Office 365

New Microsoft tool aims to make teams more efficient by learning how they spend their days

by Nat Levy on July 5, 2017July 5, 2017 at 2:45 pmComment

Microsoft today released a new tool that lets company leaders track how teams spend their time. The new program, Microsoft Workplace Analytics, is now generally available to purchase as an add-on… Read More

Video

Microsoft’s new internal video hub, Microsoft Stream, is now generally available

by Tom Krazit on June 20, 2017June 20, 2017 at 8:56 amComment

Microsoft Stream, a video service that helps companies organize those boring training videos for their employees, is now generally available, the company announced Tuesday. Stream was introduced last July, and… Read More

Amazon’s Whole Foods acquisition might take some cloud revenue off Microsoft’s table

by Tom Krazit on June 16, 2017June 16, 2017 at 12:15 pm1 Comment

Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Friday also took a major customer away from its closest rival in the cloud. Whole Foods is a Microsoft Azure Active Directory and… Read More

Microsoft Cloud to set up shop in Africa with two new data centers coming in 2018

by Tom Krazit on May 18, 2017May 18, 2017 at 4:07 pmComment

Microsoft plans to open two new data centers in South Africa next year to provide its cloud services to the continent, one of the first major cloud providers to set… Read More

News Brief

Microsoft Windows and Office 365 updates will now arrive on a regular schedule

Report: Amazon may launch new AWS productivity suite to take on Microsoft and Google

by Jillian Stampher on February 24, 2017February 24, 2017 at 10:54 am1 Comment

Amazon Web Services is considering bundling its email, file storage, and video conferencing apps into a productivity suite that would compete with Microsoft and Google, according to a report released… Read More

Microsoft’s commercial cloud run rate tops $14B for first time, driven by Azure and Office 365

by Dan Richman on January 26, 2017January 26, 2017 at 3:04 pmComment

Microsoft’s commercial cloud run rate exceeded $14 billion for the first time during the December quarter, driven by Office 365 and Microsoft Azure — demonstrating continued momentum for the company’s cloud services as… Read More

Microsoft releases StaffHub, an Office 365 app for shift workers without desks or computers

by Dan Richman on January 12, 2017January 12, 2017 at 11:26 pm 2 Comments

Microsoft today debuted StaffHub, a no-extra-cost Office 365 application meant to help staff workers manage their work day through shift-schedule management, information sharing and the ability to connect to other work-related… Read More

Yammer on? Microsoft says new ‘Teams’ tool doesn’t supplant its past $1.2B acquisition

by Nat Levy on November 2, 2016November 2, 2016 at 2:16 pm 3 Comments

It was only four years ago that Microsoft dropped a cool $1.2 billion on Yammer, which bills itself as a social network for work. Today Microsoft unveiled its long-awaited Slack competitor, Microsoft… Read More

Will Microsoft challenge Slack? What to expect from the company’s Office event this week

by Nat Levy on November 1, 2016November 1, 2016 at 11:19 am1 Comment

Coming off a series of splashy announcements focused on creativity last week, Microsoft is holding another big event Wednesday, where the company will likely get back to its bread and butter with… Read More

Microsoft updates Office apps with Excel maps, PowerPoint QuickStarter and Tap for Word and Outlook

by Kevin Lisota on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 at 5:14 am 2 Comments

ATLANTA, GA. — Microsoft is releasing a number of significant updates to its Office applications at the Microsoft Ignite conference today. Included in the updates are new map chart types in Excel,… Read More

Microsoft expands cloud business, opens two Azure regions in the U.K.

by Dan Richman on September 7, 2016September 6, 2016 at 3:06 pm1 Comment

Microsoft has opened two Azure cloud regions and an Office 365 region in the United Kingdom, with the intention of letting local customers keep data closer to them geographically. Keeping data… Read More

New stats: Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenue nears $10B a year

by Dan Richman on August 2, 2016August 2, 2016 at 10:36 amComment

Revenue from Microsoft’s commercial cloud business, including Azure and Office 365, approached $10 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, up nearly 40 percent from the previous year, and more than three-fold over… Read More

Microsoft updates Office 365 and Outlook with new features to help people focus

by Nat Levy on July 26, 2016July 25, 2016 at 10:56 pmComment

Microsoft announced new updates for Office 365 and Outlook this morning, designed to help users focus in an era when people have more and more work spread across different devices and programs. The new features leverage intelligence… Read More

‘Microsoft got cool again’: Office 365 lands Facebook in big customer win

by Dan Richman on July 12, 2016July 12, 2016 at 10:04 am 10 Comments

Facebook has agreed to use pieces of Office 365 software as a service, vindicating the usefulness of Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity suite for a high-profile, fast-moving tech company. Tim Campos, Facebook’s CIO, appeared at Microsoft’s Worldwide… Read More

