Archive for April, 2023

Copilot in Viva Topics ask Synergy Software Systems

April 26th, 2023

Microsoft Viva Topics applies next-generation AI to empower people with knowledge and expertise in the apps they use every day.

Viva Topics automatically organizes content and expertise into related topics like projects, products, processes, and customers.

Topic cards deliver knowledge just-in-time across Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Office. And topic pages—created and updated by AI—enable experts to cultivate and share knowledge with simplicity.


New features that will free up time and make it easy for people to find information and to apply knowledge – including Copilot in Viva Topics, Teams app, and more.

Copilot in Viva Topics

Use Copilot in Viva Topics, in your organization’s to :

  • share intelligence to distribute best practices and knowledge to everyone
  • – uncover new opportunities b
  • summarise complex topics across multiple connected documents,
  • translate topic pages based on sources even in other languages,
  • analyze connections between what may seem disparate concepts
  • Then validate & augment the source of organizational knowledge to ensure accuracy and credibility.

Expected release for preview insSeptember 2023.

thumbnail image 1 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Explore and query your organization’s knowledge graph with relevant people & resources  

Answers in Viva

Copilot is also coming to Answers in Viva. When an employee asks a question, Copilot can:

  • suggest additional details to clarify of the question.
  • recommend existing resources and potential answers.
  • curate knowledge by providing a summary of all the replies and contributors
  • and to brings it all together into an aggregate view with FAQs, experts, and other resources.

These Copilot capabilities will use natural language AI interfaces to improve employee experience

thumbnail image 2 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Copilot can help people provide answers to questions by recommending existing resources and potential answers.

Viva Topics Teams app:

The new Viva Topics app in Teams will be available for all licensed Viva Topics users.
You can now use the Viva Topics app in Teams as a destination to see ‘their’ associate Topics, and knowledge managers can even access Manage Topics and the upcoming analytics tab. You will no longer have to navigate out of Teams to access their Topic Center. The app will also include new Viva components that will allow Viva Suite users to easily transition between Viva apps, submit feedback, and get support.

Updates to this feature can be tracked should reach GA in May 2023.

Multi-Hop queries for Related Topics

This generally available version of Related Topics adds a second layer of connections so that topics that are two degrees of connection away from the focal node are shown. Click on a node to expand the visualization to show more topics connected to that node.

Viva Topics in Feed

Microsoft Feed is a dedicated Feed experience in Office.com and Edge New Tab Page that helps Microsoft 365 users feel connected and up to date on the people, topics, and tasks most important to them-files, meetings, tasks, news, links, people highlights and community posts.

Your Feed, will show you relevant Viva Topics. When a SharePoint object that is already associated with a Topic is shown in Feed items, you will see a corresponding Topic to help you further understand the context and do more. Only SharePoint objects that are associated with an existing Viva Topic are highlighted with a Topic.

Updates to this feature should be GA by end April 2023.

Viva Engage conversations and Q&A on Topic Card as Activity

Viva Topics will be a continuous source of information with Viva Engage conversations and Q&A associated with a topic appear on the Topic Card as new activity.

thumbnail image 3 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023.

Verified Topic badges

Mark published topics as verified and add a specific group of SMEs as editors to the topic.

Verification helps readersto identify topics with added reliability.

Topics that are verified are identified by a special badge and indicate the content is reviewed for accuracy and are regularly updated by assigned editors.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in April 2023.

thumbnail image 4 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics
thumbnail image 5 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Topic engagement analytics for knowledge managers

Usage and engagement analytics showing Viva Topics adoption and value will be available to knowledge managers in a new analytics tab in topic center. Analytics will include:

• Unique user counts and Usage counts for:

o Topics activities overall
o By activities like consuming, contributing and sharing Topics


• Detailed breakdown for Topics consumption usage from Topic card, page, search, Topic center cards; Usage count details for;
• Detailed breakdown for Topics contribution activities like Editing and publishing topics, will provide feedback.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023.

thumbnail image 6 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Topic Engagement Analytics for Admins

Usage and engagement analytics on topics (views, edits, etc.) to the Microsoft Admin Center for Admins.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in May 2023

thumbnail image 7 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

Control topic highlights on SharePoint

SharePoint includes a Viva Topics experience that identifies topics on SharePoint pages, news posts and automatically highlights those on the page.

Both page authors and editors can control which topics get highlighted on the page to ensure the messaging and styling of the content is accurate.

A new dedicated space for Viva Topics within SharePoint pages o discover and consume all the topics on the page in a single place without scrolling to look for a highlight.

Updates to this feature will reach GA in April 2023.

thumbnail image 8 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics
thumbnail image 9 of blog post titled 
	
	
	 
	
	
	
				
		
			
				
						
							Announcing Copilot in Viva Topics

April 24th, 2023

Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.

Microsoft Graph is the gateway to data and intelligence in Microsoft 365. It provides a unified programmability model to access the tremendous amount of data in Microsoft 365, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Use the wealth of data in Microsoft Graph to build apps for organizations and consumers that interact with millions of users. Custom applications can use the Microsoft Graph API to connect to data and use it in custom applications to enhance organizational productivity.

Microsoft Graph provides a single endpoint that the app can use to access the required data and to simplify the overall development process.

Organizations store vast amounts of data and intelligence across Microsoft cloud services, but how accessible is the data to users?

For example, a salesperson is setting up a meeting with a customer, wants to easily access files and previous meetings and notes but are those emails and chats between a salesperson and customer easy to find? What people within the organization can the customer contact for support?

