1. Forecast Case & Conversation Volumes with Dynamics 365 Contact Center
Overview
Dynamics 365 Contact Center is going to introduce a new forecasting feature this May and it’ll allow organizations to create/analyze scenarios for case/conversation volumes.
This enhancement is going to support more accurate planning i.e. short term spikes, long term trends, and helping optimize staffing and service operations. There is this ability to generate daily, intraday forecasts, and teams can model different business situations and break down demand by channels/queues.
The goal is simple: help teams bring staffing in line with actual demand and reduce inefficiencies. They can also stay on track with service level targets, and all through better, data informed problem resolution.
Impact:
The new forecasting capabilities offer several key advantages:
- Long term forecasting: Predict case/conversation volumes daily; up to six months ahead.
- Short term forecasting: Forecast demand in 15 mins intervals for up to six weeks; address realm time fluctuations.
- Scenario modeling: Simulate different business scenarios, gauge their impact on workload/staffing.
- Data slicing: Break down forecast data by channels/queues and get more detailed insights.
- External data import: Integrate historical data from external systems; improve forecast accuracy.
- Forecast export: Download forecasts in spreadsheet format; get deeper analysis.
- Trend visualization: View forecast trends on daily/weekly/monthly charts.
Action Needed:
Your admins need to install the Workforce Management for Customer Service app to enable this feature. You get this app in the Power Platform admin center.
- Log in to the Power Platform Admin Center.
- Navigate to Environments. Then select the environment you want to activate.
- Go to Resources. Click Dynamics 365 Apps. Now, select Install App.
- Choose Workforce Management for Customer Service, agree to the terms. Click Install.
Also, you can visit their official page: Create and manage forecast scenario page.
2. New Outbound Email Limits for Exchange Online Tenants
Overview
Microsoft is rolling out new outbound email limits for Exchange Online tenants. This limit is known as the Tenant External Recipient Rate Limit (TERRL).
These limits are thought to reduce misuse and make sure the availability of services. The change has started to come into effect this April already and tenants are having a daily cap on the number of external recipients they can email. This limit is basically based on the quantity of email licenses they have purchased, and it will get enforced gradually. Also, tenants can monitor their usage via a report in the Exchange Admin Center (EAC).
Impact
If a tenant exceeds the daily recipient limit, after this limit has been enforced, any additional emails to external recipients will be blocked. This blockage will stay intact until the email number drops below the quota.
Tenants can track their email volume/quota/any blocked recipients via the EAC report. The enforcement rolls out in stages. It begins with tenants having <25 licenses in April 2025, and ends for all tenants by the end of May 2025. So, non compliant tenants will receive Non-Delivery Receipts (NDRs), indicating the exceeding of the limit has been reached.
Action Needed
Admins need to regularly check the EAC report to monitor outbound email volume. Ensure the limit is always within the quota. In case of email volume approaching the limit, you can use Azure Communication Services (ACS) for high volume external emails. ACS emails will not count against the Tenant External Recipient Rate Limit.
3. Microsoft 365 Copilot: People Skills – Available in May 2025
Overview
Microsoft 365 Copilot is rolling out the People Skills feature this May. The feature targets enhancing of the user experience by inferring skills based on activity and provides personalized skills profiles.
This feature also introduces a skill discovery agent. It allows employees/leaders to better understand their organizational talent landscape, and it’s designed to work in Microsoft 365, Copilot, Viva experiences to help employees discover skills. They can use this feature to learn about their colleagues as well and help leaders identify talent gaps.
Impact
People Skills will integrate into various M365 services. It is supposed to provide employees with skill profiles and at the same time leaders with skills landscape reports. This feature is available for M365 Copilot customers and only select M365 and Viva customers. People Skills includes an out of the box skills library with 16000+ skills, which your organization can customize as well. Personalized skill lists will be visible in M365 profile cards, and users can refine their visibility settings through the admin center or even their profile editor.
Action Needed
- Quick Setup: Admins should visit the Microsoft 365 admin center to begin the quick setup for People Skills and start customizing.
- Configuration: Choose from those 16000+ skills or even import custom skills, then your users can update their skill visibility settings.
- Licensing: Note that users without the appropriate licensing for AI based skill inferencing will still be able to access a limited version of People Skills.
Important: Full availability is expected by late June 2025.
4. Enhanced Threat Protection Model in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Overview
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps rolls out an upgraded dynamic model for threat protection detections/alerts. It’s beginning in June 2025 and completing by July 2025. The change is going to beef up speed/accuracy of threat response capabilities and the new model is sure to enhance security as it updates detection logic based on evolving threats which ensures optimal protection. That said, legacy policies will be temporarily visible but will be disabled, and the transition will happen seamlessly without impacting current security coverage.
Impact
The new dynamic detection model enables security teams to react faster to new threats. Now detections can be added/updated/removed responding to emerging risks and the first batch of policies includes rules for suspicious inbox manipulation, email deletion, email forwarding, activity from anonymous proxies, botnet associated IP addresses, and whatnot.
These will be automatically applied. That said, customers will benefit from better capabilities of threat detection without requiring any manual configuration. Over time, all out of the box policies will migrate to the new model.
Action Needed
No action required of admins for the rollout!!
5. UpdChanges to Service Principal Access Settings in Microsoft Fabric – Action Required by July 31, 2025
Overview
Microsoft Fabric introduces a split in the existing tenant admin setting that governs service principal access to public APIs.
This change is going to create two distinct settings: one for global APIs (disabled by default) and one for permission based APIs (also enabled by default).
The transition takes place from mid May to June 2025 and all existing configurations will be retained. Admins have until August 1, 2025, to opt out of these automatic changes.
Impact:
- The new settings provide flexibility to developers as they allow them better control/access to global APIs and permission based APIs.
- The first setting controls access to global APIs i.e. workspace creation and it will be disabled by default.
- The second setting controls access to permission protected APIs and it will be enabled by default.
- Existing tenant configurations will be preserved.
- Admins who have never modified the original setting will see a prompt to accept Microsoft’s change.
Action Needed
- Review two new settings once they are introduced. Ensure they align with your organizational direction.
- Stay updated. Monitor communications from Microsoft Fabric and adjust the settings as necessary to ensure proper functionality for your organization.
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