Microsoft 365 WCM

two women on computer

What’s happening with Microsoft 365 at Weill Cornell Medicine?

Back in January 2015, we migrated the email accounts of everyone at Weil Cornell Medicine to Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based email and desktop application service. It combines the functions of Outlook, Word, Excel, and other MS Office apps into a web-based, cross-platform system. Since then, you’ve had access to Outlook webmail and other web-based Office apps.

This fall, we’re taking another step forward by making sure you have the most up-to-date version of Office applications installed on your computer. This means that the version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office tools you have installed on your computer will be the same as the version you can use on the web.

Why are we updating our Office applications to Microsoft 365?

Microsoft has accelerated its release schedule for Office to provide more frequent, smaller updates. We want to ensure the WCM community can take advantage of new functionality and features more rapidly than in the past.

Additionally, in October 2020, Microsoft is retiring legacy authentication for older versions of Outlook. If you use a version of Outlook that is no longer going to be supported (Outlook 2010 or 2013), you won’t be able to access your email from the old desktop app. We want to make sure users on very old versions of Office upgrade before Microsoft makes their change to avoid a loss of access to email.

How is the Microsoft 365 update happening?

Many staff at WCM can install the upgrade themselves via the WCM App Store. Some departments may opt to have the new Microsoft 365 applications automatically pushed to their computers. No matter how you're installing it, our Checklist helps you prepare for the Office upgrade. 

Benefits of Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 offers a collection of enhancements to increase your productivity. Check out some of our favorite Microsoft 365 features and benefits.