Microsoft is rolling out its new Flipboard-like service for Office 365 business users, called Microsoft Delve.
Delve, code-named Oslo, is an intelligent search feature which displays information based on things like the work users are doing and the people that they are working with.
"Delve displays information that is most relevant for each person based on the work they are doing and the people with whom they are engaging," said Julia White, general manager of Microsoft Office. "With Delve, information finds you versus you having to find information."
Delve is part of Microsoft's Office Graph, and unlike other Microsoft Office tools, is not involved in content creation. Instead, it is intended to help users quickly and easily find work relevant to the user. Office Graph tracks the relationship between people, content and activity across Office 365 and functions like Flipboard, software that collects content from social media and selected websites, presents it in magazine format, and lets users "flip" through it.
Delve has a card-style interface and will use Microsoft Exchange, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Yammer. Not only that, but over the coming few months, Delve will include things like email attachments, OneNote and Lync.
Delve will be rolled out to users in phases, with Office 365 Business users getting the feature as a part of a subscription. Office 365 Personal and Home Premium users will not get the feature.
The first group to get Delve will be Office 365 E, A and G plan users who opted into Microsoft's First Release Program. Following that, Delve will roll out to the rest of the Office 365 Business users, with the first likely to be Office 365 E1 to E4 subscribers along with corresponding A2 to A4 Academic and G1 to G4 Government users.
Delve will work best when users are collaborating with others and using tools like SharePoint or Yammer. However, it can also be used as a personal tool.
Microsoft recently stated it would be using customer onboarding more than it had before, worrying many Office resellers. The company plans on making a number of changes to the FastTrack program, resulting in free email migration to Office 365 from Gmail, Lotus Domino, Exchange Server and other IMAP environments.
Microsoft has also created the Office 365 FastTrack program to facilitate the changes, which will be available to customers soon.
In 2015, Microsoft will also extend Delve with APIs available to customers who do not uniquely use Office 365.
"We also have plans for hybrid support for Office Graph, but we are not sharing timing," said a spokesperson for the company. Office Graph tracks the relationship between people, content and activity across Office 365.
