OneDrive security and mobile features now available for Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers

OneDrive security and mobile features now available for Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

BB-Microsoft-Hero-Image-Security-OneDrive-Shawn.jpeg


 


We are excited to announce the addition of ransomware detection and recovery, an expanded Personal Vault, password protected and expiring sharing links, and offline files and folders to Microsoft 365 Basic. These features are available today, at no additional charge, for all our Microsoft 365 Basic customers, and they complement the 100GB of cloud storage, ad-free Outlook email, and advanced email security features already included.



With additional security features from OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers will get additional peace of mind for their files and photos, at the same low price.



Let’s take a look at the newly added features and some helpful tips to get you started.



Ransomware detection and recovery



How it helps: By storing your important files and photos in OneDrive, you’re not just backing them up in the cloud; OneDrive vigilantly monitors them for signs of ransomware.



How it works: Our system monitors your account for signs of ransomware activity. This includes unusual file modifications, encryption actions, and other indicators of malicious intent.


 


Ransomware - Image 1.jpeg


OneDrive alerts you to ransomware on your device and via email.


 


When Microsoft 365 detects a ransomware attack, you’ll receive a notification on your device and an email from Microsoft, alerting you to the potential threat. We guide you through the process of assessing the extent of the issue, deleting suspicious files and then help you identify a safe point in time for restoration.


 


Ransomware - Image 2.jpeg


Choose the date and time to restore your OneDrive.


 


Ransomware - Image 3.jpeg


OneDrive will update you when the restoration completes.


 


While there’s a possibility of losing some data between the time of infection and detection, this measure mitigates the loss, safeguarding your most crucial files and memories. Check out this article for more detailed information on recovering your OneDrive.



Personal Vault



How it helps: Personal Vault in OneDrive provides an extra layer of security with Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), helping to ensure that only you can access your critical files. This feature is invaluable for important documents, such as passports, tax records, and financial documents, as well as any photos or digital keepsakes you hold dear. Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers previously could only store 3 files in their Personal Vault. That restriction has now been removed, and subscribers can put as many files as they want in Personal Vault up to their 100GB storage limit.


 


Vault - Image 1.jpeg


Personal Vault is accessible on any device via OneDrive.


 


Vault - Image 2.jpeg


Your files will be secured by identity verification, yet easily accessible across your devices.


 


How it works: Activating your Personal Vault is straightforward and requires just a few steps:



1. Start by Logging In: Navigate to OneDrive.com and sign in with your Microsoft credentials.



2. Enable Personal Vault: Head over to Settings and find the Personal Vault option. Click “Enable” to begin the setup.



3. Choose Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): For enhanced security, enabling your Personal Vault requires 2FA. You can opt to use a secondary email or, for optimal security, use the Microsoft Authenticator app available on both iOS and Android platforms.



4. Enter Your PIN: Upon setup, you’ll receive a PIN through your chosen 2FA method. Enter this PIN to activate your Personal Vault.



Every time you access your Personal Vault, you’ll be prompted to authenticate via your selected 2FA method, ensuring that only you can view and edit your most sensitive files.


 


Vault - Image 3.jpeg


You can sign in to Personal Vault via the Microsoft Authenticator app.


 


Vault - Image 4.jpeg


Store important files in your Personal Vault.


 


Personal Vault: Tips



Regularly Review Your Vault: Periodically assess the files in your Vault to ensure that everything stored there is still relevant and requires the extra layer of security.



Securely Close Your Vault: While your Personal Vault will close automatically after 20 min on inactivity, it’s a smart move to just close Personal Vault after you’re done. This simple habit ensures that your sensitive files remain locked away, even if you forget to close your browser.



To learn more about your Personal Vault, please read this support article.



Password protected and expiring sharing links



How it helps: Sharing files and photos is a necessity- whether it’s for collaboration, sharing and connecting over memories, or distributing important documents. Now Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers gain access to advanced sharing options, allowing for more secure and controlled sharing experiences. These new features are great for community and group projects, family memories, and sensitive documents.


 


Password Sharing - Image 1.jpeg


Choose the date for sharing links to expire.


 


How it works: Simply log into OneDrive wherever you want to share from (on the web, a PC, or mobile device) and you can manage how you are sharing any file or folder.



