“A portal's journey: MSW” 🎙 – The Intrazone podcast

by Contributed | Apr 13, 2021 | Technology

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

Some start their workday in email. Some now in Microsoft Teams sifting chats. Either may define a person’s daily communication habits, but it’s the portal that is designed for everyone – the broadest, ongoing two-way dialog across your organization. It’s where people turn to find things like HR answers, IT help, or the latest company news. No matter, the company portal thrives and survives from the curated content top down and through dynamic creations from the bottom up and peer to peer. Let us explore this intranet communications end game and how it began.

In this episode, Chris and I talk with Sam Crewdson (senior program manager | Microsoft) about his role at Microsoft managing *Microsoft Web* (MSW) on SharePoint. MSW is Microsoft’s internal company portal, built for 163,000 full-time employees. We dig into MSW over time – from on-premises to the cloud, from classic to modern, establishing it as a home site, and now its role within Microsoft Viva Connections inside of Microsoft Teams. Lots of learning and insight from over the years across UX, innovation and consistent listening to employee feedback.

By tuning in, the clarity of your intranet plans, by example, over time, come into 20/20 focus.

Note: Scroll below to see screenshots of what MSW looks like today in a Web browser and in Microsoft Teams leveraging the new Viva Connections technology.

Listen to this episode below:

https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/18701105/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/247bc1/

Subscribe to The Intrazone podcast! And listen to episode 64 now + show links and more below.

Intrazone guests and co-hosts – clockwise, starting on the left: Sam Crewdson (senior program manager | Microsoft) [guest], Chris McNulty (director | Microsoft) [co-host], and little Mark Kashman (senior product manager | Microsoft) [co-host].

A look at MSW now – both from a modern Web browser and in Teams via our internal use of Microsoft Viva Connections:

The Microsoft Web (MSW) portal when accessed through a modern browser.

The Microsoft Web (MSW) portal when accessed from within Microsoft Teams enabled by Microsoft Viva Connections. Note how the Microsoft 365 suite bar experience adapts.

Note: both above entry points to MSW also provide access to the SharePoint app bar with global navigation (not shown for company privacy). To access them, a Microsoft employee need only click one of the top left icons under the main Microsoft 365 app launcher (The ‘Waffle’) in the Web view, and the Microsoft logo from the Teams view. 

Links to important on-demand recordings and articles mentioned in this episode:  

• Hosts and guests
  
  
  
  • Sam Crewdson | Twitter | LinkedIn [guest]
  
  
  • Mark Kashman |@mkashman [co-host]
  
  
  • Chris McNulty |@cmcnulty2000 [co-host] 
  
  
  
  


• Articles and sites
  
  
  
  • “Microsoft moves its main employee portal to latest version of SharePoint” [IT Showcase blog]
    
    
    
    • @SharePoint tweet on MSW
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • “Redefining the intranet site experience with SharePoint in Office 365” [IT Showcase blog]
  
  
  • Microsoft Viva Connections resource center
  
  
  • Microsoft Docs – The home for Microsoft documentation for end users, developers, and IT professionals. 
  
  
  • Microsoft Tech Community Home
  
  
  • Stay on top of Office 365 changes
  
  
  • Listen to other Microsoft podcasts
  
  
  
  


• Events
  
  
  
  • AvePoint’s “Shift Happens” (April 20-22, 2021)
  
  
  • Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon 2021 (April 26-28, 2021)
  
  
  • The AIIM Conference (Apr.27-29.2021)
  
  
  • Teams Nation (May 12^th, 2021)
  
  
  • SharePoint Fest Virtual Workshops (ongoing)
  
  
  • CollabDays events (ongoing)
  
  
  
  

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Be sure to visit our show page to hear all the episodes, access the show notes, and get bonus content. And stay connected to the SharePoint community blog where we’ll share more information per episode, guest insights, and take any questions from our listeners and SharePoint users (TheIntrazone@microsoft.com). We, too, welcome your ideas for future episodes topics and segments. Keep the discussion going in comments below; we’re hear to listen and grow.

Subscribe to The Intrazone podcast! And listen to episode 64 now.

Thanks for listening!

The SharePoint teams want you to unleash your magic, creativity, and productivity – and be compliant about it all. And we will do this, together, one compliance score point at a time.

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Left to right [The Intrazone co-hosts]: Chris McNulty, director (SharePoint/Viva – Microsoft) and Mark Kashman, senior product manager (SharePoint – Microsoft).

The Intrazone, a show about the Microsoft 365 intelligent intranet (aka.ms/TheIntrazone)

Custom RBAC to access QPI's query text with minimal permissions

by Contributed | Apr 13, 2021 | Technology

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

Query Performance Insight helps you to quickly identify what your longest running queries are, how they change over time, and what waits are affecting them. As a pre-requisite of using Query Performance Insight, data must exist in the Query Store.

As per the documentation, Owner or Contributor permissions are required to view the text of the queries in Query Performance Insight. With a Reader role, a user can view charts and tables but not query text.

QPI – query text

There are situations when, for security reasons, we might need to come up with a custom Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to

grant a user with minimal permissions in order to be able to view the query text, without giving full access with owner or contributor role. This is when the need of having a custom role with minimal permissions to access the query text arises.

To start a custom role from scratch, please follow the steps below.

1. 
   

   In the Azure portal, open the SQL Server where you need the custom role to be assignable and then open Access control (IAM).

   
   


2. 
   

   Click Roles and then right-click on any role in the given list and select Clone.  

   
   
    
   
   

   create custom role

   
   

   3. This opens the custom roles editor. Select Start from scratch option, then click on the JSON tab. 
   
   

   
   
   
   

    

   
   4. This will open your custom role in JSON format. Click on Edit button and add the following permissions to you JSON.
   
   edit JSON
   5. Add the following permissions and hit Save. You can also download your custom role as JSON file.
   

