Have you caught all the exciting updates and announcements from Microsoft Ignite this year? We certainly have: from brand-new features for Copilot, Windows 365, and Microsoft Fabric to strong improvements for Microsoft Intune, Azure Virtual Desktop, and much more. Let's dive into it together. And discuss our favorite highlights of the event in more detail.
Thu, 28 November 2024
Actions are the latest addition to Microsoft's GenAI model and are specifically designed to automate repetitive tasks using simple prompts. For instance, you can set up actions to receive a summary every day, gather input for newsletters, or prepare for meetings by summarizing previous conversations.
With the introduction of the new integrated agents, you can also further optimize specific business processes and use cases within Microsoft 365 Copilot. These specialized AI assistants ensure that generated content is more relevant and of higher quality. How? Let's take a look at some examples:
In addition, Microsoft will also enhance the autonomy of the agents, so that you need to intervene less. For instance, agents will be able to handle customer service inquiries completely autonomously from start to finish, from beginning to end.
From creating chat summaries to consulting asset libraries and booking automatic meeting spaces, your favorite Microsoft 365 applications are getting major improvements powered by Copilot.
Microsoft has also announced a number of smaller updates for Pages, Excel, and OneNote, along with the introduction of the Copilot Control System for IT professionals.
With the introduction of the Copilot Control System, Microsoft announces a groundbreaking experience for IT professionals, aimed primarily at streamlining the deployment, management, and governance of M365 Copilot. With this system, you can easily onboard new users, create PowerShell scripts, and simplify recurring tasks using prompts in natural language. And with the new AI Administrator role, IT administrators gain even more control and insight to improve their tenant management.
In addition, there are now also more reporting capabilities, thanks to the integration of Copilot Analytics with Microsoft Viva Insights. With this tool, you can better track user adoption and measure the impact of Copilot and its agents on your business, allowing you to optimize more easily and ensure a strong return on investment. And thanks to the addition of advanced security management features in SharePoint, your company data is always securely stored as your organization desires.
The power of Azure AI directly integrated into Copilot Studio? That's coming soon. With it, as a user, you'll gain more flexibility and control when setting up your generative AI applications. Imagine if you could use Azure AI Search indexes for custom Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) scenarios. And agents could thus gain access to the vast amounts of data stored in Azure AI. This ensures that you get more accurate answers, tailored to the specific needs of each query, based on the immense resources available in Azure.
In addition, the agent knowledge in Copilot Studio will also drastically improve thanks to the integration of new data sources and advanced tuning. With this update, agents can retrieve data in real time from external sources such as Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Zendesk, allowing them to respond even better to complex questions. The result? A more responsive and intelligent AI that dynamically meets the changing demands of your business.
Imagine implementing a high-quality, autonomous SQL database powered by the SQL Server Engine, which automatically scales, performs intelligent indexing, ensures high availability, and integrates seamlessly with OneLake. That's the essence of Fabric Databases. With the expansion of support for transactional databases, Fabric can now handle both operational and analytical tasks, providing you with a truly unified data platform. And with built-in support for vectors and AI integration, the possibilities are endless.
This new generation of databases makes everything easier, from provisioning to deployment, allowing you to smoothly set up and manage a robust, secure, and highly available database solution. Whether it's for operational workloads or in-depth analytics, Microsoft Fabric now offers an integrated, intelligent, and secure approach.
The OneLake Catalog, a unified solution to explore, manage, and govern your entire Microsoft Fabric data estate, is now generally available. It is an enhanced version of the existing Data Hub and offers even more capabilities to view, monitor, and manage your Fabric data estate.
With the addition of resource tags, you can navigate through your environment even more easily and efficiently. You can now manage items directly on the spot, eliminating the need to continuously go through individual workspaces.
This solution is a significant step forward in making data governance more active and transparent. It ensures that your organization can maintain higher standards for data management and security. And at the same time, you can streamline your operational efficiency.
One of the biggest updates ever for Power BI is the new writeback feature. With this, Power BI changes from a read-only tool into one that allows you to directly update operational databases from your reports, and thus combine transactional elements with analytics. But what does this actually mean for your business? For certain use cases, for example, you no longer need to integrate PowerApps with Power BI to perform writebacks, making the entire process much more streamlined.
By adding this new feature, Microsoft has significantly expanded the use-cases for Power BI and made it an even more versatile tool for businesses. Imagine being able to analyze and update your data within the same interface. Well, with the new Writeback feature of Power BI, that's perfectly possible.
The latest addition to the Microsoft suite is the Windows 365 Frontline Shared Mode. And now it's available in Public Preview. This feature is specifically designed to give multiple users access to Cloud PCs with a non-personalized desktop experience, which is ideal for temporary and task-oriented work scenarios. By erasing user profile data upon sign out, Microsoft aims to avoid the common issues with traditional VDIs or shared physical devices and to make the whole IT management process much easier.
In addition to streamlining your IT operations, the Shared Mode is also seamlessly integrated with your existing IT infrastructure and managed via Microsoft Intune.
Want to know more about this feature?
Our W365 expert will tell you all about it.
This announcement took us completely by surprise. Microsoft will soon launch the Windows 365 Link, a compact device that allows users to access their Cloud PC from any location, without the need for expensive laptops. You can easily manage it with Microsoft Intune and it is encrypted with BitLocker, eliminating the need for a separate management window, keeping your login token secure in the cache memory, and allowing you to continue using all your current update policies.
For just $349, Windows 365 Link offers modern connectivity options for your organization, including Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Moreover, it enhances security with passwordless logins and the absence of local storage. This significantly reduces the risk of data loss. In short, it's a portable (and affordable) solution for your business to facilitate the transition to a fully cloud-based infrastructure.
Want to know more about this feature?
Our W365 expert will tell you all about it.
Looking for a revolutionary solution to optimize your resource allocation and cost efficiency in virtual desktop environments? Then you're in the right place with Azure Virtual Desktop's (AVD) dynamic scaling plans. This fascinating feature provisions new session hosts on the spot and deprovisions them when you no longer need them. A feature we've been looking forward to for over five years. And now it's finally here!
The goal is quite simple: it automatically adjusts the number of active session hosts based on your users' demand. And it also reduces your operational costs by scaling back resources during periods of low activity. Because by aligning availability with actual usage patterns, you not only improve the efficiency of your resources, but also make management much simpler through automated scaling. This way, you need to intervene manually less often. And you have to rely less on external tools.
We are already looking forward to experimenting with all the great innovations from Microsoft Ignite and advancing your business with them.
Tijdens het jaarlijkse Ignite-event presenteerde Microsoft nieuwe details over AI-agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot en Copilot Studio. Het is alvast uitkijken naar de impact van deze innovatie: meer productiviteit, minder gedoe en een slimmere bedrijfsvoering. Maar wat houdt dat precies in? En wat is de impact van AI-agents op je werkdag?
Klaar voor de toekomst van VDI? Met Windows 365 Cloud PC til jij de werkervaring in je bedrijf naar een nieuw niveau. Maar wat is zo’n Cloud PC nu eigenlijk? En wat zijn er de voordelen van? Dieter Kempeneers, onze Modern Workplace Specialist, legt het je tot in de puntjes uit.
"We believe that Copilot will fundamentally change our (work) relationship with technology, and usher in a new era of personal computing," says none other than Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Arxus also anticipated the arrival of Microsoft 365 Copilot for some time. As part of the early access program, we have been able to test the tool intensively and in depth. Will November 1st forever be remembered as the day that Microsoft 365 Copilot first saw the light of day? Let's discuss the basics of the tool and help you prepare for the next big thing.
