Microsoft Outlines SharePoint-Yammer Roadmap, Yammer To Become MS Social Layer

Great post by David Roe Mar 20, 2013   

One of the big questions around Yammer after it was snapped up last June was what would, or could, Microsoft do with the social software? And what would it do with Yammer and SharePoint? Previously, it has said it would integrate them in three phases: basic integration, deeper connections and connected experiences. At Convergence yesterday, it gave more details about the integration roadmap.

SharePoint-Yammer Integration

Today’s update comes from Jared Spataro, who heads the SharePoint business in the Office division of Microsoft. During the Office keynote yesterday, the team demonstrated the integration of Yammer in Dynamics CRM, which started shipping last month.

That done, he said, the next step is Office 365, which already received a major upgrade last month. With Yammer that upgrade will continue as part of Microsoft’s wider plan to make Yammer its social layer across all of its products.  In blog post this morning, Spataro explained where all this is going.

1. Basic Integration

Office 365 will be updated again this summer, but this time the upgrades will specifically target SharePoint and enable users to replace the SharePoint newsfeed with Yammer. According to Spataro, to avoid confusion, the update will be designed so that users will be able to replace one with the other with a simple click on a link in the navigation bar which will take the user to Yammer.

Also, as part of this, Microsoft will provide a Yammer app in the SharePoint Store that will enable users create a connection between groups and sites. While the SharePoint newsfeed will still be the default feed in Office365, the option to replace it will be obvious.

SharePoint-Yammer Integration

2. Deeper Connections

Following this in the fall will be a further update to Office 365 that will enable deeper integration between the two. At that point users will have the option of replacing the newsfeed with Yammer, but the integrated Yammer will offer users a Single Sign-On.

This means that when you click on the Yammer link in the Office 365 navigation bar, Yammer will appear under the bar, enabling users to get back to Office 365 services immediately.

The new experience will also offer other capabilities like rich document functionality as well as Office Web Apps integration to enable editing and collaborative editing of Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents.

3. Connected Experiences

Moving forward into 2014, Office 365 will be updated with more social enhancements and will continue to be upgraded every 90 days, in keeping with Microsoft’s plans for the rest of Office 365.

From a Yammer perspective this means deepening the connections between Yammer and Office 365, but will include upgrades that over time will combine social, collaboration, email, instant messaging, voice, video and line of business applications in innovative new ways.

Yammer and SharePoint Server

But many, if not the majority, of customers using SharePoint are using it as an on-premises deployment so they will be looking for ways to connect their Yammer and their SharePoint on-premises.

This will be covered in the summer update, Spataro says, with guidance for replacing the newsfeed on-premises with Yammer. The Yammer app will be a valuable addition in this respect that will enable users to connect between their groups and on-premises SharePoint sites. SharePoint Server will not be updated every 90 days, but the Yammer improvements that are planned already should also help connect with the on-premises deployments.

Microsoft is clearly putting a lot of eggs in the Yammer basket and in response to customer questions as to whether they should use newsfeed or Yammer for social, Spartaro is quite categorical about it.

Yammer is to become the social layer across Microsoft products and is what he describes as Microsoft’s  “big bet”  for social. The benefits of the Yammer route are enormous, he says, in that it is easy to use, easy to start, and because it’s an online service, easy to update when needed.

However, not everyone want to use multi-tenant cloud services. For those enterprises there is always the SharePoint newsfeed that provides a whole bunch of social capabilities along with SharePoint

There is a key issue here and Spataro hasn’t really resolved it: while he admits that there are some companies that are not happy with multi-tenant cloud services, he may be understating the case a little bit.

While there doesn’t appear to be much research done on the topic so far, there is considerable anecdotal evidence to suggest that quite a lot of companies are not prepared to go that route. While some are just not ready yet — and we saw last week with Alfresco that it may take some companies as long as 10 years to be ready for the cloud — some say they will never, ever make the move. What then?

Spataro says that Microsoft is committed to its on-premises deployments and workers, and with the number of SharePoint deployments reaching the levels they are at the moment — not even talking about future deployments — not to do so would be a really bad business move. More on this as it happens.

