Microsoft Mechanics shows what’s new in Office 365 Groups

Today Microsoft’s Office Blog released a video showcasing updates to Office 365 Groups. Office 365 Groups is a way for organizations to share work spaces, collaborate on projects and share information. Available to businesses and education departments, this feature of Office 365 allows the creation of groups for the use of shared calendars, sharing notes, emails using planning tools for different tasks.

In today’s video, the Microsoft Mechanics, a YouTube channel focusing on Microsoft technology and news, covers the newest updates to Office 365 Groups.

A couple of highlights from this video are worth discussing.

First, the ability to create groups to easily identify teams in an organization and keep information shared, organized in its proper place was highlighted.

Another great feature that has been introduced is data involving the completion and progress of projects. Called Planner, this feature allows users to assign tasks to different team members and get updated results on the percentage of their completion and the overall project.

Taking collaboration further is the integration of video calls through Skype and the use of note taking with OneNote. Utilizing Skype gives users the power to quickly begin a conference call with all parties in a team. While in a conference call, OneNote is integrated to allow the taking of notes on meeting information, attendance, and things like specific dates for projects.

To aid in usability, Microsoft has also taken the time to update the Discover Page and header of Office 365 Groups. The header for Office 365 Groups now lets users quickly access the core experience of Office 365 Groups with shared calendars, notebooks, files and conversations. The Discover page gives users the ability to find groups of their peers  within their organization that pertain to their interests, project, or other information that they may need.

On the Administrative side of things, Office 365 Groups was updated with these latest features:

• Dynamic Membership: Use Azure management to create groups rule-based memberships
• File Quota Management: Set quotas on groups, that underlines SharePoint to help shared storage of group files and consumption
• Send Email with Group name: Members have the ability to use Outlook on the web or the application, replying to emails with the group name from Office 3645 Groups
• Multi-Domain Support (coming soon): Soon to arrive will be the ability to specify the domain used for each group created

That rounds up the latest updates for Office 365 covered by the Microsoft Mechanics in today’s video. Microsoft is steadily working towards deeper integration with all their products and services, and to get ongoing glimpses at future of updates, users can look at that Office Fast Track page, highlighting upcoming updates and those currently released.

With this latest update, how do you see Office 365 Groups helping within the team work environment? Let us know in the comments.