact on Your OrganizationArtificial intelligence (AI) will change every aspect of digital work in the coming decade. AI’s reach will proliferate in your organization and those of your partners, customers, and rivals, thanks to continued advances in hardware, software, analytics, and the ability to scale these changes.Join IAMCP for an interactive panel discussion with key business leaders to explore how their respective organizations are using or planning to use AI to advance and improve organization productivity. You will get the opportunity to interact with our panel and discuss the impact of planning, budgeting, and challenges of AI implementation. Our Panel:Stephen Elkins – Texas Client Director – MicrosoftRicardo Blanco – Deputy Executive Commissioner for IT and Chief Information Officer at Texas Health and Human ServicesTim Weinheimer – Chief Innovations Officer at Hahn Labs Join us online or in-person (lunch included) in Austin at the Microsoft office – 10900 Stonelake Blvd., Suite B-225Austin, TX 7875911:30am-1:00pm CST Register Here > Not a member of IAMCP? You can still attend for $30 or, as a new member, join for $1 for your first 90 days! I myself have been a member of IAMCP for about 2+ years and I’m the Secretary of the Houston chapter. There are plenty of other virtual meetings every month covering all topics concerning partners. It’s a great way to understand the ecosystem, how to gain designations and credentials, and find partner to partner opportunities. Read More
IAMCP TOLA’s Chapter is talking AI with Microsoft in Austin (or virtually) May 23rd!
You’re invited to join us in-person or virtually on May 23!
IAMCP‘s TOLA Chapter (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) rotates monthly and hosts chapter meetings in Austin, Houston and Dallas. All meetings are hybrid and anyone is welcome to attend, no matter where you are!
Our May 23rd meeting:
The Future of AI and Its Impact on Your Organization
Artificial intelligence (AI) will change every aspect of digital work in the coming decade. AI’s reach will proliferate in your organization and those of your partners, customers, and rivals, thanks to continued advances in hardware, software, analytics, and the ability to scale these changes.
Join IAMCP for an interactive panel discussion with key business leaders to explore how their respective organizations are using or planning to use AI to advance and improve organization productivity. You will get the opportunity to interact with our panel and discuss the impact of planning, budgeting, and challenges of AI implementation.
Our Panel:
Stephen Elkins – Texas Client Director – MicrosoftRicardo Blanco – Deputy Executive Commissioner for IT and Chief Information Officer at Texas Health and Human ServicesTim Weinheimer – Chief Innovations Officer at Hahn Labs
Join us online or in-person (lunch included) in Austin at the Microsoft office –
10900 Stonelake Blvd., Suite B-225
Austin, TX 78759
11:30am-1:00pm CST
You’re invited to join us in-person or virtually on May 23! IAMCP’s TOLA Chapter (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas) rotates monthly and hosts chapter meetings in Austin, Houston and Dallas. All meetings are hybrid and anyone is welcome to attend, no matter where you are! Our May 23rd meeting:The Future of AI and Its Impact on Your OrganizationArtificial intelligence (AI) will change every aspect of digital work in the coming decade. AI’s reach will proliferate in your organization and those of your partners, customers, and rivals, thanks to continued advances in hardware, software, analytics, and the ability to scale these changes.Join IAMCP for an interactive panel discussion with key business leaders to explore how their respective organizations are using or planning to use AI to advance and improve organization productivity. You will get the opportunity to interact with our panel and discuss the impact of planning, budgeting, and challenges of AI implementation. Our Panel:Stephen Elkins – Texas Client Director – MicrosoftRicardo Blanco – Deputy Executive Commissioner for IT and Chief Information Officer at Texas Health and Human ServicesTim Weinheimer – Chief Innovations Officer at Hahn Labs Join us online or in-person (lunch included) in Austin at the Microsoft office – 10900 Stonelake Blvd., Suite B-225Austin, TX 7875911:30am-1:00pm CST Register Here > Read More
Allow Sensitive Data Inbound
My Outbound PII DLP policies for Exchange are also blocking users from receiving PII data from External senders. A Policy Tip in extrernal senders Outlook displays “The following recipients aren’t authorized to receive this type of information.”
We have 100’s of users who receive PII data across all of our business units. Do I really need to define everyone who will need to receive this data? Frankly, from an organization perspective, we are not interested who can receive it, just who can send it out.
