If you already have a subscription to Office365, you have access to a multitude of applications, many of those will aid in internal and external communications. Office365 is a behemoth of a program with quite robust offerings. With all of the options available, it’s easy to get lost in the details and hard to know how to maximize the utility of each application. We’re here to bring you some clarity on the matter; Office365 does include a few powerful communication tools and now’s a great time to familiarize yourself and your team to all of its benefits.

What better place to start than Outlook? Everyone knows email, even my 90 year old grandmother knows how to send an email; it almost feels antiquated to send someone on your team an email. But sometimes the situation calls for it and you have to send an email. Did you know that you can use handy tools such as the “@” symbol + a person’s name to specifically call someone out on a certain part of an email? It’s true, that’s a super handy (and somewhat hidden) feature. When you “@” mention somebody’s name, it’ll show up in their inbox with a special figure letting them know they were mentioned.

Teams is a great option for intra-office communications (especially for those WFH, or if you’re part of a small team within a larger company). This application is highly collaborative and much more informal than email. You’re able to, again, “@”mention teammates, chat, or reply with comments on shared files. Teams also allows video chatting, for those quick one-off moments that you need to speak face-to-face with someone, this is a great feature.

Next up is Yammer. This is a great option for remote workers because it’s a social media site, but before you roll your eyes and think “not another,” let us tell you that it can be instrumental in disseminating information throughout your business. You can think of Yammer as the office bulletin board/water cooler; it not only acts as a repository for upcoming events, company-wide updates but it also is a great place for that ping pong smack talk we’ve all been missing out on. In a virtual world, a site like Yammer is a saving grace.

If you want an even deeper dive into the Office365 experience to learn about all that it can do, you can sign up for our upcoming event! We’ll be hosting a virtual event centered all around Office365 and how to take advantage of all of its benefits. Click here to register.