Tom Arbuthnot's Microsoft 365 Perspective

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Logitech just announced their first Collaboration Board, the Rally Board 65, a 65” all-in-one. Already certified for Teams Rooms on Android, it also supports Zoom, Google Workspace, BYOD and PC modes. It has some great technology built in, including a unique Depth Blur effect, Camera Zone and Mic Zone and AI-powered RightSight 2 and RightSound 2. I'll be doing a video demo of this at ISE.

Logitech also announced Logitech Spot, their first workplace presence and environmental sensor with radar presence detection, CO2, airflow, and particulate matter measurement, and wireless, peel-and-stick installation with up to 4 years power with replaceable, off-the-shelf batteries.

Many thanks to Logitech for their support of Empowering.Cloud

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Microsoft Teams News

Did you miss my first update briefing of the year? Check it out here: Microsoft Teams January Update Briefing (deck here).

You can now upload and manage your complete phone number ranges (assigned and unassigned) in Microsoft Teams, including Direct Routing! Upload via PowerShell (GA) or in the Teams Admin Center (Preview now, GA Feb). Details and screenshots here.

See a real demo of the upcoming Microsoft Teams Interpreter agent, real-time speech-to-speech translation during meetings. A lot of people are excited about this new capability: which looks pretty impressive. Also, check out a new Microsoft support FAQ on Facilitator agent in Microsoft Teams.

Completely manage Teams Premium in the Teams admin center. Coming in February (MC981630). Manage licenses and all premium settings and report on usage.

Teams Rooms on Android January update is here. All fixes, no exciting new features this time, but remember you must update. Starting in June 2025, Android devices with clients more than 5 months old will no longer work (MC969451)

New Microsoft Places Learning Path Partner Training here (partner login required). And for Partners, don't forget the Teams Rooms Learning Path and Converged Comms Learning Path and for sellers, the new Teams Rooms Sales Badge.

MDEP 2024.4 has been released to OEMs. It adds support for Touchscreen and non-touchscreen phones and phone sidecars. Now that AOSP firmware is slowly rolling out, we should start to see MDEP Teams devices. Look out for more news from ISE.

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I had a quick catch-up with Michael Levy, CEO of Numonix, on the challenges of keeping up with changes in Microsoft Teams compliance recording. We talked about upcoming changes in recording for the queues app and conference mode.

And a sneak peek at what AudioCodes will be showing at ISE, including Multi-Camera on the RXV200 Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android

Thanks, Christan and llya for the kind words, and to Eshan Mathur for a great podcast on Teams BYOD. Check it out: audio, YouTube​

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Microsoft 365 Copilot news

As I wrote about in last month's newsletter (and before that on LinkedIn). Microsoft has launched "Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat", GPT-4o based, included in all Office 365 suites (MC958903)

The new Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, available to all, will also allow end users to discover, create, and use agents. Web-grounded agents are free, but those using tenant data are PAYG (MC973501).

Microsoft's official blog is here, with an explainer and a nice comparison table of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat vs Microsoft 365 Copilot.

An exciting addition for those working in multiple Office 365 tenants with Microsoft 365 Copilot in one but not the others. In March, users can use Microsoft 365 Copilot in Office apps on documents in other tenants (M365 Copilot Multiple account access) MC981462. It is limited to documents opened in the app; it's not full graph access to the other tenants.

Still, no word on Copilot in Teams working for you when joining other tenant meetings, something I hear you asked for a lot.

Copilot is now included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family (consumer). 84 million consumer subscribers will now have access to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and the newly renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot app with a monthly allotment of AI credits.

Microsoft is increasing the prices of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family by $3 USD per month (at customers' next renewal). Consumer users who need more than this can still upgrade to Copilot Pro ($20 PUPM). Microsoft tested this approach in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand in November; now, it's going worldwide.

It is also interesting that Google has now bundled Gemini AI into its commercial business product (previously an additional $20 per user per month for the Gemini Business plan). Google is including Gemini AI for all Workspace subscribers while increasing the subscription price from $12 to $14 per user per month (The Verge).

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Latest Content on Empowering.Cloud

• ​What Organisations best fit Microsoft Teams Phone? with MVP Mark Vale, Microsoft Teams Phone Architect
• ​Microsoft Places Deep Dive - Real-World Deployment, Features and Licensing with Nathan Chapman, Chief Technology Officer at Generation-e and Chris Fitzsimmons, Senior Solutions Architect at AVI-SPL
• Whitepaper: 5 Reasons On-Premises Telephony Remains Key, even when moving to UCaaS​
• Whitepaper: Choosing a Microsoft Teams Contact Center and AudioCodes Voca Conversational Interaction Center Features and Use Cases

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Teams Insider Podcast

• ​Customer Stories and Enhancing Meetings with AI with Brad Hintze, EVP Global Marketing at Crestron
• ​"AV and IT have converged" with Tim Albright, President of AVNation Media
• ​Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone in 2025 with Metrigy's Irwin Lazar

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube​

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Events

Online:

• ​Copilot Fireside Chat with Dona Sarkar - 29th January
• ​Cloud8 Community Summit - 7th February
• ​Teams Fireside Chat with Michel Bouman giving us the ISE debrief! - 13th February

In-Person:

• ​ISE - 4-7 February, Barcelona - less than two weeks away!
• ​Microsoft UC User Group London - February 26th, London - all the news after ISE
• ​Enterprise Connect—17-20 March, Florida. I'm excited to have two sessions, and Ilya Bukshteyn, VP of Microsoft Teams Calling, Devices, and Premium Experiences, will give the keynote!

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