My Outbound PII DLP policies for Exchange are also blocking users from receiving PII data from External senders. A Policy Tip in extrernal senders Outlook displays “The following recipients aren’t authorized to receive this type of information.”We have 100’s of users who receive PII data across all of our business units. Do I really need to define everyone who will need to receive this data? Frankly, from an organization perspective, we are not interested who can receive it, just who can send it out. Read More
Error – Something went wrong. [1001]
Hello, I am a 365 client for a few years. Today out of nowhere I was asked to log in to my account. When I attempt to do so, this is the error message:
******************************************************
Error
Something went wrong. [1001]
Correlation Id: 81f04800-4268-44e4-b1c2-2f758659651a
Timestamp: 2024-05-10T14:25:03.000Z
DPTI: 01080ae9bf8da57cba51e6e1c62e24077158eb66d301ccb2f46fd0e8fbb147a7
Error Tag: 7q6ca
Error Code: 2147483661
*******************************************************************
This has never happened before, and can log into my account via https://www.office.com. But when I try to use the actual apps on my desktop it will not work, and kicks back the same error message for all the apps. I have seen other posts about this, but I am not conformable trying to change code and registry values. I need support from a MS professional, please advise as this is an acute issue.
Thank you in advance for your attention – Steve
Hello, I am a 365 client for a few years. Today out of nowhere I was asked to log in to my account. When I attempt to do so, this is the error message: ******************************************************ErrorSomething went wrong. [1001]Correlation Id: 81f04800-4268-44e4-b1c2-2f758659651aTimestamp: 2024-05-10T14:25:03.000ZDPTI: 01080ae9bf8da57cba51e6e1c62e24077158eb66d301ccb2f46fd0e8fbb147a7Error Tag: 7q6caError Code: 2147483661 *******************************************************************This has never happened before, and can log into my account via https://www.office.com. But when I try to use the actual apps on my desktop it will not work, and kicks back the same error message for all the apps. I have seen other posts about this, but I am not conformable trying to change code and registry values. I need support from a MS professional, please advise as this is an acute issue. Thank you in advance for your attention – Steve Read More
How to implement a calculated column using ‘Created’ column and ‘Status Update’ column
I am attempting to add a calculated column that will calculate the difference in time between when a form is submitted (shown in a column titled ‘created’) and when a column titled ‘status’ is marked as ‘done’.
I am attempting to add a calculated column that will calculate the difference in time between when a form is submitted (shown in a column titled ‘created’) and when a column titled ‘status’ is marked as ‘done’. Read More
How do I disable the “reschedule” feature that is automatically sent to customers after using bookin
I want our Bookings page to be something for internal use, I like the automatic emails but I do not want the customer to be able to manage their own appointment. How do I disable this option but still keep the emails going out?
I want our Bookings page to be something for internal use, I like the automatic emails but I do not want the customer to be able to manage their own appointment. How do I disable this option but still keep the emails going out? Read More
Partner Blog | What’s new for Microsoft partners: April 2024 edition
Over the past few months, we have continued to add benefits and resources to the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program to help you and your customers realize the most from our latest technology. These changes have been informed by partner feedback and developed with the diversity of the partner community in mind.
In this blog, you’ll find links to expert insights, redesigned learning materials, and updated benefits to accelerate your growth in the coming year.
Announcements
State of the Partner Ecosystem: Chief Partner Officer Nicole Dezen showcased the latest Microsoft partner business news, changes, updates, and momentum in her annual State of the Partner Ecosystem post on the Official Microsoft Blog. Learn about program updates, including new designations and certifications for partners. Find out how we are equipping partners through AI skilling, and read about partners delivering AI solutions around the world.
New benefits packages: In January, we launched three new benefits packages designed to help partners at various stages of growth to develop their business. Find out which package is right for you by reading more on the partner blog.
Realigning global licensing for Microsoft 365: Last year Microsoft updated the way Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Teams were licensed in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. We have recently announced our plan to extend that approach worldwide to ensure globally consistent licensing. Learn more.
Continue reading here
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Protect Against OWASP API Top 10 Security Risks Using Defender for APIs
Overview
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Foundation is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving software security through community-led open-source projects, education, and transparency. The OWASP API Security Project focuses on strategies and solutions to understand and mitigate the unique vulnerabilities and security risks of APIs. In this post, we’ll dive into how Defender for APIs (a plan provided by Microsoft Defender for Cloud) provides security coverage for the OWASP API Top 10 security risks.
