365 Explained

Ben & Zach
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365 Explained is a podcast where two nerdy friends, Zach and Ben, pick apart the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, one topic at a time. Each episode, we take a practical look at a specific tool, feature, or concept from the M365 world. We explore what it is, how it works, and where it fits in the broader picture. Expect real-world context, occasional rants, and the odd tangent. Whether you're an IT pro, a power user, or just trying to keep up with the pace of change, we’re here to help you make sense of it all. No hype. No fluff. Just two people trying to explain the thing behind the thing based on their years in the Microsoft technology front-lines.

  1. Sep 24

    014 - Microsoft 365 Message Center: 2,500 changes a year, but who's reading them?!

    How many unread items are sat in your Message Center right now? We counted at the top of this one, and between the three of us we had 2,179. In episode fourteen of 365 Explained, Ben and Zach are joined by Tom Arbuthnot of Empowering.Cloud, whose team watches close to a hundred tenants' Message Centers, to work out how you turn that pile into decisions: what to read, who owns it, and what happens next. In this episode, we explore: ◆ Roadmap versus Message Center, and why one is public direction of travel and the other is what's actually landing in your tenant ◆ Why no two tenants see the same list: licensing, geo, tenant type, and messages targeted right down to a single customer ◆ The numbers — around 2,500 messages a year for a typical tenant, of which roughly 260 genuinely matter ◆ 60% of messages changed at some point last year, against a product that keeps no change history at all (so good luck proving what it originally said) ◆ What notice you actually get, and why it's a window rather than a date ◆ Who can see Message Center, and why the internal comms team expected to announce the changes usually can't ◆ Frontier, Standard and Deferred: three release audiences replacing the targeted release model you already know ◆ The native gap. No assignment, no sign-off, no audit trail, and a Planner sync that keeps dragging your triaged items back to square one ◆ Multi-tenant and MSPs: Lighthouse saves you the logins and not much else, and partners get no early access or secret feed ◆ The two MCP servers, one you point a URL at and one that wants an enterprise app, consent and an exposed endpoint (guess which one we'd recommend) ◆ Azure updates — a separate feed again, and just as noisy ◆ What good looks like: named owners per product area, items that get assigned rather than eyeballed, and a written record of why you said yes or no Plus the cautionary tale: a message about Android devices, an Intune team who said "we don't allow Android, ignore it", and every Teams phone in the building going offline. Teams phones run Android. Whether you've got a Message Center you've never opened, or you're the one person in the org who does read it and then can't get anyone to act on it, this one's for you. So who owns Message Center where you work? Be honest, "whoever notices first" is an answer. Let us know. Follow the show for a new episode on the last Thursday of the month. The video version is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Hj1rLZHhLEM

  2. Aug 27

    013 - Teams Rooms: hardware, licensing, and the bits nobody warns you about!

    What turns a meeting room into a Teams Room? After twelve episodes of software, Ben and Zach finally walk into the physical world — with guest Carsten Meilbak, MVP and meeting-room consultant, as the guide. In episode thirteen of 365 Explained: ◆ Windows vs Android rooms — the Skype legacy, all-in-one bars, and where each one fits ◆ Certified hardware, and why "Teams optimised" isn't a thing — plus sizing kit to the room, not the demo ◆ The vendor ecosystem: HP, Yealink, Cisco running native Teams inside a Webex box, Lenovo, Jabra and friends ◆ Scheduling panels — the most underrated device in the portfolio: check-in, auto-release, and extending bookings from the corridor ◆ Room types from huddle spaces to meeting pods (and the quiet death of the content camera) ◆ Licensing: Teams Rooms Basic vs Pro, and Carsten's case that there's really only one licence once you look at security ◆ The Pro Management portal becoming the single portal for every Teams device as Teams admin center device management is decommissioned — custom update rings, templates, vendor settings and anonymised call-quality data ◆ BYOD rooms: crowdsourced peripheral discovery, the Teams Shared Space licence, and the upgrade path to a proper room ◆ AI in the room: speaker attribution without a Copilot licence, edge AI vs IntelliFrame, and a teaser of rooms growing agents And Carsten closes with the war story to end them all: 800 cancelled meetings, 20 dead rooms, and an Intune policy that was rolled back nine months earlier. Rollbacks are never 110%. Prefer audio? Find 365 Explained on your usual podcast platform: https://redcircle.com/shows/e0528b70-77d2-46bf-a69a-ba4345a8f493 #TeamsRooms #MicrosoftTeams #Microsoft365 #365Explained

  3. Jul 30

    012 – Teams Phone: the phone system you might already own

    What actually is Teams Phone? After episodes on voice apps, the Queues app and full contact centres, Ben and Zach finally go back to the beginning. In episode twelve of 365 Explained, Zach takes the lead and covers Teams Phone from the ground up: ◆ What a PBX is, and why Teams Phone is one living in the cloud ◆ The four ways to get phone lines into Teams — Calling Plans, Direct Routing, Operator Connect and Teams Phone Mobile — and how to pick between them ◆ Emergency calling and the regulatory side, plus where to check country coverage ◆ Licensing: Teams Phone Standard, the bit you might already own in E5, and Shared Calling ◆ The PBX table stakes — hold, transfers, forwarding, multi-line, presence-based routing and cloud voicemail ◆ SIP Gateway for keeping older handsets (and the phone on the warehouse wall) working ◆ What happens when the internet goes down: SBAs, redundant ISPs and satellite backups ◆ Copilot in Teams Phone — Teams Phone agent, Copilot call delegation, mid-call Copilot and AI transfer summaries Whether you've inherited a Teams Phone estate or you're staring at a PBX contract renewal wondering if there's a better way, this is the grounding episode. We say 101, but naturally it gets complicated fairly quickly. What's carrying your calls today: Calling Plans, Operator Connect, Direct Routing, or a PBX that refuses to die? Let us know. #TeamsPhone #MicrosoftTeams #Microsoft365 #Copilot #365Explained

