Custom365

Noticed “Communities” showing up in Teams? Here’s what you’re seeing 👀 Microsoft has started surfacing Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) communities directly inside Teams. So when you click in expecting something new… it can feel a bit odd. Because what you’ll usually find is: ➡️ Posts from ages ago ➡️ GIFs, photos, social chatter ➡️ Early “company culture” conversations from before Teams took over It’s not new activity. It’s old communities being brought back into view. Why is this happening? Nothing new has been created, these communities have always existed in the background. They’re now just embedded into Teams by default (and default = on). What are your options? Once you’ve had a look, you’ve got a few paths: ✅ Leave it alone If it’s inactive, most users won’t engage with it ✅ Tidy it up Archive old communities and reduce the noise ✅ Use it intentionally Engage can work well for org-wide conversation if there’s a clear purpose ✅ Switch it off (Admin) Microsoft is rolling out dedicated controls in the Teams Admin Center to turn off Communities and Storylines: → You may already have them → Or they may still be landing in your tenant Either way, this isn’t something you’re stuck with. The reality for most tenants right now. It’s a bit of a time capsule. A glimpse into how organisations tried to connect people before Teams became the centre of everything. If you haven’t checked it yet, it’s worth a quick look. You’ll know pretty quickly what camp you’re in: revive it, tidy it… or quietly turn it off. #Microsoft365 #Teams #ModernWorkplace #Custom365Community

Our first-ever Google review 🥰 Grateful to Kelly Numan and the team at Mitchell Daysh for their trust. Have you worked with us too? We would love to hear from you! Click here to leave us a second Google review: https://lnkd.in/eJ5W74ta Interested in our free webinars? Our next session is on Functional Libraries happening Wednesday, 17 June at 1:30pm NZST 👉 Register here: https://lnkd.in/euQzykmx

Most SharePoint pages are just… walls of text. That is expected to change by the end of May 2026. Microsoft has introduced a new capability where you can create charts directly on a SharePoint, simply by describing what you want in plain language and refining it in context. What’s interesting isn’t the chart itself. It’s what this unlocks. We’ve all seen pages where data is pasted in from elsewhere, disconnected from the narrative, or buried in attachments no one opens 📎 This starts to close that gap. You can build the story and the visualisation in the same place, without breaking flow. It shifts SharePoint from being a place where information is posted to a place where it is actually interpreted 💡 For intranets, reporting, and project updates, that’s a meaningful change. It lowers the effort required to turn raw data into something people can quickly understand, which is usually where things fall down. SharePoint is quietly becoming a space for data storytelling, not just content publishing.

Are your third-party tools helping your people work… or just giving them more places in which they work? Most organisations have invested heavily in third-party tools. Yet somehow, work still can still feel harder than it should. Instead of enabling better outcomes, third-party tools can quietly: • Create silos • Scatter conversations and information across platforms • Contribute to constant platform-switching And that last one is the biggest productivity killer. Every time someone jumps between platforms and logins, they lose time reorienting, remembering context, and picking back up where they left off. It might only feel like seconds, but across a day, it adds up to hours of lost focus. Work becomes fragmented. Attention gets diluted. And people finish the day feeling busy… but not productive. And cost? Different tools with overlapping capability and multiple subscriptions all add up quickly. A well-designed digital workplace is not about adding more. It is about making what you have actually work together. This is where we come in. Sometimes third-party tools are definitely needed. But often, you already have an app tucked into your existing M365 licence that does what you need. Think: • M365 Bookings instead of Calendly • M365 Teams instead of WhatsApp or Slack • M365 Lists instead of Airtable • M365 SharePoint instead of Google Drive or Dropbox • M365 Planner instead of Monday. com or ClickUp • M365 Loop instead of Notion It often starts with a simple question: What do you already have, and are you actually using it well? Most organisations are closer to a simpler, more connected setup than they realise. Because doing more is not the answer. Designing better is. #Custom365Community

