Microsoft is activating Yammer for every Office 365 subscription. But is this one collaboration tool too many?

On February 2, 2016, Kirk Koenigsbauer announced in the official Microsoft Office 365 blog that Yammer is now being activated for every eligible Office 365 subscription. In a nutshell, that means Yammer is going to be another app on the Office 365 app list unless an admin specifically turns off access. Your enterprise should plan accordingly.

Yammer

For those of you unfamiliar with the product, Yammer bills itself as an enterprise internal social network. It mixes the typical chat messenger application with collaboration tools available in Office 365.

Similar to the Delve tool we looked at last week, Yammer can serve as the central hub for team collaboration. From within a Yammer discussion, teams can set up meeting appointments using Outlook, switch to a full-fledged Skype for Business video meeting, and access OneDrive for Business to create collaborative documents.

The initial rollout of Yammer took place on February 2, 2016; the rest of the rollout will take place in stages. The next release is March 1, 2016, and the last is April 1, 2016. According to the blog post, the first wave is for “Office 365 customers with a business subscription who purchased fewer than 150 licenses that includes Yammer and who have zero or one custom domains for Yammer.”

The second wave is for “Office 365 customers with a business subscription who purchased fewer than 5,000 licenses that includes Yammer.” Customers with an education subscription are not included.

The final wave is for “remaining customers with a business subscription and all customers with an education subscription.” For subscribers who have never had a Yammer account, the rollout will take place last, in April. Alas, that is the wave I’ll have to wait for.

Collaboration

Yammer is the latest, and perhaps the last, major teamwork collaboration app to be added to Office 365. In Microsoft’s vision of a mobile-first, cloud-first enterprise, teams collaborate across distances using shared documents, video conferencing, and applications that tie it all together in one virtual location.

With the addition of Yammer, Microsoft is offering several tools teams can use to manage and organize their collaboration activities. Teams can use Yammer, Delve, Groups, Sites, SharePoint, and OneNote to manage their shared conversations and documents across the enterprise. One of those tools should be able to satisfy even the most persnickety of teams.

Bottom line

But then again, that may be where we run into problems. One could argue that there are too many collaboration tools available in Microsoft Office 365. While all these wonderful choices may seem good at first glance, it is possible that subscribers may become overwhelmed.

Microsoft’s idea that teams can choose the best tool for them or for the project they are working on sounds all well and good, but it does still require someone to make an important initial decision. For some people, making a decision that will affect a project from start to finish can be a daunting task.

In the long run, it may be beneficial for organizations to establish guidelines for when each of the collaboration tools works best. They may even decide to block some of the tools from use altogether in favor of a recommended best practice.

Having myriad collaboration tools is generally a good thing, but it might help move things along if the enterprise establishes some well thought out guidelines.

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Next year will mark the first full year of release for Microsoft’s new OS. A look at what’s in store for Windows 10 next year.

 

Windows 10 was described as the “last version of Windows” – an OS that would evolve over time rather than be superceded.

In the few months since Windows 10’s launch Microsoft says it has been installed on more than 110 million devices. But just what lies in store for the OS in 2016, how will it get better and what new devices will it find its way onto?

1. Windows 10 will begin automatically installing on your old machine

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users and Microsoft is getting increasingly aggressive about moving these users to the new OS.

From next year Windows 10 will automatically begin installing on most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines.

Users will still need to confirm the installation manually for it to continue. However, if they choose not to proceed it’s unclear if they can cancel it altogether, with Jeremy Korst, general manager of the Windows and Devices team at Microsoft, saying only that “the customer will have the ability to delay it for some period”.

If users do upgrade but don’t like Windows 10 they will have 31 days to roll back to their previous OS.

The automatic installation, the result of Microsoft changing the status of the Windows 10 upgrade to a Recommended update, will be preceded by increasingly insistent nag messages to upgrade. These notices are already being shown to some Windows users and have been criticised for not offering an easy opt-out.

2. Microsoft Edge will get extensions

Windows 10 launched with Microsoft Edge, a new browser that cast off a lot of the legacy code holding Internet Explorer back.

However, while speedy and capable on paper, the browser suffers from its share of bugs and is missing support for extensions, a key feature found in competitors such as Chrome and Firefox.

Microsoft will rectify this omission “early next year” when Korst said it will add extensions to Edge in test builds of Windows 10, ahead of being made generally available.

Extensions are small software programs, typically written using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, that augment the functionality of a browser.

Earlier this month, Microsoft accidentally published a website announcing the introduction of extensions to test builds of Windows 10. The site, which was taken down, referenced extensions for Pinterest and Reddit.

