Microsoft previews Office 2016 and Skype for Business
Outlook is getting better and Skype could change the way your business interacts
Microsoft today released its first public preview of Office 2016, letting IT professionals and developers try it out.
While the preview doesn’t encompass all the features the final product will have when it ships, Redmond told users to expect more functionality to be added month by month.
The latest software preview from the tech giant, which is currently running a popular preview on Windows 10, its next operating system, builds on Office 2015’s offering in several ways.
One key feature in Office 2016 is the addition of Data Loss Protection (DLP), which was previously only available on Exchange, Outlook, OneDrive for Business
and SharePoint.
“Now we’re bringing these same classification and policy features to Word, Excel and PowerPoint,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate VP for Office 365 Client Apps and Services, in a blog post.
“With these new capabilities, IT admins can centrally create, manage and enforce polices for content authoring and document sharing—and end users will see policy tips or sharing restrictions when the apps detect a potential policy violation.”
Outlook
Redmond’s email service benefits from a raft of updates in the preview, getting a new protocol to support Exchange/Outlook connectivity as well as multi-factor authentication.
What’s more, it will take you less time to download messages and display new emails after waking your PC from hibernation, Microsoft claimed.
Office 2016’s revamped Outlook should also prove to be more reliable than before, with Redmond developers building Exchange’s FAST-based search engine into it.
Responding to user demand
Microsoft claimed it’s listened to IT professionals’ calls for new features to help manage Office 365 subscriptions.
Under the preview, IT managers will have better network traffic management and can adopt a more flexible update policy, choosing the pace they receive feature updates and bug patches.
“These are just some of the new capabilities IT pros and developers will experience in the Preview,” said Koenigsbauer.
With more features set to go live in preview over the coming months, it’s worth signing up to test them out here – in the meantime, IT Pro will of course keep you up to date with the latest releases.
Skype for Business Technical Preview
Redmond also revealed a technical preview of Skype for Business that begins today and runs until April 30.
The VoIP service – formerly known as Lync – will become generally available in April, but the tech giant is keen to iron out any last minute bugs by letting users try it out beforehand.
The rebranded tool offers up a more richly featured version of Lync to business customers, comprising enterprise-grade security and compliance while giving control to IT, Microsoft claimed.
Its biggest plus is likely the extent of its integration with other Redmond products, and Skype for Business users can find and connect with anyone on Skype, for starters.
Perhaps more importantly, it’s “built right into Office”, according to Giovanni Mezgec, general manager for the Skype for Business, meaning instant messaging, voice and video calls are all features accessible inside Microsoft’s productivity suite.
Lync 2013 users won’t be too miffed at the update, either, with most software and hardware designed for the former product also compatible with Skype for Business. Mezgec said 80 per cent of Microsoft’s partners have been trained on the VoIP solution, so are ready to help customers implement it. If you’re a current Lync customer, you can sign up for the technical preview here if you’re based outside the US, and here if you aren’t.