Smarter Retention in Microsoft 365: A Step Toward Cleaner, More Relevant Data - Coming soon

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Anyone who has worked with SharePoint management knows that data governance is a cornerstone of digital productivity, especially in large organizations where information can accumulate rapidly. Today, retention policies in Microsoft 365 allow administrators to manage data based on creation or modification dates. However, in my experience, this approach is not always sufficient. Files that haven’t been accessed in years may still linger in OneDrive or SharePoint, cluttering storage, slowing down search, and diluting the relevance of AI-powered tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot. A new feature in Microsoft Purview Retention Policies, expected this winter, promises to enhance Data Lifecycle Management. This upcoming setting will enable policies to identify files that have remained untouched for a specified period and automatically flag them for deletion or archival. This enhancement is particularly valuable for organizations leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot. By removing outdated or irreleva...

Viva pulse coming out of preview, SharePoint moving to use only B2B invitations and helping users select the most secure MFA option

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Viva Pulse is a new feature coming to organizations who have invested in the Viva platform. Viva pulse is a new application, organizations can use to measure the "satisfaction temperature" of their employees. It's easy to use for both "Feedback authors" and "Feedback providers", and is of course fully integrated into Teams to make things easily accessible for all. As an organization admin, reading up on the following material is a great way to get started. 

Viva Pulse preview was announced to end on July 14th, and according to the message center, it should be rolling out around the 20th of July to users who have been assigned with the Viva Suite license. The official roadmap item is: 117393

Microsoft is making changes to the guest invitation flow in SharePoint. The flow is moving away from the original SharePoint engine, and into the new Azure B2B invitation manager. Sharing of files remains the same, but when users are being invited to sites the new invitation experience is used. There are several settings to consider, and it is recommended for admins to go through these policies to make collaboration easier. This update should be rolling out by the end of July.

MFA is getting a new tweak. By adding a "System-preferred" policy and setting it as default, the goal is to always prompt the user for the most secure MFA option available to them. This to avoid the use of weaker options such as SMS just because the user has registered for it previously. 

Admins should go through these settings to make sure any necessary exceptions are made for those who for some reason need to use a less secure MFA option than the more secure MFA they might have registered for. The rollout has begun, and should be completed by August.