Microsoft Says Goodbye to Delve in December 2024
Explore Microsoft's decision to retire Delve in December 2024 and what it means for your organization.
Wow. Delve is going away - gone, kaput, adios - at the end of 2024. 😲
In the dynamic realm of the digital workplace, Microsoft's toolkit is undergoing yet another transformation.
Microsoft has set the stage for Delve's swan song in December 2024. With Delve poised to join the likes of Sway and StaffHub in the Office 365 Hall of Fame—or perhaps, its hall of memory.
The Rise and Fall of Microsoft Delve
Delve burst onto the scene with a vision of enhancing profile data quality and transforming how we search and connect within our digital workspaces. It was a bold leap, leveraging the Office Graph (now the Microsoft 365 Graph) to map out the intricate tapestry of our work relationships.
Delve was the tool that was supposed to make sense of our digital clutter, to make finding the correct information as intuitive as a conversation.
But here's the twist: Delve's profile editing and search features, while trying to be groundbreaking, often felt like trying to drink from a firehose—too much, too fast, and just hard work. Users were constantly faced with search results showing tons of information and not being able to find what they were looking for. Which lead to a steady decline in the value employees found in Delve.
Delve's decline was also a tale of stagnation. As the tech world raced ahead, Delve was left in the dust, with Microsoft pulling the plug on innovation and slowly dismantling its features. It was a clear signal—the tech giant's gaze had shifted elsewhere, and Delve was left to fade away.
What Does Microsoft Have to Say About Deprecating Delve
On a day like any other, 14 December 2023 to be exact, Microsoft 365 Admin Center users were met with a stark announcement:
"Delve will be retired on December 16th, 2024."
Microsoft's narrative is that certain Delve features will still be available in various other Microsoft tools.
Here's the lowdown on where certain Delve features have been replaced in the wider Microsoft 365 universe:
- Delve Home: Your personalized document recommendations have migrated to Office.com, Office apps, and Profile Cards.
- Delve Profile: Your digital identity is now accessed through Profile Cards, Office.com search, and SharePoint search.
- Edit profile: Microsoft is cooking up a fresh, new profile editing experience, tightly integrated with Profile Cards and set to debut in late 2024. Until then, SharePoint is your go-to for profile tweaks.
- Organizational view: See who's who with the Profile Card and your reporting line in Org Explorer.
And don't worry—Delve will gently remind you and your employees of its upcoming retirement with in-app notifications.
What Does This Mean for Your Organization?
The announcement of Delve's retirement sets a clear timeline for your organization to reassess its digital tool strategy, if you're actively using Delve. Until December 2024, Delve will remain operational, allowing users to continue their usual workflow without immediate disruption.
This grace period is crucial for organizations to plan and execute a transition strategy that aligns with their operational needs and minimizes workflow disruption.
During this transition phase, Microsoft is trying not to leave users in the lurch by offering the various alternatives mentioned above. But here's the thing: Microsoft's alternatives are scattered across different tools, which might make employees think twice before embracing them. And let's face it, there are still gaping holes in Microsoft's people search and employee profiles.
And then what about people who valued Delve's centralized capabilities?
This dispersal of features across multiple tools may not be the ideal solution. The need for a holistic, integrated tool that can serve as a direct replacement for Delve is evident. Organizations have already begun exploring comprehensive solutions that can offer a seamless transition from Delve's all-in-one platform to a new, unified service that can provide similar or enhanced functionality.
The Future Beyond Delve
With Delve's impending exit and no direct successor for its features from Microsoft, users are exploring alternative Delve solutions.
OneDirectory emerges a leading contender to fill the void left by Delve, offering a robust employee directory, profile management, intelligent search capabilities, and an interactive organizational chart.
OneDirectory syncs with your Microsoft 365 and Azure AD user profiles through the Microsoft Graph, creating a searchable, interactive directory that's as easy to navigate as your favorite social network.
Here's a view at Delve's feature set, reimagined by OneDirectory:
- Delve Profile: OneDirectory provides each member of your organization with an attractive profile page that consolidates all their Microsoft 365 profile information in a single, convenient location.
- Edit profile: Admins and users alike can update profiles with ease, and choose with which fields sync with Azure Entra (Azure AD).
- Organizational view: Navigate the hierarchical layout of your organization and understand reporting relationships through the OneDirectory organizational chart, which is automatically generated using data from your Microsoft 365 user profiles.
- Profile Search: OneDirectory enables rapid searching across a vast array of employee profiles, allowing you to swiftly navigate and visually delve into the search outcomes.
Additionally, OneDirectory creates homepages for each office and department within your company and a detailed skills network utilizing the information from your Microsoft 365.
Time to Say Goodbye 👋
In conclusion, as we bid farewell to Microsoft Delve, it's clear that its legacy is not one of failure, but of paving the way for a new generation of tools.
Delve's ambition to improve profile data quality and better connect employees has set the stage for successors like OneDirectory to take the vision further.
