Outlook has become an integral part of everyday business life. It is the mailbox that simply everyone uses and through which so much is done: Sharing documents, planning meetings, taking short surveys, sending news…

Ok, nothing new so far. But why do we think Microsoft Teams is worthwhile for Outlook users? In short: Because Teams and Outlook work perfectly hand-in-hand and it opens up great functions without any additional effort.

Microsoft Teams is a product of the Microsoft 365 family that enables, simplifies and makes meetings and collaboration more effective across all possible end devices. It is also a great tool for planning and working on projects.

The two products have now merged so well that when using many functions, you don’t even notice that you have actually just accessed the other application.

Here are a few examples of why Teams is worthwhile for Outlook users:

Calendar and meetings

One function of Teams is the calendar. You can use it to view appointments and plan meetings. However, this calendar is nothing more than our Outlook calendar. However, the advantage here is definitely the scheduling assistant, which helps you find the perfect time slot for a meeting.

But I can also plan a Teams meeting in Outlook in the same way. A meeting is then created directly with a meeting ID and the invitation is put into “Microsoft Teams form”.

When receiving an invitation to a Teams meeting, participants can simply click on the meeting link in their email or join via the Outlook reminder and they will be taken directly to the meeting in Teams.

Mails

Anyone who communicates a lot by email knows how difficult it can be not to lose track. Especially if you forward an email to several parties and need input from everyone.

Teams makes it easier. There are chats (individual and group chats) and teams in which specific conversations can be held. Teams can be further subdivided into channels that allow the group of people or the workspace to be divided more specifically. Anyone who needs/wants to forward an email to a specific group of people can specify the relevant channel as the recipient and thus start a discussion or information round. A copy of this mail is then sent to the relevant team. Each answer that is given is listed directly below the forwarded mail. The email address of the channel can be found under the 3 dots next to the channel name. Conversely, a conversation can also be sent by e-mail.

Missed Teams activities

In Microsoft Teams, you can make a wide variety of settings for notifications. Among other things, I can set what I want to be notified about (private messages, team messages, mentions, comments…) and how, by email, banner,…
If you specify by email, you will receive an email about what happened, when, where and by whom. I can react to this directly from the e-mail, write a reply, e.g. .
This is particularly practical when I’m checking all my emails in the morning anyway and a short reply alone would suffice. If you’re in the middle of work, you can also send a message directly in the banner, if activated. Even then, I don’t have to close my current work/application to write a reply.

Microsoft Teams has so many advantages for companies. And anyone who does and communicates a lot via Outlook will be amazed at how well Teams works with Outlook and how easy it is to communicate in Teams.

See for yourself!

But Teams offers so many more functions. More information on the functions of Teams? Please get in touch with us. We’ll be happy to help. Either call us directly or leave your contact details via the contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!