Posts from 2020

Update Channels Change to Microsoft 365 Apps

Richard Green on 13th May 2020

In the ever changing landscape of Microsoft 365, there’s more news and this time it’s a change regarding the names of the Microsoft 365 Apps Update Channels and cadence. Two weeks ago, we posted about the formal product name change from Office 365 ProPlus to Microsoft 365 Apps. Following this change, we now have another change and that is in the Update Channels mechanism for the products.

Previously there were three Update Channels: Monthly, Semi-annual Channel Targeted, and Semi-annual. Monthly meant you got the latest features every month. Semi-annual Channel (SAC) meant you got updates every six months. Semi-annual Channel Targeted (SAC-T) meant you got updates every six months but that you were in the first wave to get the SAC update slightly ahead of everyone else but that all changes now.

Understand the People in my Organisation Group in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 1st May 2020

In Microsoft Teams there are a number of pre-defined permission groups that are offered for us to use. The People in my organisation setting is one that you may be immediately drawn to when you are looking to, for example, restrict who is a presenter in a meeting by setting the user roles, however, this group includes more people than you realise.

User Roles within a Microsoft Teams Meeting

Richard Green on 1st May 2020

So you’re attending a meeting and want to know what you can do with the user role permissions that you have? Maybe you are setting up a meeting of your own and are worried about other people being able to steal the stage or take over your meeting; especially important for teachers using Microsoft Teams to present to classes.

Microsoft 365 Apps Name Change and What it Means for You

Richard Green on 30th April 2020

The change from Office 365 ProPlus to Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise was announced and published as part of a Microsoft Docs article on April 21st at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/name-change.

On face value you might be inclined to think that the change is superficial and that it’s only going to impact the user experience of a few dialog boxes that end-users will see, however, the change goes deeper.

Setting up a Profanity Filter in Microsoft 365

Richard Green on 28th April 2020

I’ll be honest and say that I’m known to be quite partial to dropping the favourite phrase of a certain well known celebrity chef but I also know there is a time and a place for it so why are we talking about a profanity filter?

At Arcible, our style is formal but fun: we do our work in a professional and courteous manner but we like to be light-hearted and friendly about the whole thing too. That means we don’t want to be seeing or using such words in our communications. In the Microsoft 365 suite, there are a number of ways that we can police this to make sure we stay true to our image and maintain our reputation.

Time Management with the 50 Minute Meeting

Richard Green on 22nd April 2020

I can put my hand up and say that I’ve been in this situation far more times than I would care to admit with time management. When you work in an office people acknowledge that it takes time to travel from one meeting room to another but when working remote, that time management notion seems to get lost.

Even when working from home or remotely elsewhere, people need time in between their meeting schedule to use the bathroom, have a drink, or any number of other reasons. In this post, we’ll take a look at the very simple setting we can enable in Outlook to help with the issue.

Simplify Machine Builds with Windows Autopilot

Richard Green on 21st April 2020

I’ve worked with Microsoft Configuration Manager since the 2007 version. I’ve seen and worked with many things relating to machine builds like creating Task Sequences, Operating System Images and keeping those images up-to-date, patched, and tested. Things have got much better since these early days, however, this is still IT-driven and requires extensive amounts of manual time-intensive testing and work.

By taking advantage of modern Windows 10 devices and management we can use cloud-based technologies to make the process slicker and even enable the serve themselves.

Managing Licensing with Azure AD Group-based License Assignment

Richard Green on 16th April 2020

With the use of Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and the vast array of Microsoft services across the cloud offerings from Microsoft, it’s all about licensing. Making sure that every user has the right licenses is important so let’s explore how we could be managing licensing with Azure AD Group-based License Assignment.

Using Microsoft Teams Custom Backgrounds

Richard Green on 12th April 2020

Zoom Video has had the capability for virtual custom backgrounds for some time and it has been one of the hottest features requested for Microsoft Teams as a result. Microsoft Teams has had the ability to blur background for some time now and although it works very well, it isn’t quite as cool as a custom background.

Restrict Team Creation in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 6th April 2020

By controlling permissions in Azure AD, we have the ability to restrict Team creation in Microsoft Teams. We don’t want to stop people collaborating: we just want to make sure they are doing it in the way that meets the meets of the business and any security and governance concerns we might have along the way.

In this article, we’ll talk about not just how to actually restrict the creation of Teams but the underlying thought process like why we would want to do it and what some of the different configurations might look like.