3 Office365 apps you didn’t know you could be using

Sometimes you don’t have to look much further than the software you already have to solve a pain point you might have in your day-to-day. The problem is sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and software providers like Microsoft create useful tools but as they aren’t as mainstream they often aren’t heard about or used as commonly.

We have found that with Office365, despite it being very popular and used by our clients, it’s often just the typical Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that gets used. Those programs, however, are just the tip of the iceberg and we’d like to share with you 3 of the other programs that Office365 offers that you might want to explore (and will be a really quick win!)

Bookings

If you aren’t already automating your meeting bookings and you regularly have meetings, then this tool is undoubtedly going to be life-changing. This tool is a fast and easy alternative to the back and forth (and often frustrating) calls and email chains trying to line up a time to meet. Bookings provides you with a customisable web page that syncs with your calendar and allows your clients to find a time that suits them. It’s a win-win for all involved, taking care of all the meeting invites, time zone issues and even sends a reminder email.

MyAnalytics

MyAnalytics is a data collection tool that can give you insights on how you work, how you use your time and suggest ways to improve your daily habits. By having access to data on your meetings, emails and focus time, making suggestions based on research on how you might make improvements and ultimately improve your productivity.

The MyAnalytics dashboards can be configured to email you a monthly status update (with Outlook integration) on how well you are using time for things like “focus” or “networking” or “wellbeing”.

Could be a great way to do some self-reflection on whether your “busy” is the good kind!

Power Automate

Power Automate, also known as Flow is a handy tool that can cut down some of those monotonous sequence tasks and connect your apps so there’s an automatic action. If you’re already familiar with Zapier or IFTTT, then this tool will feel familiar to you.

Power automate essentially connects your cloud services to automate tasks that you would otherwise have to do manually. These are called “flows” and are like a step by step procedure you set up and then it happens automatically. Some example flows can be:

• Never miss an important email when out of the office. Set up a flow to alert you only when an email comes in only from a specific recipient.
• Reduce searching through your inbox for that missing file! Use Flow to automatically save all incoming Office 365 email attachments in a designated One Drive folder.
• Keep on top of your tasks. Have tasks in your project management system automatically added to your calendar