Introduction: You can use the Content Search eDiscovery tool in the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center to search for items such as email, documents, and instant messaging conversations in your Office 365 organization. You can search for – Exchange Online Mailboxes SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business sites Microsoft Teams Office 365 Groups Create a Search: Go to Office 365 Security & Compliance. In the left pane, click Search & Investigation > Content Search. Click New +, to create a new search. Provide a name for the Search (name must be unique). Choose the content locations that you need to search. You can search mailboxes, sites and public folders in the same search. Search everywhere – Select this option to search content from all location in your Office 365 organization. You can choose all mailboxes (including mailboxes for all Office 365 Groups and MS Teams), all SharePoint and OneDrive for Business sites (this includes sites for all Office 365 Groups and MS Teams) and Public Folders. Custom location search – Select this option to select mailboxes and sites that you want to search. After choosing mailboxes and Sites, click Next. On the New Search page, you can add keywords and conditions to add a search query. You can specify keywords, message properties such as sent and received dates, or document properties such as file names or the date that a document was last changed. You can use a more complex query that use a Boolean operator, such as AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, or ONEAR. You can also search for sensitive information (such as social security numbers) in documents, or search for documents that have been shared externally. Under Conditions, add conditions to a search query to narrow a search and return a more refined set of results. Click Search to save the search settings and start the search. The search is started. When the search is completed, the following information is displayed in the details pane. Preview Search Results –After a search is successfully run, you can preview search results by click Preview Search results (see below image). Result preview will look like this (see below image) Export Search results – After a search is successfully run, you can export the search results to a local computer. When you export email results, they’re downloaded to your computer as PST files. After generating the report, the report can be downloaded, click on Download exported results. A new window will open, click Download Results (see below image) If you are prompted to install the Microsoft O365 eDiscovery Export tool, click install. In the eDiscovery Export Tool, paste the export key from the download export results window. Click Browse to specify the location where you want to download the search result files. Click Start to download the search results to your computer. Conclusion: In this way, you can search for your contents in Office 365. You can quickly view the statistics. Preview the search results or download the results to a local computer.

For every sales person, getting a signed contract from the client is a euphoric moment. You finally closed the deal, and everything seems right. But the process after winning the deal is cumbersome for many of us. This article documents how we made this process a lot less painful through MS Flow and the D365 App for Outlook. Hopefully you find it very useful as well. I will first walk you through my old process – Once I got the signed contract as a Word or PDF attachment in my email, I would download it and save it to my OneDrive under the respective client folder. I would then open D365, go to the opportunity, then browse to the Documents folder and create a new SharePoint document folder. Then I would click the upload button and browse to the document location the OneDrive folder on my computer and attach the proposal. I would then finally mark the opportunity as Won, which would send out internal emails to our Delivery Team (for Project creation), Accounts Team (for billing details) and our HR team (so they can keep an eye on recruitment needs). Here is what we achieved through the implementation of the new process using MS Flow and D365 App for Outlook – Once I got the signed contract in my email, I would track this email using the D365 App in Outlook. I would also set the regarding field as the Opportunity that this proposal is for. The above action would trigger an MS Flow that would do the following in near real time – It would check if the Opportunity already had a folder created and if not, it would first create the SharePoint document folder on the Opportunity. It would then upload the proposal to the above folder. It would remove the attachment from the tracked email (saving valuable space!) I would then open the Opportunity right from my D365 App for Outlook and mark it as Won. The step by step directions for setting up the MS Flow are documented in this blog article from Krishna Bhanushali from our D365 team – https://www.cloudfronts.com/move-attachments-from-tracked-email-to-sharepoint-using-microsoft-flow/. In conclusion, the above implementation has benefited us through – Significantly reduced number of steps post winning a deal. Time saved by not having to leave Outlook which is where most of us are spending our time. A better process that makes pipeline management easier for sales people, thus driving adoption. If you want to discuss your sales processes further or provide any feedback for improvement, I can be reached at ashah@cloudfronts.com.