1. Initiate Sharing: Click on the sharing control for your desired file or folder to open the Sharing dialog.



2. Access Advanced Sharing Options: Select the edit drop down control and then select “Sharing settings.”



3. Set Expiration Dates: Choose the Expiration option to specify a date when the link will expire, rendering the file or folder inaccessible to recipients.



4. Create a Secure Password: Use the Password option to assign a unique password that recipients must enter to access the shared file or folder. Remember to communicate this password to your intended recipients separately.


 


Password Sharing - Image 2.jpeg


Easily manage all your sharing settings in one place.


 


Sharing: Tips



It’s always good to stay on top of the content you’ve shared with friends, family, and collaborators. OneDrive gives you an easy way to do so. Simply log into your account at OneDrive.com, and on the left-side navigation, you’ll see a view called “Shared.” The Shared view, lets you quickly see all the content that’s share with you and more importantly, all the content that you’ve shared with others.


 


From this view, simply click on the sharing control to once again bring up the Sharing dialog. At the bottom of the dialog, you can see which individuals have access to this content. Clicking on those names will open the advanced controls, letting you update permissions if you desire.



For more information on sharing files and folders please read this support article.



Offline Files and Folders on OneDrive Mobile



How it helps: Sometimes the real world doesn’t give you the best access to the digital world with spotty or non-existent connectivity. But you may need access to your files when you don’t have a connection. Offline Files and Folders, empowers Microsoft 365 Basic customers with seamless access to your files on the go, whether you’re traveling, in a location with poor connectivity, or simply want to save on data.


 


Offline on Mobile - Image 1.jpeg


Choose which files to make available offline.


 


How it works: To access this feature on your mobile device, make sure you have the latest version of the OneDrive app installed on your Android or iOS device. Even without an internet connection, you can open and edit files stored offline in the app.



1. Select Your Files or Folders: Browse your files in the app, and for any file or folder you wish to access offline, open the context menu by tapping the three dots next to the item.



2. Enable Offline Access: Choose the “Make Available Offline” option. You’ll see a blue sync icon appear, indicating the file is syncing. Once the icon turns grey, your file is available for offline use.



3. Automatic Sync: As soon as you reconnect to the internet, any changes you made to offline files are automatically synchronized with your OneDrive, ensuring your work is always up to date.


 


Offline on Mobile - Image 2.jpeg


OneDrive will confirm your files are available offline.


 


Offline Access: Tips



Plan Ahead: Before traveling or entering areas with poor connectivity, preemptively select important documents for offline access.



Storage Considerations: The number and size of files you can store offline are limited by your device’s available storage and the Microsoft Basic 100GB storage limit. Keep an eye on your device’s capacity to ensure optimal performance.



Data Management and Usage: Be mindful of your data plan when enabling offline access for large files or folders, especially if relying on cellular data. Syncing large files or numerous folders can consume significant amounts of your data plan. To avoid unexpected data usage, consider syncing over Wi-Fi or adjusting your sync settings.



Manage Storage: Regularly review and remove offline files you no longer need to free up storage on your mobile device.



For more information, please read these articles for Offline Files and Folders for Android and iOS.



Wrapping Up



Whether you’re safeguarding your family photos, managing your personal projects, or simply enjoying the ease of accessing your files anywhere, anytime, Microsoft 365 Basic is evolving with you, helping ensure that your digital life is secure, private, and seamlessly connected. We appreciate you, our Microsoft 365 Basic subscribers, and we are excited to continue making your experience better.



Thank you for entrusting us with your most precious digital assets and thank you for reading.



About the Author



Arvind Mishra is a Principal Product Manager on the OneDrive Consumer Growth team. He rejoined Microsoft in 2021, after more than a decade away, and is focused on building experiences for OneDrive’s consumer audience. Arvind is based in Los Angeles, and in his spare time, he can be found spending time with his family, snowboarding, scuba diving, or trying to progress to the next level in Duolingo (the Barbie movie got this so right).

