Microsoft adds new usage reports for SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange in Office 365

The Office 365 Team announced today they are adding three new usage reports to admin’s usage activity dashboard. Admins will now be able to view usage reports for SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Exchange Online in addition to the existing reports.

Office 365’s usage dashboard was first introduced in March. These reports help Office 365 admins keep tabs on each Office 365 app and the organization’s users’ activity levels.

SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online’s new activity report helps paint the picture of how teams and employees on those teams use their SharePoint team sites to help collaborate on files in the cloud. In addition to tracking when files have been “created, modified, deleted or shared” (internally or externally), admins can also see which documents are syncing to local machines.

There is also a new bar graph to help convey a key metric for user adoption of SharePoint Online. The bar graph tracks file activity levels relative to the number of assigned license to SharePoint Online. The view of the graph quickly illustrates if increases in usage are keeping pace with an increase in active users.

OneDrive for Business

Similarly, the OneDrive for Business activity report helps admins track how much users are using OneDrive. Admins can see things like how OneDrive is being used to collaborate across the organization and track how much is syncing back to local machines.

The Office 365 Team adds this report will be especially helpful to “identify users that might need additional training and communication around how OneDrive can help them to store files and collaborate with others or users that need support.”

Exchange Online

Last is the Office 365’s new Mailbox usage report. This helps admins see how their organization’s Exchange Online mailboxes are being used. Similar to the other reports, the Mailbox usage reports tracks usage levels to see who is or isn’t using their mailboxes. It also shows how much is stored in each inbox and who might be quickly approaching capacity.

The Office 365 Team ended their post today with a list of things they are working on. Office 365 admins can expect more reports in the future for things like “Office 365 Groups, Yammer groups, clients used per product, i.e., email or Skype, and Office 365 licenses.” The Office 365 Team will also be introducing a Power BI content pack to allow more detail analysis of Office 365 usage data and public APIs so usage data can be incorporated into custom applications.