Data and intelligence like the following types can be accessed through the Microsoft Graph REST APIs and client libraries:

  • Users and groups
  • Teams data
  • Tasks
  • Files
  • Mail
  • Meetings and calendars
  • Organizational charts

Copilot is an AI-powered tool that uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand users’ requests and provide personalized recommendations, tips, and assistance. Users can ask Copilot questions and get instant answers, guidance, and suggestions to help them work more efficiently.

Copilot is designed to be available across multiple Microsoft 365 applications, including :Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook, and is intended to be context-aware. It ‘understands’ the user’s specific needs and the task at hand. Some examples of this functionality are the ability to point copilot to a word document, and request to create a power point presentation based on the data in the document.

Copilot will also work with tools from the Power Platform and Dynamics 365 products. Copilot for Power Virtual Agents is already in preview.

Copilot enables marketers to create targeted customer experiences and interactions that are informed by data-driven decision making. With access to the natural language data discovery feature in Customer Insights, they can build confidence by validating and discovering customer insights for their marketing strategies. For example, a marketer can ask Copilot how many of their customers fit the profile of currently residing in Washington, DC, who are over the age of 25, who have also attended a promotional event in the last six months.

With just a few clicks, Copilot will present the results of their query, including the number of customers that match the attributes or behaviors, as well as other useful information such as the customer lifetime value, product preferences, or average purchase price.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights removes the barrier of needing to craft queries in SQL to get a deeper understanding of customers, enabling marketers to speed and scale the delivery of hyper-personalized experiences that customers expect.

Copilot in Viva Sales

Automatically generate contextual email replies and meeting summaries with Copilot in Viva Sales, available to Dynamics 365 Sales customers. Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales helps sellers dramatically reduce the time they spend on clerical tasks. AI helps write email responses to customers and can even create an email summary of a Teams meeting in Outlook. The meeting summary pulls in details from the seller’s CRM such as product and pricing information, as well as insights from the recorded Teams call. With sellers spending as much as 66% of their day checking and responding to emails, this presents a significant business upside to give the seller more time with their customers.

. For example, with Viva Sales, Copilot can learn how to connect to CRM systems of record to pull customer data — like interaction and order histories — into communications. As Copilot learns about new domains and processes, it will be able to perform even more sophisticated tasks and queries.

Copilot in Microsoft Viva Goals simplifies goal setting by guiding leaders through the process of creating objectives and key results (OKRs) as well as simplifying goal management across the organization. Copilot can suggest draft OKR recommendations based on existing Word documents, such as an annual business plan or a product strategy paper. Once created, Copilot saves employees time by summarizing the status of OKRs, identifying blockers, and suggesting next steps. Lastly, Copilot can consolidate existing data to generate more comprehensive check-ins so teams can leverage a breadth of knowledge across different sources of truth.

An entirely new experience is Business Chat that works across he Microsoft 365 apps, and your data — your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings and contacts — to do things you’ve never been able to do before. You can give it natural language prompts like “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy,” and it will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads.

You will be able to access Business Chat from Microsoft 365.com, from Bing when you’re signed in with your work account, or from Teams.

Copilot will fundamentally change how people work with AI and how AI works with people. As with any new pattern of work, there’s a learning curve — but those who embrace this new way of working will quickly gain an edge. Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 and automatically inherits all your company’s valuable security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes. Two-factor authentication, compliance boundaries, privacy protections, and more make Copilot the AI solution you can trust.

I have only scratched the surface – Teams swept the business world during COVID now Co-Pilot and VIVA integrated across your favourite apps erps and crm systems – we often read about game changing software and paradigm shifts- but this times it’s for real and faster than we realise.

Windows 10 21H2 end-of-service (EOS)

April 10th, 2023

Microsoft recently reminded its customers of the Windows 10 21H2 end-of-service (EOS) on June 13, 2023. It will affect editions released in November 2021 such as: Windows 10 Home, version 21H2; Windows 10 Pro, version 21H2; Windows 10 Pro Education, version 21H2; and Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, version 21H2.

These editions will no longer receive security updates after June 13, 2023.” reminds. Customers who contact Microsoft Support after this date will be directed to update their device to the latest version of Windows 10 or upgrade to Windows 11 to remain supported..

Microsoft noted that the June 2023 security update of Windows 10 21H2 will be the last one it will receive. This EOS signals the stop of updates for version 21H2, especially the security and monthly quality updates. This will expose users to possible issues without necessary future security patches and bug fixes.

Encourages users to get Windows 10 22H2 (Windows 10 2022 Update) or upgrade to Windows 11 available since November 2022 for users running Windows 10 20H2 or later via Windows Update. Microsoft said it would also push the update to consumer and non-managed business devices running Windows 10 20H2.

To help keep you protected and productive, Windows Update will automatically initiate a feature update for Windows 10 consumer devices and non-managed business devices that are at, or within several months of reaching end of servicing. This keeps your device supported and receiving monthly updates that are critical to security and ecosystem health.”

Power BI and end of support for Windows 8.1

April 6th, 2023

After almost 10 years, support for Windows 8.1 ended on January 10, 2023. Consequently support for Power BI Desktop on Windows 8.1 will stop on January 31, 2024.

After that, Power BI Desktop will only be supported on Windows 10 and newer.

The January 2024 release of Power BI Desktop for Report Server will be the last release to support Windows 8.1, and this version will only receive security updates until January 2025 per the Modern Lifecycle Policy.