Integration and interoperability are two ideas we spend a lot of time thinking about and working on at Microsoft. Together, they add up to one essential outcome: providing a seamless, unified user experience across multiple applications, platforms and devices. That’s something we are committed to offering you and our other customers with every new Office 365 feature, update and improvement.
We recently announced the pre-release of Visio Online and Visio on iPad, which will enable cross-platform consumption of Visio diagrams and empower more people to create, collaborate and communicate visually. We also introduced a number of key updates to Visio Pro for Office 365, such as one-step data linking for diagrams and advanced design and collaboration with the enhanced AutoCAD support.
In addition, we recently announced a new guest access feature for Office 365 Groups, making it easy for you to collaborate with customers, partners, suppliers or consultants outside your organization by including them as members in an Office 365 group. We also announced three new usage reports—for SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Exchange Online—to provide you with additional insights about how end users in your organization are using and adopting Office 365, and where additional training or support may be needed.
As another part of our cross-platform work, we introduced a host of Outlook calendar improvements for iOS and Android. The Interesting Calendars feature will allow you to subscribe to external schedules, such as those for your hometown sports teams or favorite TV shows, and add those events to your calendar automatically. Other new Outlook calendar features for iOS and Android let you arrange and update meetings on the go, include maps and directions with your event details, and use icons to make it easier to see at a glance what you have scheduled.
Finally, we continued to expand our deep commitment to make Office 365 the world’s most trusted cloud service for productivity by announcing the general availability of Office 365 from multiple local datacenters in the United Kingdom. The new U.K. facilities join our other regional datacenters in Japan, Australia, India and Canada. Local datacenters add in-region data residency, failover and disaster recovery to help address the legal, regulatory and compliance needs of customers in government and highly regulated industries, such as banking and healthcare.
Learn more about Office 365 and how it can help you improve productivity and collaboration in your business.
Below is a roundup of some key news items from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy!
Ministry of Defence switches to the cloud as Microsoft opens first U.K. datacenters—Find out why the Ministry of Defence in the United Kingdom decided to trust the security of its sensitive data to Office 365 and Azure, and the new U.K.-based Microsoft datacenters.
HP to deploy and use Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM in six-year agreement—Discover why HP chose to go with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in part because of the close integration with Office 365.
Going beyond the ordinary—using Office 365 to thrive in a global market—Learn how using Office 365 and other Microsoft cloud technologies adds up to enhanced collaboration and global growth for one accounting firm.
Carhartt—building a durable, agile workplace with Office 365—Find out how Office 365 is helping this leading clothing manufacturer dress for success on a global scale.
Can Skype and Office 365 Replace Traditional Enterprise Phone Systems?—Discover why a growing number of enterprise organizations are choosing Skype and Office 365 for telephony.
10 ways Office 365 can streamline your CPA firm—Learn how Office 365 can help CPA firms and other small and medium-sized businesses increase productivity at a flexible cost.
Qantas embarks on digital transformation journey with Office 365—Find out how Qantas Airways of Australia is using Office 365 to connect its global workforce and provide better customer service.
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