7 tips to turn Office 365 and the working day into a digital shrimp sandwich

The digitalisation of the office, working life and the tools we use has changed the working day for almost everyone. Tools have become more and more comprehensive, with many smart features, so advanced that it is sometimes difficult to keep up. A small paradox is that stressful working days often mean that we miss out on the features and ways of working that can make the day run more smoothly and reduce stress.

Mikael Roos works with digital transformation at AddPro and helps companies work smarter and streamline their internal processes. Mikael has been working with Microsoft IT solutions for over 20 years and has seen the benefits of both small and large programs. He knows that it takes a strategy behind when new tools start to be used for it to have a positive effect in the daily work of the organisation.

Here, Mikael shares seven tips to streamline your work and turn your working day into a digital shuffle:

1: Find smart solutions to automate business processes.

A sales or service meeting should not be preceded by a manual search and booking of hotels and flights. Does it take time to send out weekly reports from the CRM system to the entire sales team? Automating processes is a great way to work smarter. Microsoft's automation tool is called Flow and can integrate with your favourite apps, such as Dynamics 365 or booking services, to automate routine tasks.

2: Take your next customer meeting online.

The first time we meet, most people prefer a face-to-face meeting, but the next meeting often doesn't have to be physical. Taking the next meeting as a video meeting is more efficient than travelling and more personal than just calling or emailing. Shorter meetings can advantageously be taken over the web, creating spaces for a closer dialogue with the customer without inefficient travel back and forth.

3: Link your Office 365 applications together

There are tools that give you full control over your working day. With the Office 365 To-Do app, you can create a list of the day's tasks with appointments from the calendar, tasks, flagged emails, or create a task directly from a Skype chat. If there's no direct link, Flow helps you connect with Planner, for example. Everything you need to do, simply and clearly, so nothing gets forgotten.

4: OneNote more powerful than many think

OneNote is a handy little program that has fallen under the radar, few people know about OneNote's potential. By using OneNote in a thoughtful way, OneNote grows to become a searchable history of meetings, notes, brainstorming sessions and more. It's also possible to share notes with colleagues so you don't have to email documents around and collect comments.

5: Teams. Need we say more?

It's been said before and it bears repeating: Teams is a killer app that changes the way colleagues collaborate in the workplace. When everyone is on board, things happen: chat speeds up dialogue, finding meeting times becomes easy and team collaboration becomes more efficient. Is your file server one big mess that spills over onto your email faster than you can say correct round? Shared documents in the Teams client eliminate versioning clutter on the file server and get rid of all those unnecessary emails back and forth with changes and comments.

6: Project follow-up quick and easy

Monitoring at all stages of the project ensures that everyone is on board and pulling in the same direction. In the past, collecting feedback was a challenge and a heavy job. With Microsoft Forms, you can quickly and easily create forms, distribute and collate responses for the best possible follow-up.

7: Create your own apps in Teams without programming

Do you have an idea for an app that would make your team work even more smoothly? Create a unique feature for Teams, the web or mobile in PowerApps, a tool that doesn't require programming skills to get started, yet is powerful and has great potential.

Bonus tips: Work long-term and consistently

There are no magic tools in the world that solve an inefficient process. If everyone in the company works in different apps and tools according to their own taste, the positive effects will not occur. A common approach where everyone works consistently over time is a prerequisite for the tools to start giving back in the form of more efficient processes. With training, the right tools and structured processes, a curious company can go from email and document chaos to cohesive teams that share information, have efficient processes and don't miss a single business opportunity.

Are you and your colleagues working as smart and efficiently as you can? Are you aware of the full potential of the tools? Join our Workshop and discover all the smart solutions in Office 365 that will make your workday a digital bonanza