Defender for APIs offers full lifecycle protection, detection, and response coverage for APIs. Defender for APIs helps you to gain visibility into business-critical APIs. You can investigate and improve your API security posture, prioritize vulnerability fixes, and quickly detect active real-time threats.
Concepts
Security recommendations – Recommendations in Defender for Cloud are based on the Microsoft cloud security benchmark. The Microsoft cloud security benchmark is the Microsoft-authored set of guidelines for security and compliance best practices based on common compliance frameworks. This widely respected benchmark builds on the controls from the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with a focus on cloud-centric security. For a complete list of API security recommendations, see Security recommendations – a reference guide
Security alerts – Security alerts are the notifications generated by Defender for Cloud’s workload protection plans when runtime threats are identified in your Azure, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments. For a complete list of API security alerts, see Security alerts – a reference guide
Attack path analysis – Defender for Cloud uses environment context to perform a risk assessment of your security issues and subsequently identifies the biggest security risk issues. Defender for Cloud then analyzes which security issues are part of potential attack paths that attackers could use to breach your environment. To learn more, see Identify and remediate attack paths
Defender for APIs – OWASP API Security Coverage Mapping
OWASP API Risk
Defender for APIs Security Coverage
Broken Object Level Authorization (API1:2023)
(Security alert) Parameter enumeration on an API endpoint – A single IP was observed enumerating parameters when accessing one of the API endpoints
(Security alert) Distributed parameter enumeration on an API endpoint – The aggregate user population (all IPs) was observed enumerating parameters when accessing one of the API endpoints.
Broken Authentication (API2:2023)
(Security recommendation) API endpoints in Azure API Management should be authenticated – API endpoints published within Azure API Management should enforce authentication to help minimize security risk.
(Security recommendation) API Management calls to API backends should be authenticated – Calls from API Management to backends should use some form of authentication, whether via certificates or credentials.
Broken Object Property Level Authorization (API3:2023)
(Security alert) Previously unseen parameter used in an API call – A single IP was observed accessing one of the API endpoints using a previously unseen parameter in the request.
(Security alert) Unusually large response payload transmitted between a single IP address and an API endpoint – A suspicious spike in API response payload size was observed for traffic between a single IP and one of the API endpoints.
Unrestricted Resource Consumption (API4:2023)
(Security alert) Suspicious population-level spike in API traffic to an API endpoint – A suspicious spike in API traffic was detected at one of the API endpoints.
(Security alert) Suspicious spike in API traffic from a single IP address to an API endpoint – A suspicious spike in API traffic was detected from a client IP to the API endpoint.
(Security alert) Unusually large request body transmitted between a single IP address and an API endpoint – A suspicious spike in API request body size was observed for traffic between a single IP and one of the API endpoints.
(Security alert) Suspicious spike in latency for traffic between a single IP address and an API endpoint – A suspicious spike in latency was observed for traffic between a single IP and one of the API endpoints.
(Security alert) API requests spray from a single IP address to an unusually large number of distinct API endpoints – A single IP was observed making API calls to an unusually large number of distinct endpoints.
(Security recommendation) API Management direct management endpoint should not be enabled – The direct management REST API in Azure API Management bypasses Azure Resource Manager role-based access control, authorization, and throttling mechanisms, thus increasing the vulnerability of your service.
Broken Function Level Authorization (API5:2023)
No coverage
Unrestricted Access to Sensitive Business Flows (API6:2023)
(Attack path analysis) Internet exposed APIs that are unauthenticated carry sensitive data
(Security alert) Suspicious spike in API traffic from a single IP address to an API endpoint – A suspicious spike in API traffic was detected from a client IP to the API endpoint.
Server-Side Request Forgery (API7:2023)
No coverage
Security Misconfiguration (API8:2023)
(Security recommendation) API endpoints that are unused should be disabled and removed from the Azure API Management service – As a security best practice, API endpoints that haven’t received traffic for 30 days are considered unused and should be removed from the Azure API Management service.
(Security recommendation) API Management APIs should use only encrypted protocols – APIs should be available only through encrypted protocols, like HTTPS or WSS. Avoid using unsecured protocols, such as HTTP or WS to ensure security of data in transit.
(Security recommendation) API Management secret named values should be stored in Azure Key Vault – Named values are a collection of name and value pairs in each API Management service.
