As the chaos of lockdown starts to fade away, many businesses are now promoting the benefits of a hybrid working lifestyle to new recruits.
The flexibility of working at home, in the office or on the road is seen as a positive by potential employees, so businesses are increasingly under pressure to enable hybrid working, while maintaining productivity.
Microsoft 365 provides the ultimate office productivity suite, combining numerous tools while offering a secure environment for communications on any device.
However, it can be a complex platform to configure and there are many hidden gems to be found within it, in the form of little known functions and free programs.
Following on from our previous article The top 5 hidden features of Microsoft 365 we have highlighted 5 more hidden features of Microsoft 365 that are hard to find, but too good to miss!
💻 Microsoft Planner is a visual task management solution that helps to organise teamwork and increase productivity. Users can create a “mind map” of content that includes attachments, checklists, and labels within the planner. This service can be accessed within Teams, allowing your staff to collaborate on large projects from a single online space.
💻 Microsoft Forms is a survey software that is included with your M365 subscription, so your company can cancel those (costly) paid survey services. Forms allow users to create surveys, polls and quizzes which are sharable via a link. The data from the responses is held online and can be downloaded for analysis and insight.
💻 Microsoft Power Automate is a low code solution that enables businesses to automate workflows, simplify tasks, and connect the processes of Microsoft Applications and many third-party services. Automation removes the need for repetitive admin, allowing the user to concentrate on other tasks and be more productive. For example, Automate can be connected to Microsoft Forms to send a thank you email to the participants who have submitted a form. This process is called Robotic Process Automation; it creates UI flows that communicate with other apps for you.
💻 Microsoft Approvals is an app that streamlines all change requests and can implement new processes within teams, removing the complexity of acknowledging ideas and gaining authorisation from a manager. It allows staff to create approval requests for documents or ideas; it will then contact the recipient, so your team can quickly get the ball rolling on new projects – which is especially relevant to the new world of hybrid working.
💻 Microsoft Bookings is arguably one of the most underrated products included within your M365 subscription, and you might not even know about it! This product allows you to schedule bookings, meetings, and appointments efficiently and effectively. It integrates with your website or social media platform to automate the booking and even adds it to your Outlook calendar.
By choosing Microsoft 365, you can confidently locate data, plan meetings, and keep your project ideas secure and accessible with these 5 hidden features. Provided free of charge within a Microsoft 365 subscription, this powerful functionality would benefit small-to-medium (SME) businesses looking to increase productivity and control costs.
Microsoft 365 promotes flexibility while providing world-class security to your business, defending staff and customer data. Click here to contact the experts at easyNetworks to learn how Microsoft 365 can power your business, or call 0800 1313 100 today.
