Covid-19 has made business owners realise the power of interactive tools – both remotely and in the normal work setting. They have been forced to explore everything technology has to offer in order to ensure they can continue trading throughout the uncertain times we are living in. Most have been looking for tools that will revolutionise their businesses for many years to come.

Evolve considers the Microsoft 365 ecosystem the best choice on the market to ensure you get the most from what a good standard of IT has to offer. At Evolve we know the importance of a great IT infrastructure both remotely and in-office. A key feature of Microsoft 365 that is overlooked is Microsoft Lists within Microsoft Teams. Lists has the ability to improve the way you work both during the Covid-19 epidemic and beyond.

 

Microsoft Lists – What can it do?

Microsoft Lists (as self-explanatory as this is) allows you to create lists to organise information. You can share those lists with others and collaborate with them on said Lists. This sounds familiar to a spreadsheet list but there are unique features to Microsoft Lists that we think are a great addition to Teams and will be beneficial to business owners and employees alike.

A unique point of Lists is the ability to visualise your data in many different ways – a standard grid format, a card format, and a calendar format. You can also decide what data is visible and what is not – allowing for a lot of control over how you choose to present it.

A particularly interesting feature is the option to add ‘rules’ to your Microsoft Lists. For example, one of your data logs goes from ‘on track’ to ‘delayed’, you can set a rule that you are informed via email of the status change, you can also have one automatically sent to the person who runs that log too. In this way, you can keep track of what is going on in Lists and who is keeping up with workflow and who is not.

 It is also possible to connect Microsoft Lists to Power automate. For example, you run a ticket system in your company – you can make it automatically get added to your Microsoft Lists, and then Lists can post to Teams letting the team know the ticket’s come in.

Some wonder when they would use Microsoft Lists; here are ways to use it.

Ways to use Lists – As a:

• Issue tracker
• Inventory tracker
• Asset tracker
• Individual task tracker
• Team task tracker

Microsoft planner and Microsoft to-do specialise and are catered for task tracking. Lists is a much broader use tool (as stated above) but can also be used for more mundane tasks. We will now go into more detail about how to use the basic functions of Lists.

 

How to use Lists

To access Lists, click on Teams on the left-hand side.

Once in Teams click Lists at the top of the page next to the ‘+’ symbol.

Once you have clicked Lists you will have an option to ‘Create a new list’ or ‘Add an existing list’.

Click Create a list. A series of options will come up – here is what they are and what they mean.

• Blank list – A blank canvas allowing you to design what the list looks like and the structure.
• From Excel – Starting from an excel spreadsheet. When the data is brought in you can decide what the data schema is.
• From existing list – Re-use all the data and bring over all of the business rules from an existing list

There is also a variety of templates to choose from. Lists have organised the layout in such a way that the most common things you may use Microsoft Lists for will appear. For example, an issue tracker or employee onboarding.

Let us make a blank list. Once having clicked ‘Blank list’ you can define the name and description of the list. Having filled these out click ‘Create’ at the bottom of the screen.

You will then be welcomed to the opening page of your new list where you start the process of creating your list.

Lists and Microsoft 365 have the power to revolutionise the way your remote working team goes about their daily work; it allows you to track the way they work and to create lists that can be automated by you or them.

Still unsure? Worried you may not set things up correctly? Need help with your IT in general? Evolve can help you!

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Need to get more from your tools?

At Evolve, we have a wealth of expertise in tailoring and implementing modern work solutions that add business value by driving efficiency and cutting costs, which is ever more important in such a dynamic climate as we find ourselves in today.

We are uniquely placed to support you in achieving a frictionless transition to the cloud or we can help you along on the journey in acquiring more from the tools you may already have in place.

To learn how our team can support your digital transformation by aligning technology to your business goals and challenges, please book a discovery call with us today.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss anything read in this article further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.