Introduction

Let me share something very cool with you: In just a few clicks, you can be all set with an easy, hassle-free deployment of Office 365 applications via IBM MaaS360. How useful is that?

To expand on that a bit, MaaS360® now provides silent installation, uninstallation, and updates of the Office 365 suite on Windows 10 devices via simple device group actions.

Here is a rundown of the specific device group actions that MaaS supports on Windows 10 devices with versions 1703+:

• Deploy Office 365 apps and files: Groups of users can install Office products if they are approved for the relevant product license.
• Update/Upgrade: The same users & devices get upgrade themselves to newer versions of Office365, as configured & planned by IT Admins.
• Remove Office 365 : The access for Office365 applications and files can be revoked for the same users

Organizations can distribute language files to users based on different user regions/OS languages, as well as push Office applications with the Office Customization Tool—providing various options including bandwidth optimization that includes using a local server as a download source.

How do you get this working?

Here I’ll explain you quickly the high level steps to get you started with the actual distribution of Office365. First of all, you should first generate the office configuration file from Microsoft Office Apps website. https://officedev.github.io/Office-IT-Pro-Deployment-Scripts/XmlEditor.html or https://config.office.com/

This configuration file has the critical parameters on how your Office365 distribution and rollout will happen. If you drag down to the website, you will see two sections: Create a new Configuration and Import your configuration.  A sample configuration xml is attached for reference. Some important parameters to fill here are Architecture (32/64 bit) &  product suites – which can be a combination of Office Suites, Visio, Project and others present in the ‘additional products’ drop down. Update Channel helps you decide how often you want to update/upgrade the Office365 installations on your end points. Once you fill all the details, click on ‘Export’. You can save the configuration.xml file in your local drive.         
  

A fully configured Configuration.xml for deploying Office365 suite looks like this:

Once you create this configuration file, the next step is to publish this into MaaS360. Publishing of this configuration file is like publishing any other application. Post publish process in MaaS360, the IT administrator can distribute this file as a policy to end points, where the installation will start.

Here are the steps to upload/publish: Login to MaaS 360 Portal and navigate to Policy files work flow  (Security tab -> Policies).

In the policy page, select ‘More -> Policy Files’.

It gives you the screen to fill in Office365 distribution details. Give a relevant Name for ‘Content Name’,  For ‘Type’– select ‘Office Configuration File ‘. Then click on ‘Browse’ & select the newly generated Configuration.xml in the above step. Click ‘Upload Content’. Now the configuration.xml file will be uploaded to MaaS360 Portal.

Once upload of configuration file is successful, you can distribute this configuration file to the device or device groups. The end points once get this file as a policy, they start downloading Office365 installation files from Microsoft site.

Navigate to ‘Devices > Inventory > Groups > Manage Windows 10 Devices’

Use the “Manage Windows 10 Devices” action in the MaaS360 Portal to deploy the Office configuration for the device group.

After submitting, you will get a notification saying that it went through successfully.

To check the deployment status in the device you can navigate to ‘Devices > Inventory > device View > Summary > History’

Similarly, if you want to remove / uninstall office 365 products from the devices, you just need to tweak the installation configuration file and you can follow the exact same steps mentioned above. Configure the xml with <Remove> tag and upload it to MaaS360 Portal. Here is a sample Remove config file for reference:

 

MaaS supports updates and upgrades of Office365 as well.  The configuration page has update/upgrade section as well and you can configure it based on your requirements.

If you follow the same workflow and distribute this new configuration.xml file to all the end points, the end points will get a new Office 365 version from Microsoft and update it. Any files that have changed in the new version will be updated in your end point.

You can also point your end points to the downloaded location to receive product updates. (By default, clients are updated directly from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN).)

To conclude, this hassle-free deployment of Office 365 suites, apps, and files further bolsters MaaS360’s already-robust capabilities when it comes to managing and securing Windows devices and the Office 365 ecosystem. This specific functionality adds an additional layer of flexibility and customization to meet any admin preferences, as well as provide control over several parameters, including: editions, languages, and components to include or exclude upon installation.

Please refer our IBM Knowledge Center for more details and let me know if you have any specific questions.