Microsoft Loop for collaborative planning, thinking and working
Microsoft Loop was officially announced last year and is already available in apps such as Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Nevertheless, we have noticed that not everyone has yet discovered the full potential of the new MS app.
Microsoft Loop for more collaboration
The app can be divided into three areas:
- Components
- Pages
- Work areas
Loop components
are elements that we can already use in chats, meetings, emails and documents or that we can use directly in the upcoming Loop app. As described, the components are already available in the above-mentioned apps, which means that you don’t have to switch back and forth between different apps.
These can be lists, tables, notes or tasks, or more complex matters such as a customer sales opportunity from Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Centralised storage means that the components are always up to date, so that colleagues can always work synchronously and are always up to date.
For example, voting tables can be created to make it easier for teams to make decisions and reach a result more quickly.
The status tracker is also not to be sneezed at. Collect information from your team, track the progress of the project and always know the current status quo.
In addition, Microsoft is developing new extensions and enabling even more simplification in terms of business processes: Dynamics 365 data records can also be integrated directly, for example.
Loop pages
Loop pages are a real blessing for all creative minds. This is a flexible work surface that grows with time and the project; the page adapts to the size of your project. This means that it gets bigger as the project grows.
With the loop pages, there are no more limits to collaboration. Insert additional loop components or external elements such as files, links or files. Each team member can edit the page in parallel and simultaneously with others and even track the cursor position of live users directly if someone types, moves or changes something.
Comment, respond directly to opinions and make decisions as a team – quickly and easily.
Loop workspaces
are places for your project in the Loop app where all project-related information is stored; workspaces are roughly comparable to Teams and channels in Microsoft Teams. These can be accessed via the navigation panel on the left-hand side and are not only the entry point for all elements, but also display notifications for your various pages.
The shared areas display everything that is important for your project and can be grouped together. Workspaces make it easier for you to keep track of the work of individual participants, respond to colleagues’ ideas or track the progress of common goals. Members can work together both synchronously and asynchronously…
In the Microsoft preview, you can see that all team members who are currently active are displayed in the top right-hand corner. As with the pages, the cursor of active colleagues can also be tracked live here.
The loop workspaces make it easy to keep track of what your team or each member is currently working on. Another advantage is the direct response to the ideas of others and teamwork on the ideas – from start to finish.
Conclusion: Microsoft Loop for more [kreative] Co-operation
Microsoft Loop brings everything together and ensures that teams can work more productively, more purposefully and more closely connected.
Although Microsoft already has some elements of the Microsoft Loop app available in Microsoft Teams, there is no information yet on when the dedicated app will be available.
Individual loop areas are already available and ready for use in the Microsoft 365 applications. Collaboration in the Loop workspaces is not yet possible, but users can still try out and use existing and new Loop components.
