Revolutionizing the future of coding with Microsoft Copilot

Coding is a difficult and sophisticated process that requires a thorough understanding of programming languages, algorithms and data structures. For beginners, it can be a frustrating and time-consuming process.  

What if you had an automated assistant at your beck and call, ready to aid you in all types of coding inefficiencies? That dream turns into a reality with Microsoft Copilot, an AI-powered coding assistant that helps developers write better code, faster.  

Revealed at Microsoft Ignite 2023, this revolutionary copilot experience transcends web browsing, PC usage, and work scenarios, reshaping how you effortlessly access skills. Microsoft, your trusted Copilot companion, is on a mission to bring the revolutionary power of Copilot to everyone, reshaping the landscape of both professional and personal tasks. 

As of November 1, 2023, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now accessible to enterprises far and wide. Esteemed organizations such as Visa, BP, Honda, Pfizer, and Chevron, alongside partners like Accenture, EY,  KPMG,  Kyndryl, and PwC are already harnessing the remarkable capabilities of Copilot. 

The New Work Trend Index reveals that Copilot is not just a tool but a productivity and creativity enhancer, saving valuable time for users. An overwhelming 77 percent of users are reluctant to part with Copilot, citing its positive impact. Experiment results show a remarkable 29 percent overall speed boost in various tasks and a fourfold increase in catching up on missed meetings. 

Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise are now seamlessly integrated into Copilot, making it even more accessible and user-friendly. This fundamental tool includes elements like question answering, content production, data reasoning, and real-time information access via web grounding. Copilot ensures commercial data privacy while logged in with Entra ID, protecting your chat data. 

At Ignite, Microsoft Copilot Studio takes center stage, supplying a low-code tool for customizing Copilot for Microsoft 365 and creating standalone copilots. This adaptable tool combines conversational capabilities such as custom GPTs, generative AI plugins, and manual topics.  

Copilot Studio improves copilot and custom GPT customization, testing, and publishing while ensuring secure management and analytics. Integration with Copilot for Microsoft 365 is currently in preview. 

Three exciting updates were revealed at Ignite: enhanced personalization, advanced mathematical and analysis capabilities, and Copilot’s active collaboration participation.  

Users can now tailor Copilot in Word and PowerPoint to their specific roles and preferences. Furthermore, for mathematical analysis, Copilot in Excel supports natural language interaction. 

New Copilot experiences in Teams will elevate it to a valuable meeting assistant in the coming year. Copilot in collaborative notes captures meeting discussions, and Copilot in Teams channels aids in post synthesis, action item extraction, and key decision review.   

The intelligent recap, integrated into Copilot in December 2023, provides meeting summaries with key points, action items, and decisions. 

Expected in early 2024, Copilot in Outlook helps users prepare for meetings by summarizing invitation details, related emails, and documents. Copilot also streamlines email thread navigation, offering summaries and proposing follow-up actions. It can even assist in scheduling meetings on specific topics, suggesting attendees, agendas, and available time slots. 

Copilot in Loop, integrated with Microsoft Loop, supplies intelligent page creation and workspace status, offering insights into the team’s progress and upcoming deadlines. 

Soon, Copilot in Word will support catchup and comments for quick document revision insights, while Copilot in PowerPoint will leverage a brand asset and image library for AI-generated visuals. 

The Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, powered by Viva, is now in preview. It offers insights into Copilot adoption, usage metrics, and its impact on productivity across Microsoft 365 apps. 

Topics in Copilot enable businesses to effectively distribute knowledge. The Windows App introduces new preview features that connect users to Windows in the cloud across multiple platforms. In early 2024, Copilot for Microsoft 365 will be seamlessly integrated into the Windows desktop.  

Look into the most recent GPU support in Windows 365, with AI capabilities providing Cloud PC resizing recommendations. With Windows Autopatch, streamlined update management is now a reality, covering frontline worker devices and integrating updates across Windows devices, Windows 365, Microsoft 365 apps, Teams, and Microsoft Edge.  

ITCS, a leading provider of IT solutions and services, is dedicated to assisting businesses in maximizing the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot. With more than a decade’s experience of proven proficiency, our dedicated team of professionals has extensive knowledge of Microsoft Copilot deployment, training, and support, ensuring a smooth and impactful execution within your organization. 

Don’t wait. Partner with ITCS now and experience the transformative power of this groundbreaking tool. 

The world of commerce today is akin to a vast ocean, where businesses, like sailors, set sail on a voyage of discovery and growth. As we navigate this proverbial ocean, we encounter two distinct techniques that can help us steer our business in the right direction: digital selling and traditional selling methods.  

