It is often the case that people within a business will need to co-operate and share ideas with people from other organisations such as consultants and suppliers. Previously this has usually involved someone needing to forward over emails and documents, however a new feature introduced by Microsoft to Office 365 means that this will no longer be the case.

A significant new Guest feature for Microsoft Office 365 Groups has been added, which allows people who are not staff members, to join in and collaborate with members of a particular Group, with Group Owners now able to use the web version of Microsoft Outlook to invite non-staff members as Guests.

“Once added, guests receive a welcome email, are granted access to group files in SharePoint Online, begin receiving email messages and calendar invites sent to the Group, and can access the Group in Office on the web and the Outlook Groups mobile application,” Microsoft said in its blog which announced the new feature.

Microsoft states that Guests will have automatic access to cloud-based file attachments and will also have the option to leave the group whenever they wish to do so, and that it has made a clear visual distinction between guest members, and those who are not.