Admins Angry at Attempted Anarchy - Microsoft planning to give Office 365 users ability to bypass their admins and buy their own addons

[AdamxM07]

Just now, spartaman64 said:

then they would just restrict all installations on the computer and this wouldnt be a problem

you don't gotta go that far lol

[imreloadin]

The way I look at it when an employee purchases software that isn't sanctioned by IT then guess who gets told to go figure it out themselves when they have an issue? If you want IT's support you'll use IT's software. If instead you're going to go do your own thing then by all means welcome to the wild west

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, MrMlee42 said:

you don't gotta go that far lol

? why would you want to let your employees install random applications but not microsoft ones

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, imreloadin said:

The way I look at it when an employee purchases software that isn't sanctioned by IT then guess who gets told to go figure it out themselves when they have an issue? If you want IT's support you'll use IT's software. If instead you're going to go do your own thing then by all means welcome to the wild west

like i said before you can just refuse to support the software so wheres the problem?

[AdamxM07]

2 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

like i said before you can just refuse to support the software so wheres the problem?

supporting is one thing breaking the rules is another 

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, MrMlee42 said:

supporting is one thing breaking the rules is another 

it shouldnt even be a rule in the first place if you dont want them to install software then require the admin user and pass to install anything. dont need to make a rule

[AdamxM07]

Just now, spartaman64 said:

it shouldnt even be a rule in the first place

I support being able to use Microsoft products in a work enviornment 100% but if an employee is bypassing all sorts of "administration requests" repetitvely, that's a little strange to me. 

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, MrMlee42 said:

I support being able to use Microsoft products in a work enviornment 100% but if an employee is bypassing all sorts of "administration requests" repetitvely, that's a little strange to me. 

like i said if they want a piece of software (probably expensive software also) so badly that they are shelling out their own money for it then that software is probably a massive help to them so why are you not providing them with it?

[AdamxM07]

1 minute ago, spartaman64 said:

like i said if they want a piece of software (probably expensive software also) so badly that they are shelling out their own money for it then that software is probably a massive help to them so why are you not providing them with it?

So just let people do whatever they want then? 

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, MrMlee42 said:

So just let people do whatever they want then? 

?

[AdamxM07]

1 minute ago, MrMlee42 said:

So just let people do whatever they want then? 

With how much microsoft has made in the past decades with their software you think they'd be able to figure out a way to make it not so expensive 

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, MrMlee42 said:

With how much microsoft has made in the past decades with their software you think they'd be able to figure out a way to make it not so expensive 

they are a business they charge what people are willing to pay for. and like i said if they dont want people to be installing software they would set up the computer to require the admin password to install software. theres no situation i can think of where you allow an employee to install any software they want unless its from microsoft. if you really dislike microsoft software that much you wouldnt even have windows

[AdamxM07]

5 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

they are a business they charge what people are willing to pay for. and like i said if they dont want people to be installing software they would set up the computer to require the admin password to install software. theres no situation i can think of where you allow an employee to install any software they want unless its from microsoft. if you really dislike microsoft software that much you wouldnt even have windows

We are on the same page my friend, im fine with microsoft just depends bascially after that point on what the user is needing permission for. I don't dislike either,  I use them everyday and don't need a bunch of admin permissions really

[bcredeur97]

This could go so bad.... freaked internally when I saw this post 

[LAwLz]

This isn't really a surprising move, since it's basically allowing people to give money to Microsoft even if their IT department says not to. This will be especially bad for workers who has company issued credit cards. "Oh I need this program for work, so I'll buy it with my company credit card. Oops, turns out I am now spending company money on a program the IT department said I shouldn't use".

Microsoft doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as they get it.

 

 

4 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

then they would just restrict all installations on the computer and this wouldnt be a problem

Restricting installs won't do anything because the O365 software this affects do not have to be installed on the computer.

[mr moose]

51 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

This isn't really a surprising move, since it's basically allowing people to give money to Microsoft even if their IT department says not to. This will be especially bad for workers who has company issued credit cards. "Oh I need this program for work, so I'll buy it with my company credit card. Oops, turns out I am now spending company money on a program the IT department said I shouldn't use".

Microsoft doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as they get it.

 

 

Restricting installs won't do anything because the O365 software this affects do not have to be installed on the computer.

