SaaS Updates Summary: April 24-28

Last week, there were several major admin-related announcements, including one from BetterCloud! Google switched up its search and Lucidchart partnered with a company that makes it easier for you to draw out network diagrams.

New Grid-Based Actions in BetterCloud

BetterCloud | The BetterCloud menu of actions is now available on user and group profile flyout tabs, in addition to our directory grids. Full page selections from our directory grids can now also be made, on which to take actions. More details in the post. Plus gifs!

Improved Admin Controls Over Offline Access to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides Files On the Web

G Suite | Admins will now how the following options to control offline access on desktop computers: 1) Control offline access using device policies and 2) Allow users to enable offline access (recommended). These updates are launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release tracks and are available to all G Suite editions.

Email Log Search Improvements in Gmail to Make Your Job Easier

G Suite | Yesterday, Google announced updates to its Email Log Search tool. Based on customer feedback, Gmail admins can now you can search for emails by subject line and email policies are linked in the email log.

New to Office 365 in April

Office 365 | There were 6 major Office 365 announcements this month. 1) Outlook Customer Manager is rolling out worldwide 2) Microsoft To-Do launch 3) Designer is now available in PowerPoint on iPad 4) More Office apps support Office 365 Groups 5) Skype for Windows 10 is generally available 6) Office 365 security and compliance updates.

Our Latest Quality Improvements for Search

Google | Today, Google announced updates to its “Search Quality Rater Guidelines to provide more detailed examples of low-quality webpages for raters to appropriately flag, which can include misleading information, unexpected offensive results, hoaxes and unsupported conspiracy theories.” and the search giant has “adjusted [their] signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content, so that issues similar to the Holocaust denial results that we saw back in December are less likely to appear.”

Adding IPv6 Connectivity Support to the Dropbox Desktop Client

Dropbox | Version 24 of the Dropbox client, released April 17, 2017, supports IPv6-only and dual-stack networks.

The Admin’s Hub for Lightning Resources

Salesforce | The new Lightning for Admins page to help you find helpful tools and resources to get started on your path to Lightning.

Lucidchart and UVexplorer Join Forces for Easier Network Mapping

Lucidchart | UVexplorer, a network discovery tool, now integrates with Lucidchart. Find your network devices and generate a network map on UVexplorer, and use Lucidchart to edit your diagram and easily share it with colleagues.

Google Classroom Outside the Classroom

Google | “Now, using a personal Google account, teachers and learners in many different settings can teach or attend classes, manage assignments, and instantly collaborate,” writes Google. “Starting today, users can do more than join classes—they can create them, too.”

Introducing a Flexible New Pricing Model for Box Platform

Box | The new pricing model for Box Platform is available today with paid plans starting at $500/month. What’s different? 1) You only pay for the bundles of resources your app needs each month. Bundles consist of MAUs, API calls, storage, and bandwidth. 2) If you need additional resources, such as additional GBs of storage or API calls, you can license them a la carte to fit your needs. 3) You estimate consumption and license on a forward-looking basis, with options for short- and long-term contracts. Resource consumption is normalized over the duration of your contract to account for periods of increased or decreased usage.

Deliver Faster and Better Software Using Test Automation

Atlassian | Xray for JIRA facilitates the management of both manual and automated tests, independently of the testing frameworks and automation libraries being used, providing clear visibility of the requirement coverage and test progress at any moment in time.

Zendesk and WeWork Partner to Help Growing Businesses Create Better Customer Relationships

Zendesk | “Zendesk is partnering with WeWork on the launch of their new WeWork Service Store, a software-only platform that aggregates business software and services. This WeWork initiative provides WeWork members with “an operational boost” by delivering hand selected services and SaaS products, like Zendesk Support.”

Gboard for Android Gets New Languages and Tools

Android | Through Gboard’s internationalization through machine learning, glide typing and suggestions are now available in more than 185 language varieties.

For last week’s SaaS updates (and beyond), click here for our archive.