Each approach offers its unique advantages and challenges, and our challenge lies in determining which method aligns best with our resources, goals, and overall vision. In this blog, we highlight the need and necessity between the two and how businesses can optimize themselves by embracing new selling methods while maintaining some approaches from the old ones. 

Digital selling, a powerful tool in the hands of these modern-day mariners, opens a vast digital front, brimming with endless possibilities.

Like a sleek, modern vessel, this approach glides effortlessly through the vast expanse of the digital world, reaching a global audience with unprecedented ease.  

It offers a wealth of tools and strategies, from social media marketing to e-commerce, empowering businesses to engage with customers, build brand awareness, and drive sales. 

As for traditional selling, just as a coral reef provides a habitat for a diverse array of marine life, traditional selling offers a well-established framework for businesses to connect with customers and achieve their sales goals with an added touch of personal interactions between both seller and buyer. 

Despite all the tried-and-true methods that have stood the test of time, most approaches in traditional selling are slowly becoming outdated and therefore less efficient. Print advertisements, like ripples that momentarily disturb the ocean’s surface, reach a restricted audience, their impact quickly fading into the background.

Cold calls, akin to pebbles cast into the water, create fleeting disruptions that soon disappear without a trace. 

The choice between these two approaches is not a matter of replacing one with the other. Rather, it’s about finding the optimal combination that harnesses the strengths of both.  

Digital selling can amplify the reach of traditional methods, while traditional selling can add a human touch to digital interactions.

But to keep up with the times, all businesses will eventually have to shift to Digital selling methods if they want to stay afloat in these trying waters.  

While there’s a multitude of reasons why any business might employ digital selling methods to enhance their performance, we’ve compiled a compelling list that highlights the potential of this digital revolution. 

Digital selling breaks geographical boundaries, enabling businesses to connect with a global audience of billions. It’s like casting a wide net into a vast ocean, capturing a multitude of potential customers with a single sweep. Businesses are no longer confined to the limitations of physical proximity; the digital realm opens doors to a world of untapped opportunities. 

Digital selling fosters two-way communication, allowing businesses to build meaningful relationships with their customers. Through data-driven insights and targeted marketing strategies, businesses can cultivate meaningful relationships with their customers, providing them with experiences that resonate and foster loyalty. 

The wealth of data provided by digital selling serves as a compass, guiding businesses towards informed decisions and optimized strategies as they traverse the digital landscape. By leveraging the data-rich insights gained through digital selling, businesses can make informed decisions and optimize their strategies, navigating the digital landscape with certainty. 

Picture achieving your business goals without breaking the bank. Digital selling offers a cost-effective approach to marketing and sales. Compared to traditional methods, digital strategies often require less upfront investment, allowing businesses to stretch their budget further and maximize their return on investment. 

Picture your business operating around the clock, accessible to customers whenever and wherever they need you. Digital selling makes this dream a reality. E-commerce platforms, chatbots, and automated marketing campaigns empower businesses to deliver 24/7 customer service and capture sales opportunities, exceeding the limitations of time and location. 

Every business wants their brand name to become a household word, recognized and respected across the digital landscape. Digital selling makes this aspiration achievable.

Through social media engagement, content marketing, and search engine optimization, your brand visibility can be amplified, ensuring your name resonates with a wider audience and makes you known across all platforms for what you do.  

Don’t miss out on the sweeping power of digital selling. If you’re ready to transform your business and future-proof it for the digital age, it’s time to dive into the boundless opportunities that digital selling has to offer.  

At ITCS, we have more than a decade of experience in helping businesses achieve their goals and reach their strategic objectives. Contact us today to discuss how our experts can help you implement successful digital selling strategies for your business.  

T

Thunderbird is a free email application that’s easy to set up and customize – and it’s loaded with great features. Thunderbird will need to be updated to version 77.0.b1 or higher in order to work with Office 365. You can download the latest version of Thunderbird here.

Pre-requisites

You need to ensure that you have already configured app registration in Azure Active Directory and granted users access to use the application. If not please follow steps in our earlier blog here.

Setting up Thunderbird

• Launch Thunderbird. Select +New, Existing Email Account from the ‘hamburger’ menu.
• Enter your name and e-mail address. You can leave the password empty. Press Continue to have Thunderbird figure out where your mailbox is hosted. This should discover your account in Office 365.
  The settings you see should be:

Username: username@domain.com
Password: Office 365 password
Protocol: IMAP
Incoming (IMAP): outlook.office365.com SSL
Outgoing (SMTP): smtp.office365.com STARTTLS

• Click Done to confirm the creation of your account. If you are prompted for your password, hit Cancel.
• Navigate to Account Settings -> Server Settings.
• Under Authentication method, select OAuth2.
• Navigate to Account Settings -> Outgoing Server.
• Under Authentication method, select OAuth2.
• Close the Account Settings. Select your Inbox, and you should be prompted with the Office 365 login page.