They could use that card to buy any software from anywhere anyway.  MS hasn't exactly enabled a new problem, they have just opened the market to other users.

 

Breaking company policy on purchases and software use on corporate computers is a different issue. 

[leadeater]

9 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Breaking company policy on purchases and software use on corporate computers is a different issue. 

PowerBI is actually a big potential data security issue. An end user could buy PowerBI access, connect up to any data source they have access to and then publish that to the entire world knowingly or not exposing information that shouldn't be public.

 

"Look at all these amazing things I can do with data" can also be rephrased "Look at this massive data breach I just unknowing did" 

[LAwLz]

12 minutes ago, mr moose said:

They could use that card to buy any software from anywhere anyway.  MS hasn't exactly enabled a new problem, they have just opened the market to other users.

 

Breaking company policy on purchases and software use on corporate computers is a different issue. 

That kind of depends on other security settings.

The problem here is that Microsoft are actively enabling and showing a market place for end users to buy software services from, right in the dashboard. Not only does this make it far easier than buying other software, it might also bypass other protection put in place. If other forms of protection are enabled then sure, employees can spend money on software but they can't install it. This is different since it's tied to O365.

[mr moose]

34 minutes ago, leadeater said:

PowerBI is actually a big potential data security issue. An end user could buy PowerBI access, connect up to any data source they have access to and then publish that to the entire world knowingly or not exposing information that shouldn't be public.

 

"Look at all these amazing things I can do with data" can also be rephrased "Look at this massive data breach I just unknowing did" 

 

24 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

That kind of depends on other security settings.

The problem here is that Microsoft are actively enabling and showing a market place for end users to buy software services from, right in the dashboard. Not only does this make it far easier than buying other software, it might also bypass other protection put in place. If other forms of protection are enabled then sure, employees can spend money on software but they can't install it. This is different since it's tied to O365.

 

That's still a company policy issue,  MS haven't suddenly made it possible for staff to buy dodgy security breach ridden 2 bit apps and install them on company machines.   If we follow the logic here that MS are somehow responsible for what people purchase then lets make adobe responsible for any plugins people buy outside of company policy, or make protools/reaper/audtion/ableton responsible for VST with hidden malware. 

 

 

[leadeater]

16 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

The new self-service capability will not be available to government, nonprofit or education tenancies, Microsoft said, and there are no current plans to extend it to other Office 365 services

Well I no longer have to care anymore, good luck everyone else 

[leadeater]

12 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

you can disable people from being able to install any software by having the computer ask you for the admin user and password before installing anything so even if they buy a license they cant install it. thats what the company i work at does that and only the president, vice president, operations manager, and me knows the admin login

Not all Office 365 tools require installation or have both desktop software but also web editors and publishers. You don't need to install anything to start creating and publishing Power BI resources.

 

 

 

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/how-to-publish-dashboard-to-website-in-power-BI-online/td-p/241103

 

 

You can't control what you have no control over.

[LeSheen]

18 hours ago, spartaman64 said:

why would a company have a policy against an employee owning office 365? its not like they are using the company's money they are using their own right

Extra support calls. These users probably have even less knowledge about those apps. 

 

And some employees might have a company credit card...

[spartaman64]

33 minutes ago, LeSheen said:

Extra support calls. These users probably have even less knowledge about those apps. 

 

And some employees might have a company credit card...

they have enough knowledge to install them. and you can still refuse to support it and hang up. if they use the company credit card fire them. and this goes back to if it helps them so much that they would shell out their own money why are you not providing them with it in the first place

[spartaman64]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

This isn't really a surprising move, since it's basically allowing people to give money to Microsoft even if their IT department says not to. This will be especially bad for workers who has company issued credit cards. "Oh I need this program for work, so I'll buy it with my company credit card. Oops, turns out I am now spending company money on a program the IT department said I shouldn't use".

Microsoft doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as they get it.

 

 

Restricting installs won't do anything because the O365 software this affects do not have to be installed on the computer.

if they do not have to be installed then they are already installed. i dont see how they are creating a security issue if they are already on the computer

[rcmaehl]

3 hours ago, leadeater said:

Well I no longer have to care anymore, good luck everyone else 

Lucky you