Microsoft is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to building software for desk workers. If you’re looking for a way to bring all your workplace tools together and create cool workflow automations to make your team’s day-to-day life easier, then understanding how to integrate Microsoft with other workplace tools is a must.
Essentially app integrations allow you to use two different apps in one place.
So let’s say that you use two separate apps at work like Gmail and OneDrive, but you need them to work together. Well, you could create an integration where anytime someone sends an email with an attachment, it automatically gets saved to OneDrive as an original file format. Voila! You just created a workplace automation.
If you can strategically set up your app integrations to automate all those tedious little tasks that steal time away from focusing on higher-level goals, then app integrations can be a lifesaver for your team at work.
Here are a couple of ways that the right Microsoft app integrations can save you and your team valuable time.
One of the biggest operational challenges for businesses with a mixed workforce of office and frontline workers is streamlining communication between the two worlds. Oftentimes, the corporate side has no idea what’s happening out on the production floor and vice versa. This disconnect can even create animosity between the corporate side and the production workers within a company. Fortunately, with the right digital workplace tools, you can help these two worlds come together.
Here’s where a lot of companies go wrong — they give desk workers and frontline workers the same tools and basically say, “Make it work.”
Your frontline workers have unique communication needs, and therefore they require their own communication platform. Preferably one that was built specifically for them — like Beekeeper.
Giving your frontline team a communication platform built for desktop workers is like giving a fisherman a shovel. It doesn’t do the job, and quite frankly, it ends up being more of a burden to carry around than a useful tool that makes their life easier.
While both Microsoft and Beekeeper make workplace collaboration software, you actually don’t have to choose between the two. If you have a team of desk and frontline workers, you actually need both. Here’s why.
Beekeeper is an operational communications tool built for frontline employees. We have been building this app for frontline teams for years, and we are a better solution for that audience. Why?
Now that we’ve established why it’s useful to have both Beekeeper and Microsoft as integral parts of your company’s tech stack, let’s explore how these two platforms can actually work together to help business leaders bring their teams together.
Here are some Microsoft integrations that Beekeeper customers love.
One of the most popular Beekeeper/Microsoft integrations is our integration with SharePoint — the collaborative platform that many organizations use for their company intranet.
You can use Microsoft SharePoint to communicate with your desktop employees and simultaneously use Beekeeper to communicate with your frontline workforce.
Here’s how. . .
Integration from SharePoint to Beekeeper:
Build a custom connection via our API to synchronize important documents from SharePoint to Beekeeper's More tab. You can also build a two-way integration so that any post on SharePoint gets published to Beekeeper and vice versa. Comments and likes are also synchronized in two ways.
Integration from Beekeeper to SharePoint:
One of the major perks of the Beekeeper SharePoint integration is its flexibility. There are several ways to integrate Beekeeper with SharePoint, offering your organization flexibility in how you share content between the two platforms.
For more information on how to integrate Beekeeper with SharePoint, click here.
User management can be a serious challenge for enterprise companies. Beekeeper’s integration with Microsoft Azure’s Active Directory allows for easy user synchronization. If you use the Azure Active Directory to manage your employee information, then this Beekeeper integration allows you to automatically synchronize your Azure AD employee information with Beekeeper so that this employee info is always current.
This integration between Beekeeper and Microsoft Azure is a plug-and-play integration to synchronize your Azure AD employee information to Beekeeper. We will set it up for you and it will run in the background. Every time a user is created in Azure AD, it will be automatically created in Beekeeper. If a user's information is modified or the user is deleted, these changes will be reflected in Beekeeper.
Chalhoub Group is a massive retailer with over 600 stores across the Middle East. In an effort to unify their large team of frontline employees, Chalhoub implemented Beekeeper in 2018. When they needed a solution to automate user management for over 12,000 employees, the Microsoft Azure integration was a natural fit.
Here are just a few reasons why Chalhoub loves the Beekeeper Azure integration:
You’ve mastered PowerPoint. You’ve conquered Outlook (mostly). You’ve learned every shortcut in Word. You know Yammer and SharePoint like the back of your hand. What’s next in your quest to be the ultimate Microsoft power user? It’s time to level up your software game with Zapier integrations.
Whether you’re a complete new-bee (see what we did there?) to the concept of an app integration, or you’ve been working with open APIs since you were a teenager, Zapier’s must-have Microsoft integrations offer a little something for folks at all levels of the app integration game.
Here are some of our favorite Microsoft app integrations you can do with Beekeeper using Zapier:
Microsoft has a virtually endless ecosystem of apps. Since Beekeeper is now available on the Zapier Marketplace, you can integrate your favorite internal communications app for frontline teams with over 1,000 other apps on the Zapier Marketplace!
The automation possibilities are literally endless. . .