Summary
We’re at a crossroads. The world is shifting; economies are increasingly unstable, AI promises transformation yet demands caution, and the cloud, while powerful, can feel like a labyrinth. At ENow, we’ve always believed that technology should empower, not overwhelm. We're pleased to introduce ENow EMS 8.3, a release born from listening to customer challenges and crafting solutions that not only address them but redefine what’s possible in Microsoft 365 management.
EMS 8.3 addresses the challenges of economic uncertainty by optimizing Microsoft 365 licensing and storage costs. New licensing reports identify unlicensed users, enabling procurement teams to trim subscriptions, renegotiate agreements, and eliminate waste while enhancing security. Detailed storage cost reports for Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint, including a dedicated Unlicensed OneDrive Accounts report, help avoid penalties and maintain collaboration. The expanded M365 License Optimization Practice provides expert guidance for navigating and negotiating complex Enterprise Agreements, ensuring maximum contract value and favorable terms and outcomes to match your organization’s needs.
For organizations adopting Microsoft Copilot, EMS 8.3 introduces the Copilot Center dashboard and Organizational Readiness Reports to ensure secure and effective deployment. These tools assess readiness, monitor usage, and enforce data protection policies like DLP and retention, safeguarding sensitive data, ensuring your critical corporate data is not exposed unintentionally. Enhanced visibility into external sharing prevents leaks, while LMS-based Copilot training drives adoption, transforming AI into a strategic asset with robust governance and compliance.
EMS 8.3 also enhances cloud monitoring by reducing false positives through fine-tuned alert thresholds and customizable settings tailored to your environment. Granular email configurations ensure the right alerts reach the right teams, minimizing inbox clutter. With improved reliability and focus, EMS 8.3 empowers IT teams to manage Microsoft 365 efficiently, turning complexity into opportunity for cost savings, security, and productivity.
ENow for Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Monitoring
Enhancements:
This report will now offer the top-level storage usage information by workload. The Mailbox Storage Usage, SharePoint Storage Usage, and OneDrive Storage Usage columns all include a new hyperlink to a report regarding details for each mailbox, SharePoint, or OneDrive site that contributes to the storage usage.
The enhanced Microsoft 365 Storage Report enables users to effectively monitor and optimize storage usage across Exchange, OneDrive, and SharePoint. It helps prevent costly SharePoint read-only restrictions by keeping storage within limits and allows administrators to delegate tasks to site owners, freeing up time for more critical responsibilities.
License Optimization
New Features:
This release includes three new reports that focus on unlicensed users:
- All Unlicensed Users
- Microsoft 365 Unlicensed Users
- Non-Microsoft Unlicensed Users
These new additions to the License Report Pack will provide details to assist license procurement administrators in verifying, adjusting license subscriptions, modifying license subscription agreements that are no longer needed, and managing many other license subscription-related settings.
These reports will help license procurement administrators properly govern the inventory of license subscriptions and improve security while also preventing wasteful spending. This includes tracking wasteful spending for Microsoft subscriptions and third-party subscriptions such as Adobe, Zoom, Slack, Cisco, etc.
Add the Total Unassigned value to the Add Non-Microsoft license window (20857).
By adding the unassigned value to the configuration of the non-Microsoft license, we can now support tracking wasteful spend on third-party subscriptions.
Enhancements:
Enhance the Candidates for License Optimization report output options (18336, 20900).
Many customers have grown to rely heavily on the Candidates for License Optimization report recommendations, but have had to manually adjust the suggested output when exporting to CSV. Some of these adjustments were related to the hard-coded time frame that the report output was based on or the number of recommended SKUs to add, to save money.
In this release, we offer a solution to each of these concerns. The “Days of inactivity” settings are now configurable up to 180 days, and the “How many individual licenses should be recommended?” setting has been increased to 5. When either of these settings has been changed, it will force reprocessing of the Candidates for License Optimization report with the updated settings applied for more accurate, fine-tuned results.
Enhance the Microsoft 365 License Cost and All License Cost reports (20867, 20858).
