So people! Here’s a topic I want to start discussing a lot with you… Microsoft Graph Connectors. What are they, you might ask? Why do I need to pay attention to these things you may also ask… 🤯
Well, fear not people! By the end of this post, you should have a beginners understanding as to what Microsoft Graph connectors are, and why you might want to start to explore this area a bit more. Oh and by the way, if you want to continue to learn a thing or two in this area around Microsoft Graph and extending Microsoft 365, be sure to subscribe to my blog as I’ll be talking a bit about this in the days to come 😉
What are Microsoft Graph Connectors?
Microsoft Graph connectors are effectively the tools that allow you to create a connection between your organisations data that sits externally to Microsoft 365, with the data that exists inside of Microsoft 365.
So let’s say you have data sitting in places like Azure SQL, or JIRA or other third-party platforms. We can consider all of this data as external to Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Graph connectors effectively let us create a link between this data and the data in Microsoft 365, enabling us to access all of that data together via the one Microsoft Graph platform! 🚀
What happens if I integrate external data using Graph connectors?
So let’s say you take some of that data that sits externally to Microsoft Graph in a third party platform… you might now be wondering, what happens to that data now that I’ve connected it to my Microsoft 365 tenant via Microsoft Graph…
Well, if we create these kind of connections using Microsoft Graph connectors, you’ll start to see this external data appearing and being used across experiences you’re familiar with in Microsoft 365! Let’s take search as a primary example here… if you make these kind of integrations, you’ll see your external data appearing in search results along side all of your Microsoft 365 data such as documents, emails, meetings and more when using Microsoft Search! 🔍
You’ll notice intelligent recommendations under Quick Access and My Content in Microsoft 365 which you already get, only now with your external data surfaced too!
Why should I be learning about this thing?
So let’s quickly chat why YOU should be SUPER aware about this Microsoft Graph connectors thing. Now friends, the one thing I haven’t touched on yet in terms of where your external data will be utilised when you connect to it using Microsoft Graph connectors… Microsoft Copilot 👀
YUP that’s right, if you’re planning on implementing Copilot for Microsoft 365 in your organisation, you better believe it’ll be looking at that data you integrated into your tenant using Microsoft Graph connectors.
So, hey, if you’re going to be smart and get on your contextual data game, so you can be ready for Microsoft Copilot, make sure you learn about Graph connectors and get implementing these in your organisation today. OR ensure you’re tidying up existing connectors if you’ve already implemented them in the past!
Be sure to subscribe to my blog friends. I’ll be telling you lots more about Microsoft Graph connectors, and Microsoft Copilot extensibility in the coming days! 🥰