(Security recommendation) API Management should disable public network access to the service configuration endpoints – To improve the security of API Management services, restrict connectivity to service configuration endpoints, like direct access management API, Git configuration management endpoint, or self-hosted gateways configuration endpoint.
(Security recommendation) API Management calls to API backends should be authenticated – Calls from API Management to backends should use some form of authentication, whether via certificates or credentials. Does not apply to Service Fabric backends.
Improper Inventory Management (API9:2023)
Inventory dashboard – Centralized inventory of all managed APIs and related API security findings.
External exposure – Classify which API endpoints are exposed externally.
Sensitive data classification – Classify APIs that receive or respond with sensitive data, to support risk prioritization, including integration support with Microsoft MIP Purview.
Unsafe Consumption of APIs (API10:2023)
No coverage
API Security Testing
Microsoft Defender for Cloud supports third-party tools to help enhance the existing runtime security capabilities that are provided by Defender for APIs. Defender for Cloud supports proactive API security testing capabilities in early stages of the development lifecycle (including DevOps pipelines). The support for third-party solutions helps to further streamline, integrate, and orchestrate security findings from other vendors with Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
This support enables full lifecycle API security (extending to OWASP API top 10 risks), and the ability for security teams to effectively discover and remediate API security vulnerabilities before they are deployed in production. To learn more, see the following: Partner applications in Microsoft Defender for Cloud for API security testing (preview)
Next Steps
To learn more about how Defender for APIs augments the security offered by Azure Web Application Firewall (Azure WAF) and Azure API Management, see the following: Defender for APIs Better Together with Azure Web Application Firewall and Azure API Management.
To learn more about how Azure API Management helps mitigate risks against the OWASP API risks, see the following: Recommendations to mitigate OWASP API Security Top 10 threats using API Management
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
App Service *.azurewebsites.net TLS Cert Renewal for Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps (Standard)
This blog contains information about *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificate changes for Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps (Standard). Customers should not be impacted by this change. The scope of services affected includes Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps (Standard); Logic Apps (Consumption) and resources hosted on an ASE are not impacted. This change is limited to public Azure cloud; government clouds are not affected.
Every Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps (Standard) has its own default hostname that goes by “<resource-name>.azurewebsites.net” where App Service secures it with a wildcard *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificate. The current intermediate Microsoft PKI Subordinate CA certificates were set to expire on June 27th, 2024. App Service used these intermediate certificates in the default TLS certificate *.azurewebsites.net. On March 13th, 2024, App Service renewed the TLS certificate and used a new set of Subordinate CAs while the root certificate remained the same. Due to the distributed asynchronous nature of the renewal process, there isn’t an exact date when the new TLS certificate will be visible to individual Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps (Standard).
Terminology and Concepts
Certificate Authority: (CA) An entity that is responsible for the creation, issuance, revocation, and management of certificates. The term applies equally to both Roots CAs and Subordinate CAs.
Root CA: The top level Certification Authority whose Root Certificate is distributed by Application Software Suppliers and that issues Subordinate CA Certificates.
Root Certificate: The self‐signed certificate issued by the Root CA to identify itself and to facilitate verification of certificates issued to its Subordinate CAs.
Subordinate CA: (Sub CA) A Certification Authority whose certificate is signed by the Root CA or another Subordinate CA.
We expect that this change will be a non-event and will not impact customers. However, you may be impacted if an application has incorrectly taken a hard dependency on the *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificate, for example by way of “certificate pinning”. Certificate pinning is a practice where an application only allows a specific list of acceptable Certificate Authorities (CAs), public keys, thumbprints, etc. Applications should never pin to the *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificate. Applications requiring certificate stability should use custom domains in conjunction with custom TLS certificates for those domains. You can refer to the recommended best practices section of this article for more information.
Recommended best practices
Certificate pinning of *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificates is not recommended because the *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificate could be rotated anytime given the nature of App Service as a Platform as a Service (PaaS). In the event that the service rotates the App Service default wildcard TLS certificate, certificate pinned applications will break and disrupt the connectivity for applications that are hardcoded to a specific set of certificate attributes. The periodicity with which the *.azurewebsites.net TLS certificate is rotated is also not guaranteed since the rotation frequency can change at any time.
If an application needs to rely on certificate pinning behavior, it is recommended to add a custom domain to a Web Apps, Functions, and Logic Apps (Standard) and provide a custom TLS certificate for the domain which can then be relied on for certificate pinning.
