Office 365 received a major update today since its release back in June this year. According to the official Office 365 blog, over 40% of the top 100 brands are now using Office 365 or related cloud productivity services from Microsoft. As such, Microsoft is now expanding the availability of its Office 365 service to 22 additional markets, including Argentina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Iceland, Indonesia, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and UAE. In addition, Microsoft has also upgrade the Office 365 service with additional features based on customer feedback, and a few key updates are listed below:
- Support for SharePoint Business Connectivity Services – Businesses can now connect critical line-of-business applications, such as CRM or SAP software, in a familiar SharePoint interface.
- Windows Phone 7.5 Support – End users can access and update documents in SharePoint Online from anywhere using their Windows Phone.
- Self-Serve Password Reset – IT Admins gain easier security resets with our a Password Reset Tool.
- Lync for Mac – Mac users continue to gain features including full Lync client for instant messaging chats, and presence information in Office applications. They can now also host voice and video conferences with just like their PC based counterparts.
- Office Web App Preview in Outlook Web Access (OWA) – Users can now display Office document attachments in Outlook Web Access for easier on the go edit and review.
In addition, Office 365’s SharePoint Online is also updated to enable access for external users via Windows Live ID, allowing companies to invite external users to view, share and collaborate on the SharePoint sites. This feature is disabled by default and must be enabled by an administrator. For the full list of updates to Office 365, you can check them out here.