Microsoft originally planned to add support for extensions to Edge this year.

3. Windows 10 will blur the virtual and real world

Microsoft’s Windows 10-powered augmented reality headset HoloLens will ship to developers in the first quarter of 2016.

The augmented reality headset places 3D virtual images in the wearer’s vision so that they appear part of the real world – for instance, a Minecraft landscape sits on a coffee table or a Skype video sits on the wall.

After trying a demo of the headset this week, TechRepublic senior writer Dan Patterson said that though the headset had a limited “field of vision”, “the 3D animations are smooth, easy to interactive with, and result in only marginal eyestrain”.

The HoloLens doesn’t come cheap, with the developer kit priced at $3,000 – although Microsoft says this early release is meant for developers and commercial customers.

Although HoloLens has obvious consumer and gaming uses, Microsoft is stressing its use for business and is working with NASA, AutoDesk, Volvo, Dassault Aviation, Case Western Reserve University, and other large organisations to develop applications for it.

4. More security for enterprise

The coming year will also see some notable new features added to the enterprise version of Windows 10.

Key among these additions is Enterprise Data Protection, which will allow companies to separate work and personal data on devices using containerisation file techniques. It will also encrypt data as it moves around the organisation – helping to ensure that information isn’t accessed by the wrong people.

The feature will be rolled out to people testing Windows under the Insider Program “early next year”.

5. Testers will get a peek at even earlier builds

Those testing early releases of Windows 10 under the Windows Insider Program will be able to get earlier access to new features from January next year.

Those who choose to be in the “fast” ring of the Insider Program will receive builds of Windows 10 more frequently in 2016, according to Microsoft VP Gabe Aul.

The price of testers getting their hands on early builds more regularly will be that this software will likely include more bugs, he said. Those testers who prefer stability to early access should opt for the “slow” ring, he said.

6. Cortana will be everywhere

Microsoft is planning a major upgrade to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone, next year – with reports the upgrade will put Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana at the core of the OS.

An unnamed source told The Verge the new Cortana will help users with a much wider range of tasks inside Windows 10, appearing contextually in documents to provide “information and assistance” and giving Cortana control over a wider range of notifications.

The other major upgrade to Cortana will reportedly be an ability to start a task on one device and pick it up on another, for instance if you get a missed call on an Android phone running the Cortana app you could reply from your Windows 10 PC via text.

7. Microsoft doubles down on Windows 10 phones as desktops

A much touted feature of Windows 10 is its ability to run a desktop OS from a phone.

Microsoft’s new Lumia 950 and 950XL handsets can – wirelessly or via a dock – be hooked up to a monitor, mouse and keyboard and used to run a Windows desktop.

The Windows 10 OS can change the look and feel of certain apps, as well as its own appearance, to suit the phone or the desktop, as well as coping with everyday desktop tasks, such as multitasking and copying files from a USB stick.

The expectation is that Microsoft will further commit to this idea of using your phone as a desktop in 2016, with rumours that Panos Panay and the team behind the high-end Surface Book laptop are working on a Surface Phone that will release next year.

8. No more free upgrade

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to everyone running Windows 7 or 8.1 but only for a limited time.

The offer of a free upgrade will expire on 29 July 2016 – after which point it seems that users will have to buy a Windows 10 licence.

However, due to the in-your-face tactics that Microsoft is adopting to persuade people to upgrade, it seems unlikely that Windows 7 and 8.1 users will inadvertently miss out on the offer.

9. Windows 10 replaces its predecessors on new PCs

If you’re not a fan of Windows 10 then you should buy a new PC before October.

From the end of October 2016, PC makers will have to sell new machines with Windows 10, rather than Windows 7 or 8.1.

After that point businesses that want to run older Windows versions on new machines will have to rely on downgrade rights or software assurance rights under volume license agreements.

10. Windows 10 Surface Hub arrives

From January 2016 Windows 10 will power another new piece of hardware,Microsoft’s touchscreen computer the Surface Hub.

The successor to its large-screen Perceptive Pixel displays, the Surface Hub will run a custom version of Windows 10 and various apps needed for workplace communication and collaboration, including OneNote, Skype for Business and Office.

The 55-inch, Intel Core i5-based Surface Hub model will sell for $6,999 (estimated retail price), and the Intel Core i7-based 84-inch version for $19,999 ERP.

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Microsoft’s latest OS is proving more attractive to firms than Windows 8 – particularly among larger businesses.

 

Businesses are proving far more willing to experiment with Windows 10 than they were with Windows 8.

