Integrate Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Project and improve project management

Above all, in environments where all stakeholders in a project have access to the application with different objectives, including: be aware of the tasks assigned, allocate hours or expenses, update activities, share Gantt charts/calendars, report incidents, as well as incorporate the progress or any relevant detail for a global vision of each project.

Without a doubt, having project management tools is essential for planning, assigning, controlling, and measuring the execution of any project, allowing organisations to centrally manage a greater number of projects.

The Internet was a major advance, but that's not all it was

The availability of the Internet, from anywhere and at any time, has allowed information to be updated almost in real time where the activities are actually carried out. You no longer need to wait to return to the office to update your management systems. This makes it possible to make decisions through workflows for the approval of requests in real time, and allows projects to move forward more smoothly.

All this contributes to better time compliance, cost savings and increased productivity. And if project management software is integrated with ERP to automate customer management, warehouses, orders, invoicing and accounting, companies can significantly reduce the burden of day-to-day administrative operations.

Additionally, if both are hosted in the cloud, they allow continuous access and eliminate potential limitations inherent to on-premise infrastructures: connectivity, availability, scalability in terms of storage capacity and number of users, increased security, etc. Furthermore, they even provide access to third parties (suppliers, subcontractors or customers) without compromising the security of business infrastructures.

And what about the rest of the collaboration scenarios?

In parallel to this family of management solutions, in virtually all work environments, we use collaboration tools such as email, chat and videoconferencing, which allow us to interact with each other to gain efficiency when we are engaged in our activities and avoid unnecessary delays and displacements. Some companies also configure documentation repositories for documentation management purposes and in an effort to share files vital for implementation, monitoring and closing.

Unfortunately, these collaboration tools are almost always disconnected from project management systems. This lack of integration requires parallel consultation of one or more sources or tools, searches to track certain relevant information, copying and pasting data, having to transcribe texts, etc., in other words, lost time that would be best to avoid.

Is it possible to improve collaboration in project management with an integrated tool?

Solution: Microsoft Teams integrated with Microsoft Project

Now it's possible. And thanks to the integration of Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Project, this pair of tools is an unbeatable set.

For those who aren't aware, Microsoft Teams is a relatively recent member of the Office 365 family (launched in March 2017) that has been catching people's eye day after day thanks to its ability to combine collaborative elements. This is because it is capable of offering chat rooms, equipment management, video meetings, calls, calendars, files and much more in a single integrated application. With Microsoft Teams, you can collaborate securely between different work teams (made up of people inside and outside the organisation), platforms (Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS) and devices (PCs, Tablets or smartphones).

If Microsoft Teams, as part of Office 365, is already useful for an organisation and business sector, thanks to its ability to integrate with other business solutions—both third-party and Microsoft's own management solutions—productivity jumps to its highest level.

In this regard, at the Microsoft Ignite event held at the end of October, organisers' announced an important step towards achieving the company's new vision with regard to project management: the general availability of the new Microsoft Project. The new version of Project offers a simpler and more intuitive user experience; work teams can quickly add new members and set up tasks and easily switch between grid, dashboard or timeline (Gantt) charts to track progress.

In terms of what we find most appealing at present, since Project is part of the Microsoft 365 family, project teams can save time and be more productive thanks to integrated and direct connections to applications such as Teams, which allows information to flow between tools without changing the working environment.

The company Redmond is certain that Microsoft Teams will continue to be the core for empowering teamwork on Microsoft's platform, and Project is just one more piece of that impressive integrated collaboration matrix.

If you want to delve further into any of these aspects, we encourage you to contact us for more information—no obligation. At SEIDOR, we are convinced that the integration of Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Project will allow you to take project management to a higher level of collaboration.