Introduction: In this article, we are going to see how we can recover content which has been deleted or modified. Each time a document subject to a retention policy is edited or deleted, a version is copied to the Preservation Hold Library. Though, we can use SharePoint Online permissions level so that we can restrict users from deleting any content (Understand Permission Level) but then there is also a solution so that we can recover deleted or modified content. Preservation Hold Library – A Preservation Hold Library is created when you include a SharePoint site or a OneDrive account in a Retention Policy and is visible only to Site Collection administrators. Pre-requisite: Retention Policy needs to be applied to SharePoint Online and OneDrive from Office 365 Security & Compliance center. Note – Preservation Hold Library will not be automatically created after applying Retention Policy to SharePoint or OneDrive site, it will be created after the first time the content has been modified or deleted. SharePoint content recovery through Preservation Hold Library: Site Administrator can recover deleted files from Preservation Hold Library (Only Site Administrator can access Preservation Hold Library folder) Go to SharePoint Online Site for which you want to recover content. Site > Site Contents > Preservation Hold Library. Select the content and download. OneDrive content recovery through Preservation Hold Library: As OneDrive is used as a personal storage location, users have the permission to recover deleted items. When a file is deleted it will be stored in Preservation Hold Library. (In the below images, I am deleting a doc) Sign in to portal.office.com and open OneDrive. After opening OneDrive, in URL replace “_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx” by “_layouts/15/viewlsts.aspx” https://domainname-my.sharepoint.com/personal/agupta_cloudcfs1_onmicrosoft_com/_layouts/15/viewlsts.aspx You will be redirected to site content and if you have any deleted or modified files, you will be able to see Preservation Hold Library folder. (see below image) Conclusion: With this simple process, you will be able to recover deleted or modified content from SharePoint Online & OneDrive for Business and avoid losing your important contents.

Introduction: In this blog article, we will learn how to create Azure DEVOps URL. Steps: 1. Go to visualstudio.com and sign in using Microsoft account.Create a new project 2. Go to Organization settings –> Overview 3. Under organization information you will see a link. Turn off the on toggle and a new link will appear on the screen. Now the VSTS link will be generated. This link itself is dev ops URL.

Introduction: With Azure AD Conditional Access, you can control how authorized users’ can access your cloud applications. In this article, we will see how to create conditional access to enforce MFA, if the user is accessing services from the untrusted location (outside of the company’s network). Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a method of authentication that requires more than one verification method and adds a second layer of security to sign-ins. Requirement: I had a requirement from a client to prompt for MFA if a user is trying to access Dynamics 365 (or other O365 services) from a location outside of company network. Pre-requisites: You will require Azure AD Premium license for users. Create a security group and add the users’ you need to specify in the policy. Company’s public static IP in CIDR format. Example – 15.250.0.89/24 (You can contact your network team to get this detail) Trusted locations: Configure MFA trusted IP’s in Azure AD (see below image). Provide your company’s public static IP in CIDR format (check below image). Conditional Access: Go to Azure AD > Conditional Access > +New Policy Name the policy as UntrustedLocation_PromptMFA and the first thing to configure is Assignments in which you need to mention the User & Groups to be included in this policy (see below image). Select Dynamics CRM Online under Cloud Apps. You can similarly choose other applications as well (see below image) Under Conditions, you need to configure the Device state and client apps as per your requirements (see below images). In Location: Include – Any locations Exclude: Selected locations and then select MFA trusted IPs (see below image) In Access control > Grant Access, tick Require multi-factor authentication (see below image) Finally, Enable the policy and Save. User specified in the group will be asked for MFA when accessing Office 365 services from an untrusted location (outside the company’s network). Conclusion: In this way, we can enforce MFA when Office 365 services are accessed from untrusted locations.

Introduction: When facing a task of naming a new file, every personnel will name it accordingly what may think is the best. You can organize and manage documents more effectively. Organizations should have a standard naming convention for documents, libraries, lists and pages in SharePoint Online. To improve the user experience for SharePoint, here are few points to consider while naming a document. General Instructions: 1. No Spaces – Spaces on the Internet are “%20”. It is the character encoding for space. So, do not provide spaces while naming any document library, documents, etc. Instead, you can use underscore “_ “or dash “- “in place of a space. 2. Make sure document versioning is turned on so that you can store, track & restore files in SharePoint Online. 3. A name should be meaningful and make sense. 4. Dates – Dates are commonly used for two objects “Articles” and “Documents”. For article place the date in front of the name like “20180911_Article” For documents dates should be placed at the end of the name like “Document_20180911” Date Format – yyyymmdd. 5. Make it short and simple – The file name should be as short as possible without losing its potential to be identified and searched. Longer names take more time to search or read. SharePoint includes file name as well, so the short name will make short URL. We can use abbreviations – Invoice can be “INV”, Quotes can be “QTE” 6. No special character, except “_” & “- “. 7. Data Order (From general to specific) – We can consider using the abbreviation (Point 5) followed by Project and then date. We can also consider adding versions & document id. Example – INV-CloudFronts-20180911.pdf 8. For Site Pages – It is not a best practice to name pages with a “_” or space. Instead, it is recommended using “-“. Example (This-is-a-site-page). 9. Many organizations like to prefer placing versions numbers in a document name. Place the version at the end of the file name. Use dash “- “to separate major versions and minor versions or drafts. Example (Document_V01-01.docx). Here, V01 is the major version and “-01” is the minor version. 10. Do not change the name of Lists & Libraries. Conclusion: A simple naming convention is a best way to avoid naming related issues or accidental overwrites which affect end users’ experience. Though it varies from company to company, but each organisation should have a standard naming convention.

