SharePoint Online UI update coming in November

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced App Builder and Workflows for Microsoft 365 Copilot: "You can now build apps and automate workflows in minutes, right in M365 Copilot chat." For mid-market firms, the IT bottleneck is familiar. Your team needs a simple app to track milestones, automated reminders for deadlines, or a way to surface information from SharePoint. The request goes to IT. IT adds it to the backlog. Weeks pass. Microsoft's solution: conversational building. Describe what you need. Copilot builds it. App Builder creates working apps in minutes without database setup. Build dashboards, charts, lists. Share with a link. Workflows automates emails, reminders, calendar management across Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and Planner. Copilot Studio creates agents grounded in your work data. Security and governance are built-in. Tools respect permissions and support role-based access. Admins manage through Microsoft 365 admin center. What this means: Most mid-market IT departments manage backlogs measured in months. Simple automation requests (send this reminder weekly, create this tracker, surface this information) sit unbuilt because IT lacks capacity. Meanwhile, employees create workarounds: manual spreadsheets, email reminders, scattered documents. Microsoft's bet: if building becomes conversational, employees solve their own problems within governed boundaries. IT shifts from building everything to setting guardrails and managing what gets built. The backlog shrinks because fewer requests require IT intervention. Your next step: Survey your IT backlog. Identify which percentage are simple automation requests versus complex system integrations. If simple requests dominate, calculate the cost: delayed projects, manual workarounds, employee time spent on tasks that should be automated. Then evaluate whether conversational building tools with proper governance would compress that backlog whilst maintaining security standards. Dr. Ben E. Kuzey, Sameer Verma, Jared Spataro, Mustafa Suleyman, Pamela Maynard, Natasha Crampton, David Rhew, M.D., Dean Erasmus, Jin Young Maurice, Luca Romagnoli, Adam Steel, JJ Worthen, Josh Handel, Katrin Kohl Schoepp, Courtney Valis, Eromosele Omomhenle, Will Garland

If your organization relies on Microsoft services like Azure, OneDrive, or SharePoint, and you’re thinking about building an internal AI agent or workflow, here are two tools I’ve personally worked with and found incredibly useful 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼 lets you build intelligent agents without writing code. 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: Imagine creating an internal HR assistant that answers employee queries like “What’s the leave policy?” or “Who can approve my travel request?” by retrieving data directly from SharePoint using RAG. 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 helps you streamline time-consuming processes with simple automation flows. 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: Set it to automatically collect feedback forms from OneDrive, store results in Excel and send summary emails to your team every Friday. Both tools make it easier to bring automation and AI into your organization’s daily workflows helping teams work smarter, not harder. #Microsoft #CopilotStudio #PowerAutomate #Azure #Automation #NoCode #AIinBusiness #Productivity #RAG #Microsoft365

Microsoft 365 Copilot is transforming how organisations turn ideas into impact. The latest update introduces App Builder and Workflows, two AI-powered capabilities that make building apps and automating processes as simple as having a conversation. With App Builder, you can create custom apps—such as dashboards, calculators, and interactive tools—by describing what you need in natural language. These apps are grounded in your Microsoft 365 data, ensuring security, compliance, and governance remain intact. Workflows takes automation to a new level. It enables you to streamline approvals, orchestrate multi-step processes, and connect tools like Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and Planner—all by stating your intent. This means less time spent on repetitive tasks and more time focused on strategic priorities. Together, these innovations unlock agility, reduce operational overhead, and empower teams to innovate responsibly within a trusted environment. Read more: https://msft.it/6043tD9Qv

Did the admin of your Dynamics 365 / Power Apps system remove the "Export to Excel" rights from you? Don't worry, just ask Copilot for help! You will probably first get suggestions for using other Microsoft products like Power Automate or Power Query for extracting data from a Dataverse table. But AI will also tell you the exact URL you can open with your browser and extract the data. How can it be this simple to go around the Dataverse security role settings? Well, because it's not the year 2005 anymore. The systems live in the cloud now. If you haven't explicitly implemented barriers for limiting how they can be accessed, it's as easy as opening the right Web API endpoint. Any user could now become a "hacker" that uses methods that people previously thought were only applied by software developers. But everyone can just "vibe it". Heck, it is an official selling point for Copilot based solutions that the very same vendor (Microsoft) promotes. The real problem is in falling for quick fixes like "let's just block this one product specific feature". Or even worse, relying on the idea that what the users see in the UI is the data that they can access. Don't fall for it. Understand how the platform underneath your business apps actually works. And if you need help in understanding Power Platform administration and governance, just ask.

