Building a Rich People Search in Microsoft 365

With so much of an organization's IP and knowledge in the heads of the people, finding a person or expert is key to success for the organization as a whole. For a number of reasons, this is still a challenge for most organizations.

•  People data is often spread in many different places and systems in an organization, and there is no single version of the truth
•  As a result, Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), which is the core of identity in Microsoft 365, is either not well populated or just plain wrong
•  People search and people cards in Microsoft 365 has gotten tremendously better, but it's still not all the way there

In this session we'll go over a series of steps any organization can take to get a handle on their people in Microsoft 365, and provide a simple and rich experience for finding the right person at the right time. Whether you are on the business, HR or IT side of the house, you'll find valuable insights you can leverage in your own organization.

• Validating the state of your Entra ID and staff information
• Strategies for connecting Entra ID to your HRIS or payroll system, or making it the system of record for your staff
• Why a fully populated Entra ID is important not just for people search but for forms and workflows too
• Implement an open-source, feature-rich people search web part
• Create personalized person and profile pages
• Expand on OOTB with Azure Cognitive Search and Azure Open AI
• Enrich your expert discovery by ingesting LinkedIn profile information, LMS courses and certifications and other line of business data
• Benefit from real-world examples in diverse sectors like police, charity, and education
• Elevate your organization's people search capabilities for improved knowledge sharing and expertise discovery