Teams that work online can get pretty distracted when tools like Trello are not used. Team collaboration software has pretty much changed the game and Microsoft knows it. Just today, their own version of this software was launched. It is called Planner.
Trello soared in popularity for its “boards.” These boards have “cards” that can be moved from one board to another. They can be categorized by priority or status. Planner is pretty much the same and more.
Tech Crunch noted that Planner, just like Trello, can attach photos and documents in the cards. They can have due dates and can have individual conversations and comments too. Color-coding is also possible. Planner also has “buckets” or columns where users can organize cards.
However, the main difference of Planner is its integration with the rest of the Microsoft Office suite.
Microsoft is known to take action whenever and wherever productivity apps are concerned. For instance, the company bought Yammer, Wunderlist, SwiftKey, Sunrise and Acompli. Slack was also on its radar. For Trello, however, Microsoft simply built their own in the form of Planner.
Microsoft said in its official announcement that they will roll out Planner over the next few weeks. It will come included in Microsoft 365 and all its customers. It can be expected with users of Office 365 Enterprise E1-E5, Business Essentials, Premium and Education subscriptions. Planner will automatically appear in the Office 365 launcher.
Planner was a work in progress for a while. Before it was announced, the project management tool of choice was Project but its complexity turned users away. In many ways, it made more sense to simply use Excel or even Trello.
Since Planner is part of the Microsoft Office suite, it is an enterprise-ready tool and supports the technical needs of corporations. Redundant backups, instant recovery, and HIPAA, FISMA, ISO27001 and EU Model compliance are all included with Planner.
