What can you do with the Workspace 365 App Store?

The Workspace 365 App Store was launched at the end of 2018 to simplify the work of workspace admins. But what exactly can you do with it? In this blog, I explain how the App Store works and what possibilities there are for managing applications in the digital workspace.

The Workspace 365 App Store is one central, easily accessible location for all applications in the digital workspace. This allows admins and owners to create applications, enable, disable and edit them, and change their settings. The App Store is accessible from the home bar and provides a clear overview of all applications.

Create and activate apps from the App Store

As an admin or owner, you create applications from the App Store. This way, you can easily create a shortcut, Azure App (for Single Sign-On to web applications), Remote Apps (with Clientless RDP or Citrix Virtual Apps), RSS feeds and Power BI tiles.

Edit the settings

When adding a new App, you can simply adjust the name, colour, tile size and the App icon. You can also choose whether you want the App to open in a new window. Some apps have more settings, such as the RSS feed, where you can integrate external news feeds from a public RSS or internal news from your intranet, such as a SharePoint RSS feed.

Roll out role-based applications – Who has access?

Admins or owners can manage access to every application in Workspace 365. This way, you can quickly give everyone, a specific group or even an individual, access to apps. Because Workspace 365 can be linked to an Active Directory, all groups and individuals are available and you can easily manage access.

Owners

As an admin, it is possible to partially delegate management and appoint owners when setting up an application. This allows you to delegate management to managers, team leaders or teachers, to give more control over specific applications and shared tile groups.

Maintenance

It is possible that an application needs an update. Therefore, admins can plan maintenance. You set the date and the start and end time for the maintenance and add a message people will see when they try to open the application during the maintenance period. For example: “On this application, maintenance will be performed on Friday 10/07/19 between 8:00 PM and 11:00 PM.” In addition, it is possible to warn people in advance via the Announcement Centre.

Conditional Access

Lastly, with Conditional Access you can easily set conditions on the availability of applications. You set from which device the application is accessible and even from which operating system, browser, IP address and more. If an individual or group does not have access to the application, admins or owners can choose to show the application as a grey tile or to completely hide it. For example, you’re able to prevent a health care professional from opening a patient file on his or her mobile phone or from trying to open a web application that only works in Chrome in Internet Explorer.

Articles you may find interesting as well:

How Conditional Access contributes to your adaptive workspace

How to: Create a mixed RSS feed for your digital workplace

Where to find the Sharepoint RSS feed URL in Office 365