Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics is a feature that allows administrators to gain insights into how users in their organization are utilizing Microsoft 365 services and applications. It provides valuable data and reports to help organizations understand how their users interact with various tools and features within the Microsoft 365 suite.
Usage Analytics tracks and analyzes user activities across applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and more. It can provide information on various aspects, including:
- Active Users: The number of active users per day, week, or month.
- Activity Reports: Information about user actions, such as file creation, sharing, and collaboration.
- Service Usage: Insights into which Microsoft 365 services and applications are most frequently used by users.
- Storage Usage: Data on how much storage space is being utilized and by whom.
- Collaboration Metrics: Information on collaboration patterns, including how users work together on documents and projects.
- Communication Trends: Statistics on communication activities like emails, messages, and online meetings.
- Device and Platform Metrics: Details on the devices and platforms users employ to access Microsoft 365 services.
Having access to Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics can be valuable for organizations for several reasons:
- Optimization: Identifying areas where users may need training or additional support to make better use of Microsoft 365 tools.
- Resource Allocation: Understanding which applications and services are most critical to users and allocating resources accordingly.
- Security and Compliance: Monitoring usage patterns to ensure compliance with company policies and identify potential security risks.
- User Adoption: Tracking the adoption rate of new features and tools rolled out by Microsoft.
Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics data can be presented through pre-built reports and dashboards within the Microsoft 365 admin center. Additionally, organizations might have the option to export the data for further analysis or integration with other reporting tools.
Steps to Enable Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics
To enable Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics, you will first need to enable template app from Microsoft 365 admin center. You would require Global administrator rights to complete this step. Let’s check the steps:
- Login on Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Go to Settings > Org settings.
- Under Services tab, click on Reports.
- Enable the checkbox “Make report data available to Microsoft 365 usage analytics for PowerBI“
| Usage data is analyzed and used to make charts and graphs to help you understand your organization’s use of apps and services. Reports can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center and in Power BI. |
Get Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics App on Power BI
- Login on Power BI console using either Global administrator, Report reader, Exchange administrator, Skype for Business administrator or Sharepoint administrator. Click on Apps and then click on Get apps button.
- Search for Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics app under All apps. Click on the app.
- Click on Get It now button to Get the App.
- Click on Get it now button once again to confirm app installation.
- Click on Install button to Install Microsoft 365 Usage Analytics Power BI app.
- You can click on Go to app button after the app is ready. If you do not see this button then you can find the app under Apps option on the left hand side control panel on PowerBI Portal.
- As of now, the app is installed with sample data. If you want to connect it to your tenant and get the report for Live User and App data, Click on Connect your data.
- Provide your Azure AD tenant ID and Under Advanced keep the default option On for “Automatically refresh my data daily (occurs at midnight).“
- For Authentication method use OAuth2 and then click on Sign in and connect button. As you are already signed in to Power BI portal, It will automatically sign in using SSO and connect your app with Azure AD / Microsoft 365.
- As you can see that Sample data is being replaced with Live data. Refresh is in progress.
- Within couple of minutes, I got all the data till current month in a nice report which will also include bar charts, graphs etc. You can explore the data which covers below areas. I may not be able to cover each and every data analysis category. But I have provided some of the information which you will find in the report.
Executive Summary
- Adoption, Usage, Mobility
- Communication, Collaboration, Storage
- Exchange, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Teams, Yammer and Skype for Business
Overview Tab
- Adoption, Usage, Communication, Collaboaration, Storage and Mobility.
- Provides Overview of data analysis across Exchange, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Teams, Yammer and Skype for Business
Activation/Licensing
- Activation – Bar chart on Enabled vs Activated Users. Along with that current month Activation%, Activated Users, Total Activation Count.
- Licensed Assigned – Current month Count of Licence types, Current month Users with Assigned licenses. Assigned licensed over time. Users Assigned a subscription.
Product Usage
- Product Usage Analysis across Exchange, Groups, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Teams, Yammer and Skype for Business.
- Enabled vs Active Users graph.
User Activity
- Top Ten Most Active Departments
- Top Ten Most Active Companies
- User Details across Exchange, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Teams, Yammer, Skype for Business.
- Department Adoption Information.
Make the collected data in the report identifiable / Non-anonymous
By default the information collected by Power BI is anonymous. That means you will not see the usernames, groups or site information in the report. But if you want to make this data non-anonymous then you can follow below steps:
- Login on Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Go to Settings > Org settings.
- Under Services tab, click on Reports.
- Uncheck Display concealed user, group, and site names in all reports, and then save.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we have seen how to enable Microsoft 365 usage analytics. We have Installed an app called Microsoft 365 usage analysis on Power BI portal under Apps. After that we have connected this app to Azure AD tenant to get the latest data and display it in a nice dashboard.
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