  4. Jun 25

    011 – Power Automate for IT pros: it's not just for citizen developers

    What is Power Automate, really, and why should an IT Pro care when it’s usually pitched at citizen developers? In episode eleven of 365 Explained, Ben and Zach look at Power Automate from the admin’s side of the fence. We cover: How triggers, actions and connectors fit togetherCloud flows, desktop flows and generative flowsWhen a personal flow should probably become an Azure Logic AppPower Platform environments and why they matterStandard and premium connectorsThe Workflows app in Teams and its slightly confusing AI workflowsHow Power Automate supports parts of Copilot Studio and agent flowsWhether you’re new to Power Automate or you’ve been using flows without looking too closely at what sits underneath them, this is our attempt at a 101. We say 101, but naturally it gets complicated fairly quickly. What are you automating with Power Automate, and where do you draw the line between a personal flow and a proper business process? Let us know. #PowerAutomate #PowerPlatform #Microsoft365 #CopilotStudio #365Explained

  5. May 28

    010 – Teams call queues vs a full contact centre: where's the line?

    Recorded live at CommsvNext in Denver, Colorado. Ben and Zach are joined by Oli Lifely from Luware to talk about what happens when native Teams call queues aren't enough and you need a full contact center. In this episode, we cover: The three Microsoft certification models for contact center integration: Connect, Extend, and the newly renamed UnifyHow each model handles the call differently — from SIP trunk hairpinning to Graph API signallingWhat a contact center adds beyond Queues App: skills-based routing, cradle-to-grave reporting, omni-channel, and outboundWhere AI fits beyond chatbots — proactive SLA monitoring, natural language workflow configuration, and automated remediationThe biggest mistakes organisations make when migrating off legacy PBXs to TeamsWhether you're hitting the limits of Queues App or planning a move off Avaya, Mitel, or Cisco, this one's for you.

  6. Mar 26

    009 – How Microsoft 365 updates reach your tenant, and how much control you've got

    How does Microsoft actually roll out updates across M365 — and how much control do you really have? Ben and Zach break down the update lifecycle across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem in episode seven of 365 Explained. In this episode, we explore: The "rings" model — from dev teams to dogfooding to your tenantTargeted release vs standard release — and where to find the settingsOffice app update channels — current, monthly enterprise, and semi-annual (spoiler: Microsoft no longer recommends semi-annual for most users)How Teams updates differently to the rest of OfficeThe OneDrive sync client and its own update ringsWhere Windows fits into the pictureMessage Centre vs the M365 Roadmap — and why you need to watch bothHow Copilot Frontier adds yet another layer to all of thisWhether you're an admin trying to get ahead of changes, or you're just tired of users asking "why don't I have that feature yet?", this one's for you. Or listen on all good & bad podcasting platforms alike

  7. Mar 11

    008 – Microsoft 365 E7: what's in the new Frontier Suite (and the $99 question)

    Microsoft has announced Microsoft 365 E7, "The Frontier Suite", the first new enterprise tier above E5 since 2015. It goes GA on May 1st at $99/user/month, wrapping E5, Copilot, Agent 365 and the full Entra Suite into one SKU. In this episode, Ben and Zach break down what's inside E7, how the enterprise licensing ladder has evolved from E1 through to E7, and whether the pricing math adds up vs buying à la carte. They also get into what's still missing from the bundle (Teams Premium, calling plans, attendee packs) and whether E7 actually solves the add-on sprawl problem. There are also questions Microsoft hasn't answered yet: is Agent 365 a tenant-level unlock or a per-user licence? Who do you actually need to licence? And what does this mean for organisations still on E3 or E5? Topics covered: History of Microsoft enterprise SKUs (E1, E3, E4, E5, E7)What E7 adds: Copilot, Agent 365, Entra Suite, advanced securityPricing breakdown: $99 bundled vs $117 à la carteWhat's NOT included: Teams Premium, calling plans, attendee packsThe Agent 365 licensing questionWho should consider E7 vs staying on E5Links: Microsoft announcement: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/03/09/introducing-the-first-frontier-suite-built-on-intelligence-trust/Microsoft 365 blog: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/03/09/powering-frontier-transformation-with-copilot-and-agents/

  8. Feb 26

    007 – Copilot Frontier: what it is, and why it keeps appearing in your admin centre

    Copilot Frontier keeps showing up across M365 admin centres, but it's not well explained and the documentation doesn't make it much easier. In this episode, Ben and Zach dig into what Frontier actually is, why it exists as a separate thing from targeted release, and what's in it right now. From Researcher and Analyst agents through to the Opal computer use agent. We talk through the admin controls (and the inconsistencies across them), licensing questions nobody has answers to yet, MCP servers appearing under the Frontier banner, and whether you should turn it on for your users. We'd love to hear what you're doing with Frontier in your environments. Get in touch on LinkedIn or leave a comment on YouTube.

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About

365 Explained is a podcast where two nerdy friends, Zach and Ben, pick apart the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, one topic at a time. Each episode, we take a practical look at a specific tool, feature, or concept from the M365 world. We explore what it is, how it works, and where it fits in the broader picture. Expect real-world context, occasional rants, and the odd tangent. Whether you're an IT pro, a power user, or just trying to keep up with the pace of change, we’re here to help you make sense of it all. No hype. No fluff. Just two people trying to explain the thing behind the thing based on their years in the Microsoft technology front-lines.

Information

  • Creator
    Ben & Zach
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    365 Explained

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