What You Need to Know About the Integration of LinkedIn in Office 365

Microsoft announced the integration of LinkedIn features in Office 365 during Ignite 2017, and rollout has now started – but what exactly does this involve? Our expert knows all the facts about the Office 365/LinkedIn rollout.

Microsoft is now connecting its two networking services Microsoft Office 365 and LinkedIn. So it will now be possible, for instance, to display and directly integrate LinkedIn contacts in Outlook. Among other things, this integration aims to simplify communication and give users the opportunity to obtain more information about their e-mail partners, without needing to take a circuitous route via another portal. Comparable features are also planned for Microsoft Dynamics 365, although it’s likely that only the Sales variant of Dynamics will be supported.

Not all of the functions will be available in the Office 365 products at the start of LinkedIn integration. The functions will be rolled out first in Outlook Web Access and its Calendar, as well as in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online. The following screenshots show integration in Outlook Online:

These functions have been earmarked for inclusion in the Outlook desktop client, Dynamics, Cortana and other Office 365 services over the coming months. There are also plans to support the Outlook and SharePoint mobile apps.

The integration of LinkedIn for Office 365 will not take place directly in the Office 365 Admin Center, and instead in the connected Azure Active Directory. An enable feature for user groups is currently not available, and the either/or principle will apply.

Users proceed as follows to enable LinkedIn integration:

Login Office 365 –> “Administration” -> “Admin Center” -> “Azure AD” (opens in a new browser window) -> “Azure Active Directory Admin Center” -> “Azure Active Directory” > “User Settings” – and then check the box to enable LinkedIn.

The access function integrated in Office 365 does not inform users that someone has viewed their profile, unlike when accessing individual profiles directly in the LinkedIn Portal. It is currently not documented – or I am unaware – which data will actually be exchanged, so I can only refer to the following Microsoft slide at this point:

The Office 365 backend tool Office Graph enables integration of LinkedIn. Office Graph facilitates the connection of various sources to make the users more easily accessible. It is a cloud-based machine learning method (ML) that is built around a self-learning algorithm. For more information about Office Graph, click here.