Introduction: After creating SharePoint site, you may want to provide or restrict access to the site or site contents. Permission levels are the actions, a user can define as Create Subsite, Delete Subsite, View Versions, and many more. To make it easier Microsoft has provided a set of default levels: Full Control – Has full control. Edit – Can add, edit and delete lists; can view, add, update and delete list items and documents. View Only – Can view pages, list items, and documents. Document types with server-side file handlers can be viewed in the browser but not downloaded. Contribute – Can view, add, update, and delete list items and documents. Accessing SharePoint Permissions Levels: You should have the admin privileges. Go to the root of Site Collection > Site Settings. Under Users and Permissions, click on Site Permissions. Go to Manage and click Permission Levels. The screen will show the default Permissions level. By clicking on the Permission level, you will get the list of included permissions. Editing Permission Level: Inheritance – By design, all the sites and site contents in a collection inherit the Permission level from the root site. Even if you “stop inheriting permission” from the root site, the Permissions levels will remain the same. As per your requirements, sometimes you may want that your users’ can only edit items but not delete anything. So, for that, you can just go to the “Contribute” Permission level and edit the same (uncheck the Delete Items under the list of permissions) but it is not recommended to edit a default permission level. Best practice if you want to restrict users from deleting any content: If you need to edit the Permissions level “do not edit the default level” you can create a new one instead. Creating a new Permission level: Access the Permission level from the root site. Click on Add a Permissions Level. Provide this new Permission level a name and check the lists of permission you want to provide. If you want to restrict users’ from deleting any content, uncheck the Delete Items. Conclusion: With the help of the Permission Level, you can secure your SharePoint Online sites and site contents. Want to get consultation or training for your company? Please email us at ashah@cloudfronts.com

Cloud business systems is sprouting rapidly throughout the globe and one of the system like Microsoft Office 365 helps business to be more productive. Have you ever realised that you must go back to office just for accessing a file, you or your client required urgently? The concept of using Office 365 services from anytime, anywhere & any device is striking, and it is helping personnel to handle things more easily. Here, I would also like to highlight a point. Many businesses are already using Office 365 and have installed the apps & services on their employee’s system. But do you think they are utilizing it to its full extent? Many organisations are using Office 365 typically for emails and the Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook), however, Office 365 can deliver more, increasing productivity. Magic of Office 365 is still evolving, and Microsoft is continuously adding and updating the features in it. Also, you will always be having the latest versions of applications & software. You can add new users & delete former users easily. You can manage existing users with attractive Administration Center. Exchange Online Archiving offer users’ advanced archiving capabilities within Office 365.  If I just take example of Office 365 Business Premium license (you can choose the plan that suites you best), apart from the Office apps it also includes below services: MS Teams – Platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, collaborate on files and especially the guest access feature in Teams is awesome. Exchange Online – Exchange for email services, also there is a lot you can do with Exchange Admin Center. OneDrive for Business – Storage for documents SharePoint Online – Document Management & Real-time Collaboration with attractive modern sites, document versioning, web parts & lot more. Are your digital assets secured? So, the Microsoft datacentres where your data is stored physically is always monitored and uses encryption for all data. But then again this is a joint responsibility. Office 365 also offers access to Security & Compliance dashboard by means of which you can protect data with various security & compliance policies. Through Security & Compliance dashboard, organization can protect access to data and services, prevent data loss, manage data governance, protect against threats, deep search for any content and auditing. Feature like Multi-Factor Authentication makes the environment more secure. Permissions plays a very significant part within the organization which lets you grant authorizations to people who perform different tasks which you manage Admin center which is based on Role Based Access Control permissions model. Exchange uses filtration of emails using Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and a part of Exchange Online Admin Center which provides different features like Email Encryption, Anti-Spam protection, Outbound Spam detection, Connection filter & lot more. Transport Rules can help you achieve according to your specific requirements. Keeping trace of the messages in your organisation is an awesome feature. Secure Score – Secure Score analyses your Office 365 organisation’s security based on your activities and security settings and assigns a score. Think of it as a credit score for security. Finally talking about choosing the right product & subscription is significant. Microsoft has also launched Microsoft 365 which comes in three tiers – Enterprise, Business & Education (similar as Office 365). If you ask the difference it is very simple to understand. Office 365 is a suite of apps and services which I have already stated, and Microsoft 365 is a bundle of services which includes Office 365. It also involves Windows 10 Business or Enterprise (depending on the subscription you choose) + Enterprise Mobility & Security.

