The new Microsoft Planner

When we talk about Microsoft 365 and all the tools available, the first word that comes to mind is ‚collaboration.’ All of these tools are built to communicate natively and provide a simplified work experience.

Microsoft Planner is a tool that helps users collaborate on projects by setting tasks and tracking progress in real time, as well as generating detailed reports.

At the moment, Planner is quite basic and doesn't offer that many specific functionalities. The major advantage being, as I mentioned earlier, the easy connection with the rest of the Microsoft 365 services.

The good news is that starting in January 2024, Planner will receive a series of superpowers that we will talk about in the lines below. A mix between Microsoft To Do, the old Planner, Microsoft Project and AI.

1. New ways to organize plans. With the new update, you will have the opportunity to use other project management methodologies for your projects. For example, here's what the Agile view will look like. A view that includes tasks from the backlog, but also from each sprint:

Obviously, another view in which we will be able to see the tasks according to status, responsible person and category:

In principle, you will have most of the functionalities available today in Project for the web.

2. Scalability – plus detailed reporting with Power BI and flow creation using Power Automate.

Our favorite feature? The ability to create tasks dependent on the status of other tasks:

3. Integration with AI – You will be able to use Copilot for various advice and analysis on your projects.

For example, you can ask Copilot which team members have the highest workload, so you can distribute new tasks more efficiently.

It can also help you 'break' a large task into smaller tasks.

4. Even more integration – in addition to all the functionalities you are already familiar with, two more integrations are added to help you save time:
   1. Flagged emails from Outlook will be automatically imported into Planner.
   2. Tasks set during a Team meeting will also be visible.

If you want to learn more about the new Microsoft Planner, you can access the video on the Microsoft YouTube channel -> here.

And if we've made you curious, contact us and we'll help you streamline your processes so you can work faster.