Six months after Windows 10’s launch nearly one in five firms, 18 percent, appear to be testing the OS, research by professional IT network Spiceworks found. In contrast, at the same point after Windows 8’s release, the OS was only being trialled by just over nine percent of businesses.

The anonymised data on what proportion of firms are using at least one Windows 10 machine was gathered from the millions of IT pros that use its software. Spiceworks says businesses of all sizes use the software to inventory devices connected to their networks.

This faster pace of enterprise adoption is backed up by figures from IT asset management company Samanage, told that 62.4 percent of its enterprise customers have at least one managed PC running Windows 10. These are sizeable businesses, with each of Samanage’s enterprise customers having an average of more than 1,000 seats. Microsoft also claims that 76 percent of its enterprise customers are piloting its new OS.

“Our data shows that IT pros were most excited about the return of the familiar start button experience in Windows 10, which reduces the need for end-user training required for Windows 8,” said Peter Tsai, IT analyst at Spiceworks in his assessment of why the new OS is proving more popular than Windows 8.

“Many IT pros also liked the free upgrade offer via Windows Update, which makes it easy for many to test the new OS. And lastly, they were looking forward to new security features that promise to make Windows 10 a more secure operating system than previous versions.”

Windows 10 is benefiting from a comparison to an unpopular OS, demand for Windows 8 was so weak that analyst firm Canalys warned in 2014 that “Microsoft risks losing momentum unless it does something drastic to turn its Windows business around”.

And while a significant proportion of businesses may be experimenting with Windows 10, it is likely to be some time before a large number move to the OS, as business typically lag behind consumers due to the complexity of managing such upgrades at scale. Of those firms testing Windows 10, about 40 percent have three or more devices running the OS, according to Spiceworks’ data.

Medium and large businesses were the most likely to have at least one Windows 10 machine Spiceworks found – with 31 percent of firms with more than 500 people trialling the OS, compared to 10 percent of companies with 50 employees or fewer.

 

“We also know from many conversations with IT pros that smaller companies tend to have fewer resources for OS migration, so many SMBs could be holding off on Windows 10 until they have the time and manpower to adequately test the OS for hardware and application compatibility,” said Tsai.

Last year, half of the 500 IT pros surveyed by Spiceworks expressed an interest in adopting Windows 10 inside their business.

Microsoft’s decision to phase out support for Windows 7 and 8 on new PC hardware will also put pressure on businesses not to downgrade new Windows 10 machines to an earlier OS, as has been common in the past in order to standardize corporate hardware.

Microsoft is also reporting rapid adoption of Windows 10 by home users, with more than 200 million devices worldwide running the OS.

The popularity of the OS may, in part, be a result of Microsoft’s tactics to get consumers to upgrade. This aggressive approach includes recently implementing changes that will trigger the free upgrade to Windows 10 to begin automatically installing on many Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs used in homes. Microsoft is making this push as part of its drive to get one billion devices running Windows 10 by 2018.

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In a change to its longstanding support policy, Microsoft says PCs based on new CPU architectures, including Intel’s Skylake chips, will require Windows 10. A list of preferred systems will support older Windows versions on new hardware, but only for 18 months.

Enterprise customers are still the bulwark of Microsoft’s Windows business, in both the client and server segments.

Historically, those customers have also been among the most conservative, lagging years behind the latest releases of an operating system release. Those practices have been encouraged by Microsoft’s support lifecycle, which offers a generous ten years of support for each Windows release.

Effective today, that policy is changing in a subtle but significant way, with the addition of new hardware requirements for support of pre-Windows 10 releases. The company’s also publishing a preferred list of systems that will receive special attention for updates and support.

Yes, Windows 7 (currently in the Extended support phase) will continue to receive updates until January 14, 2020, and Windows 8.1 will be supported until January 10, 2023. But in a series of “clarifications” to its support policy today, the company announced that support for those older Windows versions will be available only for “previous generations of silicon.”

Going forward, as new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support… Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel’s upcoming “Kaby Lake” silicon, Qualcomm’s upcoming “8996” silicon, and AMD’s upcoming “Bristol Ridge” silicon.

The policy will be phased in beginning with systems based on Intel’s new 6th-generation CPUs (code-named Skylake), which debuted a few months ago. New consumer-based Skylake devices must run Windows 10 to be supported.

For enterprise customers that want to buy “future proof” new hardware based on Skylake processors running older Windows versions, Microsoft will publish “a list of specific new Skylake devices we will support to run Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.” That support will run for a period 18 months, until July 17, 2017, after which those enterprise customers will be expected to upgrade to Windows 10.

