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Microsoft Readies Office 365 Admin Center for General Availability

The worldwide commercial rollout of Microsoft's Office 365 Admin Center management console will begin in a few weeks, Microsoft said on Friday.

The Admin Center has been in the preview stage since September, with Microsoft updating it in November. Organizations have been able to test the preview from the classic Office 365 management console since that time, but on Friday Microsoft announced that Admin Center will be generally released "as the default experience" for organizations. This update will start appearing "over the next few weeks" for subscribers, the company indicated.

It will be possible to switch back to the old management portal, though, Microsoft promised. The old management portal currently has a "sneak peek" link for those wanting to see what's coming.

New Features
Office 365 Admin Center has a new search bar at the top. It can be used to find users and groups right now.

Admin Center has a reports capability. It currently shows the number of active users. It also provides e-mail traffic details, plus subscription activation information.

Coming Features
Microsoft plans to enhance the Admin Center's reporting capabilities "in the coming months" to show information about specific Office 365 apps. For instance, the portal will be able to show reports on the use of "OneDrive, SharePoint, Yammer and Skype for Business." It also will get a reporting capability to show operating system use.

Microsoft is planning to add contextual help next to tasks within the Admin Center portal. Users will get detailed descriptions "to quickly make settings, user or configuration changes," Microsoft indicated. There will be video help, too.

Lastly, Microsoft is promising that organizations will be able to customize the dashboard in Admin Center according to the user's role in the organization. "Your feedback made it very clear that admins have very different roles and priorities and you need the ability to tailor the admin center to meet the needs of your role," Microsoft's announcement explained.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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