Manual Server Information

Username: username@domain.com
Password: Office 365 password

Incoming: IMAP
Server: outlook.office365.com
Port: 993
SSL Enabled: Yes
Authentication: OAuth2

Outgoing: SMTP
Server: smtp.office365.com
Port: 587
SSL Enabled: STARTTLS
Authentication: OAuth2

Microsoft has disabled Basic authentication for most Exchange Online protocols. Microsoft has documented the requirements and configuration steps to use OAuth with POP/IMAP in Microsoft 365 in this article: Authenticate an IMAP, POP or SMTP connection using OAuth | Microsoft Docs. You’ll see details about the registration of the required Azure AD applications and the permissions required for the access token to give Exchange Online the authorization of the mailbox access request.

OAuth 2.0 Authentication

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) supports two kinds of OAuth 2.0 authentication:

• Delegated authentication is suitable for desktop, mobile or web applications with signed-in user present.
  This mode is described in detail in another article.
• App-only authentication is suitable for services or daemons with no user present. Instead, these unattended applications authenticate using client secrets (application credentials) to receive an access token, which is then used to gain access to a mailbox using IMAP, POP3 or EWS protocols.

Register your application

In Azure Portal ⇒ expand the left menu ⇒ select Azure Active Directory ⇒ select App registrations ⇒ click + New registration. (Azure Portal is constantly evolving, so if you cannot find this page, use the search bar.)

Name your application, choose which kind of accounts are going to use it, and click Register.

Once you successfully register your application you can view its associated IDs. Some of them will be needed later to obtain an OAuth 2.0 token.

Set up client secret (application password)

In the left menu, select Certificates & secrets ⇒ click + New client secret.

Provide some description for this secret, choose expiration period, and click Add.

Immediately copy and save the newly created client secret’s Value (not Secret ID). You will not be able to view the Value later anymore.

Add app permissions

In the left menu, select API permissions ⇒ click + Add a permission.

Navigate to APIs my organization uses tab ⇒ type Office 365 Exchange in the search bar ⇒ click Office 365 Exchange Online entry.

Click Application permissions ⇒ type AccessAsApp ⇒ check IMAP.AccessAsApp and/or POP.AccessAsApp ⇒ click Add permissions.

The newly-added IMAP.AccessAsApp and POP.AccessAsApp permissions have to be approved by your organization’s administrator. Ask them to grant consent to your application by clicking Grant admin consent for [organization].

Add mailbox access permissions

Before you proceed, make sure you have AzureAD and ExchangeOnlineManagement PowerShell modules installed. If not then run the commands below to install them.

Install-Module -Name AzureAD
Install-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement

Next we need to fetch the principal ID for the application we just created using the Azure Portal. Fill in the App ID and Tenant Id and run the following:

$AppId = "YOUR_APP_ID_HERE"
$TenantId = "YOUR_TENANT_ID_HERE"
Import-module AzureAD
Connect-AzureAd -Tenant $TenantId
($Principal = Get-AzureADServicePrincipal -filter "AppId eq '$AppId'")
$PrincipalId = $Principal.ObjectId

Now we need to register the service principal for your application

$DisplayName = "Service Principal for IMAP/POP3"
Import-module ExchangeOnlineManagement
Connect-ExchangeOnline -Organization $TenantId
New-ServicePrincipal -AppId $AppId -ServiceId $PrincipalId -DisplayName $DisplayName

Add FullAccess mailbox permissions to all mailboxes you want to access from your application using:

Add-MailboxPermission -User $PrincipalId -AccessRights FullAccess -Identity "mailbox.1@domain.org"
Add-MailboxPermission -User $PrincipalId -AccessRights FullAccess -Identity "mailbox.2@domain.org"
Add-MailboxPermission -User $PrincipalId -AccessRights FullAccess -Identity "mailbox.3@domain.org"

At this point you have registered an application for accessing Office 365 mailboxes via IMAP or POP3 protocol and received its Application (client) ID, Client secret and Directory (tenant) ID.

These strings are going to be used by your application to authenticate to Microsoft 365 via OAuth 2.0 and receive an OAuth token. This token is then used to authenticate to Exchange Online using IMAP or POP3 protocols.