Examples of systems that will be on the initial release of the list include Dell’s Latitude 12, Latitude 13 7000 Ultrabook, and XPS 13; HP’s EliteBook Folio, EliteBook 1040 G3; and Lenovo’s ThinkPad T460s, X1 Carbon, and P70 models.

The list will continue to be updated, Microsoft says.

Any machine that earns a place on the elite enterprise support list will get very special treatment indeed, with the idea being to reassure corporate customers that these models are especially likely to perform well on Windows 10 in the new era of continuous updates:

For the listed systems, along with our OEM partners, we will perform special testing to help future proof customers’ investments, ensure regular validation of Windows Updates with the intent of reducing potential regressions including security concerns, and ensure all drivers will be on Windows Update with published BIOS/UEFI upgrading tools, which will help unlock the security and power management benefits of Windows 10 once the systems are upgraded.

These models also get special treatment for enterprises that are still planning their Windows 10 migration, with an 18-month grace period where the older OS versions are fully supported.

Through July 17, 2017, Skylake devices on the supported list will also be supported with Windows 7 and 8.1. During the 18-month support period, these systems should be upgraded to Windows 10 to continue receiving support after the period ends. After July 2017, the most critical Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 security updates will be addressed for these configurations, and will be released if the update does not risk the reliability or compatibility of the Windows 7/8.1 platform on other devices.

Of course, enterprise customers who want to stick with earlier Windows versions beyond that mid-2017 deadline have lots and lots of options, based on current generations of Intel processors such as the Broadwell and Haswell lines. Those systems, which are based on what Microsoft calls “downlevel silicon,” will continue to be fully supported for pre-Windows 10 operating systems.

In today’s blog post, Microsoft says it’s seeing “unprecedented demand from our enterprise customers” in Windows 10. Enterprise customers are especially interested in new Windows 10 security features like Credential Guard, which uses hardware virtualization to safeguard credentials from attack.

Windows 8-era enhancements like Secure Boot, which protects systems from being compromised by rootkits and bootkits, also require new hardware.

Not surprisingly, today’s announcement contains the usual cheery statements from Microsoft’s three biggest hardware partners: Dell, HP, and Lenovo. All three companies compete aggressively in the low-margin consumer market, where virtually all new systems will run Windows 10. But enterprises will pay premium prices for the improvements in battery life and security in Skylake-based mobile systems, making this the most attractive segment to target.

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Microsoft is rolling out a host of new email security features for Office 365 later this quarter, as it looks to thwart hackers and criminals.

‘Insider spoofing’ or faking the CEO’s email address to trick the CFO into transferring millions to criminal bank accounts is big business. Now Microsoft is using big data and reputation filters to try and squish the threat.

According to the FBI, between October 2013 and August 2015, 7,066 US businesses have fallen prey to ‘business email compromise’, netting criminals an estimated $747m.

Non-US victims lost a further $51m over the period, with the FBI estimating a 270 percent increase in identified victims since January 2015, when it first released figures about the threat category.

As Microsoft notes, when a corporate email domain is spoofed, it makes it hard for existing filters to identify the bogus email as malicious.

However, Microsoft reckons it has achieved a 500 percent improvement in counterfeit detection using a blend of big data, strong authentication checks, and reputation filters in Exchange Online Protection for Office 365.

It’s also rolling out new phishing and trust notifications to indicate whether an email is from a known sender or if a message is from an untrusted source, and therefore could be a phishing email.

The company is also promising a faster email experience as it vets attachments for malware and new tools to auto-correct messages that are mis-classified as spam. The aim is to boost defences without impairing end-user productivity.

Malicious email attachments remain a popular way for attackers to gain a foothold in an organization and, as RSA’s disastrous SecurID breach in 2011 showed, a little social engineering can go a long way to ensuring someone opens it.

Microsoft’s new attachment scanner, called Dynamic Delivery of Safe Attachments, looks to reduce delays as it checks attachments for potential threats.

Currently it captures suspicious looking attachments in a sandbox with a ‘detonation chamber’ where it analyses it for malware in a process takes five to seven minutes.

Microsoft hasn’t figured out a faster way to analyse the attachment, but instead of holding up the email as it conducts the scan, it will send the body of the email with a placeholder attachment. If the attachment is deemed safe, it will replace the placeholder and if not, the admin can filter out the attachment.

The feature is part of Microsoft’s Office 365 Exchange Online Protection and Advanced Threat Protection services.

The company is also tackling false-positive spam, or legitimate messages that are mis-identified as spam, and vice versa, with a new feature called Zero-hour Auto Purge, which allows admins to “change that verdict”.

“If a message is delivered to your inbox and later found to be spam, Zero-hour Auto Purge moves that message from the inbox to the spam folder; the reverse is true for messages misclassified as spam,” Microsoft notes.