Improve DNS security by using Domain Name Label Scope

Improve DNS security by using Domain Name Label Scope

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

The reuse of DNS names is a common requirement for cloud customers, as applications and services may need to be upgraded or migrated while still having the ability to deploy using the same DNS name as a pointer. The danger of this practice is that it can leave you vulnerable to a security threat known as a subdomain takeover. This can happen when a DNS name record does not point to a provisioned Azure resource, which means any domain associated with the DNS entry is now considered “dangling”. A malicious actor could take control of the dangling domain by creating a new resource with the same DNS name that points to different resources as shown below:


brianlehr_0-1711047640891.png


In the past, Azure has recommended multiple ways to remediate this type of threat by using products like Microsoft Defender for App service or Azure DNS alias records, along with practicing “good DNS hygiene”. Today, we are excited to announce a new capability for Azure public IP address that can prevent this type of subdomain takeover while still allowing for re-use of DNS names. We have introduced a new parameter called Domain Name Label Scope will have an additional, hashed string in between the domainnamelabel and location fields. 


The value of the Domain Name Label Scope can be set to four different values:


























Value



Behavior



TenantReuse



Object with the same name in the same tenant will receive the same Domain Label



SubscriptionReuse



Object with the same name in the same subscription will receive the same Domain Label



ResourceGroupReuse



Object with the same name in the same Resource Group will receive the same Domain Label



NoReuse



Object with the same name will receive a new Domain Label for each new instance



 


Let’s say you have a single Azure subscription and want to create a website for your Contoso Coffee business while preventing others from reusing your DNS name records. You would:



  • Select SubscriptionReuse as the option when deploying a public IP address with DNS, generating a domain name label of contoso.fjdng2acavhkevd8.westus.cloudapp.Azure.com

  • Create a DNS zone for your domain name in Azure DNS for contoso.com and then assign a CNAME (canonical name) record in your DNS zone with the subdomain contosocofee.contoso.com that points to your domain name

  • Delegate your domain name to the Azure DNS name servers at your domain name registrar
    Note the second and third steps could be done at any DNS provider, inclusive of Azure DNS.


If you delete and redeploy a public IP address using the same template as before, the domain name label will remain the same.  However, if another customer deploys a public IP address using this same template under a different subscription, the provided domain name label will change (e.g. contoso.c9ghbqhhbxevhzg9.westus.cloudapp.Azure.com), even if the public IP resource with the domain name above was removed.  This would prevent any other subscription from being able to takeover the subdomain.


brianlehr_3-1711046105169.png


The feature to secure your domain name label records using Domain Name Label Scope is available in all regions. For more information on Azure DNS or Azure Public IP Services, you can review the documentation below.


Azure DNS documentation | Microsoft Learn


Azure Virtual Network IP Services Documentation | Microsoft Learn

Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Great customer service is absolutely critical to any organization’s success. Today, organizations require modern solutions that can help them support customers on the channels and touchpoints of their choice, by providing customers with self-service options and arming customer support agents with access to information and experts to resolve issues quickly and efficiently. We are pleased to share the results of a March 2024 Forrester Consulting Total Economic ImpactTM (TEI) Study commissioned by Microsoft. Forrester calculates Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivered benefits of $14.70 million over three years to a composite organization. The total investment required was $3.54 million over three years and provided a ROI of 315% with a payback period of less than six months.

ROI Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Methodology and purpose

Forrester’s TEI study is a methodology developed specifically to assist companies with the complexities of procuring technology solutions. The TEI study also aids technology vendors in objectively evaluating and communicating their solutions’ value proposition. To these ends, the TEI study discussed here provides a framework for business-decision-makers to assess the potential financial impact of implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

dynamics 365 customer service drives roi and enhances operations


Learn more

Ultimately, the financial impact of the 2023 study is a projection for a composite organization developed by Forrester through real-world interviews with five businesses that currently use Dynamics 365 Customer Service. These businesses’ experiences and the interview results are aggregated to create a composite organization to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks. For this study, the composite organization is a $1 billion industry-agnostic organization that operates at multiple locations around the world. It has 5,000 employees total, and 500 of those are customer support agents who support a growing customer base. Each agent works an average of six hours a day and spends 75% of that time on support interactions.

Continue reading to learn what key challenges the composite organization faces and the study’s critical findings.

Key challenges

In the interviews conducted for this TEI study, the organizations shared the following common challenges:

  • A disparate stack of aging customer support and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.
  • Siloed customer data, which led to suboptimal support.
  • Increasing support capacity requirements.
  • An inconsistent and one-sized customer experience.

