Microsoft has announced it has fixed the Teams outage that impacted users much of Wednesday.
Users started reporting issues with Teams Wednesday morning. The issues resulted in choppy video, messages that weren’t displaying and messages that only displayed after quitting and reopening the app.
Although Microsoft originally thought the issue only impacted North America, they later confirmed that users in South America were affected as well. The company worked on the issues most of the day, confirming they were resolved Wednesday evening.
We’ve completed all recovery processes and have confirmed through extended monitoring that the issue is resolved. Additional details can be found in the admin center under TM240228.
Microsoft Teams appears to be suffering an outage, as users in major cities across the country are reporting issues.
Teams has become an important part of many companies’ workflow, especially in the transition to remote work. In fact, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said the platform is becoming “critical infrastructure.”
Unfortunately for many Teams users, the application appears to be experiencing outages Wednesday morning. Some users on DownDetector are reporting chopping video, messages that only show up after quitting and reopening the app, messages not showing up at all and more.
The issues appear to be widespread, across the entire country, with one user reporting issues in Mexico City as well.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, but has not yet provided an ETA on a fix.
We're investigating an issue in which users located in North America may be experiencing delays when receiving chat messages within Microsoft Teams. Additional information can be found in the admin center under TM240228.
We've determined that Teams live events may also be impacted by this issue, and we've confirmed that users located in South America may also experience impact. Additional information can be found in the admin center under TM240228.
Microsoft has unveiled “Viva,” a new employee experience platform (EXP) designed to integrate with Teams and Microsoft 365.
EXP is a $300 billion a year industry and is more important than ever during the pandemic. While an unprecedented number of employees are working from home, the response to remote work has been a mixed bag. The majority of employees want it to continue indefinitely, but many still struggle to feel connected with their coworkers or access the same resources available in the office.
Microsoft is looking to address these issues with Viva, while simultaneously disrupting the EXP industry.
Today we’re introducing Microsoft Viva, the first EXP built for the digital era. Microsoft Viva brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights into an integrated experience that empowers people and teams to be their best, from anywhere. Powered by the full breadth and depth of Microsoft 365, it is experienced through Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft 365 apps that people use every day.
Viva will be rolled out in four modules: Viva Connections, Viva Insights, Viva Learning, and Viva Topics.
Viva Connections
Viva Connections is designed to help employees connect with each other, serving as the central point for employee interaction. This is especially useful for new hires who may never have been to the office or met their coworkers face-to-face. Leaders can host company town halls, while employees can access company news, policies, benefits and more, as well as join employee community groups.
Viva Insights
Viva Insights is designed to help employees, managers and leaders make better use of their time and prevent burnout. The module helps individuals maintain a healthy work balance, protecting time for breaks, focused work and learning. Managers can use the module to monitor the health of their team and see who is at risk of burnout, while company leaders can see overall trends impacting the entire organization.
Viva Learning
Viva Learning helps make learning a part of the everyday corporate culture. According to Microsoft’s LinkedIn, 94% of people would stay at a company longer if it invested in ongoing learning, making Viva Learning an important part of the platform.
Viva Topics
Microsoft describes Viva Topics as “a Wikipedia with AI superpowers for your organization.” It’s designed to save employees the estimated seven weeks a year spent searching for or re-creating information, putting all the company’s relevant knowledge and resources in a centralized place.
“There is no question that, over the last year, we have seen lasting structural change across ever aspect of our society and economy,” CEO Satya Nadella said when introducing Viva. “No area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work.”
“As the world recovers, there is no going back. Flexibility in when, where and how we work will be key,” Nadella added. “Today, we want to talk about what this means and how we’re ensuring every organization will have the technology required to support their employees and help them thrive in this new era of flexible work.”
Mozilla has released the latest update to Firefox, bringing full compatibility with Apple’s M1 Macs, as well as significant performance improvements.
The M1 chip is Apple’s custom silicon, based on the same ARM designs Apple uses in its iPhone and iPad. While M1-based Macs can run software designed for Intel chips, and run it well, the best performance is obtained by recompiling an app so it runs natively on the M1.
