Boosting productivity has become a top priority for both businesses and professionals. What if the key lies in making better use of the tools you already have at your fingertips?
Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, is more than just an office suite—it’s a comprehensive ecosystem designed to foster collaboration, automation, and efficient task management.
With its team of certified Microsoft experts, Solulan presents 8 essential Microsoft 365 tools to help improve your organization, communication, and efficiency.
1. Microsoft Teams – Centralize Collaboration in One Place
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform that integrates chat, meetings, and file sharing. Professionals can use Teams to communicate quickly, share real-time information, and collaborate on projects. Dedicated channels for different projects or departments help organize discussions and documents.
Key Features:
- Thematic channels to organize conversations by project or department
- Real-time file sharing and co-editing (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Integration with apps like Planner, OneNote, SharePoint, or even external tools (Trello, Asana)
Best Practices:
- Create standard channels for each project
- Use tabs to integrate your favorite tools directly into Teams
- Automate reminders or follow-ups with Power Automate
2. Outlook – Efficiently Manage Emails and Time
Outlook remains a productivity cornerstone, especially when well configured. It allows you to manage emails, calendars, and contacts in one place. Professionals can use Outlook to organize their day, schedule meetings, and stay connected with colleagues and clients. Outlook also offers task and reminder management features, which help you stay organized and avoid missing important deadlines.
Key Features:
- Focused inbox to better sort emails
- Native integration with Microsoft To Do and Calendar
- Calendar sharing for easy meeting planning
Productivity Tip:
Use the “My Day” feature to group your actionable emails, tasks, and appointments in one view.
3. OneNote – Never Lose a Good Idea Again
OneNote is a digital note-taking tool that helps capture and organize information in a structured way. Use it to take meeting notes, create quick reference guides, and share important info with your team.
Key Features:
- Organization by sections, pages, and subpages
- Easy insertion of files, images, links, or screenshots
- Syncs with Teams and Outlook
Use Cases:
- Meeting minutes
- Training notebooks for new hires
- Project tracking or internal documentation
4. Planner – Visual and Accessible Project Management
Microsoft Planner is ideal for managing tasks and projects. Managers can use Planner to assign specific tasks to team members, track project progress, and ensure that all steps are completed on time. Planner provides an overview of ongoing projects, making it easy to visualize tasks to be done and prioritize activities based on deadlines. Microsoft Planner thus allows the entire team to see who is doing what, by when, and the status of each task.
Key Features:
- Kanban-style boards with labels, due dates, and attachments
- Calendar or chart views to track progress
- Integration with Teams and Outlook
Tip:
Link Planner to Power Automate to send automatic reminders for overdue tasks.
5. To Do – Organize Your Day with Clarity
Microsoft To Do is a simple yet powerful app for managing your daily priorities. You can create task lists, set due dates and reminders, and highlight your most important tasks. To Do also allows you to break down larger tasks into more manageable steps and add notes to capture additional details. All your tasks are synced with Outlook, making it easy to manage everything from one place.
Key Features:
- Create lists (projects, clients, recurring tasks)
- Sync with Outlook
- Share lists with colleagues
Good to Know:
To Do follows you everywhere—on desktop, tablet, and mobile—so you never forget a thing.
6. Microsoft Lists – Smart Information Management
Microsoft Lists is a powerful yet often overlooked tool for structuring, visualizing, and sharing information within a team. It complements SharePoint and Teams, especially for tracking projects, equipment, clients, or complex tasks.
Key Features:
- Create lists from templates (event management, leave requests, inventory, etc.)
- Customize columns (text, choice, date, assigned person, etc.)
- Grid, calendar, or gallery views
- Alerts and automation via Power Automate
Use Cases:
- Track deliverables in complex projects
- Manage internal requests (IT, HR, maintenance)
- Centralize client or prospect tracking (mini internal CRM)
Good to Know:
Microsoft Lists is integrated into Teams, enabling dynamic list collaboration without leaving your workspace.
7. Power Automate – Save Time Through Automation
With Power Automate, you can automate repetitive tasks and create custom workflows between your various Microsoft 365 or external applications. For example, you can automate sending follow-up emails after each meeting or create alerts for urgent tasks.
Useful Flows:
- Automatically save Forms responses to Excel
- Send a Teams notification when a SharePoint file is modified
- Manage document or HR request approvals
Tip:
Start with prebuilt templates to explore the tool’s potential.
8. Microsoft Copilot – Built-in AI to Work Smarter
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is an AI-powered assistant built directly into Word, Outlook, Excel, Teams, and other M365 applications. It uses artificial intelligence to help you complete tasks faster and more efficiently. Copilot can generate meeting summaries, automatically extract mentioned tasks and assign them in Planner or To Do, and analyze conversations to identify key decisions. For example, in Microsoft Teams, Copilot can provide a structured summary of the meeting—even if you joined late or didn’t take notes. In Outlook, Copilot can condense long emails into short, relevant summaries.
Key Features:
- Summarize email threads or Teams meetings
- Generate document outlines or presentation drafts
- Automatically analyze Excel data
Tips:
- Deploy Copilot strategically and train your team
- Learn prompt engineering to unlock its full potential
Solulan, Your Microsoft Partner for Business
By combining collaboration, task management, automation, and AI, Microsoft 365 becomes a true productivity accelerator. Whether you're a SME or a large organization, leveraging these tools requires thoughtful and tailored implementation.
Would you like to train your teams to make the most of Microsoft 365 or explore solutions tailored to your business reality?
Contact us to discover how our experts can support your digital transformation.
