Microsoft has recently announced the release of Microsoft Loop. But what is Loop and how can Loop improve your business productivity?

With Loop, any project or team will have its own interactive canvas that can be moved freely between the apps they are already using such as Outlook and Teams. These always up-to-date components provide a collaborative space for brainstorming, organizing, and tracking progress either synchronously or asynchronously so you and your teams can go from unfinished ideas to great outcomes faster — without changing contexts!

Stay focused on the task at hand and whenever you need to jump to another app, Loop is there to keep your project organized and on track. With Loop’s interactive canvas, you and your team can visualize your current goals, brainstorm new ones, and track progress all in one place. Loop is there for you and your team every step of the way.

How to Use Microsoft Loop

There are several key concepts to understand before implementing Microsoft Loop in your organization.

Microsoft Loop is coming to you as an app in the upcoming months. You’ll then have access to all of your work, with others’. Microsoft Loop workspaces allow you to group everything important and see what people are working on – it’s a great way for everyone involved in projects from different locations or time zones can stay connected.

Within your Loop workspace, you can have many Loop Pages. This is a place where people can enter text, react with emojis, and find related Loop components, documents, and links. The user interface shows other users’ cursors to give you an idea of what everyone else is doing in the document at any given time. This will remind you of the recently redesigned Office’s Whiteboard app.

Loop components help you work together on lists, tables, notes, or even a customer sales opportunity from Dynamics 365. Several people can contribute simultaneously to these mini documents that are each less than a page in length. Using the Fluid Framework technology, Microsoft Loop components will be available across different applications. These features come first to OneNote, Outlook, and Teams starting this month. Components stay up to date across these programs so you don’t have to worry about sharing an outdated version of a file!

Microsoft has created ready-to-use Loop components for voting on ideas and tracking the status of projects, as well as one that can be just like a customer record from Dynamics 365. Third-party developers will also be able to create these components.

For Microsoft’s Office subscription bundles, Word and Excel come with a co-authoring text document feature, along with SharePoint that gives you instant access to relevant files. Loop has stressed the importance of modernizing these features in order to face off against other well-funded start-ups such as Airtable and Notion.

Getting Help with Microsoft Loop

Implementing Microsoft Loop requires a solid foundation in Office 365. You will want to ensure that your Microsoft Groups and Sharepoint Sites are in order and make logical sense. Hartmann Industries offers fully managed IT services, which include auditing and cleaning up your Microsoft 365 tenant to best practices. Hartmann Industries also can take care of your Office 365 migration, customized to your specific business needs.

If you are looking for a way to improve collaboration in your organization, Microsoft Loop could be the answer. Starting small and testing features that have been implemented in other companies can help you figure out what will work best for your company.