We start The Horizon this month with an exciting update of our very own Staff Directory app.
Staff Directory customers will know that the app allows you to quickly and easily explore your organization by enabling you to search, filter, and refine your staff in one place. And the Cloudwell team has been working hard to enhance the user experience and provide brand new features to the Microsoft AppSource 5-star rated app.
Here are the hot takes from our latest update.
Staff Directory 2.0
Our top five enhancements include:
- Faster, more efficient loading, meaning it will be even faster to find people in your organization.
- Enhanced card and list view layouts, plus the ability to add extension attributes or custom Entra ID attributes, including pronouns.
- Rename properties with just a few clicks. For example, instead of “Office location”, you may want to use the word “Site” or “Building”.
- Support for multiple telephone numbers, so users with more than one phone number will have a drop-down on the call button.
- Faster search with searchable filters, making it even faster to find the information that matters most.
Check out the full release notes for more details of this latest update.
SharePoint Framework 1.20 general release
We talked about this update in The Horizon: August when it was in public preview. The good news is, it’s now generally available, so everyone can benefit from:
- New data visualization options for Viva Connections card views, such as bar, pie, and donut charts.
- Support for HTML-powered Quick Views in Viva Connections cards, allowing more complex layouts across devices.
- Automatic single sign-on and hosting for SPFx components, simplifying development and deployment.
- Industry-standard web stack tooling with Node.js, npm, TypeScript, and various JavaScript frameworks.
Principal Program Manager Vesa Juvonen explains more in his blog.
SharePoint Advance Management content discoverability
Another neat new feature set for preview this coming month is SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) restricted content discoverability.
SharePoint admins will be able to restrict content discoverability in organization-wide search and Copilot experiences leading to more streamlined governance, improved compliance and enhanced efficiency.
If you’re interested in using SAM to tackle content sprawl and governance concerns, take a look at our blog.
Microsoft AI Tour London highlights
Microsoft is on its second AI Tour, this time covering over 60 cities worldwide.
Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro took the opportunity at the AI Tour London to announce the latest agent capabilities in Copilot Studio and Dynamics 365, describing agents as the new apps for an AI-powered world.
Here are the highlights:
Autonomous AI Agents: agents that can perform tasks independently, enhancing productivity and efficiency. These agents are designed to scale your team’s capabilities like never before.
Copilot Studio: This new feature allows users to create and customize their own autonomous agents. It will be available in public preview next month.
Integration with Dynamics 365: Ten new autonomous agents will be integrated into Dynamics 365, providing advanced automation and insights for business processes.
See Jared Spataro’s blog for the full story.
Microsoft Ignite 2024
No fire puns here. Just a reminder that Microsoft Ignite is about to happen and when it comes to Microsoft events, they don’t get bigger than Ignite. This year it’s at the McCormick Centre West in Chicago from November 18-22.
If you can’t make it to Chicago but you’re in the DC area, our CEO and MVP Pat McGown is hosting a Microsoft Ignite 2024 Watch Party at the Microsoft Innovation Hub in Arlington, VA. Places are limited so act fast.
No doubt we’ll be discussing the biggest news from Ignite next month, so look out for The Horizon in November.
If you can’t wait until then, you’ll find more news and updates from the Microsoft technosphere on our blog, plus don’t miss MVP Pat McGown’s personal blog for even more insights.
And don’t forget, as a Microsoft Gold Partner, we make it our business to provide innovative enterprise solutions for your business.
Reach out to the Cloudwell team today.