Microsoft Outlines SharePoint-Yammer Roadmap, Yammer To Become MS Social Layer.

Office 365 Pro Plus and RDS/TS installation

WHAT:

Many partners are aware by now that the Product Use Rights (PUR) was updated end of January in favor of supporting a RDS or TS deployment of Office, even though the user’s license was a subscription license through Office 365.
INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS – Product Use Rights (January 2013) (see note under Additional Terms, page 82)
1. Each user to whom you assign a User SL may activate the software for local or remote use on up to five concurrent OSEs.
2. The Licensed User may also use the software activated by another user under a different User SL.
3. Each user may also use one of the five activations on a network server with the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role enabled.
4. You may allow other users to remotely access the software solely to provide support services.

HOW:

In trying to provide clarity on the HOW you accomplish this; I would like to offer this information that was gathered from a recent discussion forum:

A Volume Activation Office package is required to install on a Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer server with the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) role enabled.  All Office 365 ProPlus packages use retail activation and because of that they do not install on a server with the RDS role enabled or function if installed first on the server then the RDS role is enabled after the Office install.  Office setup will detect the RDS role at install time and the apps will also detect the RDS role when launched post installation.

In order to install Office Pro Plus 2013 in the Remote Desktop Services (RDS) mode, you must have a volume licensing agreement. Remember that this one license has to be part of the 5 minimum licenses in order to start a volume licensing agreement.  You will need RDS CAL’s  for each user, so my advice would be to attach the Office Pro Plus 2013 to your order for the RDS CAL’s.

Note that installing Office 365 ProPlus on a virtual machine (client or server without an RDS role enabled) is now permitted as well according to the updated PUR. The virtual machine – as with a physical machine install – would be allocated to a primary user, meet Office 365 ProPlus system requirements and be able to connect to the Internet-based Office Licensing Service at least once every 30 days. In other words, we do not distinguish between a physical and virtual machine, as long as all requirements are met.

For Office 365 ProPlus standalone, Office 365 Midsize* and E3/E4, users may use one of their 5 allocated installations via RDS with the Volume License edition of Office Professional Plus 2013. The organization will however still need to procure a copy, appropriate keys and necessary RDS licenses via the Volume Licensing.  The exception only grants the use rights of Office Professional Plus 2013 via RDS to users with an Office 365 ProPlus license.

These are updates from the licensing terms prior to January 2013 for Office Professional Plus in Office 365, which did not allow for any form of virtualization to be used with Office desktop apps.

For more information check out this thread – http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/156/t/121307.aspx?PageIndex=2

WHY:

Many partners have requested this ability as an option in how they choose to deploy Office for their customers.  This has been a very hot topic since the announcement of the PUR this past January.  Hopefully this will add clarity to the point that YES you can do RDS/TS implementations, even though the customer is purchasing their Office through Office 365 Subscriptions, as well as HOW you need to go about getting the bits.

Additional Information:

One key point is that it requires Office 365 ProPlus, which is available as a stand alone, or through some of the service offerings such as Office 365 Midsize, as well as, the E3 and E4 plans.  Please note that the Office 365 Small Business Premium offering is not eligible.  

From the FAQ: What’s the different between Office 365 Small Business Premium and Office 365 Midsize Business?

Office 365 Small Business Premium is designed for businesses with 10 or fewer users without IT personnel. It provides a subscription version of the Office client as well as Exchange business email, and collaboration through SharePoint. It also provides IM/presence and meetings through Lync.

Office 365 Midsize Business is designed for companies with between 11 and 250 users. It provides the features of Small Business Premium as well as improved phone support, Active Directory and a more advanced IT admin console. It also includes a full version of Office 365 ProPlus, our best version of the Office client.

