Microsoft Modernizes Change Management for Microsoft 365

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced updates to its Microsoft 365 change management model, including expanded release audiences and AI-powered access to roadmap and release communications data. 

These updates will allow organizations to be more deliberate about how features roll out across their tenant.  This includes deciding who sees changes first and when broader deployment occurs.

As Microsoft 365 changes continue to accelerate, governance needs to keep pace; thus, with this new flexibility comes responsibility.  If you support Information Governance, eDiscovery, or legal operations, you should not assume new features are harmless or neutral.  Changes to collaboration, retention, search, or data handling can introduce real downstream risk if they are not understood early.

Now is a good moment to:

• Validate your Microsoft 365 release preferences and consider Microsoft’s new configuration options
• Confirm alignment between rollout timing and regulatory or legal review
• Ensure someone is actively monitoring the roadmap and assessing impact, not just awareness

Visibility into change is improving.  Oversight still has to be intentional.

Read the full Microsoft announcement here.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of their law firm or any of its clients.