Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft has delivered a series of new features for Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 to improve security and data protection. Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, says the Teams platform now features Power BI applications, chatbots and third-party services.
“We are announcing features and experiences designed to streamline workflow and automate process right within Teams, ensure great meetings experiences in a hybrid work environment, enable Firstline Workers, protect data and mitigate threats, and more,” he said in a blog post for the Microsoft Inspire 2020 event.
Spataro said Microsoft is “introducing new ways to build low-code solutions, for partners to extend the Teams meeting experience with their apps and services, and for IT to manage Teams meetings”.
As part of the new capabilities, users can now build apps and chatbots and visualise data in Teams. Power BI app for Teams makes it easier for customers to access Power BI reports on the platform. In addition, third-party applications and services give users new ways to host collaborative and interactive meetings.
Microsoft has also developed new Teams Meeting Room management options. With Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard, partners and IT admins can easily deploy and manage devices, including improvements across device set-up, bulk management tasks, and health monitoring. With Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium offering, customers can move the responsibility of managing and monitoring Microsoft Teams Rooms to Microsoft, which Spataro said “gives you access to intelligent software, dedicated experts, and enhanced insights”.
Spataro explained that Microsoft Teams is also being used to simplify the jobs of first-line workers, for example by quickly and easily changing shift scheduling with Shifts in Teams, and turning devices into instant chat enablers with Microsoft Teams Walkie Talkie. Spataro said that the new push-to-talk experience enables instant and secure voice communication over the cloud.
In terms of security, Microsoft has released the new Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP), which extends data loss prevention to devices, helps users meet compliance requirements and protects sensitive information. With new third-party connectors across Microsoft Azure Sentinel, Microsoft customers can also simplify getting security insights from many sources.
“From new Teams platform tools to risk management improvements, all of these features are aimed at enabling people to collaborate securely and be productive from anywhere – whether they’re in the office, working from home, or connecting to teammates from the factory floor,” said Spataro.