What Is Microsoft Planner?

Cloud migration for businesses is the present and the future. Suppose your company has recently decided to move away from legacy systems and has begun to embrace cloud-based technology offered by Microsoft. In that case, your business can embrace the amazing benefits of Microsoft Planner.

Microsoft describes its task management software as a lightweight program that comes with most versions of Office 365. Think of it as a to-do app for personal and teamwork use.

Transitioning to Microsoft Planner

As your organization moves to Office 365, your company can take advantage of new tools, updates and ways to reimagine productivity. While migration can be complex, the result is more flexibility for your business when using cloud-based systems. You know the costs upfront and can organize your communication with your employees.

Utilizing Planner for All Employees

In the past, organizational tools could sometimes be complex for users to understand. If your employees are familiar with Microsoft applications, they may have an easier time understanding Planner.

Microsoft Planner is designed to be user-friendly. It has an all-in-one dashboard users can share. No one needs specific tech knowledge or understanding to utilize this software. It is an intuitive program that people unfamiliar with task management systems can figure out without much experience.

Understanding Microsoft Planner

Planner helps teams reach objectives. Users can create new plans, share files, communicate, collaborate and assign tasks.

Explore New Tools

MS Planner provides a board where users can organize the tasks into different buckets. They can also categorize tasks based on the status or the team member assigned to the job. Users can update assignments and drag or drop tasks between other columns.

The buckets allow you to sort tasks and break up a plan into different phases, departments or types of work. Employees have complete flexibility with Planner to organize the system so it makes sense for their specific projects.

Users also have access to a calendar where they can see which tasks are scheduled on upcoming dates. Charts provide a graph for workers to see progress on a particular undertaking. While this can help team members who want to see the overall advancement of a project, it also helps individuals track their own progress on a task or assignment.

Access Planner

To access Microsoft Planner, look to the web-based M365 launcher. You will see the app listed as Planner. If in Teams, first select your particular team, then the channel and then the ‘plan’ tab. On the app, you will see Teams in the left column. Select the more options choice and select Tasks by Planner.

You can work across different devices while using Microsoft Planner. If you have a device that can run Office 365, it can also access Planner. Additionally, users receive notifications whenever they have a new task assigned or have been added to a recent conversation.

Benefiting From Microsoft Planner

When migrating to Microsoft Planner, you will want to know how you and your team can take advantage of the program's various benefits.

Collaborate With Team Members

Collaboration is critical to all companies. Nowadays, much of that collaboration can be performed online or in different parts of the world. Employees no longer have to sit around a long table for meetings or planning discussions. Instead, you can collaborate in the digital space.

Businesses utilize Microsoft Planner by using Microsoft Teams. One of the significant difficulties companies have when working from a digital space is keeping every team member on task. How can you ensure each member meets appropriate deadlines and contributes to the company?

Increase Productivity

Microsoft Planner allows teams to execute tasks in a coordinated and productive way. They can assign tasks, discuss their work with other team members and share files.

Working with cloud-based technology can offer more advantages than working together in person. Colleagues have instant access to other team members and can immediately upload files or change the plan if necessary. Since the entire team has access to Planner, there is no risk of leaving anyone out.

Choose Organization Methods

No one can be productive when there is no organization or system for accomplishing tasks. When a team has an assignment or project to work on, it could all fall apart without some type of uniform organization.

Microsoft Planner provides teams with various ways to organize information. Suppose you want to categorize different projects; you can use color-coded labels or split the tasks into low priority and high priority labels. Likewise, you can organize tasks by effort. Some people want to save their low-effort work for the end of the day and choose high-effort work in the beginning. In this case, you can put tasks into a category of high versus low effort so no team member becomes overwhelmed with assignments.

Use Visual Interest

It is difficult for most people to pay attention when reading through detailed information. They may skim over the information without processing it completely. Planner allows you to convert the data sets into charts. You do minimal work and let Planner do the rest. You can look at charts showing the bucket progress and, if you prefer, keep detailed information in a list that still appears on the screen.

Progressing With Microsoft Planner and Office 365

Microsoft Planner can boost your company's productivity. It provides users with a planning function that is easy to use, beneficial and works seamlessly with cloud-based systems. At Cloudficient, we can assist you in transforming your company into the cloud. Contact us to learn more about how we can help with your migration project or visit our website.

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.