Microsoft has announced First Release customers can start using Office 365 Planner, allowing them to create plans, organise and assign work, share files, chat about projects and get progress updates for teams.
The collaboration platform, which goes head-to-head with other cloud-based services such as Slack, will enable admins to oversee everything happening in their organisation right from the Office 365 app launcher.
The platform is available for First Release customers using Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E4, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 Education, Office 365 Education E3, Office 365 Education E4, Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium and it will become generally available for all Office 365 commercial and education customers next year.
Planner was announced in September and means managers can create dashboards for teams to share what they're doing and when. Everything can be managed from a single dashboard including assigning projects, tracking progress and rearranging responsibilities, so those in charge of a team can have complete transparency at all times and can see exactly what is happening from one place.
When any changes are made - such as a task is reassigned or completed - everyone is notified. Thanks to the integration with Office 365, documents and other files can be shared, including calendar entries and contacts.
The platform uses a card-based, visual interface, so tasks can be dragged and dropped to different columns, which in turn, will assign it to a different member of the team. Charts and Buckets are also present, giving more visual information about the status or progress of a task or responsibility.
Admins will be invited to add Office 365 Planner to their installation by Microsoft, providing they have applied to become a First Release customer. To do this, they need to head to their Office 365 admin centre and then choose to change their Service Settings. Rather than choosing 'standard' release settings, they can choose 'First Release', meaning they will be in the first group to receive new product releases and updates.
-
A notorious ransomware group is spreading fake Microsoft Teams ads to snare victimsNews The Rhysida ransomware group is leveraging Trusted Signing from Microsoft to lend plausibility to its activities
-
Will businesses get lost in AI translation?In-depth Multilingual AI tools can now pick up the phone to customers – but the jury is out on whether they will and should replace humans
-
'Digital hide-and-seek': Workers are wasting hundreds of hours a year sourcing the information they need to carry out their roleNews Knowledge workers globally are wasting a quarter of their working week tracking down information, new research from Atlassian has revealed.
-
Untethered: How CIOs and CISOs are paving the way for the new hybrid workforceWhitepaper Effective techniques to transition from exposed legacy infrastructure to an effective zero trust strategy
-
Unlocking the power of your digital servicesSponsored Businesses have invested significant cash into technology since COVID-19, but are they really getting their money's worth?
-
Delivering fast and secure digital experiences for the modern hybrid workforceWhitepaper A new approach to digital experience monitoring that can monitor the health of all systems
-
Collaboration is the glue that holds your business togetherSPONSORED A combination of productivity tools and cloud telephony can enable the best from your workforce
-
The future of work and the forgotten workforcewhitepaper How to deploy a mobile-first strategy so no one gets left behind
-
The case for an accelerated device refresh cycleWhitepaper Achieving a more cost-effective device lifecycle overall
-
Employees are choosing how they workWhitepaper And with the right secure digital strategy, this could be a great thing for your business: today and far into the future
