Distribution Lists Pro lets you integrate your existing distribution lists on Outlook or other Office 365 platforms with Microsoft Teams. The app is provided by a software development company and certified Microsoft partner, Witivio.
Witivio, founded in 2017, is a French company. The company’s flagship product is a no-code chatbot builder called Virtual Agent Studio. Witivio also has a strong presence in the Microsoft solutioning ecosystem, with a particular focus on Microsoft Teams. It offers professional services for chatbot building, Teams customisation, and Office 365 adoption, aided by a suite of applications called TeamsPro. Launched in 2020, TeamsPro won Witivio the title of Partner of the Year from Microsoft France in the startup category. TeamsPro includes a wide range of ready-to-use and customisable apps for calendar management, contact management, Office 365 training, and more, including the app for connecting distribution lists with Teams.
Distribution lists are an Office 365 feature that allows you to send communication to a group of email contacts quickly. Over the years, a number of alternatives to distribution lists have emerged, like Microsoft 365 Groups or even channel conversations on Teams. But if you still have an entrenched distribution list structure from the Office 365 days, the Distribution Lists Pro app from Witivio helps to connect it with your current Teams environment.
Let us review in more detail.
Inside Distribution Lists Pro for Microsoft Teams
If you are an existing Witivio customer, you can access Distribution Lists Pro as part of the full TeamsPro solution suite. Or, you can download it separately as a free app from Microsoft AppSource. Teams users can also navigate the application store from the left pane and download the integration directly. Distribution Lists Pro is among the free apps included with TeamsPro, so you can start using it without any subscription or payment hassles.
Here are the key features you can expect with Distribution Lists Pro:
- Connecting Outlook distribution lists with Teams – Traditionally, distribution lists or contact groups have existed in Outlook ever since Office 2007. The feature allowed you to group up to 125 contact files and use them as a single entity for communication. Distribution lists would be saved as an Outlook item meant for internal communication and broadcasts. The feature has evolved significantly since then and is now available as content groups in Outlook. Using the Distribution Lists Pro app, you can bring your existing distribution lists into Teams without losing contact information.
- Distribution lists search – The Distribution Lists Pro app on Teams features a search function that lets you look for a list member by name. This is useful as a single list can have over 100 names, making it difficult to find an employee at a glance. You can also sort distribution lists alphabetically as per member names if you aren’t sure about an employee’s full spelling or initials.
- Group chat with distribution list members – The primary intent behind distribution lists was to send everyone a quick email like “meeting in conference room 12” or “coffee break at 4?” without having to type in the names of every relevant team member individually. Now, the Distribution Lists Pro app lets you achieve the same functionality in Teams through group chat. Select the names of the employees you want to include and click on the “Start chat” button to use this feature.
- Distribution list member availability – The Distribution Lists Pro app shows you contact information for all list members, including availability status. It syncs email info with Teams identity info to let you know which team members are currently available, who is offline, and who is away temporarily.
- New contact groups – When you open the Distribution Lists Pro app, you will see a list of your distribution list and contact groups, along with their member count and group email ID. you can also click the “Add contact group” button on the top right to create new ones.
Why the Distribution Lists Pro App Makes a Difference
Distribution Lists Pro makes transitioning to a modernised Teams environment easier without sacrificing your existing communication structures.
What We Think
For companies relying on now-legacy distribution lists in an old Office environment, this app could be a game-changer – saving you hours of effort in setting up new lists from scratch. Download it here.