The applications provided as part of the Office client in Small Business Premium SKU are the same as those in the Midsize Business SKU. The applications included in both SKUs are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, Infopath, & SkyDrive Pro. However, there are some of features available in Midsize Business SKU that are not available in the Small Business Premium SKU. For example, the Small Business Premium version does not include features like PowerPivot, PowerView, Monacle, Prodiance, Terminal Services, Telemetry monitoring and a few other smaller items.

Small Business Premium Subscriptions have a technical cap of 25 users. Midsize Business Subscriptions have a technical cap of 300 users. These user caps are designed to ensure a positive customer experience based on the SKU design.

Additional Resources from Jesper Osgaard PTA – http://blogs.technet.com/b/lystavlen/archive/2013/01/17/good-news-office-365-proplus-can-be-activated-on-network-server-with-rds-role-enabled.aspx

* RDS Use Rights are included with Office 365 Midsize when purchased Direct, Advisor, or Open TechNet Blogs.

OneNote voor Windows 8 krijgt penverbeteringen en Office 365 ondersteuning

See on Scoop.it – Office365

Microsoft heeft OneNote voor Windows 8 een update gegeven. Het betreft hier de zogenaamde ‘full screen’ versie die gratis beschikbaar is. OneNote is een programma om notities te maken en informatie te verzamelen, je zou de software het be…

See on www.windowsinfo.nl

Enterprise Social Roadmap Update Microsoft

 

  theSharePoint Team

On March 19

post comes from Jared Spataro, Senior Director, Microsoft Office Division. Jared leads the SharePoint business, and he works closely with Adam Pisoni and David Sacks on Yammer integration.

 

At last November’s SharePoint Conference, Microsoft announced their roadmap for enterprise social and talked about three phases of Yammer integration: “basic integration, deeper connections, and connected experiences.”  (For more details, see the Putting Social to Work post published just after the SPC keynote.)  Today at Convergence 2013 Microsoft provided an update to that roadmap, and I wanted to share the details more broadly.

 

Yammer and Office 365.  During the Office keynote today, Microsoft demoed the integration of Yammer and Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management).  They shipped this update last month, and Microsoft loves the scenario-social plus CRM is a natural fit.  But CRM integration is only one part of a broader set of work we’re doing to make Yammer the social layer across all of our products.  Their next step is integration with Office 365, and Microsoft is  now ready to share more details on what will be available when.  Here’s what you need to know:

 

• Basic Integration. 
• Deeper Connections. 
• Connected Experiences.

 Enterprise Social Roadmap Update.

One secret about Ray Ozzie’s secretive startup is out: It will tap Amazon’s cloud

See on Scoop.it – Dutch Cloud

Ray Ozzie, as is his practice, has been nearly silent on the topic of his new startup, Talko. But now we know that it, like thousands of other startups, will use Amazon Web Services. How do we know this?

See on gigaom.com

Office 2013 and Office 365 installations and transferability

by Jevon Fark

on February 19

A few weeks ago, we announced the new Office for consumers, including the all new Office 365 Home Premium, Office 365 University for college and university students, and traditional Office suites: Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013 and Office Professional 2013.

Since then we’ve received questions about the number of installations people get with the traditional Office suites, transferability, and how they compare to Office 2010. With that in mind, we want to offer some clarity on the matter, to help customers make the best purchasing decision.

Here’s how our Office 2010 and Office 2013 licenses compare:

*An exception is granted when the software is on a PC that is replaced under warranty.

It is important to note that Office 2013 suites have consistent rights and restrictions regarding transferability as the equivalent Office 2010 PKC, which was chosen by a majority of Office 2010 customers worldwide.

We think this new lineup offers unmatched choice and value for students, families and everyone in between.

• For those looking to use Office on multiple devices – Office 365 Home Premium works across up to 5 devices (Windows tablets, PCs or Macs) and can be activated and deactivated across devices.
• For those who only require Office on one device – The Office 2013 software is licensed to one computer for the life of that computer and is non-transferable (consistent with the rights and restrictions of Office 2010 PKC). In the event that a customer buys the Office 2013 software and installs it on a PC that fails under warranty, the customer can contact support to receive an exemption to activate the Office 2013 software on the replacement PC.
• For college and university students – Office 365 University works across 2 devices (Windows tablets, PCs or Macs) and can be activated and deactivated across devices.