🚀 Copilot Cowork is a game-changer, shifting Copilot from “AI assistant” to “AI that actually does the work” Microsoft has introduced Copilot Cowork and this is not another “write an email faster” feature. Copilot Cowork is built for long‑running, multi‑step work across different Microsoft 365 apps. Instead of prompting Copilot one task at a time, you describe an outcome and it carries the work forward. Copilot Cowork can: ✅ Break the outcome into a multi‑step plan ✅ Work across emails, meetings, files, and apps ✅ Continue work over time with visible progress and checkpoints ✅ Pause, adjust, or stop execution at any point ✅ Require explicit user approval before actions like sending emails, scheduling meetings, or editing files Think: 👉 “Prepare me for next week’s exec review” 👉 “Clean up my calendar and follow up on unresolved meetings” 👉 “Pull insights from recent emails and turn them into a deck” And then… it actually does the work. From an enterprise and SharePoint admin perspective, this matters because: • Existing Microsoft 365 permissions and policies are respected • Actions are transparent and user‑approved • Work is observable, pausable, and adjustable • Enterprise‑grade security, privacy, and compliance controls remain in place • Anthropic is used as a subprocessor (on by default in NZ and Australia) • Availability is controlled via Frontier enrollment, agent settings, and subprocessor configuration 📌 Who gets it (right now) • Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) users • Tenants enrolled in Frontier (Copilot's "Beta" Program) • English language only (for now) • They have yet to announce when they will roll this out to all Copilot premium licences 📌 Admin prep No action required This is Microsoft’s clearest signal yet that Copilot is moving from assistive AI to agentic AI: intent → plan → execution, with humans firmly in control This feels like one of those moments where how work gets done quietly but fundamentally changes. #Microsoft365 #Copilot #SharePoint #ModernWork #Frontier #Custom365Community

🚀 Breakout rooms in Teams are getting an upgrade If you run trainings, workshops, or large structured meetings in Microsoft Teams, this update is for you. Worth clarifying what’s actually new here: ✅ What’s always existed Teams has long had an "automatically assign" option for breakout rooms that randomly splits people across rooms. One click, no control over who went where. 🆕 What’s new (May 2026): Until now, there was no way to plan groups in advance at scale. If you wanted to put specific people together, you had to assign rooms individually or do it live. But with this update, you can: ✅ Create all your breakout rooms at once ✅ Pre‑assign and upload your breakout room plan before the meeting starts ✅ Still move people around during the meeting if needed The best part? • Enabled by default • No admin setup required • Existing breakout room policies still apply 📅 Rollout timeline Targeted Release: Some people will see it early to mid-May 2026 General Availability: Everyone will see it mid to late May 2026 If you regularly host structured meetings, it’s worth letting your meeting organisers know this is coming. How to set up this up in Microsoft Teams when this feature is live: Step 1: Open Excel and assign rooms in a list with 2 columns; the first column with email address, the second with room name Step 2: Save the file as a CSV. If that sounds scary, don’t worry. It’s just a normal spreadsheet saved in a different format. Excel literally has a “Save as CSV” option. Step 3: Open the meeting in Microsoft Teams Click the three dots at the top right And select Breakout rooms Choose Import (this is the new part) Upload the file you just saved Teams will: Create the breakout rooms for you Put people in the right rooms automatically Step 4: Run the meeting When you start breakout rooms: People are already assigned No dragging names around No awkward waiting If someone joins late or needs to move rooms, you can still change things manually. Nothing is locked in. #MicrosoftTeams #ModernWorkplace #M365 #BreakoutRooms #Facilitation #Collaboration #Custom365Community

Our clients say it best 💛 Here’s what Claire had to say about working with Custom365: Working with Custom365 over the past eight months has been one of the genuine highlights of my time at Stormwater360 Group. Annamarieke brought real expertise, warmth, and a thoughtful approach to understanding our business before jumping to solutions which made all the difference. She guided us through a meaningful digital workplace transformation, helping our team shift not just the tools we use, but the way we work together. What could easily feel overwhelming became genuinely manageable and, at times, even exciting. Annamarieke has a rare ability to meet people where they are, build their confidence, and bring them along on the journey rather than leaving anyone behind. The wider Custom365 team were equally supportive throughout, and it's clear the collaborative, people-first approach is simply how they operate. I've learnt an enormous amount working alongside them, and the impact on our organisation has been real and lasting. If you're considering a digital workplace transformation and want a partner who genuinely cares about your people and your outcomes I would highly recommend Custom365 We’re incredibly proud of this partnership and the impact it’s created. Thank you to Claire for trusting us with your M365 journey!