Microsoft is testing this approach with 50 customers and says it will be rolled out for all Exchange Online Protection global clients in the first quarter of 2016.

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This year will mark the first full year of release for Microsoft’s new OS. A look at what’s in store for Windows 10 this year.

Windows 10 was described as the “last version of Windows” – an OS that would evolve over time rather than be superceded.

In the few months since Windows 10’s launch Microsoft says it has been installed on more than 110 million devices. But just what lies in store for the OS in 2016, how will it get better and what new devices will it find its way onto?

1. Windows 10 will begin automatically installing on your old machine

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users and Microsoft is getting increasingly aggressive about moving these users to the new OS.

From this year Windows 10 will automatically begin installing on most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines.

Users will still need to confirm the installation manually for it to continue. However, if they choose not to proceed it’s unclear if they can cancel it altogether, with Jeremy Korst, general manager of the Windows and Devices team at Microsoft, saying only that “the customer will have the ability to delay it for some period”.

If users do upgrade but don’t like Windows 10 they will have 31 days to roll back to their previous OS.

The automatic installation, the result of Microsoft changing the status of the Windows 10 upgrade to a Recommended update, will be preceded by increasingly insistent nag messages to upgrade. These notices are already being shown to some Windows users and have been criticised for not offering an easy opt-out.

2. Microsoft Edge will get extensions

Windows 10 launched with Microsoft Edge, a new browser that cast off a lot of the legacy code holding Internet Explorer back.

However, while speedy and capable on paper, the browser suffers from its share of bugs and is missing support for extensions, a key feature found in competitors such as Chrome and Firefox.

Microsoft will rectify this omission “early next year” when Korst said it will add extensions to Edge in test builds of Windows 10, ahead of being made generally available.

Extensions are small software programs, typically written using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, that augment the functionality of a browser.

Earlier this month, Microsoft accidentally published a website announcing the introduction of extensions to test builds of Windows 10. The site, which was taken down, referenced extensions for Pinterest and Reddit.

Microsoft originally planned to add support for extensions to Edge this year.

3. Windows 10 will blur the virtual and real world

Microsoft’s Windows 10-powered augmented reality headset HoloLens will ship to developers in the first quarter of 2016.

The augmented reality headset places 3D virtual images in the wearer’s vision so that they appear part of the real world – for instance, a Minecraft landscape sits on a coffee table or a Skype video sits on the wall.

After trying a demo of the headset this week, TechRepublic senior writer Dan Patterson said that though the headset had a limited “field of vision”, “the 3D animations are smooth, easy to interactive with, and result in only marginal eyestrain”.

The HoloLens doesn’t come cheap, with the developer kit priced at $3,000 – although Microsoft says this early release is meant for developers and commercial customers.

Although HoloLens has obvious consumer and gaming uses, Microsoft is stressing its use for business and is working with NASA, AutoDesk, Volvo, Dassault Aviation, Case Western Reserve University, and other large organisations to develop applications for it.

4. More security for enterprise

The coming year will also see some notable new features added to the enterprise version of Windows 10.

Key among these additions is Enterprise Data Protection, which will allow companies to separate work and personal data on devices using containerisation file techniques. It will also encrypt data as it moves around the organisation – helping to ensure that information isn’t accessed by the wrong people.

The feature will be rolled out to people testing Windows under the Insider Program “early this year”.

5. Testers will get a peek at even earlier builds

Those testing early releases of Windows 10 under the Windows Insider Program will be able to get earlier access to new features from January this year.

Those who choose to be in the “fast” ring of the Insider Program will receive builds of Windows 10 more frequently in 2016, according to Microsoft VP Gabe Aul.

The price of testers getting their hands on early builds more regularly will be that this software will likely include more bugs, he said. Those testers who prefer stability to early access should opt for the “slow” ring, he said.

6. Cortana will be everywhere

Microsoft is planning a major upgrade to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone, next year – with reports the upgrade will put Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana at the core of the OS.

An unnamed source told The Verge the new Cortana will help users with a much wider range of tasks inside Windows 10, appearing contextually in documents to provide “information and assistance” and giving Cortana control over a wider range of notifications.

The other major upgrade to Cortana will reportedly be an ability to start a task on one device and pick it up on another, for instance if you get a missed call on an Android phone running the Cortana app you could reply from your Windows 10 PC via text.

7. Microsoft doubles down on Windows 10 phones as desktops

A much touted feature of Windows 10 is its ability to run a desktop OS from a phone.

