Microsoft details social Office Graph updates coming to Office 365 in 2014

Microsoft is building new social features for Office 365 to help people collaborate and communicate with other employees in their company. Called the Office Graph, Microsoft is now able to analyze how its users interact with email, documents, sites and instant messages to create a personalized view of their company network.

It’s based on the Enterprise Graph used in Microsoft’s private social network Yammer and will be adapted for Office 365 through a new, dedicated app codenamed Oslo. It takes the Metro-style design language and builds it around files, updates and people tied to their organizations. Microsoft will be tapping Office Graph to surface information that is relevant to you.

In one screenshot, Microsoft shows a selection of cards and six filters along the top with names such as presented to me, trending around me and modified by me. A second displays a user profile, which lists projects they’re working on and colleagues that both users are currently working alongside.

Microsoft is also bringing across the ‘Groups Experience’ from Yammer which, as the name implies, will allow users to set up a new group from within any Office 365 app. It automatically includes an inbox, social feed, calendar and document library that users can pull from to stay organized and work together with greater efficiency. Changes will also be synced with Yammer so users can pick their preferred platform.

While these groups will be open and discoverable by default, Microsoft stresses that users can also make them private for sensitive projects.

Users will also soon notice a Yammer messenger built into documents stored with SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. Furthermore, Microsoft says it’ll allow user to share new content to Yammer from SharePoint Online and Outlook and plans to integrate the business-focused social network with its video calling services Lync and Skype at some point in the future.

Microsoft said these updates will become available “throughout 2014” but refrained from giving any firm release dates.

➤ Work like a network! Enterprise social and the future of work (Via TechCrunch)

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