We improved the column output of the Microsoft 365 License Cost and All License Cost reports. A hyperlink is now available for the Assigned and Inactive column values to provide complete details to the users assigned to the license SKU. We have also replaced the " Unallocated " column label with “Unassigned” to provide clarity and align with other license reports.
Enhance the License Workload Usage by User report (20870).
We improved the chart and column output of the License Workload Usage by User report. This information is helpful to understand if there are any usage gaps based on the license assigned. For example, if a user assigned a Microsoft 365 E5 is only utilizing their Exchange mailbox via the web and the total size is only a few GB, then this user is a single workload user. Based on this information, an administrator or procurement associate can confidently downgrade the user to either an Office 365 E1 or Exchange Online Plan 1.
Send the catalog of Microsoft 365 License SKUs, default costs, and friendly names to all customers (20643).
ENow can set the default costs that Microsoft publishes for the most popular Microsoft 365 subscription licenses for all customers.
True Adoption Center
New Features:
New Copilot Center Dashboard
The Copilot Center Dashboard in 8.3 provides a simplified and centralized hub for managing Microsoft Copilot deployment, featuring insights on Copilot ROI, Copilot License Readiness, Copilot Organizational Readiness, and Copilot User Adoption. With this data, you can prepare your tenant, ensure licenses are assigned to appropriate users, monitor usage and adoption, and measure ROI while enforcing data protection policies to prevent sensitive data exposure of corporate data assets. It supports enhanced security and compliance, and drives effective AI adoption through LMS-based training, making Copilot a secure and strategic asset.
Introducing Copilot ROI Score (20874).
The ENow True Adoption Score now offers a customizable Copilot ROI score using your tenant's complete data set of user-based Copilot interactions. Combining this data with average compensation data provides a more accurate way to calculate the return on investment of Copilot licenses purchased for your organization. Eliminate all the guesswork by using a simplified approach to enabling only the metrics that matter to your specific departments within the organization. You have complete control over setting the pattern of the Copilot ROI Score.
Governance Reporting
New Features:
The new Copilot Governance Report Pack includes eight new Copilot Organizational Readiness Reports. They provide details for organizations to prepare their inventory of SharePoint and OneDrive sites, folders, and files before implementing Copilot. The new reports are:
All SharePoint Files Shared Externally
All SharePoint Folders Shared Externally
The reports not only strengthen security and compliance but also drive operational efficiency and enhance the effectiveness of AI-driven business processes, directly supporting the company's long-term strategic goals. The SharePoint external sharing reports enhance security and compliance by identifying externally shared files and folders, reducing data leak risks and ensuring only trusted content is used by Copilot. They streamline governance, support regulatory compliance, and improve operational efficiency by enabling proactive cleanup and informed collaboration decisions.
All OneDrive Files Shared Externally
All OneDrive Folders Shared Externally
The OneDrive external sharing reports provide visibility into externally shared files and folders, reducing the risk of Copilot exposing sensitive data while ensuring compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and internal policies. They enhance security by identifying unmanaged shares, minimize data leaks, and optimize OneDrive usage with Microsoft 365 features like sensitivity labels and conditional access.
All SharePoint Sites without External Sharing Enabled
This report enhances security by highlighting sites restricted to internal users, reducing data leak risks and ensuring Copilot only accesses governed content. It simplifies access controls, supports compliance with regulations by clearly separating internal and external data, and provides a clear foundation for piloting Copilot in secure, controlled environments.
All SharePoint Sites without a Microsoft 365 Group Connected
This report enables organizations to enhance collaboration by connecting sites to Microsoft 365 Groups, to seamlessly integrate with tools like Teams, Outlook, and Planner for improved teamwork and communication. Connecting a Site to a Group simplifies management by centralizing permissions and security, ensuring consistent governance and compliance while reducing administrative complexity. The report provides better oversight through group-based management, offering clear visibility into site usage and enabling automated lifecycle management to eliminate unused resources. Additionally, connected Sites and Groups enhance productivity with a unified search experience across Microsoft 365, making content discovery easier, and delivers a streamlined, consistent user experience with single sign-on access across applications.
