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New LinkedIn Features in Office 365 Help You Build Relationships and Better Collaborate

When I talk to people about what they love most about their jobs, the answer I hear most is that it’s the people; nothing is more important than working with people you know and appreciate. And when I ask what they love about their community on LinkedIn, I actually get the same response: it’s the people in your professional community and the relationships you’ve formed with your connections.  

That’s why I’m excited today to show how LinkedIn and Microsoft are making it easier to collaborate with your colleagues. If you believe that the secret to a great job is to work with great people, then I think you’ll see why it’s important that we bring the power of LinkedIn’s network into your day-to-day in Office 365.  

Last year, we shared how LinkedIn would be bringing profile info to the new people card in Office 365. This was just the start. Today, we have two new additions to the Microsoft 365 integration:

Make your meetings more effective and personal: By adding insights on the people you’ll be meeting with directly in your Outlook calendar you can make your meetings more effective and personal. Personally, I’m most excited to use the integrated LinkedIn insights in my calendar. I often meet with people I don’t already know, and it’s always helpful to start with a personal insight.  

Better collaborate with experts that can help you with your work: By letting you email or coauthor content (in Word, PowerPoint or Excel) with your LinkedIn first-degree connections without needing to have their email addresses stored in your Outlook contacts, we’re helping you easily collaborate with experts that help you get your job done. Getting advice or help from your professional network is made that much easier.

All of this is made possible by securely connecting your LinkedIn account with your Microsoft account. Connecting your accounts shares basic info – such as your profile, your contacts, and your calendar – to improve your daily experience with both LinkedIn and Office 365. We respect your privacy and honor the settings you chose on LinkedIn, including who can see your email address.  

Getting started using LinkedIn features in Outlook is easy. Once your organization has enabled the integration, your first step is to open a person’s Profile Card and click on the LinkedIn profile match. If you haven’t connected your accounts, you’ll go through a couple of steps that make sure you know what’s happening behind the scenes when you use these features. Once you’ve done this, the calendar insights and easy access to your LinkedIn connections will become available.  

LinkedIn integration in the Office web apps will gradually start rolling out in the coming months for Office 365 users and to Outlook on the web users who have opted in to the new Outlook on the web, and world-wide availability will come in 2019.

We are always looking for ways to make you more productive and we’re excited to continue to bring more intelligent experiences with Microsoft to our members. Please share your feedback on the new experience!