Tom Arbuthnot's Microsoft 365 Perspective

Many thanks to Neat, this month's Empowering Cloud Benefactor. Neat has a great range of certified Microsoft Teams Rooms and now offers a centrally manageable BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) solution with Neat Select on the Neat Bar and Neat Bar 2, with or without the Neat Pad controller.

Also, Happy Birthday to Microsoft, 50 this month! Check out some celebratory Teams backgrounds.

Microsoft Teams Enterprise Connect 2025 Keynote 🔥 Fast Edit 🔥

I edited the Microsoft Teams Enterprise Connect keynote to All the announcements and demos in 15 minutes ⏱️

Get up to speed, and then come and hear Ilya's thoughts and ask him questions on Teams Fireside Chat this week.

Three areas of focus in the Keynote: Secure, Simple and Smart, driving Teams to the platform for AI-powered work. Here are the features shown and the release details.

🔒 Secure
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🟣 Brand Impersonation Protection (GA, Feb MC910976)
🟣 One-Time Passcode Meeting Join (Premium, April MC953756)
🟣 CAPTCHA Verification for Anonymous Meeting Join (GA, November MC875061)
🟣 Sensitivity Label Mismatch Notification in Meetings (GA, Docs)
🟣 Sensitive Data Screen Sharing Notifications (May, Roadmap)

😃 Simple
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🟣 New Chat and Channels Experience (April, MC920179)
🟣 Pop-Out Teams Panels and flexible Zoom (Rolled back, awaiting date MC952888)
🟣 Pop-Out Meetings Panels (Coming next quarter)
🟣 Loop Workspace in Channels (April, MC973493)
🟣 Live Chat in Teams, Small Bussiness Only (March, GA MC974364)
🟣 Teams Phone Extensibility for Contact Centers (Coming soon)
🟣 Queues app enhancements - Monitor, Whisper, Barge, and Takeover (May, MC999443)


🧠 Smart
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🟣 SharePoint Agents in Teams Chat (GA, MC966631)
🟣 Teams Phone AI Call Transfer Notes (Client and IP Phones, May, MC1045217)
🟣 Places location by W-Fi AP and @nearby Chat (TBC)
🟣 Room Recommender (May, MC1045219)
🟣 Teams Pannels Sensor Occupancy Status (Q2, MC989975)
🟣 Facilitator Agent in Teams Rooms (Preview now, GA May, MC1020213)
🟣 AI admin Assistant Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro portal and Copilot in Teams Admin Center (Q2 Preview)
🟣 Interpreter Agent real-time translation in Teams meetings (April Preview, MC1038409)

Teams Devices News

• Shure has certified their complete Microsoft Teams Rooms portfolio.

Roadmap Watch

• In-room Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) controls coming to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android (May MC1043473)
• Detailed call quality reports for BYOD rooms with associated peripherals in the Pro Management portal (requires Teams Shared Devices license for the room).
• Versions of the new Teams client older than 90 days will be blocked (MC1047923)

Reasoning Agents coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot

​Researcher and Analyst Agents will start rolling out to some customers with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in April as part of a new “Frontier” program that gives customers early access to new Copilot innovations while they’re still in development. Specific details of when and how still to follow.

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𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿: Combines OpenAI’s deep research model with Copilot’s advanced orchestration and deep search capabilities to help users tackle complex, multi-step research at work. It can simultaneously reason over work and web data, including third-party data via connectors or data pulled in from other agents, for its response.
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𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁: Leverages OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model and is optimized to do advanced data analysis at work. Analyst uses chain-of-thought reasoning to progress through problems iteratively, taking as many steps as necessary to refine its reasoning. It can run Python to tackle complex data queries, and users can view the code running in real-time and check if it works.
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Latest Content on Empowering.Cloud

• ​Set up & Manage Multi-Tenant in Microsoft 365 Deep Dive with MVP Rolf Tröndle
• ​Understanding the new Microsoft Teams Unified Chats and Channels Experience with Noga Ronen, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft Teams at Microsoft
• ​Unlocking AI efficiency in Landis Attendant Console and Contact Center for Microsoft Teams with Preston Martin and Paul Martin at Landis
• ​Understanding Neat App Hub: Features, Functions and Flexibility with Graham Walsh, Director, Global Technical Sales, Alliances at Neat
• ​Understanding AudioCodes Meeting Insights: AI for Smarter Meeting Management with John Corbett, Director of Recording Solutions at AudioCodes and Richard Hill, Senior Solution Consultant at Marlin Communications

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Teams Insider Podcast

• ​Microsoft Teams Queues App with Scott Plette, Partner Group Product Manager - Calling and Premium​
• ​The Path from PBX to Microsoft Teams Phone with Tom Garland, Global Service Delivery Manager at Willis Towers Watson
• ​Mastering Microsoft 365 Change with Ally Ward, M365 Global Service Owner​
• ​Microsoft Teams Phone and Rooms at Kingfisher, Revolutionising Retail Communications with Matt Sheldrick, M365 Product Designer at Kingfisher

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube​

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Events

Online:

• ​Teams Fireside Chat with Ilya Bukshteyn - 10th April
• ​Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything - 16th April
• ​AudioCodes Webinar: Transform Meetings into Valuable Business Assets with Generative AI - 29th April
• ​Copilot Fireside Chat - 30th April
• ​Converged Communications Partner Technical Bootcamp -13-14 May

In-Person:

• ​Comms vNext - 15-16 April, Denver, CO
• ​Microsoft UC User Group London - 30th April
• ​Microsoft 365 Community Conference - 6-8 May, Las Vegas- Check out the massive lineup of Teams sessions here.

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As always, if you have questions, corrections, thoughts, or feedback, please reply and let me know. I read all the replies.