This article will explore Microsoft Delve’s uses, features, integration capabilities, and professional applications.

What is Microsoft Delve?

Microsoft Delve is a tool for data discovery and collaboration that draws on aspects of machine learning and social networking to locate and retrieve relevant information from the family of Microsoft Office 365 applications. In addition to providing an easy way to search for information and people across the Office 365 suite, it also provides users with a means to organize the professional information that they are most likely to need or find useful. 

Most Useful Features of Microsoft Delve

The following are some of the most helpful, and popular, features of Delve:

  • Delve’s personalized profile page offers users a suggested content feed, as well as the profiles of colleagues, and a list of documents that they have recently accessed. It also has different menus that can be used to retrieve content that was already viewed.
  • Delve users can opt for the standard search function or specifically look for any document with which they’ve previously interacted. A trending function is also available to locate any relevant content that colleagues have frequently viewed.
  • User profiles in Delve can be tailored to display pertinent details, like skills, projects currently working on, and pictures.
  • The “people search and discovery” feature provides Delve users with an easy way to find a specific colleague. 
  • When provided with authorization, Delve users can see recent communications and activities of coworkers, such as the documents they viewed, project work they have completed, or emails they sent via Outlook. 
  • The “praise” feature allows Delve users to send recognition to coworkers to celebrate their accomplishments.
  • Each document in Delve is displayed on a content card that includes a picture, title, and description of the most recent activity so that the user can see why this particular document may be relevant. In addition, the content card indicates when the last modification of the document was preformed, as well as where it is currently stored and the number of times it’s been viewed.
  • Boards can be created in Delve to gather any documents that will need to be accessed at a later date. In order to do so, users create a board onto which documents relevant to a specific project can be organized and then viewed by all team members involved in a project. Boards also allow additional users to view content and contribute to it.
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How Delve Works with Other Office 365 Applications

With the help of the Office Graph, Delve is able to learn not just who, but also what, is important to the user. In order to do so, Delve automatically takes content from Office 365 and presents it in one view, which eliminates the need of having to navigate between apps to retrieve relevant information. This powerful tool can pull content from the following Office 365 apps:

In addition, Delve reviews content from the Office 365 Video portal as well as email attachments to search for pertinent information that may be needed. Delve also provides users with a “discover” function that alerts them of information that’s potentially relevant, based on perceived relationships as well as prior user activity. Only content that users have permission to view will be presented to them to ensure information is kept secure.

Why use Microsoft Delve?

Since its release in 2015, Delve has provided users with a plethora of features and tools that promote collaboration on documents, as well as interactions between team members. Here are just a few of the reasons users like working with this application:

  • It’s easy to manage and edit profiles with just a few clicks when using Delve.
  • Delve is a powerful time-saving tool in that it streamlines the search process of retrieving contact information, website details, tasks, and documents. Instead of wasting hours opening applications, performing keyword searches, and reaching out to colleagues to retrieve information lost in old correspondences, Delve users can perform all of those tasks in seconds.
  • Signing onto Delve is easy. Those who wish to use this tool simply choose “Delve” in Microsoft 365 app launcher, or select delve.office.com in their browser, and login with their work or personal account.
  • Because Delve doesn’t change the existing permissions settings in Microsoft 365, this means that users can only see documents or exchanges that they have been given authorization to see. This is an important safety feature in that no user can be granted access to a private document or one that was not deliberately shared with them. In addition, the Office Graph that drives Delve contains all the data from Office 365 in a graph index. This information is kept in the user’s own SharePoint Online or Exchange Online partition. This ensures that the content is protected by the same rigorous security standards as other data kept in the Microsoft cloud services.
  • Delve is available on three mobile apps: Delve for iOS, Delve for Android, and Delve for Windows. In addition, those who have a subscription to Office 365 are able to access documents, connect with coworkers, and make updates to their profiles directly from their mobile devices. Mobile Delve users also receive real-time updates on how their colleagues are progressing with a project.

For these reasons and many more, Microsoft Delve provides users with a helpful and centralized business solution to better manage their work documents and correspondences.

Start Learning Microsoft Office with Hands-On Classes

Proficiency in Microsoft Office can open professional doors across industries, as well as lead to upward career mobility. A great way to begin learning about Microsoft Office is to sign up for one of Noble Desktop’s Microsoft Office courses. These small group classes are offered in-person in Manhattan, as well as in the live online format. For students and professionals on the go, there are also in-person and live online Microsoft Office courses available through Noble Desktop or one of its affiliate schools. A variety of course options are offered, ranging in duration from three hours to three days and costing between $219 and $1,785. Interested students can also browse in-person Microsoft Office classes to find class listings near home.

In addition to general Office classes, Noble Desktop also offers in-person and live online Microsoft Outlook courses. Because Microsoft Delve integrates with Outlook, these classes are a great option for those hoping to gain an understanding of these apps can work together to provide the best all-around Microsoft 365 experience.