Microsoft just made headlines with its announcement that Microsoft 365 has been updated to run on the M1 natively, and now Firefox has made the jump as well. The company outlined the benefits in its release notes:
Native support for macOS devices built with Apple Silicon CPUs brings dramatic performance improvements over the non-native build that was shipped in Firefox 83: Firefox launches over 2.5 times faster and web apps are now twice as responsive (per the SpeedoMeter 2.0 test). If you are on a new Apple device, follow these steps to upgrade to the latest Firefox.
As one of the most privacy-focused browsers on the market, it’s good to see Firefox updated for Apple’s new chip.
Microsoft has updated Microsoft 365, bringing compatibility with Apples M1-equipped Macs.
The M1 is Apple’s custom silicon, based on the same ARM chips it has been using for years in the iPhone and iPad. Apple announced the transition at WWDC 2020, and unveiled the first models in November. Early testing indicates the M1 Macs are easily outpacing their Intel counterparts.
One of the most important applications on the Mac is Microsoft’s productivity suite. Fortunately for M1 Mac users, 365 is now ready for the new machines.
“We are excited to announce that starting today we are releasing new versions of many of our Microsoft 365 for Mac apps that run natively on Macs with M1,” writes Bill Doll, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft 365. “This means that now our core flagship Office apps—Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote—will run faster and take full advantage of the performance improvements on new Macs, making you even more productive on the latest MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. The new Office apps are Universal, so they will continue to run great on Macs with Intel processors. The apps are not only speedy, but they also look fantastic as they have been redesigned to match the new look of macOS Big Sur. Here is a peek at Outlook on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.”
This is good news for Mac users and Microsoft, and is hopefully just the first of the major apps making the jump to the M1.
Microsoft Teams has continued to gain users, passing 115 million daily active users, according to the company’s latest earnings report.
Microsoft Teams has been locked in a battle with Slack over the corporate messaging space. While Slack predates Teams by roughly four years, Teams has quickly risen in popularity, becoming one of Microsoft’s fastest-growing services.
In March, at the start of the pandemic, Microsoft made news when it passed 44 million users. Now its user base has more than doubled, coming in at more than 115 million daily active users.
What’s more, Teams is serving as a way of helping individuals use Microsoft 365 even more.
“As much as Teams has transformed work for our customers, it’s really the tip of the iceberg,” writes Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365. “Because as people work all day in Teams, they also get the full breadth and depth of Microsoft 365, the integrated suite of graph-connected productivity apps and experiences behind the familiar tools we all rely on every day to connect, collaborate, and get work done.
“For that reason, daily active usage only tells a portion of the collaboration story; a broader collaboration metric is needed to understand the changing ways in which we work and collaborate. What’s needed now is a metric that demonstrates the breadth of services people use and the new rich and varied ways in which collaboration happens across hybrid work environments. The true measure of collaboration transcends simple videoconferencing or chat-based communications. Our more holistic view takes into account the many ways people and teams engage in the flow of work. In Teams we see meetings, but also small group huddles, chats, calls, document collab, and individual work. And enabling all of it digitally is our vision for collaboration in the new digital age.”
Teams’ meteoric rise is further evidence of the ongoing and permanent digital transformation currently underway.
Microsoft has ended support for Office 2010, as well as Office 2016 for Mac, and is instead pushing users toward Microsoft 365.
Office 2010 is one of the most popular versions of the venerable office suite. In fact, as recently as 2017, a survey showed it was in use among 83% of organizations around the world.
In spite of that, Microsoft has officially ended support for Office 2010, as well as the corresponding Office 2016 for Mac. Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, explainedthe decision:
As we first announced back in April 2017, this decision aligns with our broader commitment to providing tools and experiences designed for a new world of work. If this year has taught us anything, it’s that we need to help our customers stay agile and connected despite constant change. And that means delivering cloud-connected and always up-to-date versions of our most valuable apps to every person and every organization on the planet. With Microsoft 365 Apps, we do that in three big ways. First, the cloud enables real-time collaboration across apps and within Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork. Second, AI and machine learning advance creativity and innovation in everything from PowerPoint design to Excel analysis. And finally, built-in, cloud-powered security protects your data and provides the peace of mind that comes with knowing your business will not only be productive, but also secured.