Microsoft’s new Lumia 950 and 950XL handsets can – wirelessly or via a dock – be hooked up to a monitor, mouse and keyboard and used to run a Windows desktop.

The Windows 10 OS can change the look and feel of certain apps, as well as its own appearance, to suit the phone or the desktop, as well as coping with everyday desktop tasks, such as multitasking and copying files from a USB stick.

The expectation is that Microsoft will further commit to this idea of using your phone as a desktop in 2016, with rumours that Panos Panay and the team behind the high-end Surface Book laptop are working on a Surface Phone that will release next year.

8. No more free upgrade

Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to everyone running Windows 7 or 8.1 but only for a limited time.

The offer of a free upgrade will expire on 29 July 2016 – after which point it seems that users will have to buy a Windows 10 licence.

However, due to the in-your-face tactics that Microsoft is adopting to persuade people to upgrade, it seems unlikely that Windows 7 and 8.1 users will inadvertently miss out on the offer.

9. Windows 10 replaces its predecessors on new PCs

If you’re not a fan of Windows 10 then you should buy a new PC before October.

From the end of October 2016, PC makers will have to sell new machines with Windows 10, rather than Windows 7 or 8.1.

After that point businesses that want to run older Windows versions on new machines will have to rely on downgrade rights or software assurance rights under volume license agreements.

10. Windows 10 Surface Hub arrives

From January 2016 Windows 10 will power another new piece of hardware,Microsoft’s touchscreen computer the Surface Hub.

The successor to its large-screen Perceptive Pixel displays, the Surface Hub will run a custom version of Windows 10 and various apps needed for workplace communication and collaboration, including OneNote, Skype for Business and Office.

The 55-inch, Intel Core i5-based Surface Hub model will sell for $6,999 (estimated retail price), and the Intel Core i7-based 84-inch version for $19,999 ERP.

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Microsoft begins selling its new highest-end Office 365 business plan, E5, on December 1 for $420 per user per year. Here’s what’s included.

Microsoft will charge users $35 per user per month, or $420 per year, for its new highest-end Office 365 business plan.

Microsoft officials went public with the pricing for Office 365 E5, its top-of-the-line commercial Office 365 offering, on November 30 during the company’s Convergence EMEA conference. Office 365 E5 is available to customers for purchase starting, December 1.

Office 365 E4 — the current high-end version of Microsoft’s Office 365 line — sells for $22 per user per month, or $264 per user, per year.

The Office 365 E5 SKU will include Skype for Business (Lync) with support for features including Cloud PBX and Meeting Broadcast; new analytics features, like Power BI Pro and Delve Organizational Analytics; and new advanced security features, such as eDiscovery, Customer Lockbox, and Safe Attachments.

Office 365 E4 includes Skype for Business with Enterprise Voice and unified messaging; the full suite of locally downloadable Office apps; and Power BI for Office 365 (which is being superseded by Power BI pro).

Microsoft is planning to retire E4 and replace it with E5. However, Office 365 E4 will remain on the price list till June 30, 2016, Microsoft officials have said.

The E1 and E3 versions of Office 365 will retain their current prices of $8 per user per month, and $20 per user per month, respectively.

Office 365 E1 users will get new work-management capabilities, as well as Skype for Business’s Meeting Broadcast functionality added to their plans for no additional charge. Office 365 E3 users will get those same two new features, as well as the option to purchase Equivio Analytics for eDiscovery. (Microsoft bought Equivio in January 2015.)

Skype Meeting Broadcast enables users to broadcast of a Skype for Business meeting on the Internet to up to 10,000 people, who can attend in a browser.

Office 365 E5 users get all the features that E1 and E3 users get, plus other analytics and networking functionality, including Cloud PBX and PSTN Conferencing.

The Skype for Business Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling service provides users with the ability to make and receive traditional phone calls in their Skype for Business client, and to manage these calls using hold, resume, forward and transfer.

PSTN Conferencing is initially available to 15 countries on December 1, with a phased roll out to international markets in the future. Cloud PBX is available worldwide starting December 1. PSTN Calling is available in the U.S. starting December 1, with a phased roll out to international markets in the future.

The fine print: PSTN Conferencing users may incur additional per-minute consumption charges, but customer can disable this feature to avoid additional billing. PSTN Calling is paid add-on for E1, E3 and E5. For E5 users, PSTN Calling costs $24 extra (per user, per month) for international and domestic calling, and $12 for domestic calling only. For E1 and E3, the international and domestic calling plan is $32 extra.

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To achieve its goal of getting one billion people onto Windows 10, Microsoft is getting more forceful in how it pushes Windows 7 and 8.1 users towards its new OS.

