New SharePoint experience, cheaper exams and Copilot future

I prepared for You the summary of the most important news, announcements and articles about Microsoft 365 from the last week. Enjoy!

Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2 digital event September 16

The next phase of Microsoft #Copilot for Microsoft 365 innovation is designed to help optimize your customers’ daily operations.

Join us on LinkedIn Live Monday, September 16 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time/8:00 AM Pacific Time, as Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro reveal "Microsoft 365 Copilot: Wave 2."

Discover powerful new updates, exciting features, and scenarios. Then learn how Microsoft is leveraging customer feedback to solve today’s biggest work challenges and expand beyond individual productivity to drive business-wide results.

Don’t miss this opportunity to stay ahead—mark your calendars and join us!

Backup and retention policies for Microsoft Teams

Usage of Microsoft Teams and collaboration on Teams components rapidly growing. We store more and more data inside Microsoft Teams.

The most important element in the backup tool is the possibility of a successful restoration of the data from Microsoft Teams. You will see these elements are not easy, like in other tools.

How to backup data in Teams?

Introducing the new SharePoint start experience

The new SharePoint start experience is designed to motivate content creators to utilize the platform. By prioritizing a streamlined and user-friendly interface that reduces the number of clicks, it has become simpler to create #SharePoint sites and pages. Creators can revisit the start experience hub to polish drafts, review previous work, and track engagement metrics.

The updated SharePoint start experience simplifies creating pages. Authors can begin with a blank page or use OOTB templates without selecting a target SharePoint site initially. These pages are saved in the SharePoint pages library in OneDrive for Business. Once drafts are ready, authors can choose to publish them as personal pages or to the intended SharePoint site(s).

Viva Connections with pre-built 3rd party Adaptive cards

Viva Connections in #SharePoint is the gateway for the employee experience and provides an extensible platform through the dashboard, where employees can see a targeted list of actionable cards that can connect to Microsoft #Teams apps, #Viva apps and services, partner apps, and custom solutions using the SharePoint Framework (#SPFx) framework, internal links, and external links.

This blog will explore a few of our diverse third-party card integrations available from can extend the capabilities of #Viva Connections, allowing organizations to incorporate third party external tools, services, and data directly into their flow of work and ensure business critical investments that they have made in other services can be added directly into employee dashboards. There are countless ways to customize or build your own dashboard cards to meet the needs of employees at virtually any organization, but this blog will highlight a few pre-packaged cards from Microsoft partners that can easily be added to your app.

Device hardware inventory in Microsoft Intune

The foundation of next-generation endpoint management is data, and visibility at depth across your entire device estate is key. This encompasses corporate and personal, physical and virtual endpoints. From hardware and software to device performance and usage, more information facilitates more actionable reporting, device targeting, and troubleshooting.

Since sharing that Microsoft #Intune is enhancing device hardware inventory for #Windows devices, we’ve heard lots of excitement and quite a few questions. There is even more exciting news to share this year (hint, hint), so subscribe to this blog if you haven’t already. This capability will expand in the near and far term, so below we’re offering a glimpse of the features to come and a vision for the future.

New pricing for Microsoft Certification exams

At Microsoft Learn, we continually review and evolve our portfolio of #MicrosoftCertifications to help learners around the world stay up to date with the latest technologies in our fast-changing digital world, especially as AI skills become increasingly important in the workplace. Microsoft Certifications are globally recognized credentials that validate your skills for various job roles using these technologies.

According to the 2023 Skillsoft IT Skills & Salary report, 62% of those who earned certifications felt that the quality of their work improved. They’re also more engaged at work (47%) and perform their duties faster (45%). Whether you’re a student, a professional, or someone changing careers, earning a Microsoft Certification can help you accomplish your goals and demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning and improvement. This achievement can also help boost your confidence and credibility at work as you showcase your expertise to employers and customers.

Check the new version of Copilot in PowerPoint

Have a great weekend ??

Szymon