All SharePoint Sites without a Sensitivity Label
This report quickly identifies which Sites do not have Sensitivity Labels. Using this information, organizations can implement Sensitivity Labels on all Sites strengthening overall data governance, improving risk management, and enhancing operational agility. Using Sensitivity Labels strengthens data security and compliance by enabling automatic encryption, access controls, and policy enforcement (e.g., DLP, retention) for sensitive data. It enhances Copilot accuracy, standardizes data classification, and improves search efficiency, ensuring better governance and regulatory alignment.
All SharePoint Sites That Are Private and Shared with Everyone
This report identifies SharePoint sites configured as private but shared with all users in the organization. It provides details on these sites to help administrators review and adjust access settings for better security and governance before implementing tools like Copilot. This report enhances security by highlighting private SharePoint sites with overly broad access, reducing the risk of unintended data exposure through Copilot or other tools. It supports compliance by ensuring access aligns with governance policies and streamlines administration by enabling quick identification and correction of misconfigured permissions.
Key Differentiators of the ENow Copilot Organizational Readiness Reports
ENow's Copilot Organizational Readiness Reports offer several advantages over Microsoft's built-in admin tools. Unlike Microsoft’s per-user licensing, ENow’s reports are not limited by user licenses, allowing broader access. They provide customizable views shareable with site admins and owners, empowering them to manage their sites and reducing the workload on SharePoint admins. ENow includes OneDrive in its reports, offers unlimited site monitoring, and provides detailed file-level insights with audit history up to 365 days (or longer upon request).
SharePoint/OneDrive Governance Pack - Implement new Unlicensed OneDrive Accounts report (20821).
The Unlicensed OneDrive Accounts report provides SharePoint administrators with visibility into OneDrive accounts that lack active licenses. It details accounts at risk of becoming read-only by April 25, 2025, and archived by May 16, 2025, per Microsoft’s updated policy, enabling proactive management through licensing, deletion, or archiving. This report helps prevent data loss and collaboration disruptions by identifying unlicensed OneDrive accounts before they become inaccessible. It reduces unnecessary storage and activation costs, ensures compliance with Microsoft’s licensing policies, and streamlines account management for cost-effective and secure operations.
Resolved Issues:
| 18375 | In some environments, the Candidates for License Optimization report encounters an issue when a user is over licensed with Microsoft 365 E5 and other SKUs and the Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 feature protection rule is applied with 2 SKU limit enabled. |
| 20485 | Corrected an issue for some environment where the Microsoft Teams VIP report data and Poor Call Quality dashboard data does not populate. |
| 20497 | Optimized processing of audit log data. |
| 20661 | Corrected an issue where in some environments the Over Licensed Users report presents the previous data set that was processed rather than the current data set. |
| 20699 | Corrected an issue where in some environments the Microsoft Teams Device report displays an exception rather than displaying data. |
| 20705 | Corrected an issue where in some situations the X or Twitter feed will not load when viewing the Service Health Dashboard details. |
| 20735 | Corrected an issue where in some environments the SharePoint and OneDrive reports are not updated. |
| 20816 | Add Favorite Report option does not appear for any Microsoft 365 Reports. |
| 20935 | Corrected an issue with the Candidates for License Optimization report where it will not display results when running EMS 8.2. |
| 21044 | Adjusted Non-Microsoft License Cost report to be sorted by License Cost descending order. |
| 21056 | Adjusted License Workload Usage by User report to display Power Bi Pro Last Activity Date column by default. |
| 21057 | Adjusted License Workload Usage by User report and removed Skype for Business graph. |
| 20816 | Corrected an issue in some environments with the add favorite report option not being displayed for Microsoft 365 reports. |
| 21024 | Adjusted Mailbox Usage Detail report to be sorted by Storage Used (GB) descending order. |
| 21025 | Adjusted SharePoint Site Activity report to be sorted by Storage Used (MB) descending order. |
| 21026 | Adjusted OneDrive Usage Detail report to be sorted by Storage Used (MB) descending order. |
| 21042 | Corrected an issue in some environments with Microsoft 365 reports not being downloaded to the EMS web server. |
ENow for Exchange
Enhancements:
Move settings for Exchange EDGE server sites from the admin console to the web site (20656).
