Simplified Office 365 admin experience arrives for SharePoint Online admin center

Microsoft has simplified the SharePoint Online admin center, as part of the company’s journey to simplify the Office 365 admin experience. You can now choose between a simple or advanced admin experience, control top navigation items, and block workflows from being used from your environment.

“Narrow in on what is important – the task at hand. And when that changes, refocus. The journey to simplify the Office 365 admin experience continues, this time with a focus on simplifying the SharePoint Online admin center. For those admins who don’t specialize in deep SharePoint management, our goal is to allow you to manage the service more easily while maintaining access to the most common controls,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.

The simple admin center experience displays only the essential options used in the most common scenarios. This includes site collection management, user profile management, and the main settings for external sharing, Information Rights Management, and more. The advanced admin center, on the other hand, offers access to all SharePoint Online management capabilities. This includes Business Connectivity Services (BCS), the Term Store, the Secure Store, and more, in addition to site collections, user profiles, and settings.

Admins can now show or hide the OneDrive for Business, Yammer/Newsfeed, and/or Sites in a users’ top global navigation bar. This allows for a streamlined view that matches your corporate policy. On top of that, admins can block specific workflows too.

“If you manage workflows into SharePoint Online from SharePoint Designer 2013, and you select Block 2013 workflows, your users will not be able to create a new workflow,” Microsoft adds.

Admins can also opt into the latest Office 365 releases, by heading over to the Office 365 admin center, Service Settings > Updates, and turning on First Release.