Microsoft wants Windows 10 on one billion devices by 2018 – and its tactics for hitting that ambitious goal are about to get more aggressive.

From next year, Microsoft will be more direct in pushing Windows 7 and 8.1 users to upgrade to its latest OS, in an attempt to bolster the 110 million-strong Windows 10 userbase.

Here’s how Microsoft is about to crank up the pressure to make the switch.

1. Windows 10 will automatically begin installing itself

From “early next year”, Microsoft will change the status of the free Windows 10 upgrade so it is classified as a Recommended Update.

Given that most home machines are set up to install Recommended Updates automatically, the change to Windows 10’s update status will lead to most Windows 7 and 8.1 machines beginning the upgrade.

However, Microsoft says that before Windows 10 is installed users will need to manually confirm the installation, giving them a chance to pull out.

Business users should be able to prevent the upgrade from automatically starting using tools such as Windows Server Update Services.

For those on metered connections, Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive VP of the Windows and Devices Group, said people “have the option of turning off automatic updates” before going on to say that such a move is unwise because of “the constant risk of internet threats”.

Those who don’t like the new OS will have 31 days to roll back to their previous version of Windows. To go back, select “Start Button->Settings->Update and Security->Recovery and Uninstall Windows 10”.

2. Upgrade notifications will be made more obvious

Despite Microsoft sticking a ‘Get Windows 10’ icon on the taskbar of most Windows 7 desktops, many customers apparently still can’t figure out how to initiate the upgrade.

Myerson says since launching Windows 10 the number one complaint has been ‘How do I get my upgrade?’.

To address the difficulty some users are having, Myerson said Microsoft will change “our notifications to be more approachable and hopefully clear, and sometimes fun”.

3. Upgrades will happen immediately

The process of initiating the upgrade to Windows 10 has also been streamlined.

In the weeks after Windows 10’s launch earlier this year, Microsoft required users to first reserve a Windows 10 upgrade, which would then be installed at a later date.

Microsoft has now replaced that two-step process with an immediate upgrade. Users clicking on the ‘Get Windows 10’ icon will now be given the option to ‘Upgrade Now’ to begin the upgrade process straightaway.

4. Simpler upgrade from unsanctioned copies of Windows

Myerson admits surprise at how many people running copies of Windows 7 and 8.1 that have not been authenticated then go on to buy Genuine copies of Windows 10.

Based on this experience, Microsoft plans to make it a “one-click” process for people running unsanctioned copies of the OS to “get Genuine” via the Windows Store or by entering an activation code bought elsewhere. The offer will be trialled in the US and, if successful, may be extended to other countries.

5. Upgrading multiple machines to Windows 10 will be easier

Those looking to upgrade several Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 machines to Windows 10 will soon find the process gets more straightforward.

Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool is used to create an image that can be run off a DVD or USB stick to upgrade qualifying machines to Windows 10.

According to Myerson, you will soon be able to use the tool to create a single image that will allow any number of 32-bit or 64-bit, Home or Pro machines to be upgraded and which will also allow for clean installs “wherever you have a Windows license”.

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The Microsoft Surface Book is the computer you always wanted to have but couldn’t. So now that it is here, will you buy it?

The latest line of Microsoft Surface personal computers is now available from both the virtual and the bricks-and-mortar Microsoft Store. By most accounts, the Surface Pro 4 and the flagship Surface Book offer impressive performance without sacrificing style or that illusive awe factor typically missing from PCs in general.

With the Surface Book in particular, Microsoft is attempting to change the narrative of the personal computer—to change perceptions in the marketplace. The Surface Book is an aspirational computer and it is intended to inspire desire in the overall PC and computing device market.

Strategic reasons

There are some solid strategic reasons why Microsoft has brought the Surface Book to market.

Giving OEMs a reference for their own hardware and increasing participation in Microsoft cloud services and the ecosystem that goes with it are certainly notable goals of the Surface Book.

But there is even more to it than that.

Hardware

It is important to understand the hardware inside the Microsoft Surface Book. These are the technical specifications of a powerful computing device. You do not buy a Surface Book so your kids can watch movies in the car while you run errands.

With a high resolution screen, SSD storage up to 1TB, up to 16GB RAM, an Intel I5 or I7 CPU, and a customized discreet GPU from Nvidia, the Surface Book is designed for performance and productivity. This is some serious computing power delivered in a small package.

Of course, that power comes at a premium price, but that is where the aspirational part of the strategy comes into play. Microsoft knows it will not sell millions upon millions of Surface Books. That is not its purpose. Instead, Microsoft wants millions upon millions of people to want a Surface Book—to aspire to own one someday.