Office News

The new Lync Online: Almost like being in the same room

At Microsoft’s first-ever Lync Conference last month, Tony Bates, president of the Skype Division of Microsoft, said Microsoft’s goal is to rehumanize communications, from the living room to the boardroom.

Our communications need to put people first, he said. They need to let people communicate how and when they want. And they need to be simple, convenient and natural.

Introducing the New Lync Online

The new Lync Online takes a large step in that direction by making virtual meetings almost as simple, convenient, and natural as being in the same room.

With the new Lync Online, technology has advanced to the point where online meetings, known as Lync meetings, can replace most face-to-face business communication.  An enterprise-ready unified communications platform, Lync Online enables users to connect with colleagues across a range of devices and platforms through instant messaging (IM), video calls, online meetings, and phone calls.

Lync Online provides high-definition (HD) video conferencing capabilities. Meeting attendees can simultaneously view up to five participants, identify the active speaker, and associate names with faces. Lync also includes intuitive control features that enable the presenter to optimize the visual presentation based on what’s being discussed.

Users can quickly move from a chat session to a Lync meeting using multi-party HD video right from within Lync. They can then share and present content as well as take notes from within the meeting experience. Participants can use the whiteboard capabilities to brainstorm as well as clarify discussion points. Lync supports up to 250 attendees to a meeting. These meetings can also be recorded for replaying at a later time. This enables organizations and institutions to schedule meetings or organize classes using Lync capabilities.

Users can also easily hold meetings while on the go across a variety of devices and platforms. Lync Online is optimized for touch, and includes Lync Web App for access using a variety of browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. If your customers don’t have Lync, no problem! They can still participate in meetings by downloading a free client for attendees.

In addition, Lync Online will soon be integrated with the popular video chat service Skype, making it possible for users to communicate with hundreds of millions of people using presence, IM, audio, and video conferencing. The integration with Skype opens a whole new communications door for business-to-customer communication.

Lync Online: Better Meetings, More Productivity

In a nutshell, Lync Online is cutting-edge. Customers get so much more with Lync Online than they do with Google Talk and Google+ Hangouts. It all translates to a better, more productive organization-no matter where your employees and customers are located.

So what are some of the ways in which Lync Online offers a superior experience to capabilities provided by Google?

• Unlike Lync, Google Talk does not integrate into existing telephony services that organizations use.
• Lync enables users to search people across their address book as well as search for people based on their skills. Google Talk does is not integrated with an address book, nor does it allow users to search for people based on their or skills and capabilities.
• Whereas Lync allows for online meetings with up to 250 participants, Google+ Hangouts is limited to just 15 participants.
• Lync allows users to remove participants. By contrast, Google+ Hangouts can only block a participant, and only if all the other participants agree.
• Lync users can communicate with others, internally or outside their organization, even if they don’t have Lync installed. By contrast, Google+ users can only communicate via video with other Google+ users.
• Unlike Lync, which has a whiteboard built in, Google+ Hangouts requires installing a separate application for whiteboard use.
• Unlike Lync, Google+ Hangouts lacks high-definition video.
• Applications used in Google+ Hangouts are not supported by tablets or mobile devices, limiting user productivity.
• Google+ Hangouts doesn’t provide integration with Skype, used by more than 250 million connected users worldwide.
• Unlike Lync, which adapts automatically to changing bandwidth conditions, Google+
  Hangouts requires users to move a bandwidth slider to keep Hangouts going in areas with poor connectivity.

The New Lync Online:  Better than Ever

The updated Lync Online has been well-received by reviewers. Says Doug Dineley of InfoWorld: “Lync Online provides presence management, voice and HD videoconferencing, live document sharing, and the ability to sync Lync with certain VoIP phones. Basically, the online servers deliver all the features you’re most likely using from your on-premises servers, but in a simpler format.”