Add an option for the Exchange Namespace configuration to offer a Site view or Expanded view on the top-level dashboard (20813).
Resolved Issues:
| 20764 | Corrected an issue in some environments where an exception is being thrown in ENowMessageTracker preventing message logs from being sent to the EMS Server. |
| 21136 | Corrected an issue in some environments where the DB Reporter displays a null reference exception. |
| 21137 | Corrected an issue encountered when processing the Logon Event data. |
| 21138 | Corrected an issue encountered when processing the Mailbox Report Data Set. |
| 21139 | Corrected an issue encountered with the Namespace Service. |
| 21140 | Corrected an issue encountered when saving latency results from the Namespace Monitor service. |
| 21142 | Corrected an issue encountered with the ENow Message Tracker. |
| 21186 | Corrected an issue where in some environments the Exchange Server SLA reports will not generate. |
ENow for Active Directory
Enhancements:
Enhance the layout of the Other Server Network indicator to support sites type view via Other Servers AD Site configuration (19574).
Resolved Issues:
| 20730 | Corrected an issue preventing the Domain Controller Sites from being deleted. |
ENow Platform
New Features:
Implement a built-in PowerShell report available from the admin console for gathering litigation hold information (20294).
Litigation Hold in Microsoft 365 keeps all mailbox items for the purpose of eDiscovery for legal purposes. The use of litigation hold can present administrators with a management challenge since non-IT folks are unable to implement their own holds and gather report information about them. While administrators are still required to use PowerShell to implement holds for their organization, they can find some relief to no longer have to gather the report information by using the new Exchange Online Mailboxes With Litigation Hold Enabled report. This report is available only to administrators of the ENow Management System that have the required permissions to run litigation hold queries via PowerShell. To access the and run the new report, administrator's will need to log into the ENow Web Server and launch the admin console and then navigate to the Reporting Library and search for Exchange Online Mailboxes With Litigation Hold Enabled.
Enhancements:
Enhance the alerting reliability and accuracy by updating ENow default settings, implementing email policies, and adding new baseline as an option to thresholds where the test results are captured in the history (18468, 20732, 21169).
ENow has enhanced alerting reliability by updating default monitoring thresholds to reduce false positives, offering a "Set Recommended Alerts and Thresholds" button for easy upgrades. It introduces flexible email configuration and policy settings, allowing administrators to customize and map alerts to specific recipients. A new baseline feature auto-tunes network latency thresholds based on historical data for complex environments. These enhancements minimize false alerts, ensuring accurate notifications reach only relevant team members, saving time and improving focus. Customizable email policies and auto-tuned thresholds streamline alert management, enhancing visibility and control over complex network environments for efficient operations.
Resolved Issues:
| 20977 | Corrected an issue with Alert Email not sending to configured Alert Recipient. |
Known Limitations
| 16426 | The Exchange Back up status monitoring web page has an alignment issue when mailbox databases have names that are 64 characters in length. |
| 18248 | The Microsoft 365 License Modeler report does not allow for the removal of add-on SKUs. |
| 18356 | The Microsoft 365 License Modeler does not recognize any of the Microsoft 365 Business level SKUs as a base SKU. |
| 19223 | A negative integer or a maximum value of 2147484672 or similar is sometimes returned by WMI when fetching the performance counter information from the Exchange servers. |
| 19233 | If the database size threshold feature is enabled and a database breaches the threshold, then the top-level Disk indicator will be triggered either red or yellow depending on the threshold breached for the Exchange server hosting the offending database. |
| 19238 | The DFS Sysvol Replication reference in the Alerts Configuration of the Admin Console controls the alerts for the DFS Replication Events. |
| 20546 | The ENow Log File Collector will not launch. |
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