Five years after launch, Microsoft’s Office 365 is the most popular enterprise cloud service

by Dan Richman on June 28, 2016June 28, 2016 at 8:52 amComment

Microsoft’s Office 365 became generally available for businesses five years ago today, and it has grown remarkably in the time since, becoming the most popular enterprise cloud service, a new report… Read More

Study: Microsoft Office 365 usage still limited among small U.S. firms

by Dan Richman on June 1, 2016June 1, 2016 at 7:04 amComment

Adoption of Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 is in its infancy, with only 7.5 percent of small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. currently using it, according to a study set… Read More

Microsoft starts shipping Office Mobile with every Windows 10 phone

by James Risley on December 17, 2015December 17, 2015 at 3:22 pm1 Comment

Microsoft may be putting a lot of weight behind their Office apps for iOS and Android phones, it hasn’t forgotten about its own operating system. Today, the software giant announced… Read More

Microsoft updates Outlook for iOS with improved attachment editing

by James Risley on August 20, 2015August 20, 2015 at 4:16 pmComment

Outlook for iOS just keeps getting better. An update Microsoft posted today now lets you open Word, PowerPoint and Excel files directly in their respective apps instead of sending you to a simplified… Read More

Microsoft’s new ‘Send’ app for iPhone is a messaging client with an email backbone

by James Risley on July 22, 2015July 22, 2015 at 11:11 am 4 Comments

No matter how much you hate it, email isn’t going anywhere. But that doesn’t mean developers can’t use it to build something better. Microsoft Garage’s latest creation, released today for the… Read More

Microsoft signs General Electric to big Office 365 deal, covering 300k employees

by Todd Bishop on July 20, 2015July 20, 2015 at 7:25 amComment

U.S. corporate titan General Electric has signed an agreement to roll out Microsoft Office 365 to its more than 300,000 employees in 170 countries. Microsoft announced the news this morning, calling the GE deal one of… Read More

Microsoft updates Office for Mac after 5 years, promises more frequent refreshes in the future

by James Risley on July 9, 2015July 9, 2015 at 10:58 am1 Comment

Office 2016 for Mac is available to the general public, five years after the software suite’s last major refresh, Microsoft announced today. Microsoft is also promising to keep Mac users up… Read More

Office 365 migration service SkyKick raises $10M, rolls out new cloud management product

by Taylor Soper on June 30, 2015June 30, 2015 at 12:29 pm1 Comment

SkyKick, a Seattle-based company that helps businesses migrate to Office 365, has raised an additional $10 million in capital to help accelerate its sales and product development plans. The round,… Read More

Microsoft Outlook.com upgrade adds ‘Clutter’ inbox management feature

by James Risley on May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 at 11:16 amComment

As part of its migration to Office 365, Microsoft is previewing an updated Outlook.com starting today. New features include improved search, quicker collaboration and an inbox management feature called Clutter. It’s the latest… Read More

Microsoft Office 2016 hits public beta, bringing real-time collaboration to the desktop

by Blair Hanley Frank on May 4, 2015May 4, 2015 at 10:02 am1 Comment

Office users who want a glimpse of the future will be able to see it starting today, thanks to a new public beta. The Office 2016 Public Preview will let anyone… Read More

Acumatica launches content pack for Microsoft’s Power BI data visualization tool

by Blair Hanley Frank on April 30, 2015April 30, 2015 at 3:15 pm1 Comment

SAN FRANCISCO–Microsoft executives showed off a new set of tools from Acumatica during the company’s second day keynote at its Build Developer conference in San Francisco this morning. The Seattle-based cloud ERP… Read More

Microsoft brings Office Lens scanner app to iPhone and Android for the first time

by Blair Hanley Frank on April 2, 2015April 2, 2015 at 10:40 am 4 Comments

Microsoft is continuing the cross-platform push with its mobile apps, bringing its Office Lens scanner app to the iPhone and Android devices. The app, which was previously exclusive to Windows… Read More

Microsoft adds mobile device management to Office 365

by Blair Hanley Frank on March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 at 8:36 amComment

Microsoft announced today that businesses using Office 365 can now tap into the productivity suite for managing their employees’ mobile devices. Organizations with an Office 365 Business, Enterprise, EDU or… Read More

Best buds Samsung and Microsoft strike deal to pre-install Office on Android tablets

by Blair Hanley Frank on March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 at 10:50 amComment

Samsung and Microsoft, which until recently were fighting it out in court, today deepened their business relationship — saying they will work together to bring Microsoft Office to Android in a much bigger… Read More

Microsoft teams up with EdX to offer development courses for its platform

by Blair Hanley Frank on March 12, 2015March 14, 2015 at 5:25 pmComment

Microsoft partnered with online learning site EdX to offer people a new jumping-off point into the worlds of software development and IT administration. The Redmond-based company will begin offering 7… Read More