Office 365 IconsOffice 365 users will have noticed a new set of logos showing on their subscriptions over the last few days, but it’s not just a bit of a design makeover that Office 365 has been getting – there are several new featured being added to key applications over the coming weeks.

Microsoft’s Office subscription service is constantly being updated with new features, updates and fixes. Even IT professionals have difficulty keeping up with all the additions and changes, and sometimes it feels that something looks different every time you log on to your Admin Console. However, in general the changes to the Office 365 subscription packages add value for users or the organisation, and it does represent great value – if you take advantage of all the great applications and tools that are available.

One upcoming change that will impact many users – especially those who spend a lot of time in their mailboxes – is Outlook MyAnalytics.

MyAnalytics will be rolling out to Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business suites that include Exchange Online, specifically Microsoft 365 E3, Business, Office 365 E3, E1, Business Premium and Business Essentials.

What is Outlook MyAnalytics?

Outlook MyAnalytics is an Outlook add-in provides actionable insights to help you stay on top of tasks and improve productivity. Outlook MyAnalytics is designed to help users keep on top of their inbox and help manage their time.

MyAnalytics looks at your mailbox and calendar in real time and generates recommendations personal to the individual user. For example, it will check your meetings and highlight where there has been a low response from attendees. This will give you an opportunity to chase up attendees or potentially rearrange your meeting to a better time.

Outlook MyAnalytics

If your calendar is filling up with events and meetings, MyAnalytics will prompt you to assign some ‘focus time’ to actually get some work done rather than spending all your time in back to back meetings.

Struggling to manage the volume of incoming emails? MyAnalytics will spot unread emails from important contacts so you aren’t missing out on key correspondence.

If you have To-Do’s that are outstanding, MyAnalytics will remind you to get them done.

One of the most useful features of MyAnalytics is that it will prompt you to connect with key contacts that you haven’t been in touch with for a while. This is the kind of thing that can easily get missed when you are busy with day-to-day operational activity, but is key to maintaining long term relationships.

Interestingly, Outlook MyAnalytics will highlight the impact of your after-hours emails. This is designed to help maintain work-life balance for you and your team. With workplace wellness becoming increasingly important to many organisations, these kinds of prompts will help line managers (and others) to avoid an always-on, available 24/7 mentality.

When will we see Outlook MyAnalytics?

Beginning on February 18th, 365 admins will start to see MyAnalytics as part of the licenses that have been assigned to users. The add-in functionality will begin rolling out 30+ days later, so you should be seeing Outlook MyAnalytics appearing for users towards the end of March.

How to prepare for Outlook MyAnalytics

You will have an option to turn off Outlook MyAnalytics for your tenancy, but we anticipate that this will be a valuable tool for most Outlook users, so we recommend making it available to users. You won’t have to take any action in this case as Outlook MyAnalytics will roll out automatically depending on your release settings.

Of course, you’ll want to notify your users that MyAnalytics is coming, what it does and how they can take action on its recommendations. For most users familiar with Outlook, the prompts should be fairly intuitive and little additional training will be required.

It is important to convey to users that their MyAnalytics recommendations are personal to them and they are not visible to or reported to colleagues or managers. This is purely designed as a personal productivity tool to help users be even more productive in Outlook.

Get a free giffgaff Sim

Need Help?

Additions to Office 365 – like OutLook MyAnalytics – continue to add value to your subscription, so make sure you are using all the tools and applications that you are paying for. If you aren’t, you can be sure that your competitors are.

If you have an Enterprise or Business subscription for Office 365 and you aren’t using SharePoint, Teams, OneNote, Flow and Forms, you simply aren’t as productive as you could be. If you want to know more about how you can make the most of your Office 365 subscription in your business, so get in touch to see how we can help.