With these challenges top of mind, the organizations wanted to find and invest in a customer service solution that could:

  • Integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft solutions, including other Microsoft Dynamics 365 modules, Microsoft Power BI, and Microsoft Teams.
  • Deliver automation and AI-driven insights to the customer support function to enable agents to deliver a better support experience while limiting the requirements for additional support agents.
  • Help establish and curate a knowledgebase to help agents further support the customer experience.

Key findings

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service provides service organizations’ agents the tools they need to deliver faster, seamless, personalized experiences across any channel. Dynamics 365 Customer Service simplifies and automates support agent processes with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service while delivering faster support experiences to organizations’ customers, which can improve customer satisfaction and lead to additional revenue and profit.

Forrester’s study revealed four quantifiable impact areas: improved handling times leading to greater agent productivity, improvements to first-call resolution and misrouted calls, improvement to sales pipeline generation leading to revenue increases, and cost savings after retiring other customer service solutions.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas below to understand how Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivers value for customer support organizations.

Reduced call handling time by 40%

Interviewees noted several inefficiencies across their organizations’ previous customer service solutions that increased agents’ interaction time with customers:

  • Multiple solutions for different support functions, leading to siloed customer data and relevant support information.
  • Lack of visibility into customer histories and best practices for service and resolution.
  • A one-size-fits-all approach to service-case routing.
  • No automation for common support tasks.

Implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service enabled their organizations to automate manual aspects of their agents’ daily responsibilities, which helped to reduce the time they spent searching for customer information and best practices. Because agents were able to have shorter, more efficient interactions with customers, the composite organization saved an average of 468 hours per agent each year.

Improved first-call resolution by 20%—and decreased misroutes by 15%

With their legacy customer support tools, agents at the study’s participant organizations had no easily accessible customer knowledge base with records of common support issues. They also had no easy way to locate specialists who could help resolve issues, so calls were frequently misrouted to the wrong specialists.

With Dynamics 365 Customer Service, they found they could automatically route support cases to the best specialists depending on the nature of the case. This helped them to both increase first-call resolution rates by 20% and shorten the overall time of interactions. They also decreased the times agents misrouted calls to the wrong specialists by 15%. Overall, the composite organization’s agents saved up to 292 hours per year.

Increased sales pipeline generation to drive additional profitability

Some interviewees shared revenue impact to their organizations’ revenue based on the implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Service. A CRM product manager at a travel and hospitality organization explained that because Dynamics 365 Customer service automates the majority of searches performed by agents, they can spend more time on revenue-linked interactions. Another interviewee at a manufacturing organization said that customer information and leads are shared between support agents using Dynamics 365 Customer Service and salespeople using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, enabling salespeople to see customer interactions and identify opportunities for new revenue.

Saved up to $978,000 in costs on retired customer service solution(s)

By implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service, participant organizations were able to retire their previous customer service solutions, saving costs on license fees, infrastructure, and personnel maintenance hours. Interviewees from one manufacturing organization said their company reclaimed nearly $100,000 annually by decommissioning two third-party customer service solutions made redundant by Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Other benefits

woman looking at a tablet

Forrester Consulting Total Impact Study

See the total economic impact of Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Study participants mentioned additional benefits to their organizations that were not quantified for this report, including:

  • Integration with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Power BI for discovering and predicting common support issues and Teams for easy collaboration between support agents and specialists to help resolve issues.
  • An improved customer support experience with reductions in key support metrics such as handle time, hold time, and resolution rates—and the ability to deliver faster, more personalized, and more nuanced support experiences with Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Next steps

Forrester’s TEI study of Dynamics 365 Customer Service found four primary quantifiable impact areas and several soft benefits. Taken together, the study found that Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivered a total economic impact of $14.7 million in financial savings over three years. The total investment required was $3.54 million over three years and provided a ROI of 315%.

To get a closer look at the study’s results and a better understanding of how Dynamics 365 Customer Service can help your organization, download and read the full study: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

The post Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Great customer service is absolutely critical to any organization’s success. Today, organizations require modern solutions that can help them support customers on the channels and touchpoints of their choice, by providing customers with self-service options and arming customer support agents with access to information and experts to resolve issues quickly and efficiently. We are pleased to share the results of a March 2024 Forrester Consulting Total Economic ImpactTM (TEI) Study commissioned by Microsoft. Forrester calculates Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivered benefits of $14.70 million over three years to a composite organization. The total investment required was $3.54 million over three years and provided a ROI of 315% with a payback period of less than six months.