Paid Copilot can now draft news from a prompt, file or meeting recap in SharePoint 🗞️ Not just rewriting text. It actually helps you create the article. With this, you can: • Turn files or bullet points into a readable news post • Adjust tone for internal comms vs leadership updates • Suggest headlines and summaries • Clean up language without sounding corporate Don't worry: ✅ Copilot doesn’t “auto‑publish news”. You still choose what’s published Where it is genuinely useful: • Internal updates that keep getting delayed • Comms teams staring at a blank page • Project updates that should have been news two weeks ago • Turning meetings, decisions, or strategy into something people will actually read If you care about intranet adoption: • This helps content actually get written when it needs to get written But it still needs intention. While AI can help you write the story, humans still decide which stories matter. #SharePoint #MicrosoftCopilot #InternalComms #M365 #ModernWorkplace #Custom365Community

🚨 Microsoft Teams update worth knowing 👇 Meeting organisers will soon be able to delete meeting recaps. This includes: recordings, transcripts, AI summary and notes Once deleted, it’s permanent. There’s no restore. Why would you want to delete a meeting recap? Because not everything discussed in a meeting needs to live forever. This includes: • Sensitive or confidential conversations • Early ideas that were later changed or abandoned • Nuance or context lost in AI summaries • Psychological safety or consent considerations • The meeting served its purpose and is genuinely done • Data minimisation and governance hygiene A few important considerations of this new "Delete Recap" feature: ✅ Enabled by default, no admin setup required ✅ Shared files and chats are not deleted and stay where they originally live ✅ While it is now possible to delete recordings from the meeting recap, recordings still live in OneDrive or SharePoint and follow retention policies there ❌ Custom summaries and Audio recap are not deleted in this release 📅 Rollout timing: • Some get it early May 2026 • Everyone gets it late May, completing early June 2026 Why this matters: This feature shifts responsibility to meeting organisers and has real governance and retention implications, especially for organisations relying heavily on recap features and Copilot insights. If you look after M365 governance: • Update internal guidance around when/if meeting recaps need to be deleted (e.g. HR conversations) • Brief helpdesk and support teams • Revisit meeting retention expectations • Keep an eye on usage patterns #MicrosoftTeams #M365 #Governance #Copilot #Custom365Community

Growing the business shouldn’t always mean growing the team. For many SMBs, growth slows not because there isn’t enough demand, but because everyday work doesn’t scale. Tasks are duplicated, processes rely on individual memory, and simple things take longer than they should. As the business grows, this friction compounds and people get busy just keeping things running. The solution is not more headcount. It’s better foundations. Growth without adding people comes from reducing double handling, standardising the work that repeats, and turning “how we do things” from unwritten knowledge into shared, easy‑to‑follow systems. When work is consistent and supported properly, the business can handle more without putting extra pressure on the team. Most businesses already own the tools to make this possible. The issue is that those tools are often disconnected, inconsistently used, or set up around individuals rather than the organisation. Information is hard to find, processes live in inboxes, and key knowledge leaves when someone is away. When information is easy to locate, processes are simple and repeatable, and day‑to‑day work is supported by a well‑designed digital workplace, people spend less time figuring things out and more time doing meaningful work. That is where real capacity comes from. Growth doesn’t always require more resource. Sometimes it just requires better foundations. #SMB #DigitalWorkplace #BusinessGrowth #Microsoft365 #WorkSmarter #Custom365Community