Office 365 data import service rolling out

Here’s an interesting item from the Office 365 Roadmap in development.

Drive Shipping and Network Based Data Import for Office 365

The ability to import data into Office 365 in a quick and easy manner has been a known constraint of Office 365, and a solution for this issue has emerged as a key request from customers. We are working on a solution that will allow quicker imports of data into Exchange Online Archive Mailboxes. You will now be able to import Exchange Online data through PST files into the service without using third party tools. Drive Shipping and Network Based Ingestion options will use Azure-based services to import data. Over time we will be extending this to other data types across Office 365.

This option is not yet available on my Office 365 tenant but here is a blog post of someone who has it and has documented the process:

http://blogs.perficient.com/microsoft/2015/05/office-365-using-the-new-pst-import-service/

What excites me is not the PST stuff but this line:

Over time we will be extending this to other data types across Office 365.

That to me reads that soon Office 365 will support drive shipping and network based ingestion of SharePoint and OneDrive for Business data! That will be huge and save massive amounts of time for customers looking to move the bulk of their files and folder information to Office 365, who may also be somewhat bandwidth limited.

The second thing I note here is:

Drive Shipping and Network Based Ingestion options will use Azure-based services to import data.

That further reinforces to my mind the fact that if you are an Office 365 IT professional you are going to need to be comfortable with Azure.

To me it is no longer Office 365, it is now Office365/Azure combined as a skill set you must have going forward.

Getting Started With Attached Apps

One of the most common challenges I see with Office 365 is the ability to easily share contacts throughout your organisation. Yes, you can do with with Exchange Public Folders. Yes, you can do with SharePoint contacts but here’s an even easier way, using Attached Apps.

The great things about the Attached Apps shared contacts setup, is that it is free! The idea is that you’ll get hooked on the Attached Apps platform and use some of their other great offerings.

I must admit I had a little trouble getting the Attached Apps stuff up and working initially so I contacted them and they helped me get it sorted. Now as I like doing, I put all the information together in a simple step by step process you can follow which I have detailed below.

Having seen what the Attached Apps stuff can do I decided that it is an excellent offering for customers and for resellers as well. So if you looking to get set up as an end user then contact me (director@ciaops.com) and I can help you.

Alternatively, if you are reseller then you can set up your own partner account. In that case All I ask is that when you visit this link:

https://attachedportal.attachedapps.com/Provision/ProvisionPartner

To sign up you select me when you get to Question 3 above. I’d really appreciate it and lets the Attached Apps folks know where the business is coming from.

I’ll be posting more about my journey with Attached Apps so stay tuned, but here’s how to get the ball rolling.

Navigate to the Attached Apps web site at:

http://www.attachedapps.com

Scroll down the home page and locate the Get the App Now button and select it.

Complete all the details in the sign up form.

Note that you will need to supply an Office 365 Global Administrator login and password to allow Attached Apps to me installed in the tenant.

Also be aware that you can only use a contact email address once, so if you have signed up previously for Attached Apps you will need to use a different email address in your contact details.

At the bottom of the form select he Register button.

You will now need to wait a few moments while the software verifies access to your Office 365 tenant and then configures itself.

When this installation is complete you see a Thank You message displayed on the screen. At this point you need to check the contact email address you suppliers during sign up. When you do you should find the following email:

Congratulations! We have successfully provisioned your firm for attachedapps. As an Administrator for the apps, you should have received a batch of credential emails, one for each user on the Exchange account used for provisioning. You can forward those credentials to the users you wish to have access to the apps.

Please download the Getting Started Guide from our website. It will expedite productive use of the apps and provide tips on customization for your specific business. You will also find instructions for enabling the paid applications.

Please email us at support@attachedapps.com if you have any questions at all.

Thank you,

attachedapps Support Team

www.attachedapps.com

The next step in process is to configure your Office 365 tenant so that the Attach Apps configuration and abilities are automatically pushed out to all your users Outlook desktop client.

Visit the following URL:

https://liquidpractice.zendesk.com/attachments/token/pDmk7yIg9EzN4SeREhfWmbgL5/?name=attachedOutlookMail-PROD.xml

which will download a file called attachedOutlookMail-Prod.xml. Save this file to your local machine.

Login to your Office 365 tenant as a Global Administrator. Select the nine boxes in the top left of the windows to display the My apps menu as shown above.

