THE BENEFITS OF USING MICROSOFT TEAMS AND PLANNER TOGETHER

Today’s work environments require effective collaboration and efficient task management. There’s just no way to achieve your goals and maximize productivity without a high level of teamwork and organization.

Microsoft Teams is a complete software solution that can help organizations excel in collaboration and task efficiency. Companies can deploy Teams and still use project and task management technologies. Microsoft Planner is a task management tool that easily directly integrates with the rest of Microsoft Teams, adding value and effectiveness for employees. By combining the power of Teams and Microsoft Planner, your organization can experience seamless workflows, improved communication and enhanced task management capabilities.

WHAT IS MICROSOFT PLANNER?

Microsoft Planner is a user-friendly task management and organizational system focusing on providing a visual way for teams to organize the work they need to do. Microsoft Planner includes note taking, a calendar, the ability to attach files and dashboards through which individuals can track, organize and complete their tasks independently. End-users benefit from a customized dashboard to help them organize their work in a way that makes sense.

Planner empowers individuals and teams to track, organize and complete tasks efficiently. By breaking down complex projects into manageable steps, teams can account for every task and ensure that the progress of individuals and teams is transparent. What are the benefits of Microsoft Planner to help your business efficiency?

MICROSOFT PLANNER BENEFITS

As a stand-alone platform, Microsoft Planner also offers benefits that can help your teams succeed:

• Visual task management: Microsoft Planner provides a visual and intuitive interface for managing tasks. Users can create task cards, assign them to team members, set due dates and track progress. The visual nature of Planner helps teams quickly grasp their workload, identify task dependencies, and prioritize effectively.
• Team collaboration: Planner enables seamless collaboration among team members. Users can easily share tasks, assign them to specific individuals and engage in discussions within the task cards. Microsoft Planner fosters teamwork, improves communication and ensures everyone is on the same page regarding task assignments and progress.
• Centralized task organization: With Microsoft Planner, all tasks and related information centralize in one location. Users can create multiple plans representing a different project or initiative, and organize tasks within those plans. This centralized organization simplifies task management, making it easier to track progress, update statuses and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Customizable dashboards: Planner offers customizable dashboards that allow users to create buckets or categories to organize their tasks. These buckets can represent different phases, priority levels or any other classification that suits the project’s needs. Customizing dashboards enables teams to tailor Planner to their specific workflow and ensures tasks structure in a way that aligns with their processes.
• Attachments and file sharing: Microsoft Planner allows users to attach files and documents to task cards. This feature facilitates easy access to relevant information and resources associated with each task. Team members can share project documents, guidelines or reference materials directly within Planner, ensuring all required information is readily available.
• Integration with Microsoft 365: As part of the Microsoft 365 suite, Planner integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft applications such as Teams, Outlook and SharePoint. This integration allows users to leverage the full suite of collaboration and productivity tools, creating a cohesive and interconnected work environment.
• Accessibility and mobile apps: Microsoft Planner is accessible via web browsers, desktop applications and mobile apps for iOS and Android. This accessibility ensures that users can access tasks and collaborate on the go, regardless of their device. The mobile apps allow for quick task updates, notifications and real-time collaboration, empowering teams to stay productive from anywhere.
• Insights and analytics: Microsoft Planner provides basic reporting and analytics capabilities to monitor task progress and team performance. Users can track task completion rates, analyze trends, and identify areas for improvement. These insights help teams identify bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and make data-driven decisions to enhance productivity.

However, relying solely on Microsoft Planner may pose challenges as team members must manually check the platform for updates and information. This requirement can lead to missed updates or crucial details slipping through the cracks, making it the perfect use case for integrating  Microsoft Planner with Microsoft Teams becomes advantageous.

MICROSOFT PLANNER + TEAMS BENEFITS

There are several advantages to using Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Planner together:

• View the Planner from the Microsoft Teams platform: Integrating Microsoft Planner with Microsoft Teams allows tasks to be launched and assigned directly within the Teams platform. This feature eliminates the need to switch back and forth between different platforms, streamlining the task management process. By consolidating all tasks within Microsoft Teams, team members have a centralized location to access and track their assigned tasks, reducing the likelihood of missing important deadlines.
• Easily attach Microsoft Teams files to Microsoft Planner tasks: Integrating Office 365 and Microsoft Teams enables seamless file attachment. Team members can easily attach relevant files to their Planner tasks, ensuring all necessary documentation is readily available. This accessibility to files enhances productivity and minimizes the chances of overlooking essential information. When all relevant documents are at their fingertips, team members can complete tasks more efficiently.
• Increase transparency and improve teamwork: Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Planner integration enhances visibility and transparency within a team. Allowing team members to view assigned tasks and their respective owners makes it easier to identify task dependencies and avoid duplicating efforts. This transparency fosters effective collaboration and keeps everyone on the same page, reducing miscommunication and maximizing efficiency.

By leveraging the combined capabilities of Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Teams, team leaders can quickly review employees’ current workload, assign new tasks, and monitor the progress of essential tasks. This integration empowers employees to understand their workload better and enables them to prioritize tasks effectively without additional steps or information gathering.

Organizations seeking to improve their use of Microsoft tools call on the expert team at Red River. We can help you plan for a Microsoft cloud migration, roll out new software, and improve stakeholder buy-in. Our excellent Microsoft-certified tech experts can help you maximize your investment in the Microsoft suite of tools. Call on us to find out how we can help. If your team hasn’t switched to Microsoft Teams yet, it may be time. If you need to migrate to Teams, Red River can help.