🚀 How to Truly Optimize Your Use of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Microsoft Dynamics 365 continues to evolve rapidly — but to unlock its full potential, organizations need more than just implementation. They need smart optimization. Here are the key areas every business should focus on: 🔹 1. Customize Strategically Dynamics 365 offers powerful apps for Sales, Finance, Marketing, Service, and Operations. But the real value comes when you tailor the system to your workflows using Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Copilot. 🔹 2. Leverage Your Data From Customer Insights to AI-driven recommendations, Dynamics 365 can transform raw data into meaningful decisions. Integrating data sources like Excel, SharePoint, and SQL ensures a single source of truth. 🔹 3. Invest in User Training A great system only works if your team knows how to use it. Learning Paths, Microsoft Learn, and in-app guidance help your users get the most out of the platform. 🔹 4. Stay Up to Date With Microsoft’s continuous updates, keeping your environment current ensures better performance, security, and features. 🔹 5. Strengthen Security & Compliance Use role-based permissions, activity monitoring, and backup/restore practices to protect your environment and meet compliance standards. 🔹 6. Optimize Performance Tools like Performance Center and System Diagnostics help identify issues before they impact users. ✨ Final Thought: Dynamics 365 is more than a system — it’s a connected ecosystem. When combined with AI and the Power Platform, it becomes a powerful engine for digital transformation. If you'd like help assessing or enhancing your Dynamics 365 environment, I’m always happy to connect. #MicrosoftDynamics365 #CRM #ERP #BusinessGrowth #EnterpriseSolutions #CloudSolutions #PowerPlatform #MicrosoftAI #ksa #info_sys

🔗 Integrate Microsoft Graph Connectors to Extend Copilot’s Knowledge Sources Copilot is powerful — but it’s only as smart as the data it can securely access. That’s where Microsoft Graph Connectors come in. They bridge your enterprise data silos and help Copilot deliver richer, more relevant insights — all while respecting your security model. --- 🔹 1️⃣ What Are Graph Connectors? Graph Connectors bring external data (beyond Microsoft 365) into the Microsoft Graph index. Examples: HR databases CRM systems like Salesforce File shares or ticketing systems This means Copilot can answer questions across all your business data — not just SharePoint or OneDrive. --- 🔹 2️⃣ Why It Matters Without connectors, Copilot can only see what’s already in M365 apps. With connectors, you can enable Copilot to understand: > “Show me all customer complaints from Salesforce tagged as urgent.” “Summarize open IT tickets from ServiceNow.” All while maintaining data access boundaries and compliance controls. --- 🔹 3️⃣ How to Set It Up Go to Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Search & Intelligence → Data Sources Choose “+ Add” → Select your desired connector (SharePoint, Azure SQL, ServiceNow, etc.) Configure the authentication and permissions Run indexing → validate with test queries --- 🔹 4️⃣ Governance Tip Use Entra ID (Azure AD) and Conditional Access to ensure only authorized users can query this new data through Copilot. --- ✅ Result: Your Copilot evolves from being a “document assistant” to an enterprise knowledge hub, connecting all your business data securely. 💡 Extend Copilot’s mind — without extending your risk.

👉 “Have you explored how Power Automate can simplify your everyday workflows yet?” ✨ Power Automate isn’t just about ‘flows’ — it’s about freeing your time from repetitive tasks and connecting your favorite tools seamlessly. In today’s workplace, automation isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity. Whether you’re in data, HR, IT, or operations, there’s always something you can automate. That’s where Microsoft Power Automate comes in — a no-code/low-code automation platform that helps you: ✅ Create workflows between apps like Outlook, Excel, Teams & SharePoint ✅ Eliminate manual approvals and reminders ✅ Integrate with 1000+ connectors to work smarter, not harder But did you know Power Automate comes in three powerful forms? ⚡ Power Automate Cloud (Online): Automate workflows across cloud services like SharePoint, Outlook, or Power BI. (Best for Microsoft 365 users.) 🖥️ Power Automate Desktop: Record and automate repetitive tasks on your computer — clicks, data entry, app launches. 📱 Power Automate Mobile: Manage, trigger, and monitor your flows anytime, anywhere. Together, they make Power Automate an end-to-end automation ecosystem — bridging cloud, desktop, and mobile for true digital efficiency. 💡 The future of productivity isn’t about working harder — it’s about working automated. #PowerAutomate #Microsoft365 #Automation #PowerPlatform #LowCode #NoCode #DigitalTransformation #Productivity #WorkflowAutomation #PowerBI

Microsoft SharePoint excels at collaboration, but it wasn't designed for content that must be kept for decades. ➡️ 30% of your SharePoint data needs long-term retention. Without having the right, long-term archiving strategy it's: → Blocking legacy system retirements → Inflating storage costs → Creating compliance gaps → Locked away from AI ✅ The Solution: Extend SharePoint with embedded #ActiveDigitalPreservation that keeps long-term records accessible and AI-ready within your Microsoft ecosystem. 💡 The ROI: Decommission legacy systems. Optimize costs. Unlock strategic data. 👉 See how CIOs are enhancing their SharePoint strategy: https://lnkd.in/exMVNVa7 #Preserve365 #DigitalPreservation #CIO #SharePoint #DigitalTransformation #AI #AIReady #ITLeadership #CostOptimization