ROI Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Methodology and purpose

Forrester’s TEI study is a methodology developed specifically to assist companies with the complexities of procuring technology solutions. The TEI study also aids technology vendors in objectively evaluating and communicating their solutions’ value proposition. To these ends, the TEI study discussed here provides a framework for business-decision-makers to assess the potential financial impact of implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

dynamics 365 customer service drives roi and enhances operations


Learn more

Ultimately, the financial impact of the 2023 study is a projection for a composite organization developed by Forrester through real-world interviews with five businesses that currently use Dynamics 365 Customer Service. These businesses’ experiences and the interview results are aggregated to create a composite organization to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks. For this study, the composite organization is a $1 billion industry-agnostic organization that operates at multiple locations around the world. It has 5,000 employees total, and 500 of those are customer support agents who support a growing customer base. Each agent works an average of six hours a day and spends 75% of that time on support interactions.

Continue reading to learn what key challenges the composite organization faces and the study’s critical findings.

Key challenges

In the interviews conducted for this TEI study, the organizations shared the following common challenges:

  • A disparate stack of aging customer support and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.
  • Siloed customer data, which led to suboptimal support.
  • Increasing support capacity requirements.
  • An inconsistent and one-sized customer experience.

With these challenges top of mind, the organizations wanted to find and invest in a customer service solution that could:

  • Integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft solutions, including other Microsoft Dynamics 365 modules, Microsoft Power BI, and Microsoft Teams.
  • Deliver automation and AI-driven insights to the customer support function to enable agents to deliver a better support experience while limiting the requirements for additional support agents.
  • Help establish and curate a knowledgebase to help agents further support the customer experience.

Key findings

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service provides service organizations’ agents the tools they need to deliver faster, seamless, personalized experiences across any channel. Dynamics 365 Customer Service simplifies and automates support agent processes with Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service while delivering faster support experiences to organizations’ customers, which can improve customer satisfaction and lead to additional revenue and profit.

Forrester’s study revealed four quantifiable impact areas: improved handling times leading to greater agent productivity, improvements to first-call resolution and misrouted calls, improvement to sales pipeline generation leading to revenue increases, and cost savings after retiring other customer service solutions.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas below to understand how Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivers value for customer support organizations.

Reduced call handling time by 40%

Interviewees noted several inefficiencies across their organizations’ previous customer service solutions that increased agents’ interaction time with customers:

  • Multiple solutions for different support functions, leading to siloed customer data and relevant support information.
  • Lack of visibility into customer histories and best practices for service and resolution.
  • A one-size-fits-all approach to service-case routing.
  • No automation for common support tasks.

Implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service enabled their organizations to automate manual aspects of their agents’ daily responsibilities, which helped to reduce the time they spent searching for customer information and best practices. Because agents were able to have shorter, more efficient interactions with customers, the composite organization saved an average of 468 hours per agent each year.

Improved first-call resolution by 20%—and decreased misroutes by 15%

With their legacy customer support tools, agents at the study’s participant organizations had no easily accessible customer knowledge base with records of common support issues. They also had no easy way to locate specialists who could help resolve issues, so calls were frequently misrouted to the wrong specialists.

With Dynamics 365 Customer Service, they found they could automatically route support cases to the best specialists depending on the nature of the case. This helped them to both increase first-call resolution rates by 20% and shorten the overall time of interactions. They also decreased the times agents misrouted calls to the wrong specialists by 15%. Overall, the composite organization’s agents saved up to 292 hours per year.

Increased sales pipeline generation to drive additional profitability

Some interviewees shared revenue impact to their organizations’ revenue based on the implementation of Dynamics 365 Customer Service. A CRM product manager at a travel and hospitality organization explained that because Dynamics 365 Customer service automates the majority of searches performed by agents, they can spend more time on revenue-linked interactions. Another interviewee at a manufacturing organization said that customer information and leads are shared between support agents using Dynamics 365 Customer Service and salespeople using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, enabling salespeople to see customer interactions and identify opportunities for new revenue.