From the options that appear select Admin.

In the lower left of the window, under the Admin section, select Exchange.

In the Exchange admin center select organization from the options on the left. Then select apps from the options across the top.

You should then see a list of apps that are provided to everyone who uses Exchange, one of these typically is Bing Maps.

From the menu just above the select of app select the down arrow just to the right of the + (plus) symbol. This should reveal a menu as shown above.

From the menu select Add from file.

Use the Browse button to navigate to the location on your local machine where you downloaded the file attachedOutlookMail-PROD.xml previously.

With that file selected press the Next button to continue.

When the upload process is complete you should now see a new item called attachedcontacts listed as shown above.

Select this item by clicking on it.

Then select pencil icon from the menu just above the list to edit this entry.

From the window that appears select Mandatory, always enabled. Users can’t disable this app and then the save button to complete.

You should now see that attachedcontacts is set to Mandatory and Everyone as shown above.

Return to the Attached Apps web site at:

http://www.attachedapps.com

and select Log in in the top right of the window.

Each of your configured Exchange Online mailboxes would have received an automated email like below from Attached Apps:

Your company has just signed up to use attachedContacts, the powerful yet easy-to-use contact management system that lets you share company contacts across your organization while keeping all your personal contacts private. Plus, it’s designed to work closely with Outlook, so you don’t have to change the way you like to work.

It’s easy to get started, just click here to log in using your organization email address and the password provided below:

Email Address: users@Office365domain.com

Password:

When you enter the app for the first time, you will be prompted step-by-step to import the contacts you want to share. You’ll then have access to these great benefits:

Edit company contacts once – the updated contact info will be reflected everywhere!
Slim down your bloated Outlook and mobile address book
Keep your personal contacts segregated from your organization contacts
Contacts automatically sync to Outlook, Outlook Web App and to your mobile device
Organize unlimited Contact groups and categories
And more!

We use attachedContacts in our own company and are constantly improving it. Our mission is to eliminate the technical obstacles to your greatness! So join us, let us know how we are doing and what else we can do to improve your work life.

Sincerely,

The attachedapps Team

info@attachedapps.com

Want to know more? See these FAQs on our support site.

These are the logins that are used for each to access the Attached Apps portal via the Log in link just selected to provide access to all the Attached Apps functionality.

Login now with the information provided to an Office 365 administrator. Remember, the Attached Apps login is different from the standard Office 365 portal login.

Once successfully logged in you should see the Attached Apps dashboard or something similar.

If you select the first icon after the Attached Apps icon in the upper left of the window, this will take you to the Contacts page.

In most cases the only contacts that will be displayed are any existing Exchange Online users as well as the email address you used to sign up initially.

To import contacts from the current users Outlook select Outlook Import from the menu across the top.

Ensure that Outlook is running on the desktop. In most cases you want to select the Import All button to copy all the individual users contacts to Attached Apps so they can be shared. You can also select the Fetch Contacts if you wish to only upload selected Outlook contacts.

In this example, the current users only has one Contact as shown above. This contact is unique to that user currently but will soon be uploaded for all to share.

After pressing the import button you will see a confirmation message appear at the bottom of the windows. Select Yes to proceed.

You will then receive a confirmation message at the bottom of the screen confirming the import process has commenced. This process will continue in the background so you can close the alert and continue.

The import of the contacts will take a few moments to complete and the time taken is dependent on how many contacts are to be imported.

Once the process is complete you should see that the uploaded contacts have been designated as Attached Apps contacts (i.e. shared) by a small graphic and line underneath the contacts image as shown above.

If you now look at Outlook for a different user you won’t see that the uploaded contacts have been sync’ed down. To do this you will need to log into the Attached Apps portal and force the update.

Once you have logged into the Attached Apps portal select the Contacts icon again (in the top left) to view all the contacts. Just under the heading you will notice a check mark as indicated above.

Once you select the check mark you will see the menu change and display the options to either Mass Delete or Mass Change.

Now make the required changes to all the records desired. In this case make sure that all the contacts have the Sync option selected.

Once you have made any changes, select the Mass Change option from the menu bar.

At this screen ensure that the option Sync to Outlook is selected and checked as shown. Then select the Apply Changes button.

You will receive at confirmation message at the bottom of the screen. Select Yes to continue.