   {
     "properties": {
       "roleName": "QPI_CustomRole",
       "description": "minimal permissions necessary to view the query text in QPI",
       "assignableScopes": [ "/subscriptions/<Subscription ID>/resourceGroups/<Resource Group Name>/providers/Microsoft.Sql/servers/<Server Name>" ],
           "permissions": [
               {
                 "actions": [
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/automaticTuning/read",
                   "Microsoft.Support/*",
                   "Microsoft.Insights/metrics/read",
                   "Microsoft.Insights/metricDefinitions/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/locations/databaseOperationResults/read",
                   "Microsoft.Authorization/*/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/locations/*/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/providers/Microsoft.Insights/logDefinitions/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/queryStore/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/queryStore/write",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/queryStore/queryTexts/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/topQueries/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/topQueries/statistics/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/topQueries/queryText/action",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/schemas/tables/columns/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/schemas/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/schemas/tables/read",
                   "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/extensions/read"
                 ],
                   "notActions": [
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/databases/currentSensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/databases/recommendedSensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/databases/schemas/tables/columns/sensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/databases/securityAlertPolicies/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/databases/sensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/databases/vulnerabilityAssessments/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/securityAlertPolicies/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/vulnerabilityAssessments/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/auditingSettings/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/auditRecords/read",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/currentSensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/dataMaskingPolicies/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/extendedAuditingSettings/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/recommendedSensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/schemas/tables/columns/sensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/securityAlertPolicies/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/securityMetrics/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/sensitivityLabels/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/vulnerabilityAssessments/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/vulnerabilityAssessmentScans/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/vulnerabilityAssessmentSettings/*",
                       "Microsoft.Sql/servers/vulnerabilityAssessments/*"
                   ],
                   "dataActions": [],
                   "notDataActions": []
               }
           ]
       }
   }​

   
   
   6. Click on Review + Create.

Note: If you get the error message “No more role assignments can be created (code: RoleAssignmentLimitExceeded)” when you try to assign a role, try to reduce the number of role assignments in the subscription. Azure supports up to 2000 role assignments per subscription. This limit includes role assignments at the subscription, resource group, and resource scopes. The 2000 role assignments limit per subscription is fixed and cannot be increased. Check the following document to see how you can reduce the number of role assignments.

Microsoft Forms Powers Approvals Templates in Microsoft Teams, and other updates | April 2021

by Contributed | Apr 13, 2021 | Technology

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

In this blog post, we are excited to share how Microsoft Forms powers Approvals templates in Microsoft Teams, an important product for frontline workers to do their job. With Hannover Messe 2021 Digital Edition taking place this week, we shared our outlook on the future of hybrid work and the frontline in manufacturing, in which Approvals templates plays a part. We are grateful to contribute to Microsoft’s work with digital transformation in industries like manufacturing.

Microsoft Forms in Approvals Templates

In the past year, many organizations across the world have had to digitize workflows, including their approvals processes. With the Approvals app in Teams, you can create, manage, and share approvals directly from your workflow. To better support the your Approvals processes, we announced last month at Ignite that we are bringing Approvals templates to you starting at the end of April.

As a joint effort between Forms and the Modern Workplace Transformation team, Approvals templates enable you to customize your approvals processes easily. From time off requests to overtime requests, templates provide a repeatable structure for common approvals—which includes a form.

How does it work?

Create Approvals Template – Form Design

As an administrator or Teams channel owner, you can create and manage organization-wide Approvals templates on your desktop or tablet. Microsoft Forms is embedded in these templates as a white-label solution. As seen above, the forms authoring under step 2, “Form design,” is entirely powered by Forms.

Form Design – Question Types

Currently, you can choose from three question types for your form: multiple-choice, open-text, and date. The experience of designing your form should feel familiar, as it is as simple as your typical form creation experience with Microsoft Forms.

Forms also powers the interface through which your team members fill out the approval request, as seen above. Using the template you created, they can quickly fill in their request on any-sized device.

Submit Approval Request on Teams mobile

Submit Approval Request on Teams desktop

Forms’ anti-phishing protection, data validation, and user validation also help to ensure a safe and quality request.

After their submission, you, or the relevant approver on your team, can approve the request. At any point, you can view the aggregate information collected from these approvals, as well as export in a CSV file for further analysis in Excel.

We are delighted to contribute to a core part of Approvals templates and, more broadly, Microsoft’s vision to offer a simple, unified experience for essential workflows.

Additional Updates in Microsoft Forms

Enable Forms in PowerPoint Without Having to Deploy Office Add-Ins

Inserting a form or quiz into your PowerPoint on the desktop application has been an integration enjoyed by users in the Enterprise and Education worlds alike. However, if an organization did not want to enable all Office add-ins, its users were unable to add surveys or polls to their PowerPoint decks.

Thus, we are delighted to announce that IT administrators can now use Centralized Deployment to enable only the Forms add-in for PowerPoint, without enabling all Office add-ins. With this improvement, we believe this integration will become more widely accessible to you and your colleagues in your organization.

Send a Form Using a Shortened URL

Now, you can use a shorter URL when collecting responses to your form. A shortened link allows respondents to easily type and access the link; it also looks more shareable and professional.

Shortened URL for Sharing Forms to Respondents

Next Steps

We hope you explore these latest updates as they become available to you. To learn more about Approvals in Teams, please see these quick introduction videos. If you have additional questions on Forms surveys, quizzes, or polls, please visit our Support page. You can also join discussions in the Microsoft Forms Tech Community and follow the Forms Blog to stay updated in the future.