Six Ways Microsoft Outlook Improves Collaboration

We’re all looking for ways to save time and boost productivity, and being able to collaborate with team members better is a big step towards doing that. Microsoft 365 is a titan of collaboration tools, and has become the gold standard for office space communication.

One of its staple platforms is Microsoft Outlook, the robust email client many of us couldn’t get through a workday without. Are you using it to its maximum potential though?  We’re going to take a look at some handy features in Outlook that can help improve the collaboration powers of users.

These are simple tricks that may have flown under your radar but could give you one of those ‘a-ha’ moments! Either way, they’ll help you save time and improve your collaboration skills. Let’s check them out.

1. Email Contact Groups

If you find yourself emailing the same people regularly, you can make a contact group of email addresses in Outlook. This saves you manually inputting individual email addresses every time you email to a particular group, and ensures the right messages reach the right team members, every time.

Here’s how to create a contact group:

– Navigate to the ‘Home’ tab and click on the dropdown next to ‘New Email’.

– Click on ‘Group’.

– Name and create your contact group.

– Add members and save the group, which will now be available for future emails.

Using a contact group reduces the chances of miscommunication, keeping everyone on the same page with updates and deadlines.

2. Shared Calendars

When you have big teams spread across multiple departments and even in different time zones, scheduling can be a nightmare. Outlook’s shared calendar feature helps mitigate that, allowing for staff to view each other’s availability and be on the same page when it comes to organising a meeting time.

Here’s how to share a calendar:

– Click on your Calendar icon on the left hand side of the application.

– Right-click on the calendar you want to share and ‘Sharing permissions’.

– click ‘Add’, and then select the email addresses of the team members you’ll share the calendar with.

– Set permissions to control the level of access (e.g., view only, edit, etc.).

Sharing your calendar in this way allows colleagues to avoid double booking and reduces the back and forth emails.

3. Outlook Tasks

Outlook’s task management feature is a delegation game changer, allowing you to create tasks for yourself and other team members. This makes it easier to track overall project progress and ensures accountability for work done or not.

Assigning a Task in Outlook:

– Navigate to the ‘Home’ tab and click on the dropdown next to ‘New Email’.

– Select ‘Task,’ and enter the details of what it entails.

– Assign the task to a team member by clicking on ‘Assign Task,’ entering their email address and clicking send.

– Remember to set a due date and any necessary reminders.

Tasks created in outlook can be integrated with Microsoft To Do, which makes it easy to manage your workload across multiple devices.

4. Outlook and Microsoft Teams Integration

The powerful collaboration tool that is Microsoft Teams seamlessly integrates with Outlook to even further enhance teamwork and communication within an organisation. Teams meetings can be scheduled and joined directly from Outlook while emails can be shared within Teams channels. It makes for a consistent communication and meetings experience, reducing the need to switch between multiple applications and keeping everyone aligned.

5. OneNote Integration

Outlook also supports integration with OneNote, the versatile note-taking app used to capture meeting minutes, brainstorm ideas, and take important notes.

When you’re planning a project in OneNote, you can create Outlook Tasks to help you manage deadlines and remember things you have to do. These tasks can then be viewed and tracked in Outlook, and you can get reminders about them too.

Here’s how you do it:

– In OneNote, highlight the text you’d like to turn into a task.

– A menu will appear when you hover over it. Click on the ‘Outlook Tasks’ button and choose a reminder.

– Your task is then added to Outlook.

You can also send important email messages from Outlook into OneNote by using the ‘Send to OneNote’ feature. You simply right-click on the email or calendar entry and click on the ‘Send to OneNote’ option that appears. You can then choose which notebook or section of the OneNote app you’d like it to go to.

6. Improve Your Workflow with Outlook Rules and Alerts

Outlook’s rules and alerts feature can help you stay focused by automatically sorting incoming emails into specific folders, setting reminders, or flagging important messages. You set the rules that add a level of automation to your inbox that saves time managing your inbox, allowing you to turn your attention to more important jobs.

Creating a rule in Outlook:

– Right click on an existing message and click ‘Rules’.

– Specify the action to take, such as moving the email to a designated folder or marking it as high priority.

You can also create rules from a template, by going to ‘File’, clicking on ‘Manage Rules and Alerts’ and then ‘New Rule’.

Rules are an important tool in ensuring critical communications are never missed.

By setting up rules, team members can ensure that critical communications are never missed and can reduce the time spent managing their inboxes, allowing them to focus on more important tasks.

Smile IT is a Microsoft 365 Expert

Microsoft Outlook offers a suite of features designed to enhance team collaboration and streamline communication in your organisation. Hopefully you’ve learned something from the above tips and will be able to make changes to help you achieve your collaboration goals more effectively!

As a managed service provider, Smile IT is a Microsoft 365 expert who can help your business leverage this awesome productivity suite to its maximum. Better collaboration is one of the benefits, but you’ll also notice streamlined workflows, improved communication, productivity increases and improved remote work capabilities. If the time has come for your organisation to migrate to Microsoft 365 and start enjoying all those benefits, get in touch with Smile IT today!