Saved up to $978,000 in costs on retired customer service solution(s)

By implementing Dynamics 365 Customer Service, participant organizations were able to retire their previous customer service solutions, saving costs on license fees, infrastructure, and personnel maintenance hours. Interviewees from one manufacturing organization said their company reclaimed nearly $100,000 annually by decommissioning two third-party customer service solutions made redundant by Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Other benefits

woman looking at a tablet

Forrester Consulting Total Impact Study

See the total economic impact of Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Study participants mentioned additional benefits to their organizations that were not quantified for this report, including:

  • Integration with other Microsoft products including Microsoft Power BI for discovering and predicting common support issues and Teams for easy collaboration between support agents and specialists to help resolve issues.
  • An improved customer support experience with reductions in key support metrics such as handle time, hold time, and resolution rates—and the ability to deliver faster, more personalized, and more nuanced support experiences with Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Next steps

Forrester’s TEI study of Dynamics 365 Customer Service found four primary quantifiable impact areas and several soft benefits. Taken together, the study found that Dynamics 365 Customer Service delivered a total economic impact of $14.7 million in financial savings over three years. The total investment required was $3.54 million over three years and provided a ROI of 315%.

To get a closer look at the study’s results and a better understanding of how Dynamics 365 Customer Service can help your organization, download and read the full study: The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

The post Forrester TEI study shows 315% ROI when modernizing customer service with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.

What’s New in Excel (March 2024)

What’s New in Excel (March 2024)

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

Welcome to our March 2024 update. 

This month, export to CSV and show details in PivotTables are now available in Excel for the web. Also, creating Power BI-connected tables is available in Excel for Windows users, and Office Scripts for Office 365 E1 and F3 licenses.


Excel for Web:



  1. Export to CSV

  2. Show Details in PivotTables #FIA


Excel for Windows:



  1. Create Power BI Connected Tables in Excel

  2. Office Scripts for Office 365 E1 and F3 Licenses


Excel for Web


1. Export to CSV


The ability to export to CSV is now available to all Web users. This experience was already supported for Windows, and Mac users and we’ve now expanded this service to all Web users. Take advantage of this lightweight file format in Excel for the Web to exchange and use data between apps and across platforms. Read more here >
Export to CSVExport to CSV








#FIA

2. Show Details in PivotTables
We’ve added a new button on the ribbon under the ‘PivotTable Analyze’ tab called Show Details, this button allows you to drill into your PivotTables. Previously, you were able to double-click a value cell in the PivotTable and create a new table to further analyze the details for that value. This button makes this existing capability easier to find and use. This functionality was already available for Web users. 


Excel for Windows


1. Create Power BI Connected Tables in Excel
A new Insert Table option is now available for the Power BI Datasets pane in Excel. It enables users to create a connected table directly in Excel. This streamlines the workflow of adding data and is friendlier to more Excel users. This is now available for all Windows and Web users. Read more here >


Power BI Connected TablesPower BI Connected Tables


 


2. Office Scripts for Office 365 E1 and F3 Licenses
Starting today you can find the Office Scripts feature set in the Automate tab on the Excel ribbon. Office Scripts is an automation platform in Excel that allows users with all levels of programming experience to automate their repetitive workflows. To get started, use the Action Recorder to record the actions you take in Excel. These actions are then translated into a script that you can run at any time. No programming experience required! Read more here >
Office ScriptsOffice Scripts


 


 









Check if a specific feature is in your version of Excel


Click here to open in a new browser tab

 

 



 


Your feedback helps shape the future of Excel. Please let us know how you like a particular feature and what we can improve upon—“Give a compliment” or “Make a suggestion”..  You can also submit new ideas or vote for other ideas via Microsoft Feedback.


 


Subscribe to our Excel Blog and the Insiders Blog to get the latest updates. Stay connected with us and other Excel fans around the world – join our Excel Community and follow us on X, formerly Twitter.


 


Special thanks to our Excel MVPs David Benaim and Bill Jelen for their contribution to this month’s What’s New in Excel article. David publishes weekly YouTube videos and regular LinkedIn posts about the latest innovations in Excel and more. Bill is the founder and host of MrExcel.com and the author of several books about Excel.

MGDC for SharePoint FAQ: How can I filter rows on a dataset?

MGDC for SharePoint FAQ: How can I filter rows on a dataset?

This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.

1. Overview


 


When gathering SharePoint data through Microsoft Graph Data Connect in a large tenant, you might be pulling many thousands, millions or even billions of objects. If you want to get just a subset of the results, there is a mechanism to filter the results at the source.


