According to the research conducted by Email Client Market Share, Apple iPhone and Gmail are dominating the email client market. In the fourth place, right behind the Apple iPad app, Outlook settles itself with 9% of usage (among the 946 million opens). It’s a tool we mostly know from being a part of Office 365, a Microsoft app suite. While it’s renowned because as an email client, now it also offers features like task management or taking notes, but the most important, and essential for this article is calendaring. Yes, since the first decade of 2000s Outlook also allows you to manage the events thanks to the build-in calendar view, so you don’t have to leave your favorite Calendar app to work smartly. Today we present you some of the best Outlook Calendar integrations to help you stay organized!
Best Outlook calendar integrations for your team!
Collaboration
Office 365
The most obvious option when it comes to collaborating easily with Microsoft Outlook is, of course, Office 365! Honestly, it’s not even an integration, because Outlook Calendar is just a part of this suite. But choosing this way of extending Outlook’s features is more convenient, especially for these who prefer if the third-party apps aren’t involved.
What do you get using Microsoft Outlook Calendar as a part of the Office 365 suite?
- managing tasks straight from the Outlook Calendar thanks to Microsoft ToDo view, so you’re up to date with all the tasks you’re assigned to,
- settings tasks priorities,
- collaborating on Excel, PowerPoint, and Word docs straight from inbox/calendar view,
- real-time conversations on Skype,
- full collaboration suite, so you won’t jump between two or more tools to manage work effectively.
While Outlook Calendar is free, the Office365 suite costs 59.99$ per year for one user and 79.99$ per year, up to 6 people. The free plan includes web versions of apps only, but the paid account offers also the premium ones. Choosing the paid version provides you with a 1TB file storage (check the full plans comparison here).
Slack
Being the most popular collaboration app on the market, it doesn’t need any special introduction. If you’re not satisfied with Microsoft Teams, then give Slack a try, since it has been considered as the biggest Teams alternative during the pandemic remote work trend (even though, it doesn’t support the on-premise chat). Once you set up the Slack account, you can also integrate it with many other tools, as well as Microsoft Outlook.
Benefits of Slack and Outlook Calendar integration:
- create Calendar events thanks to the shortcuts in Slack,
- once you set a Slack status, it automatically appears in the Outlook Calendar event view, so you can show your teammates your unavailability, so they won’t bother you anymore knowing you’re at a meeting,
- instead of waiting for email reminders that can be missed easily, Slacks reminds you about events in Outlook Calendar, so you’re not only up to date with upcoming meetings, but also practice your punctuality,
- event details that allow you to reply the inviter with “yes”, “no” or “maybe” straight from Slack,
- Slack reminders about the upcoming events,
- joining the Skype and Zoom callings straight from the Outlook Calendar notifications in Slack.
As it states in the Slack app directory, you can get this integration for free.
Scheduling
Living in times when most of us are online all the time creates new opportunities and improvements. Now we can automate most of the tiresome and time-wasting activities that require our attention and save this time for more important issues. With scheduling apps, you don’t need to worry about scheduling the meetings on your own! These tools allow you to share your availability easily so that your customers or other teammates know exactly when you’re free for a meeting. The integration automatically adds the booked time slots to your Microsoft Outlook, so you’re always up to date whether you’re busy or not. Smart calendar app, isn’t it? Saves you hundreds of hours you would spend on dealing with the details.
Here are some of our best scheduling Outlook Calendar recommendations:
- Microsoft Bookings – native app
- ScheduleOnce
- Appointlet
- Calendly
- NeedToMeet
- Intivix
- FreeBusy
- Meetin.gs
- Doodle
Time tracking
Do you want to know how much time you usually spent on attending Microsoft Outlook Calendar events or writing emails? Now there’s no need to do it wasting precious hours on just glancing on the clock and writing it down because time trackers do it for you automatically. These tools turn each Calendar event or email into a time entry that appears automatically in your timesheet.
For example, in TimeCamp (a 100% time tracker for unlimited users), you can also automate the process of assigning the meeting to a specific project! Simply use the meeting/event name as a keyword in the project. Once you import a particular event, it will get automatically assigned to the chosen project. Time tracking integrations with Microsoft Outlook are usually offered in the paid plans, so be careful and check the pricing details before choosing a tool.
Here are our recommendations for best Outlook Calendar time trackers:
- TimeCamp
- Memory.ai
- Timewatch
- Desktime
- Trackingtime
- Timelog
- Harvest
Task management
Managing both events in Microsoft Outlook Calendar and other assignments can be bothersome, so why don’t you combine these two activities? The market is full of easy to use task management apps that integrate directly with Outlook Calendar, turning each event or email into a task that can be further edited or assigned to the particular team member. Teams can effortlessly enhance their work, better manage tasks, projects, and resources or plan and schedule events. It’s also a great way to keep track of employee availability and access all the information in one place.
No matter if you’re a to-do list maniac or a manager who needs to monitor the team performance, integrating calendar apps with task managers can significantly improve the work transparency and team’s productivity. What is more, you can often combine mobile apps and enjoy having events, mails, and contacts across multiple platforms.
Here are some of our recommendation for best Microsoft Outlook and task management tools integrations:
- EasyProjects
- Wrike
- ProWorkflow
- EasyProject
- Taskline
- Inloox
- Flow-e
- Team.Do
- Asana
- Clickup
- Accelo
Automation integrations
Even if your favorite tool doesn’t offer an Outlook integration, you can always use a third-party app that establishes a connection between Microsoft Outlook and the software you’ve already used. For these who are afraid of data loss, don’t worry – these connectors are entirely secure. What is more, they don’t require coding skills, just a few clicks are enough to create an integration, the instructions guide you step by step.
Here are some of our best automation integrations for Microsoft Outlook:
- Zapier
- OutlookApps
- Automate.io
- PieSync
- Integromat
- IFTTT
Customer Relationship Management
Integrating Microsoft Outlook with CRM tools allows you to manage and contact your customers straight from the Outlook inbox. It combines the calendar and email functions with a deal and lead management. It’s a smart solution, especially for the sales department members who send usually thousands of emails contacting their potential and existing customers.
Here are some of our best recommendations for integrating Outlook with CRM software:
- Hubspot
- Insightly
- Nimble
- Microsoft Dynamics (native app)
- Pipedrive
- Zoho CRM
As you can see, Microsoft Outlook that usually you as a Calendar and email client, can be turned into a real productivity machine that automates most of the tiresome processes when it comes to various work activities. We provided you with some of, according to us, best Outlook Calendar integrations recommendations, but choose wisely, test them as much as you can to find easy to use and perfect one. Now every single calendar event, email, or contact can be turned into a to-do in task manager or a lead in CRM software, then you track time for it and collaborate with your teammates. Simple as that!