Microsoft wants the Surface Book to be the notebook computer you would buy if money were not an issue. It wants the Surface Book to be a status symbol PC.

Marketing

This is a bold move by Microsoft and it goes hand-in-hand with the “PC does what?” marketing campaign produced in conjunction with its OEM partners like Dell and Lenovo. These companies are trying to make PCs cool again. They are trying to steal some of the thunder so often associated with Apple.

And while the “PC does what?” campaign gets mocked, mostly by fans of Apple, it is more effective than many believe. Remember the Mac versus PC commercials? People often mocked those as inaccurate oversimplifications of fact, but they still seemed to elevate the “cool” factor of the Mac. It didn’t matter what everyone thought of them; what mattered was the perception they produced.

Bottom line

The Microsoft Surface Book sets a high bar for every other notebook computer that comes to market. Microsoft has carefully crafted a powerful computer with hardware, features, and style no other company can currently match. In a single stroke, Microsoft has made owning a PC cool again. It has made the Windows 10 ecosystem cool again.

Let’s punctuate the point with anecdotal evidence. A number of people have spent much of their professional lives complaining about Microsoft and PCs. They have been working in the Apple’s ecosystem and hating every minute of it. They have been looking for more than what Apple offers for years now. The day Microsoft announced the Surface Book, they ordered one. They haven’t been this excited about buying a computer for a decade.

With this lineup of Surface products, Microsoft has changed the tide and established market momentum. It will be interesting to see how Google and Apple respond. We should see some serious competition now. It also wouldn’t be surprised to see a resurgence in Windows 10 mobile devices later this year. It looks to be an exciting time for consumers. Hang on to your hats.

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Microsoft Office 365 has taken market share from Google Apps and Google isn’t taking it lying down. Are we looking at the start of a price war?

According to an August 2015 report, Microsoft Office 365 has surpassed Google Apps and now controls more than 25% of the enterprise market—triple the enterprise market share the company held just a year ago. That is some serious growth and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the folks at Alphabet (aka Google).

Details

On October 19, 2015, Rich Rao, head of global sales for Google Apps for Work announced a new program specifically designed to turn the tide against Microsoft Office 365’s advance.

In a nutshell, enterprises with preexisting contracts for a competitor’s office suite (read Office 365) looking to switch to Google Apps can do so and not pay any additional fees until the competitor’s contract has run its course. In essence, switching enterprises will pay Microsoft’s contract while they use Google Apps.

When the preexisting contract is over, enterprises sign a new contract with Google Apps. The announcement also suggests that Google will pay some of the transition costs through a special program offered by its Google for Work Partners service.

This is a bold move by Google and it signals that the company is reeling from the sudden surge of Microsoft Office 365. I don’t think Google was expecting this level of competition for its Google Apps suite.

Microsoft’s response

The ball is now in Microsoft’s court. There should be some kind of serious strategic response offered by Microsoft—that is, if it intends to maintain the growth of Office 365 in the enterprise market. Letting the tremendous advances in its market share over the last year erode would be irresponsible.

One strategy Microsoft may consider is lower subscription prices.

The basic enterprise version of Google Apps carries a subscription price of $5 per user. The basic enterprise version of Office 365 carries a subscription price of $8 per user. That $3 difference can really add up for a large enterprise and there may be some wiggle room for Microsoft to lower the per-user price for its service.

Cola wars. Pizza wars. We have seen major international companies take part in price wars in the past, and in the end, not much has been resolved. So I don’t think lowering their subscription prices is really the best strategy for Microsoft.

There is another way.

It’s all about collaboration

The basic applications offered by Office 365 and Google Apps—word processing, spreadsheets, emails, calendar, etc.—are similar. Office 365’s applications do have more features and deeper capabilities. Of course, Google Apps claims its lack of features is a good thing because its apps are simpler to use.

However, in this day and age, the real battleground for enterprise markets exists in features outside the basic office suite. The real battleground lies in cloud and collaboration services, including collaboration tools, storage, video communication, and document sharing. The cloud is where Microsoft and Google are going to fight their battle for productivity suite superiority.

And cloud is where Microsoft has been winning handily for the past year or so. I believe the new cloud and collaboration emphasis of Office 365 has taken Google by surprise. I think Google has realized that Microsoft has upped its game and that it can’t coast into increased enterprise market share by merely offering a lower-price, simpler productivity suite.

It may have been an indirect battle before, but Microsoft and Google are now engaged in a mano a mano fight for enterprise market share in the productivity software category. It will be interesting to see how this strategic battle between two superpowers plays out. I just hope each side takes appropriate steps to avoid collateral damage.

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