5 Ways to use Cortana with Microsoft Teams

At Aura, we’re committed to helping companies get the most out of their investments.

For example, in our recent article on maximizing the value of Microsoft Teams, we discussed how Aura Connect can turn Microsoft Teams into your primary business phone service.

However, dig a little deeper and there are even more features which can be used to improve productivity. Nowhere is this more evident than in Microsoft’s personal productivity assistant, Cortana.

Read on to see five ways Cortana can help your employees with Microsoft Teams.

Since the launch of Apple’s Siri in 2011, voice assistants have become an integral part of many people’s day to day lives. Originally a feature on smartphones, it was only a few years before voice assistants became a device in their own right, with the Amazon Echo leading the charge.

Fast-forward to 2020 and there are an estimated 4.2 billion voice assistants in use across the globe.

With Cortana and Teams, that’s exactly what’s on offer…

After launching their own voice assistant, Cortana, in 2013, Microsoft has now repositioned its offering to focus on helping users with Microsoft 365 solutions like Office, OneDrive and Teams.

The sole purpose? To help make you more effective and productive. Cortana has become an all-in-one Teams interface, which offers plenty of functions…

Schedule meetings

Tired of the constant back and forth emailing it takes to schedule meetings with colleagues, customers and partners?

Instead of dealing with all that, you can just ask Cortana or even CC her into the email with a simple request line. She’ll take it from there, sending a beautiful, professional email to the other recipients introducing herself as your personal assistant, providing available times on everyone’s calendars and scheduling the meeting.

Hands-free calling and collaboration

Communication is vital to collaboration. But it’s not always as seamless as you might want. With a simple voice command, Cortana will look up your contacts by name and make calls using Aura Connect without you ever having to touch your phone. She can also share files, check calendars and more.

Check emails and messages while on-the-go

Whether you’re heading to a meeting or just half-way through the morning commute, time in transit can easily eat away at your day. But that time doesn’t have to be wasted. Use Cortana to interact with your inbox while driving, when your phone is in your pocket or otherwise out of reach.

Reply to emails with a phone call

Reading through emails and typing out replies can be very time-consuming for busy professionals. What if you could get Cortana to do it for you?

Using Aura Connect, Cortana can initiate a call from an email sender to move conversations forward in real-time and play emails from a specific person, time or topic.

Ensure meetings start on time

Meetings are a must-have for so many businesses. But we’ve all had those days where nothing seems to go right. Thankfully, if you’re stuck in traffic, you can simply ask Cortana to start a Microsoft Teams meeting without having to pull over or trying to dial-in by hand. If you’re not the host, you can connect you by saying, “join my next meeting.”

As well as improving punctuality, it will make sure you stay safe on the road!

For a closer look at Cortana’s many features watch this video:

Combining Cortana, Teams and Aura Connect provides the agility you need to get things done. Whether it’s time-consuming tasks like scheduling meetings or life-saving calls when you’re late, Cortana and Aura Connect make the perfect team to improve collaboration and boost productivity.

If you’d like to find out more about how you can get the most out of your Teams investment, don’t hesitate to contact the team at Aura.