You can also force a sync of individual contacts if you wish. To do this, navigate to that contact and select the Staff Sync tab as shown above.

If you now return to second users Outlook, after a few moments the shared contacts should now appear and be designated as Attach Apps as noted previously.

Remember, if you do sign up don’t forget to mention me and look out for more posts on Attached Apps coming soon.

Office 365 Compliance Center now available

If you login to the Office 365 portal as an administrator and have a look under the Admin option on the left hand side you should now see a new item – Compliance

This will now be the central location to quickly and easily access anything to do with compliance in your organisation. Such as:

– Archiving

– eDiscovery

– Retention

– Permissions

These options will continue to increase over time so check back regularly to see what’s been added.

Apps to view Office 365 encrypted messages

Recently I wrote a post about how you can configure then send and receive encrypted messages using Office 365. Microsoft has recently announced the release of dedicated mobile apps for Android and iOS that allow you to read these messages on your mobile device.

You can find the download at:

Android

iOS

This means you can read and reply to Office 365 encrypted messages. This should make the adoption of secure messaging much easier as well as highlight that Microsoft is serious about the privacy and security of your information.

Office 365 Clutter now rolling out

Microsoft keeps the new features of Office 365 rolling with the release of Clutter:

http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/11/de-clutter-inbox-office-365/

To enable Clutter you’ll need to have enabled the office 365 first release program which I details previously at:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2014/09/enabling-office-365-first-release.html

Once the first release feature is enabled you’ll need to wait for Clutter to appear. To check, go to your Outlook Web Access page in the Office 365 portal (i.e. click the Outlook at the top of the page, along the menu bar, when you login to the portal).

Then select the Cog in the top right corner. From the menu that appears select Options.

From the menu on the left expand the Automatic processing and then select Clutter from the list. Note the Clutter option won’t appear for you until it has been rolled out to your tenant. On the right select the option to Separate items identified as Clutter and then select Save. Now you are good to go with a leaner inbox, which will hopefully get leaner over time as the Clutter algorithm learns more about what is important to you.

Once you enable Clutter you’ll see an additional folder created under you inbox called Clutter. It is into here that message deemed non-essential will automatically be routed,

In essence it seems that Clutter is basically automatic mail rules. It uses machine learning to determine what is ‘important’ and re-routes what isn’t to a sub-folder.

Having used email rules for year to have a more productive email system this doesn’t appear to be a major improvement for the way I work. However, I do know it will be HUGE for almost everyone else because I rarely see others effectively use mail rules for the inbox. They simply allow email to accumulate in their inbox where they never read them. So, the whole process taking place automatically is going to really benefit the majority of users who are currently swamped with emails.

Remember, each user will have to enable Clutter for themselves, inside their own portal login using the process outlined above.

There you have it. Another features added to Office 365 to help your productivity. What do you think? is this helpful? What could be improved? Will you use it? I’d love to hear. I’m interested to see how it interacts with any existing inbox rules, which I assume will be applied PRIOR to Clutter taking over??

Office 365 Shared Mailboxes get boosted to 50GB

As you can see from the above graphic and the following page:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/exchange-online-limits.aspx

This increase applied to suites, while the standalone Exchange Online plans shared mailboxes remain at 10GB max (but here’s a little secret, you can actually store more than 10GB in there, it just can’t send or receive emails when it gets above the 10GB limit, but you can happily store more than 10GB of email in there if you really wanted to. This has always made it a great archiving solution, given that it is free and all).

Office 365 Exchange Online shared mailboxes (which are free and unlimited) have been boosted to a maximum size of 50GB like any normal mailbox. Shared mailboxes cannot be logged into directly, they can only be access from users with a license for Exchange Online.

So if you need to archive an old user’s mailbox, just convert it to a free Shared Mailbox (using PowerShell of course). Gotta love Office 365 don’t ya?

Office 365 Message encryption

If you weren’t aware, Office 365 supports sending encrypted messages to anyone. Basically, they get an email telling them to login to a web portal to view the message. Here’s how to make all that work.

You’ll firstly need to enable Rights Management for your tenant. To do that login to the Office 365 portal as an administrator.

On the left hand side select Service Settings.

This will expand a menu as shown above. From this menu select Rights Management.

On the right now select the Manage hyperlink.

Select the Activate button to enable Right Management.

