Bringing Collaborative Intelligence to life across the Microsoft ecosystem

If you’re in a typical work day right now, you’ve looked at your calendar, caught up on (or ignored) Teams notifications, fired off email replies in Outlook, and made updates to ongoing projects in Word and PowerPoint. On top of that, maybe you need to collaborate with colleagues on OKR planning for the next quarter, and align with team members around the world.

Millions of people use the Microsoft 365 ecosystem to accomplish work with their teams each day. As organizations continue building out their hybrid workplace best practices, it’s vital to think about the technology and methods that improve connection and inspire purpose among people and teams.

Last fall at Microsoft Ignite, we put a stake in the ground, spelling out our vision to build a seamlessly integrated MURAL + Microsoft collaboration suite. As a preview partner this week at Microsoft Build, we’re showcasing our new, jointly built Microsoft Outlook and Office integrations  — and why we continually release enhancements and integrations for MURAL and Microsoft customers.

Your collaboration spaces across Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Office

Enterprise-grade solutions and integrations that plug MURAL into existing workflows are key components of the MURAL Collaborative Intelligence System™, a new approach we launched in March 2022 that connects teams in order to unlock their genius, taking insights and ideas from possibility to reality. MURAL’s Collaborative Intelligence System aims to solve the prevailing sense of disconnection felt by teams globally and address the $542 billion cost of inefficient team collaboration.

It’s a priority for MURAL to ensure that collaborative intelligence helps Microsoft customers create cultures of effective collaboration in their organizations.

“Microsoft is our primary ecosystem partner to unlock team genius in the enterprise, and we’re working together to fully integrate MURAL with Microsoft 365 to provide a seamless experience to our customers,” says Agus Soler, MURAL’s chief product officer. 

That’s why MURAL’s integration with Teams now extends to Outlook and Office, creating a single, connected collaboration experience — a hub where ideas become reality. 

Here’s how:

• Collaborate visually where you’re already working: Add MURAL to Office 365 directly alongside all of your other favorite productivity apps. In the personal app, search for and collaborate in murals just as you would in the MURAL web app. Get started on your next big team project using one of MURAL’s hundreds of expert templates. Boost project efficiency, drive alignment and decision making, and increase team engagement with MURAL within Office 365.

• Communicate with purpose, minimize context switching, and increase productivity: Add MURAL to Microsoft Outlook to send murals and templates via email. While staying directly in Outlook, open the personal app to access and work on any mural just as you would in the MURAL web app. No need to switch tabs or toggle between apps.

• Create the dream team for collaboration: Keep Outlook and Office workflows connected by easily continuing to collaborate in murals with your team in Microsoft Teams. With murals added to Teams channels, chats and live meetings, transform disconnected communication into productive, engaging meetings and workshops where everyone can participate, and make faster decisions together. Unblock creative work, eliminate context switching, and power rapid innovation by brainstorming, ideating, and prototyping right in Teams.

MURAL in Office and Outlook will be generally available in fall 2022.

👋 Want to get started sooner? MURAL for Outlook and Office is now in preview through Microsoft's Targeted Release program, an early release program that enables organizations to see Microsoft’s latest product updates and help shape the product by providing early feedback. Learn more about the targeted release program in our support docs.

Accelerating innovation with MURAL and Microsoft

When it comes to collaboration, just “hoping for the best” leaves companies with misalignment, lost ideas, disengaged team members, and ultimately, slowed innovation.

MURAL refers to this as a state of disconnection. Disconnection within teams, across departments, and ultimately, the larger enterprise and its goals. The world’s best companies are finding it harder and harder to connect their teams and deliver on the promise of innovation. 

Our new Outlook and Office integrations, along with our recently released Azure Active Directory integration, Microsoft 365 Certification, our ongoing roadmap vision, and recent acquisition of LUMA, mean that Microsoft customers can trust MURAL to reduce disconnection and increase innovation capacity. 

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Visit AppSource to get started with MURAL in Teams, Outlook, and Office. Check out our session at Microsoft Build to learn more about the future of MURAL and Microsoft collaborative app experiences.

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