Microsoft Planner, A New Work Management Tool for Office 365

It is not often that I say I'm curious about a new Microsoft release but here I am saying just that. Last September, Microsoft introduced a new planning tool that is apart of the Work Management tools. The planning tool is called Microsoft Planner. If you've used Jira or Trello, you will find this tool very familiar. This tool is available on several of the plans such as Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Enterprise E3, just to name a few. You can find out if it will be available on your plan by checking the Microsoft Plans & Prices. 

One of the reasons I like this tool, is that it is visual and would seem to have a lower learning curve for those looking to integrate project management into their Microsoft tools suite. I used to use Microsoft Project for some projects it was a bit too much. Plus, Planner allows for dragging and dropping tasks - a feature I know that one of my clients particularly likes using. 

Using cards, buckets, colors, and priorities, this tool is meant to make knowing "who-does-what-by-when" easy for everyone in your organization. The product integrates with OneNote, SharePoint Online and can be available offline. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files are stored in document libraries. 

Since it is apart of the Microsoft suite it meets many of the technical standards for larger organizations such as "including multiple redundant backups, instantaneous recovery and HIPAA, FISMA, ISO27001 and EU Model compliance". 

So having this planner online is great but say your team spends more time on-the-go than in the office. This app works across devices. How do you get it? Microsoft is rolling it out to eligible plans. It will appear in the Office 365 App Launcher, I call it the checkerboard in the upper lefthand corner. 

I've not yet seen it show up in mine but I am on the look out. If you've used it let me know what you think of it.