As most organisations and companies are already invested in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, let's explore how to utilise and take take advantage of some of the core apps available to build a useful and collaborative PMO.
Microsoft Teams serves as a hub for communication and collaboration between Teams, this provides a platform for project teams to chat, share files, and conduct meetings. For a PMO, this means seamless communication, quick decision making, and a unified space for project teams to collaborate, while fostering a culture of transparency and efficiency.
SharePoint is considered the OG of Microsoft and has been around since 2001. Long gone are the days of clunky intranets, SharePoint now enables us to create, manage, and share documents and information from one location. In the context of a PMO, SharePoint can help facilitate the creation of a centralised repository of project documentation while ensuring version and access control, and easy collaboration on all thing's projects.
Included in most enterprise plans, Microsoft Planner is a lightweight project management tool that integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365. It allows the user to create plans, organise tasks, and track progress in a visually intuitive interface that can also be used from within Microsoft Teams and SharePoint (Planner web part). Microsoft have also just announced integration with Microsoft To Do, Project for the Web and Microsoft Copilot. PMOs can leverage Planner to develop project timelines, assigning tasks and monitor status effortlessly, providing real-time insights into project progress.
PMOs can harness these tools to create insightful reports and analyse project data to make informed decisions. Excel’s familiar interface combined with Power BI’s robust visualisation capabilities enables PMOs to present project insights and data in a clear and compelling manner. In Project Hub P3M, we currently have a library of powerful interactive reports and dashboards that have been integrated into the app.
Power Automate allows you to automate repetitive tasks and workflows, reducing manual intervention and minimising the risk of errors. PMOs can benefit from automation in various aspects, including project approvals, status updates and notifications. By automating these routine tasks, the PMO can allocate resources more effectively and ensure critical project processes are executed efficiently.
As you can see, there are some powerful apps and tools at your disposal within Microsoft 365. Not only do they all seamlessly integrate with each other, but they also integrate with The Digital Project's stack of apps including Project Hub P3M. If you want to explore building out a PMO using Microsoft 365 or further information, please reach out!