Microsoft Launches Centralized Deployment for Office 365

Microsoft has announced the general availability of a Centralized Deployment service for Office 365 web add-ins.

The feature allows administrators to easily deploy add-ins to a single user, groups or entire organizations, through the Office 365 admin center or via PowerShell scripts.

Centralized Deployment service was unveiled and previewed near the end of 2016.

“Users can simply open Office applications – such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint on Windows, Mac or Office Online – to see the add-ins installed on their ribbon,” the company announced in a post on its Office Blogs. “This allows organizations – large and small – to easily extend Office with high-value services across all platforms.”

To illustrate the service’s utility, Microsoft cited the use case of Canadian surveillance and access control solutions firm, Genetec Inc.

Genetec employed Qorus add-ins for Office 365, which are designed to make it easier to search for appropriate content to add to pitches, proposals, reports and emails.

“Genetec’s bid response team recognized the need to increase the effectiveness and value of its content,” Microsoft said in a separate but related blog post. “Qorus worked with the team to centralize content in Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft OneDrive for Business, creating a single Microsoft platform to facilitate well-managed content.”

“The Qorus add-ins simplify the creation of new documents and increase collaboration with subject matter experts,” the post continues. “Content usage is also tracked, giving Genetec employees powerful perspectives on its effectiveness.”

Centralized Deployment is available in all supported Office languages and is compatible with all recent versions of Office and OAuth-enabled versions of Exchange.

“Telemetry will be available shortly for IT admins to see data about deployments and usage in reports in the Office 365 admin center, and for developers to see their add-in deployments in the Office ISV Seller Dashboard, their developer portal,” the blog states.

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