 


A common example is to pull the data just for one site (filtering for the site id) to get started with a large tenant. This way your results will be smaller, cheaper, and easier to handle. You can also use this to get just specific types of sites, like OneDrive or Communication sites.


 


In this blog, we’ll investigate how you can apply a filter to a dataset in Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint.


 


2. What is filtering?


 


When you request data from the Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint, you get the full dataset. For instance, if you request the Sites dataset, you get all the sites in the tenant. This is described in the yellow paths below.


 


JoseBarreto_0-1711144124348.png


 


If you provide a filter with the request, you can get a partial dataset based on a filter expression. You could, for instance, request all sites with a template id of 21 (that means a OneDrive). This is shown by the green paths above.


 


In short, filtering delivers a partial dataset based on a filter expression specified in the request. Only objects that meet the criteria are delivered.


 


The main uses for filtering include:



  • Reducing the size of the transfers

  • Excluding sensitive data from the results


 


Filtering is available only in these specific SharePoint datasets:



  • SharePoint Sites

  • SharePoint Permissions

  • SharePoint Group

  • SharePoint Files (coming soon)

  • SharePoint File Actions (coming soon)


 


Note: Microsoft Graph Data Connect also offers an option to exclude specific columns from the results, which is another mechanism to protect sensitive data.


 


3. Datasets and Columns


 


This filtering feature applies only to the SharePoint datasets listed below. You can filter by Site Id in all SharePoint datasets. You can also filter by Template Id in the Sites, Files and File Actions   datasets:


 




































Dataset



Site Id column



Template Id column



Sites



Id



RootWeb.WebTemplateId



Permissions



SiteId



N/A



Group



SiteId



N/A



Files



SiteId



WebTemplateId



File Actions



SiteId



WebTemplateId



 


For WebTemplateId, refer to this blog post for details on the codes used:
https://barreto.home.blog/2023/04/17/sharepoint-on-mgdc-faq-is-onedrive-included/


If you’re interested in filtering for additional SharePoint dataset columns, please let us know in the comments.


 


4. Expressions and Operators


 


Filters are specified using an expression. The expression usually includes a column (as described in the previous section), an operator and a constant.


 


The main operators supported include:





























































Type



Operator



Description



Equality



eq



Equal



Equality



ne



Not Equal



Equality



in



is IN a list



Relational



lt



Less Than



Relational



gt



Greater Than



Relational



le



Less than or Equal



Relational



ge



Greater than or Equal



Logical



not



Not



Logical



and



And



Logical



or



Or



 


Here are a few sample expressions you could use:




































Dataset



Description



Filtering Expression



Sites



Include only a specific site



Id eq ‘a123’



Sites



Include all sites except a specific site



Id ne ‘a123’



Sites



Include only a specific list of sites



Id in (‘a123’, ‘b456’, ‘c789’)



Sites



Include everything but OneDrive sites



RootWeb.WebTemplateId ne 21



Permissions



Include only a specific site



SiteId eq ‘a123’



 


The expression language is patterned after the Microsoft Graph filter query parameter.  You can read more about it at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/filter-query-parameter.


 


5. Including the Filter expression in the request


 


To add a filter to your request, you must specify a DataFilter property in the JSON representation of the request. Start by selecting the Copy Data task you are using and going to the “Source” tab of the Copy Task properties.


 


JoseBarreto_1-1711144124360.png


 


 


Click on the “{ }” button on the top right (indicated above with a red arrow), which brings up the JSON definition for the request.


 


JoseBarreto_2-1711144124369.png


 


 


In the JSON definition, find the “source” section under “typeProperties”, where you can find the “dateFilterColumn”, the “startTime” and the “endTime” properties. Add a new “DataFilter” property with the expression you want to apply. Save the changes to the JSON and make sure to publish the pipeline to apply the changes.


 


In the screenshot above, you see the definition indicated by the red arrow:
acitvity >> typeProperties >> source >> DataFilter >> RootWeb.WebTemplateId eq 21


 


Be very careful. If you specify the filtering expression in the wrong place in the JSON, the request may fail, or it could just run without filtering anything from the dataset. If you’re running this in a large production tenant, it is recommended to try this first in a small test or dev tenant.


