SaaS Updates Summary: July 9 – July 13

The big news from last week? Microsoft is taking on Slack by unveiling a free version of Teams, its group messaging and collaboration app, that anyone can sign up for and use (no Office 365 subscription necessary). Microsoft also introduced two new features — Workplace Analytics Solutions and MyAnalytics Nudges — to help you work more productively. Google released a new feature in Calendar that uses Google AI to automatically suggest rooms for your meetings based on the locations of the guests. And finally, search seems to be on everyone’s mind: Slack introduced better searching functionality thanks to new, simple search filters, and Box acquired Butter.ai to make search smarter.

For more details, read on.

View Additional Activities for Managed Devices in the Devices Audit Log
G Suite Updates | “The devices audit log in the Admin console provides a report on the activities of managed mobile and desktop devices in your organization. Previously, this report was limited to domains with advanced mobile management enabled. To make it even more useful, we’re now showing some of the events in this report to G Suite Business, Enterprise, and Enterprise for Education customers with basic mobile management and endpoint verification enabled as well.”

Let Google Calendar Intelligently Suggest Rooms for Your Meetings
G Suite Updates | Earlier this year, Google announced a new feature in Google Calendar that, using Google AI, can automatically suggest rooms for your meetings based on the locations of the guests. They are now releasing this feature along with new and easier ways to update the main work locations for users in your domain.

Less Searching, More Doing
Several People Are Typing | As of today, you can find information in Slack faster — whether it’s a message from a particular person or a specific file posted to a channel — thanks to the addition of new, simple search filters.

Welcoming the Butter.ai Team to Box!
Box Blog | “We’re incredibly excited to share that the team from Butter.ai is joining Box to help us execute on our vision to bring intelligent search to the enterprise. Butter.ai, a member of All Turtles, has been focused on using machine learning to solve everyday problems, including providing users with an easy, quick and secure way to surface more relevant content with context across a variety of enterprise services.”

Check Out the Most Recent G Suite Launches
G Suite Updates | Last year, Google introduced a new resource for admins: What’s new in G Suite? Don’t forget to visit the page regularly for a list of the most recent launches across G Suite.

Introducing Workplace Analytics Solutions and MyAnalytics Nudges
Microsoft 365 Blog | “Today, we are announcing two new features—Workplace Analytics solutions and MyAnalytics nudges—designed to put individuals and teams at the center of change. Workplace Analytics uses data from everyday work in Office 365 to identify collaboration patterns that impact productivity, workforce effectiveness, and employee engagement. Nudges in MyAnalytics can help close the gap by providing friendly, data-driven collaboration tips that surface as you get work done in Office 365.”

4 New Ways Microsoft 365 Takes the Work Out of Teamwork—Including Free Version of Microsoft Teams
Microsoft 365 Blog | “Today, we are introducing four new ways Microsoft 365 connects people across their organization and improves collaboration habits, including extending the power of Microsoft Teams and new AI-infused capabilities in Microsoft 365.”

Get More Done With Smartsheet and Google’s Hangouts Chat
Smartsheet Blog | “We’re thrilled to announce Smartsheet for Hangouts Chat. Now you can receive Smartsheet update and approval requests, as well as notifications and reminders, directly in Hangouts Chat. Not only that, but you can respond to update and approval requests from within Hangouts Chat — without having to leave the app.”

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