Microsoft Application Details

By default, add-ins are blocked for Microsoft applications. Requesting that an add-in be enabled enables it for the whole PennO365 tenant; As such, it needs a more thorough review than might be expected for an individual add-in. This InfoSec review process has several stages, but the main tasks of the LSP are:

• To enter a ticket about the intended use and properties of the proposed add-in
• To bring the proposed add-in to the O365 Advisory Team (OAT) with basic information about use and risk
• To email either Purchasing Services (for low-risk) or OIS (for medium-risk and high-risk) if OAT agrees with the risk assessment

This is a document outlining the specifics of the whole process and a flowchart outlining the general process of the add-in request:

PennO365 Add-In Process (DOC)

Flowchart (PDF) / Flowchart (PNG)

The Microsoft documentation for this product is available at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/bookings/bookings-overview.

Please be aware that our tenant is configured so that all shared bookings accounts begin with "bookings-" and the email address for these accounts uses the bookings.penno365.upenn.edu domain. For example, if you create a shared booking account called "SAS-Helpdesk", the UPN for the account will be "bookings-sas-helpdesk@upenn.edu" but the email address for the account will be "bookings-sas-helpdesk@bookings.penno365.upenn.edu" 

The UPN is not a valid email address.

Office 365 Groups is designed to promote and facilitate collaboration. Other O365 applications utilize Groups’ functionality to allow collaboration between teammates when writing documents, creating spreadsheets, working on project plans, scheduling meetings or sending email. All PennO365 users are able to create Groups. A new Group creates a collection of shared resources (a distribution list, mailbox, calendar, document space, and OneNote notebook) that multiple O365 users can access.

Creating Groups

Groups, public or private, can be created by any PennO365 account holder. By default, the person who creates the Group is assigned as its administrator. Private Groups are restricted to members only. Public Groups are viewable by any student, faculty or staff member with a PennO365 mailbox. Guests can be added to Groups. Group names are searchable in the directory and will have a contact card listing Group membership.  The PennO365 service keeps an audit log that records Groups and the users who created them.

Group Administrators

Administrators can add and remove Group members, elevate members to administrator status and rename or delete the Group. Group administrators should exercise caution when deleting Groups as all conversations, email, files, calendar events and related Group information are permanently removed and cannot be recovered. Group administrators who are leaving the University should elevate another member to administrator to ensure the group can continue to be used.

Group Names

Office 365 Groups at Penn are limited to the o365lists.upenn.edu domain. Group names should be descriptive, specific and should not contain abbreviations. Additionally, Group names should not be the same as University departments or organizations unless those entities are creating and administering the Group. It is highly recommended that Group names adhere to the PennO365 non-PennKey account naming standards to avoid Group name collisions. ISC reserves the right to disable any Groups with a name that is deemed offensive by the Penn community, is used for harassment or threats, or adversely affects the business operations of the University.

Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to analyze data and share insights. Power BI is a personal report and visualization tool and can also serve as the analytics and decision engine behind group projects, divisions, or entire organizations.

Power BI consists of a Windows desktop application called Power BI Desktop, an online SaaS (Software as a Service) service called the Power BI service, and mobile Power BI apps available on Windows phones and tablets, as well as for iOS and Android devices.

Power BI free vs Power BI Pro

Power BI free and Pro licenses are different based on the kind of content users can consume. If the content is built on data that is routinely refreshed and they need to collaborate and share data with groups, a Pro license is appropriate.

Power BI Pro can be acquired through the Client Care Remedy Request process. Submit a request for Pro via this Link: Request Pro

As part of our agreement with Microsoft, PennO365 provides functionality to store files in SharePoint, which also includes the OneDrive functionality. SharePoint/OneDrive is primarily designed for collaboration with other individuals using Microsoft Office tools as well as the backup of personal Office documents.

Size Restrictions

Microsoft imposes a default individual limit of 1TB of SharePoint storage, which should be more than adequate for the storage of the type of files that the functionality is designed for. Because of the size restriction, the individual SharePoint/OneDrive functionality is not appropriate for the storage of:

• System backups
• Large datasets or databases
• Large picture collections
• Other sharing of large data files

PennO365 provides the functionality of a Penn Organizational SharePoint site, with a storage limit of 50TB. Additionally, a 'Teams' site can be used, with a limit of 25TB. Either of these options should be adequate for larger, team-oriented storage of collaboration files.

Account Deprovisioning

Further note that storage for an individual SharePoint/OneDrive will use the same life-cycle as a PennO365 individual account and will normally be deleted, without possibility of recovery, 90 days after an account loses eligibility for PennO365.

Other Storage Options

Note that ISC provides a variety of storage options for use by the Penn community, including BackItUp, network-attached storage, and PennBox. Additionally, a variety of cloud based storage at Microsoft Azure and AWS is available with a pay as you go model.

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool designed to consolidate numerous aspects of teamwork by providing a centralized portal for communication methods such as instant messaging, team meetings, video conferencing, and file sharing. See this page for a full overview.