Microsoft Office 365 – Microsoft’s largely cloud based version of Office – is a popular Office product for many reasons.

One advantage is the sheer number of features across the suite which allow you to do almost anything. There are some lesser-known features which are just as useful too, one of which integrates your mobile phone into an Outlook notification center.

Did you know that Outlook for Office 365 can send you text message alerts? To achieve this you need to first establish a rule for Outlook Web Access/App (OWA) – Office 365’s webmail (browser) version of Outlook.

There are two classes of notification you can set up: Notifications for calendars, or notifications for email. When you create a rule, you will receive a text message whenever the rule’s parameters are met.

Here’s how you can set this feature up:

1. 1. Open Outlook Web Access in your browser. The standard address is usually: https://mail.yourcompanydomain.com/owa. It’s important to note that you need to go to Outlook Web Access.

1. 1. Log in using your Office 365 username and password.

1. 1. Select Options – located in the top-right of the window – followed by See All Options.

1. 1. Click Phone from the list on the left side of the window and then Text Messaging.

1. 1. Pressing Turn on Notifications, selecting your Locale: and finally your Mobile Operator.

1. 1. Press Next and enter your phone number with the area code, and without the country code.

1. Click Next again and check your phone. You should get a pass code in a text message that you will need to enter. After you receive this, press Finish.

Setting up rules After you have set up OWA to send you text messages, you can look into the two different types of alerts. As mentioned above, the first are calendar alerts. Pressing Set up Calendar notifications will allow you to establish rules related to your calendar. For example, you can create a rule where you will receive a text message when you have a meeting scheduled with a specific client or employee.

If you would like to receive text message alerts for your email, you can click on Set up email notifications using an Inbox rule. You have many different rules you can set up. For example: You can make a rule to receive a text whenever you get an email that contains the words: Update.

To get the most out of these features we suggest you play around with them and come up with something that works for you. Don’t go overboard though, as you probably don’t want to be receiving text messages every few minutes. Also, it’s important to be aware of how your mobile carrier charges for texts. If you get charged for incoming texts, this feature could cause your mobile bills to skyrocket. Interested in learning more about what Office 365 can bring to your business? Give us a shout, we can help.