Note that applications which rely on certificate pinning should also not have a hard dependency on an App Service Managed Certificate. App Service Managed Certificates could be rotated anytime, leading to similar problems for applications that rely on stable certificate properties. It is best practice to provide a custom TLS certificate for applications that rely on certificate pinning.
Refer to our documentation for best practices for Azure App Service for more information.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
FAQ: Marketplace private offers through CSP?
Q: is it possible for a customer procuring Azure via a CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) to make Marketplace purchases? If so, can this also be a private offer from the ISV (even if it’s likely the CSP managing the subscriptions/billing ID for the end customer)?
I am particularly interested in how the customer will get the ISV SaaS solution deployed at their end (in this case through the CSP who own the subscription).
A: It really depends on the CSP –> customer agreement. Some CSPs charge for purchasing from the marketplace, for others it is free. There are two common scenarios:
1- The customer creates a separate subscription/billing account as “pay as you go” and did the purchase of a private offer
2- The CSP purchased the offer on the behalf of the customer and here they can choose to overcharge or not
Assumed the following:
1- In order to receive a private offer, you need to “own” the billing accountID – usually in this scenario, it belongs to the CSP
2- You still need to be an Enterprise Admin or Billing Account owner to purchase (it is not always allowed by the CSP)
Overall:
The customer should get in contact with the CSP, either getting the right setup or agreeing on the “overcharge”
You should also refer to the following documentation related to this topic:
Video tutorials
Private Offers for CSP Partners Overview
Private Offer Creation by ISVs for CSP Partners
The CSP Partner Private Offer Purchase Process
Q: is it possible for a customer procuring Azure via a CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) to make Marketplace purchases? If so, can this also be a private offer from the ISV (even if it’s likely the CSP managing the subscriptions/billing ID for the end customer)?
I am particularly interested in how the customer will get the ISV SaaS solution deployed at their end (in this case through the CSP who own the subscription).
A: It really depends on the CSP –> customer agreement. Some CSPs charge for purchasing from the marketplace, for others it is free. There are two common scenarios:
1- The customer creates a separate subscription/billing account as “pay as you go” and did the purchase of a private offer
2- The CSP purchased the offer on the behalf of the customer and here they can choose to overcharge or not
Assumed the following:
1- In order to receive a private offer, you need to “own” the billing accountID – usually in this scenario, it belongs to the CSP
2- You still need to be an Enterprise Admin or Billing Account owner to purchase (it is not always allowed by the CSP)
Overall:
The customer should get in contact with the CSP, either getting the right setup or agreeing on the “overcharge”
You should also refer to the following documentation related to this topic:
Configure ISV to CSP partner private offers in Microsoft Partner Center – Marketplace publisher | Microsoft Learn
Video tutorials
Private Offers for CSP Partners Overview
Private Offer Creation by ISVs for CSP Partners
The CSP Partner Private Offer Purchase Process Read More
Running python/flask app on IIS using ASP.Net Core Module handler
Looking for insight into running/flask app using a modern/maintained method.
wfastcgi is essentially deprecated (version 3.0.0 was released 7 years ago).
HttpPlatform handler was replaced by the asp.net core module even before that (2016).
I’ve made some progress using the ASP.Net Core Module handler – but when I try to launch the app I get an error:
Application ‘/LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT’ with physical root ‘C:inetpubwwwroot’ failed to start process with commandline ‘“C:Python312python.exe” C:inetpubwwwrootapp.py’ with multiple retries. Failed to bind to port ‘11905’. First 30KB characters of captured stdout and stderr logs from multiple retries:
Nothing in the python log.
Any feedback appreciated.
Looking for insight into running/flask app using a modern/maintained method. wfastcgi is essentially deprecated (version 3.0.0 was released 7 years ago).HttpPlatform handler was replaced by the asp.net core module even before that (2016). I’ve made some progress using the ASP.Net Core Module handler – but when I try to launch the app I get an error:Application ‘/LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT’ with physical root ‘C:inetpubwwwroot’ failed to start process with commandline ‘“C:Python312python.exe” C:inetpubwwwrootapp.py’ with multiple retries. Failed to bind to port ‘11905’. First 30KB characters of captured stdout and stderr logs from multiple retries:Nothing in the python log. Any feedback appreciated. Read More
