Microsoft first rolled out its new activity dashboard in March, allowing access to various information on how services are being used. It gives details of usage from the individual user all the way to each specific workload.
As an expansion of this service, Microsoft has announced three new reports. These cover SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Exchange Online.
SharePoint Online Usage Report
As you would expect, SharePoint’s report gives details on how customers are using team sites. It shows which users are active, how they engage with files stored on the site, and who they are sharing documents with.
In the future, Microsoft will expand this further to include page visits and other actions.
The Office 365 team has also updated the dashboard itself. A new card gives a high-level summary of all user activity on the site. This provides an overview of the total number of files and how many of them users engage with. Microsoft displays SharePoint data next to everything else so that you can get an overview of it all in a single glance.
OneDrive for Business Usage Report
The OneDrive for Business report is fairly straightforward. It lets you see who is using OneDrive within Office 365. This combines with the existing OneDrive report to gives a complete view of how employees are using the service.
For example, the new report will show how many times a user is engaging with files and which users sync the files to a machine. This can help identify the users that need training without the need for surveys or other methods.
Exchange Online Usage Report
The Exchange Online report also combines with an existing service. The current approach monitors email activity, whereas the new report gives a bigger overview.
It shows which mailboxes are being used, how many items are stored in each user’s mailbox, and how much storage these will take up. This is invaluable in identifying which users are close to storage capacity and who needs a clean out.
Microsoft has more reports in the pipeline, too. Office 365, Yammer Groups, Skype, Office 365 and more will receive updates in the coming months. The Power BI content pack is in the works too, and will start rolling out in fall.
You can read all of the details about the reports over on the Office blog.