Introduction: While scheduling a meeting from Outlook client, sometimes we may also need to select the room where the meeting will be held. Room Finder in Outlook client helps us to find the available rooms. Sometimes it may happen that when a user creates a new meeting in Outlook, no conference rooms are listed in Choose an available room box in Room Finder. The issue is that the user doesn’t select a room list. Users can select a room list from Show a room list option in Room Finder. But before that admin needs to create a room list so that the option “Show a room list” will be visible in Room Finder. Steps: Open Exchange Online Power Shell and connect your Office 365 environment. Run the following command to create a Room List Distribution Group – New-DistributionGroup <RoomListName> -RoomList -Members $Members<RoomListName> – Provide a name to the Room list. Run the following command to add existing rooms to the list –Add-DistributionGroupMember <RoomListName> -Member <RoomMailbox><RoomListName> – Put the name of the room list which was created in the earlier step.<RoomMailBox> – Put the name of the room mailbox. You can find the room mailbox name from the Exchange Admin Center. If you want to add multiple rooms at once, you need to create a .txt file and add all the room mailboxes and save the file. Run the following command to add multiple rooms –Get-Content <EnterFileLocation> | Add-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <RoomListName> <EnterFileLocation> – Where the .txt file has been saved.<RoomListName> – Provide the room list name. You might need to confirm whether the rooms have been added to room list. Run the following command to check the same –Get-DistributionGroupMember -Identity <RoomListName><RoomListName> – Put a name of the room list, which you have created. After following above steps, you will be able to see the Show a room list option in Room Finder. There you can choose the room list and select the rooms. Conclusion: This is how you can enable Room List in Room Finder, which helps users while scheduling a meeting through Outlook clients and can easily see the available rooms and timings through Room Finder. Want to get consultation or training for your company? Please email us at ashah@cloudfronts.com

Introduction: SharePoint Online is a user-friendly and efficient than any other document management system. However, security is the main concern because it is a cloud service. It is always necessary to have limited control and access for the users. Administrators can restrict the user from downloading or printing the documents from the SPO document library. Restrict downloading: After creating a site/subsite for document management – Go to Site/Subsite > Site Settings > Site Permissions. Click on Stop Inheriting Permissions. After that site will have a unique permission (see below image). Note – By doing this, the site will not inherit the same permissions as the parent site. Create new groups for this site/subsite as you have assigned unique permission. You will get below the screen to create groups. In the below image you can see three new groups have been created, you can add members to these groups as per your requirements. Create one “View Only” group. Users added in this view only group will not be able to download the document or sync the document library in their system. (Please see below image) Provide the name and the permissions level (view-only permissions) for this group. In the below image, you can see the downloading option when you select the document. Add users for whom you want to restrict downloading. After adding a user to View Only group, users will only be able to access the document but will not be able to download. Yes, the sharing option will be available to users, but you can manage it from SPO Admin center > Sharing.   Restrict Print: Firstly, we need to activate Rights Management from the Office 365 Admin center. Go to Admin Center > Settings > Services & Add-ins > Microsoft Azure Information Protection.IRM – Information Rights Management is applied to files at the list or library level. IRM feature requires an Office 365 E3 subscription. Go to Site/Subsite > Document Library > Library Settings. In Library settings, go to Information Rights Management. Click Restrict permissions on this library, provide the name & description. In the below image, you can see, how the print option got disabled after enabling IRM for the document library. Conclusion: With the help of Site permissions and IRM in SharePoint Online, we can restrict users from downloading and printing the contents of a document library. This option is desired by most of the organizations considering security for the documents. Now having seen this, why not check out how CloudFronts has been able to successfully deploy business processes on Dynamics 365 platforms and our esteemed Customer Success Stories here.