 


6. More Request Metadata


 


As a result of this extra property in your request, the results will be filtered, and you will see fewer rows/objects in your output. Another way to see this is looking at the metadata file that is produced with any Microsoft Graph Data Connect run. Look for a folder called “metadata” in the same place you assigned to receive the data (your Azure account container and folder).


 


In the job metadata file associated with this request, you will see a few additional properties:



  • IsFilterApplied – Shows true if the request included a filter expression.

  • Filter – The expression passed by in the DataFilter property.

  • NumberOfRowsExtracted – Shows the number of rows after the filter was applied.


 


Here’s a sample of a job metadata file:


 

{
    "CopyActivityId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "JobSubmissionTime": "2024-01-10T21:27:18Z",
    "JobCompletionTime": "2024-01-10T21:32:44Z",
    "RequestStartDate": "2024-01-06T00:00:00Z",
    "RequestEndDate": "2024-01-06T00:00:00Z",
    "ColumnsRequested":"ptenant, Id, Url, RootWeb, WebCount, StorageQuota, StorageUsed, StorageMetrics, GroupId, GeoLocation, IsInRecycleBin, IsTeamsConnectedSite, IsTeamsChannelSite, TeamsChannelType, IsHubSite, HubSiteId, BlockAccessFromUnmanagedDevices, BlockDownloadOfAllFilesOnUnmanagedDevices, BlockDownloadOfViewableFilesOnUnmanagedDevices, ShareByEmailEnabled, ShareByLinkEnabled, SensitivityLabelInfo, Classification, IBMode, IBSegments, Owner, SecondaryContact, ReadLocked, ReadOnly, CreatedTime, LastSecurityModifiedDate, Operation, SnapshotDate",
    "ExtractionMode": "Full",
    "IsFilterApplied": true,
    "Filter": "RootWeb.WebTemplateId eq 21",
    "NumberOfRowsExtracted": 4,
    "TableName": "BasicDataSet_v0.SharePointSites_v1",
    "ApplicationId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "OfficeGeo": "NAM",
    "DataFactoryName": "mgdc-synapse"
}

 


 


7. Combining Filters with Deltas


 


It is possible to combine the filtering and the delta features of the SharePoint datasets in Microsoft Graph Data Connect.


 


When you specify a filtering expression and two different dates, the dataset will be first filtered and then the differences between the two dates will be calculated.


 


For more details about Delta datasets, see this blog post:
MGDC for SharePoint FAQ: How can I use Delta State Datasets? 


 


8. Filtering Errors


 


 If you pass an expression for filtering and there is a problem with it, Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint will fail the request and no data will be returned. An error message will be returned so you can understand what happened.


 


Here are some of the common error conditions:



  • Cannot filter and sample at the same time. If you specify both a DataFilter and the Top properties, you will get an error like this:


 

Operation on target Copy_Sites failed: 
ErrorCode=UserErrorOffice365DataLoaderError,
'Type=Microsoft.DataTransfer.Common.Shared.HybridDeliveryException,
Message=Office365 data loading failed to execute. 
office365LoadErrorType: PermanentError. 
Not Supported: Both DataFilter and AdditionalDataSetProperties with 'top' can not be specified at the same time,
Source=Microsoft.DataTransfer.ClientLibrary,'

 



  • You specified a column name that is not one the columns supported for that dataset. If you specify a non-existent or unsupported column, you will get an error like this:


 

Operation on target Copy_Sites failed: 
ErrorCode=UserErrorOffice365DataLoaderError,
'Type=Microsoft.DataTransfer.Common.Shared.HybridDeliveryException,
Message=Office365 data loading failed to execute. 
office365LoadErrorType: PermanentError. 
[1]: Invalid schema specified in filters. 
Only few columns are supported for filters. 
Supported Columns: ['Id', 'RootWeb.WebTemplateId']. 
Usage Example: Id eq '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000' 
or RootWeb.WebTemplateId eq 21'
,Source=Microsoft.DataTransfer.ClientLibrary,'

 



  • You specified a bad expression. If you specify a malformed expression in your DataFilter expression, you will get an error.


 


9. Conclusion


 


I hope this blog post will help you get started with Filtering. For more information about Microsoft Graph Data Connect for SharePoint, please visit the collection of links I keep at Links about SharePoint on Microsoft Graph Data Connect.