Confirm that you wish to enable by selecting the Activate button.

After a few moments the screen should update.

You are now going to need to run some PowerShell commands. if you haven’t done this check out this previous blog post to get your environment setup:

Configuring PowerShell Access in Office 365

Once you have connected using PowerShell you’ll need to run the following commands depending on your location:

USA: Set-IRMConfiguration -RMSOnlineKeySharingLocation https://sp-rms.na.aadrm.com/TenantManagement/ServicePartner.svc

Europe: Set-IRMConfiguration -RMSOnlineKeySharingLocation https://sp-rms.eu.aadrm.com/TenantManagement/ServicePartner.svc

Asia-Pacific: Set-IRMConfiguration -RMSOnlineKeySharingLocation https://sp-rms.ap.aadrm.com/TenantManagement/ServicePartner.svc

In my case I used the Asia Pacific URL as shown above.

You then need to run the command:

Import-RMSTrustedPublishingDomain -RMSOnline -name “RMS Online”

which produces the above result.

Then this command:

Set-IRMConfiguration -InternalLicensingEnabled $True

Finally run the command:

Test-IRMConfiguration -RMSOnline

and ensure the result come back OVERALL RESULT: PASS

With that done you can now return to the Office 365 management portal as an administrator to set up a message encryption transport rule.

In the top right of the Office 365 portal select Admin and then Exchange from the menu that appears.

From the menu on the left select mail flow.

Select the Plus icon on the right and the option Create a new rule from the menu that appears.

Now there are lots of different options when creating an Office 365 Transport Rule but I am not going to cover these. This post is aimed at showing you the basics of enabling Exchange Online Message Encryption. If you want more information about Office 365 Transport Rules in general see:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj919238(v=exchg.150).aspx

In this case I am going to set a rule to encrypt messages sent to one person in the organisation (Anne Wallace).

To see the encryption options ensure you select the More options hyperlink at the bottom of this window as shown above.

For the Do the following condition select Modify the message security and then Apply Office 365 Message Encryption as shown above.

Once saved the new rule should appear in the list as shown above.

Now if Anne Wallace is sent an email by another Office 365 she will see:

Indicating that this is an encrypted message.

To view the message Anne must save the attached HTML file to her local machine and open it.

When she so and opens it she will see the above message.

If she then selects the Sign in and view encrypted message hyperlink she will be see the encrypted message.

Exchange Online Encrypted messages work with people inside and outside Office 365. If you want more information check out the following:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn569286.aspx

Once you have done the initial Rights Management setup you then have a lot of flexibility using Exchange Online Transport Rules to determine how messages are handled. You could set up a rule that if the word ENCRYPT is in the message subject it will always be encrypted.

Very flexible and most importantly, very secure.

Emailing OneDrive for Business files

Office 365 now supports the ability to attach files directly from your OneDrive for Business via Outlook Web Access.

To do this simply navigate to your Office 365 web portal and select Outlook from the top navigation bar.

Compose a new email and select the Insert button at the top of the window. That will reveal the above menu. Select Attachments or OneDrive for files.

You’ll then be taken to a screen like the above where you can select from a number of different sources. Under the OneDrive option for example select My Files. You should then see all the files you have in OneDrive for Business displayed. Select the file you wish to attach and then the Next option in the top left (above the OneDrive icon).

You are then prompted as to whether you wish to send this file as an attachment (i.e. the whole file is added to the email) or you just want to send a link to the file. In essence this ‘shares’ that file from your OneDrive for Business rather than sending the whole file. That allows you to potentially revoke that sharing at any stage in the future.

If you elect to attach the file you will see the attachment displayed as above with the actual file size displayed.

If instead you elected to Share with OneDrive you will see the attachment but also the text Recipients can edit.

When the recipient receives the file, if it was sent as an attachment they can view it as they normally could.

However, if you elected to Share with OneDrive they will be taken to a link to view the file. If the shared file is an Office document they will see that document in Office Online as shown above.

This feature is something that has been missing from Office 365 for a while now and makes more sense as more people move all their information to the cloud. What would be nice now is some similar integration with Outlook on the desktop. Having the ability to attach or share from Outlook on a standard PC desktop would really accelerate cloud adoption in my option.

This feature is currently rolling out to all tenants. If you don’t have it yet you will soon.