We understand that everyone is at a different stage of their journey to the cloud, and we’re committed to supporting our customers throughout their transition to Microsoft 365 Apps. For those customers who aren’t ready for the cloud and have a specific need for on-premises or hybrid deployment, such as fully disconnected or restricted environments, we offer Office 2019, the perpetual version of Office that does not receive feature updates. But for everyone else, we’ve created a set of resources to help you transition to the Microsoft 365 Apps and innovations designed to help keep your environment up to date once you’ve made the transition.
As more companies move to the cloud, as well as engage in remote work, Microsoft 365 is increasingly becoming a critical option for many companies. This move will no doubt accelerate its adoption.
Microsoft has announced it is shifting its search engine branding from Bing to Microsoft Bing.
Bing is currently in second place in the search market, far behind Google. According to Jordi Ribas, CVP, Microsoft Bing Engineering, the search engine does power a number of significant technologies, including searches in Microsoft 365, InPrivate search in Microsoft Edge, Windows taskbar searches and Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The move follows Microsoft’s most recent branding strategy, a strategy that saw Office 365 become Microsoft 365.
In addition, the company is also expanding its Give with Bing charity. Bing users can earn points as they search, points that can be redeemed for gift cards and more. One of the options is to have those points automatically be donated to various causes. As part of the expansion, Microsoft has increased the number of eligible nonprofits to over 1.4 million organizations.
While Microsoft may be a distant second in the search engine market, moves like these are sure to win loyal supporters.
If you are missing your daily commute to and from your office, Microsoft Teams is coming to your rescue. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft Teams is developing an update to Teams that will give you and your colleagues a virtual commute. The Teams update launching next year will let you schedule virtual commutes at the beginning and end of each workday. The idea is to bring back definition to your workday for those that are working remotely, where there is a beginning and an end to work.
This feature is designed to bring a sense of healthiness and balance to your life for those that find themselves always connected to work. “Enterprises across the world right now are coming to us and saying, ‘I don’t think we will have organizational resilience if we don’t make well-being a priority,’” said Kamal Janardhan, General Manager, Workplace Intelligence, Microsoft 365, which runs Teams. “I think we at Microsoft have a role, almost a responsibility, to give enterprises the capabilities to create these better daily structures and help people be their best.”
Half of the chat volume on Teams occurred between 5 p.m. and midnight in the past six months, up 48% from the months before the pandemic, according to Microsoft.
Source: WSJ
With many offices still closed throughout the world workers are feeling like their work life never ends.
“I don’t miss my commute per se,” said Adam Clenton, a London-based lawyer who spent 80 minutes commuting each day before his office closed during the pandemic. “But it did give me the chance to switch off on the way home. It helped demarcate the day in a way that isn’t possible now.”
Source: WSJ
Some Teams users don’t see the point of this feature:
“Right…people will start their day earlier and end it later for goal setting and reflection. What planet does Microsoft live on?” says Stephen Johnson.
“In a work from home setup, adding *more* time sitting in front of your computer isn’t helping the separation of work and home,” notes Anne Jackson.
“The people who came up with this clearly have no idea what the commute is for most people,” said David Weingart. “If you’re driving, you’re not thinking about the day ahead or the day just past. You’re listening to the radio, drinking your coffee, maybe talking to your carpool if you have one. If you’re on the train, you’re either sleeping or talking to the people you ride with every day. Coffee in the morning, beer in the evening.”
“This is a meaningless update,” adds Weingart. “The best way to deal with the “virtual commute” is to not turn your computer on in the morning until it’s time to be “at the office” and to turn it off at night when you leave.”
Microsoft has experienced an embarrassing outage of its premier office suite, right as people are relying on it more than ever.
Microsoft 365 is the cloud-based version of Office. As the pandemic has led to more individuals working from home and engaging in remote learning, Microsoft 365 has become a critical component. This makes the outage all the more devastating for the company’s users.
To make matters worse, Microsoft identified an updated to the Microsoft 365 Admin Dashboard as the culprit. Unfortunately, rolling back the change has not fixed the issue.
We're not observing an increase in successful connections after rolling back a recent change. We're working to evaluate additional mitigation solutions while we investigate the root cause. Please visit https://t.co/AEUj8uAGXl for additional information on this issue.
