Microsoft Loop: A Seamless Collaboration Tool for Small Organizations

Microsoft Loop: A Seamless Collaboration Tool for Small Organizations

Microsoft Loop is a new productivity app that combines the elements of Office365 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in one collaborative space. The new collaboration app is designed to boost collaboration and productivity and is available to Outlook, Teams, and OneNote apps.

The Loop app may be new, but some of its core features have been available for over two years with the Microsoft Fluid Framework. Organizations that use Microsoft 365 may be familiar with tools that embed such components as tables, charts, and lists into different apps. Microsoft Loop can even update these components in real-time and be accessed by other users.

The Future of Office Applications

Loop is Microsoft’s vision of the future of Office applications – particularly for organizations. The tool breaks down the traditional rigid barriers to apps – for instance, differences in file formats that prevent seamless sharing.

Loop can now deconstruct document, spreadsheet, and presentation files into modular components that users can easily share between and open in different applications. This integration makes it easier for users to create content collaboratively – remotely and even if not on the same app.

For instance, when a user updates a table in Excel, A chart embedded in Excel based on the table will be instantly updated. Users viewing the chart in OneNote or making a presentation in PowerPoint will see the changes immediately. Another user can even view the updates right from Outlook – they do not even need to open external apps.

How Microsoft Loop Works

Microsoft Loop is built on the Fluid Framework, a developer-centered platform designed to help developers build better collaborative apps. Microsoft Loop is made up of three core elements:

Loop Components

The key elements of Loop are ‘Loop Components,’ the building blocks of the app that users can seamlessly embed into a Loop Page. Loop components enable users to collaborate in the traditional Teams meetings, chats, email, or right on the document.

Loop Components can be simple items such as tables, notes, or lists. They can also be complex items such as voting tables from Dynamics 365.

Loop continuously syncs Components in all the places they appear. As a result, workers collaborating on documents, files, or projects get to work on the latest information to increase productivity and eliminate workflow bottlenecks.

Loop Pages

A ‘Loop Page’ is a shared flexible canvas that contains information about sources related to particular objects shared by teams, projects, or tasks. Loop Components are organized on a Loop Page to make it easy for users to access and pull elements such as files, links, or data as they work on a project.

Loop pages may start as small spaces with a handful of components, but as users contribute and edit files, the pages flexibly grow to accommodate all the files and ideas of the project.

Loop Workspaces

Loop pages are organized into ‘Loop Workspaces,’ which offer a broader perspective of the multiple documents in the workspace. Users collaborating on a project or shared spaces will see everything related to the project in one place and can group components and pages to suit their needs. For instance, a user can group all the important files, comments, or contributions to quickly catch up on what everyone in the workspace is working on.

Microsoft Loop is the new all-in-one task collaboration platform that modernizes how users collaborate on and share documents. Loop brings forth a notable shift that Microsoft hopes will revolutionize Office users’ workflows. While it does not replace traditional Office applications, it acts as a discrete tool for workflow automation and app integration.

Microsoft Loop and The New Hybrid Work Era

Microsoft Loop may be a new tool, but the concept on which it works is not. This all-in-one document collaboration tool works in an almost similar fashion to those offered by Notion and Coda. Microsoft is betting big on businesses and organizations of all sizes embracing Loop as Microsoft 365 software heads toward a post-Office era.

Loop with Microsoft Editor

Along with Loop, Microsoft has also announced a new natively-integrated AI editor designed to help users predict, find, and suggest information other users may find useful right inside their workspaces. Thanks to its cross-app grammar and spelling checking feature, Microsoft Editor also features powerful editing tools to help users compose and create content with confidence.

Loop with Microsoft Whiteboard

Companies that use Microsoft Whiteboard are in luck as far as the launch of Loop goes. Loop integration in Whiteboard will supercharge the app since Microsoft integrated components in Whiteboard. This means users who use Whiteboard will easily share Components of the app on Loop Workspaces and Loop Pages. They can also share Whiteboard components across other Loop-integrated Microsoft collaboration apps, including Teams and Outlook.

Loop with Microsoft Dynamics 365

In more good news for businesses that use Microsoft products, the company promised that a Loop Component for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is in development. The Dynamics 365 Loop Component is designed to connect all Office365 suite apps – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote – with greater ease. The Dynamics 365 app, presently in its preview stage, is expected to be Loop-enabled by the time it launches officially ‘in the coming months’ according to Microsoft. Organizations that use Dynamics 365 will conveniently pull and collaborate on business information directly on Office 365 or other apps, including OneNote, OneDrive, and Teams.

Loop for Startups and Small Organizations

Microsoft has invested a lot of effort in making Microsoft 365 appealing to startups, small businesses, and small organizations. The company has successfully downscaled solutions for large enterprises to incorporate them into tools marketed for smaller organizations. With Loop, it will be even easier for new businesses, startups, and small organizations to get started with and collaborate on Microsoft 365.

Conclusion

Parkway Tech is on a mission to help your business stay competitive and staff productive by ensuring that your company’s IT systems are performing at their optimum at all times. We are a growing startup established primarily to help businesses in other industries with all their IT service needs, notably Microsoft Technologies.

If your company uses Microsoft software – Microsoft 365 or Office 365, Teams, Dynamics, Power Platform, Outlook, the new Microsoft Loop is a gamechanger we will help you get familiar with. We are a top Microsoft partner with a team of proficient IT professionals with decades of combined experience working with Microsoft tools and software. Contact Parkway Tech today to learn more about Microsoft Loop and how it will boost collaboration and sharing in your organization.