David Roe of CMS Wire agrees. He calls the cloud-based versions of SharePoint, Lync, and Exchange “full-featured,” adding that all have been improved for business usage-that aim to make users better communicators and collaborators inside and outside the enterprise.

Likewise, Bob Charlie of IT Pro calls the updated Lync Online “a technology that sits well with the work-anywhere ethos of Office 365.” The new Lync Online is “integrated nicely into Office 365, allowing for hour long meetings or five minute chats,” he writes.

As Easy As Talking Face-to-Face

For virtual meetings to be viable, they need function just like a face-to-face meeting would. The new Lync Online takes a bold step in that direction by making online meetings almost as simple, convenient, and natural as being in the same room.

Office 365 – The new Lync Online: Almost like being in the same room.

The Microsoft Office 365 Service Upgrade Center

The Service Upgrade Center rounds up what’s new in the Office 365 for enterprises, details the service upgrade experience, and provides resources you can share with your users so they know what to expect and when to expect it. Start exploring today, and be sure to bookmark this site and check back often for the latest news and resources.

What’s New in the Office 365 Service Upgrade

The service upgrade for Office 365 coming in 2013 will deliver exciting new features, including:

• The new Office: if you have purchased a subscription to Office, you will get the clean, new look; expanded support for smartphones and tablets, all delivered with the new, fast, Click-to-run deployment technology.
• Exchange
  • Outlook Web App has a new look optimized for easy touch-access on tablets and mobile phones. 
  • Improved anti-malware protection, that can prevent malware from ever reaching inboxes.
• SharePoint
  • Better collaboration, making it easier to share documents with external users and manage external sharing.
  • SkyDrive Pro, a cloud storage option users can keep synchronized with their hard-drive for off-line access.
• Lync
  • New Lync Web App which delivers a full Lync Meeting experience with high-definition video and VoIP, all from a browser.
  • One-click meeting access: whether you’re at the office or on the road, you don’t need to remember dial-in numbers and passcodes.

Read the top 10 reasons to try Office 365 Enterprise

What to expect with the service upgrade

We’ll be rolling out the service upgrade over the course of 2013, and it is completely automated: there’s nothing you need to do to prepare your Office 365 service for the upgrade. During the upgrade, email, instant messaging and sites will keep working, and you don’t need to reconfigure computers and mobile devices after the upgrade. And if now isn’t a good time for you, you can postpone the service upgrade for a minimum of two months.

Explore the service upgrade features

Resources for Office 365 Admins

Find the help and guidance you need in one place. Communicate service upgrade news to your users and manage expectations with ready-to-use email templates, or find existing Microsoft training materials for users.

Explore the Service Upgrade Resources section.

 

 

Microsoft Office 365

Licentievoorwaarden Office 2010 = Office 2013 FPP

In een blogpost laat Microsoft weten dat de nieuwe licentievoorwaarden gelden ook voor de losse pakketten uit Office.

De nieuwe licentievoorwaarden worden binnenkort aangepast en gelden per direct voor nieuwe en al verkochte versies van Office 2013De volgende tekst wordt opgenomen bij de de toekomstige versie van de licentievoorwaarden:

 

. Can I transfer the software to another computer or user?

You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). If you transfer the software to another computer, that other computer becomes the “licensed computer.” You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement before the transfer. Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.

 

 

Review: Office 365 turns up the heat

Microsoft has clearly worked hard to make Office 365 an easier way to run a full network for small and medium-sized businesses. The new edition is easier to set up, easier to administer, easier to use, and more flexible. It’s friendlier to mobile devices, though there’s still plenty of room for improvement. And it’s all around more capable, drawing on nice additions in Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, as well as better integration across the servers.

The ability to switch on mail, file sharing, Web/intranet, messaging, and live meetings without standing up servers and SANs will be enticing to companies eager to save time and money. But companies who think implementing Office 365 will eliminate the need for IT staff (and IT pros who think it will mean more hours in the day for World of Warcraft) are going to be disappointed. Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync may be running in Microsoft’s cloud, but they still require attention from knowledgeable hands.   InfoWorld.