It appears users already logged into service are not impacted. In the meantime, Microsoft is “rerouting traffic to alternate systems to provide further relief to the affected users.”
Microsoft has scored a major contract that will see the Redmond-based company be the preferred cloud provider for PepsiCo.
Microsoft’s Azure is firmly in second place in the US cloud market, behind Amazon’s AWS and ahead of Google Cloud. The company has made signification headway, and has been racking up a string of high-profile contracts.
PepsiCo is the latest company to sign on with Azure, choosing it as its preferred cloud platform in a deal that will also see it deploy Microsoft 365 and Teams for all 270,000 employees.
“As a global leader in convenient food and beverages, our commitment to the timely delivery of PepsiCo products has never been more important,” said PepsiCo CIO, Seth Cohen. “Through our partnership with Microsoft, we aim to improve service delivery capabilities to meet rising demand for essential goods while driving new innovations to make our operations and workforce stronger and more resilient for the future.”
“Our partnership with PepsiCo applies Azure and AI capabilities to the ever-changing supply chain and retail landscape in new and exciting ways. By migrating PepsiCo’s global data estate and SAP landscapes to Azure, we’ll be able to help PepsiCo drive efficiencies from farmer to consumer,” said Deb Cupp, Microsoft CVP Enterprise Commercial Business. “We’re also pleased to deliver Microsoft 365 to PepsiCo’s associates worldwide as part of this partnership. Mobile communication and collaboration for PepsiCo’s workforce will be one of the keys to realizing the value Microsoft brings.”
This is a huge win for Microsoft and will no doubt help it convince other companies to give Azure strong consideration.
After Microsoft announced it would deliver Teams for consumers, some worried the news sounded the death knell for Skype. Those worries appear unfounded, at least for now.
Microsoft created the confusion and concern when they announced Skype’s recent pandemic-fueled growth. The platform has passed 40 million daily users, representing a 70% month-over-month growth rate. Meanwhile, Skype-to-Skype calling was up 220%. Under normal circumstances, no one would dream of Skype being end-of-lifed (EOL) with those growth numbers. Yet when Microsoft announced they would be bringing Teams to consumers, they made a point of saying that users could continue to use Skype for their personal communication “in the meantime.”
According to VentureBeat, however, that doesn’t mean Skype is reaching EOL. A Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat that “for now, Skype will remain a great option for customers who love it and want to connect with basic chat and video calling capabilities,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat in March. “With the new features in the Microsoft Teams mobile app, we see Teams as an all-in-one hub for your work and life that integrates chat, video calling, [and the] ability to assign and share tasks, store and share important data with your group, [and] share your location with family and friends, whereas Skype is predominantly a chat and a video calling app platform. We have nothing more to share.”
The company went even further, with Microsoft 365 CVP Jeff Teper assuring VentureBeat that, while Microsoft believes people may naturally gravitate toward Teams, the company is “not going to be heavy-handed about this. People love Skype. And so, we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves here.”
This is good news for people who love Skype and want to continue using it for the foreseeable future.
Microsoft has announced a five-year contract with Coca-Cola to modernize and standardize the beverage company’s software.
The contract covers Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 to provide an integrated solution, as opposed to the fragmented systems the company was using. An integration solution will also help Coca-Cola gain valuable insights from the data it collects. In particular, Dynamics 365 will apply artificial intelligence to drive insights.
“At The Coca-Cola Company, innovation and growth are key pillars of our business,” said Barry Simpson, senior vice president and chief information and integrated services officer of The Coca-Cola Company. “This partnership with Microsoft allows us to really step change our employee experience through replacing previously disparate and fragmented systems. These platforms allow us to deliver relevant, personalized experiences as we network our organization.”
“Coca-Cola is a pioneer and forward-thinking leader in its industry,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president, Worldwide Commercial Business, Microsoft. “Today, the company is taking its digital innovation a step further, leveraging Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 and Azure to better connect people and opportunities through breakthrough productivity and powerful information management that will drive continued business success over the next decade.”
The contract is a big win for Microsoft as it continues to make headway in the cloud marketplace.
