Message from General Computer Development 

Microsoft 365 Tools You Didn't Know About

Have you had time to explore all of your software benefits? Probably not. Demanding daily activities prevent business owners from maximizing the use of new software, ultimately missing out on several features that can help streamline many of their organization’s tasks and processes.

Let's look at some Microsoft 365 tools that can allow organizations to work smarter and become more efficient.

1. MICROSOFT PLANNER

This tool allows teams to easily organize and assign tasks, create new plans, chat with team members, share files, receive group progress updates, and apply due dates.

One of the ways Planner streamlines processes is through its ability to integrate with the rest of Microsoft 365 seamlessly. Every team member who has access to a group will also get access to the plan. Planner allows the prioritization of tasks by progress, due date, priority, and more.

2. MICROSOFT BOOKINGS

Bookings allows clients to easily schedule and book their own meetings and appointments with a company at a time that is convenient for them. Contrasting the traditional whiteboard or Excel spreadsheet as a way to track schedules, Bookings allows increased flexibility and response times through 24/7 visibility of schedules. Bookings can be used as a stand-alone website or seamlessly embedded in a webpage. 

3. MICROSOFT ONENOTE

OneNote allows individuals or teams to organize notes in one place for use as personal reminders, or to facilitate collaboration between team members. Microsoft OneNote easily attaches to other Microsoft tools such as Outlook, so users can jot down notes about meeting details or create a task list based on data from Outlook.

OneNote is not just a tool for storing the written word. Users can draw and label pictures, graphs, and other shapes within OneNote, color-code information, and provide clickable links to more detailed information.

4. MICROSOFT FORMS

It is always important for companies to receive feedback, internal or external. Microsoft allows companies to easily gather information using surveys, polls, and quizzes created in Forms. Forms can track responses and provide real-time results and analytics.

Microsoft Forms allows companies to design their own surveys and polls by inputting their own questions or using multiple-choice, true/false, or a rating system. Users can even add photos and a theme! 

5. MICROSOFT POWER AUTOMATE

Microsoft’s Power Automate tool allows interested parties to automate actions, create and automate workflows, and more.

While overall project management is a critical component to project success, so is the way that employees work “right now”. In other words, manually performing routine tasks “because it’s always been done that way” is a drain on an employee’s time. This is where Power Automate can step in and take over the more routine tasks and processes in which employees frequently engage. 

1. Office 2013 end of support

Reduce your exposure to security risks by moving to a newer version of Office. Office 2013 will end support on April 11, 2023. Please start upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps, which is designed to receive regular updates, and will help you stay current by getting security updates and our latest features.

2. Save your work in SharePoint and Cloud Storage

It is very important to stay in the habit of saving your data in SharePoint or other cloud storage services you are currently using. This practice saves time and money during data recovery process due to hardware or software failure, or cyber attacks.

3. Apple releases critical security updates

Apple has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in macOS Monterey, iOS and iPadOS, and Safari. An attacker could exploit one of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected device. Review Apple Security Updates and apply necessary updates as soon as possible:

Recommended reads... 

Don't forget to follow us on social media to get the latest updates happening at GCD!

 "5 Microsoft 365 Tools You Didn't Know About" Article content by Jack Moylan